Budogu Zen is actively communicating with many kendokas in Canada and United States.
This time, we would like to introduce one kendoka in Quebec, Canada, who initially contacted us with an unique inquiry.
Natasha Fracassi is a female jodan kendoka from Shidokan Kendo & Iaido Club.
She's been doing kendo for 5 years and currently 2 dan.
Natasha first started trying jodan no kamae with a recommendation by her first sensei, Taeyung Kim Sensei. He said the stance would be a good fit for Natasha because of her height. She also had a great jodan sensei, Gabriel Schor Sensei, to learn to fight in jodan. After getting the hang of it, she fell in love with this stance. She's been doing jodan for about a year and a half now.
After the long COVID-19 pandemic break, she really wanted to get serious about kendo and joined the Team Canada Prospects along with her sensei. It's been an amazing experience for her, and she's been learning a lot throughout her time with Team Canada.
Photo Credit: Kendo Photography
Natasha contacted us inquiring if we can modify the kote to support her thumb injury that happened during the internal taikai at the end of April.
As the Canadian National Kendo Championships was approaching, we worked on it immediately. As a result, we managed to get the modification done successfully to make Natasha comfortable to fight without worrying about her injury.
We used the Mokkei Kote to do the modification. This kote is made in Japan and the wrist area is made differently from the authentic kote. It is designed to have a longer wrist to allow the kendoka to have a greater range of motion in their wrist. Additionally, the wrist is tailored in a special way to have an angle just like a kamae. This will help you go into kamae more comfortably to complete.
We applied a cow skin leather to cover the area around her thumb and wrist. This leather softens when its wet and harden when it dries. This will give her an extra support to brace from the thumb to back too far. This modified Mokkei Kote gave her a confidence to not worry and just focus on the competition.
The Canadian National Kendo Championships was her first competition to fight with this new kote. Her high spirit was recognized and received a fighting spirit awards. Congratulations!
We are very honour to be able to support many kendokas in North America like her. We would like to continue providing the best services to support everybody.
