Shido Swordplay Gears Up for the Autumn Five-Match Tournament — Gen Minase, Ahead of His City-vs-City Debut: 'I Don't Feel Ready to Win'
The Tokei Sword Bearers' Association began preparations on the 21st at a Kameido training hall for Shido Swordplay's city-vs-city Autumn Five-Match Tournament, opening Oct. 3. Chitose Kanome, 41, previously reported for saying at a joint drill, 'Judge a sword by the times it stayed sheathed,' is expected to compete again this year, while Gen Minase, 22, of the Minase school, makes his city-vs-city debut. The sport is decided by three referees' 'reading' with padded gear rather than live blades, but the tension in Monday's training hall was of a different kind than the sword bearers usually carry into an exclusion operation.
Shido Swordplay's city-vs-city Autumn Five-Match Tournament opens Oct. 3, and the Tokei Sword Bearers' Association began full training on the 21st at a hall in Kameido. As previously reported, the sport is contested in padded armor with matches decided by three referees' "reading," a scoring style — "third bout, won by reading" — that reaches print without ever being explained. Even so, Monday's training hall carried a different kind of tension than a sword bearer usually feels on an exclusion operation.
Gen Minase, 22, of the Minase school, has long been mentioned as Shido Swordplay's rising talent but is making his city-vs-city debut only now. As previously reported, he has yet to accompany an exclusion operation, but in sparring he has landed clean touches even against senior competitors. "Honestly, I still don't feel ready to win," he said after training. "Everyone else here has spent longer at this than I have." He added, "Even if I lose on a reading, I want to land at least one touch that feels, to me, like I really drew."
Chitose Kanome, 41, head of the Kanome school, has said "I'm not entering" every year in her previously reported column "The Sword That Stays Sheathed," only to enter anyway. On Monday she donned padded gear alongside the younger trainees and traded a bout with Minase herself. "It'll probably turn out the same way again this year," she said afterward, echoing the column's own phrasing with a laugh. "It's a little strange, someone who trains at not drawing showing up for a sport built around drawing, but training and the real thing apparently belong on separate shelves."
At the previously reported joint drill on Sept. 9, Kanome described the division of labor with the Patrol Guild as "sword bearers by day, patrol officers by night." Shido Swordplay is where that "daytime sword bearer" shows a different face. An association official watching the session said, "On an exclusion operation, pride lies in not drawing. On this floor, the job is to draw, land a touch, and be read. Every training day reminds us both live inside the same person."
As previously reported, results of the autumn licensing exam for sword bearers are due Sept. 26, with the pass rate again expected to run above one in 20 applicants. New licensees will join the ranks just before the tournament opens on Oct. 3. "Some of today's applicants will surely be names we see at the five-match tournament in years to come," an association official said.
What stayed with this reporter was the small nod Kanome gave when Minase admitted he didn't feel ready to win — neither dismissing his nerves nor talking him out of them. That kind of restraint, this reporter suspects, is its own part of how this profession is written into procedure rather than legend. It was the first day of training, and it already showed.
As previously reported, the Sword Bearers' Association and the Patrol Guild are known together as "sword bearers by day, patrol officers by night," and this paper runs a comparison of Shido Swordplay's and Shinobi Trial's attendance figures every year. Iori Kiryu, 29, of the Patrol Guild's Tokei chapter, heard about Monday's training and dropped by the hall, saying with a laugh, "We've got a shot at a third straight Night-Long Cup title in November. Just because Shido Swordplay starts first doesn't mean anyone should get complacent." Minase, fresh off training, replied, "I've never actually been to watch Shinobi Trial. Show me sometime." An association official watching the exchange said wryly, "For all the talk of rivalry, they get along just fine in the end."
Tickets for the Autumn Five-Match Tournament typically go on sale about a week before the opener, and an association spokesperson said, "It's nothing on the scale of wall racing, but with Minase's debut, inquiries are coming in earlier than usual this year." As in past years, the venues are expected to center on an indoor hall in Kameido, with the tournament touring multiple cities.
The Autumn Five-Match Tournament opens Oct. 3 in Kameido. Matchups and the full schedule are expected to be announced soon.
