Beginning in 1998, every February we host a tournament (taikai / 大会) and seminar in the Metro-Detroit area with 300+ participants from around all of North America. The seminar takes place on Saturday and the tournament on Sunday. The seminar always has high-level sensei from Japan who instruct attendees about proper techniques and new developments in kendo.
Our tournament is one of the most well attended in the US and it is open to the public at no cost. Members of our dojo compete and their family members volunteer to make sure everything runs smoothly. We offer volunteer credits to local high school students and shifts are typically 2-4 hours. Running a tournament takes a lot of volunteers (court leaders, judges, timers, coordinators, etc) so if you have any interest in learning about kendo or volunteering please contact us at detroitkendodojo@gmail.com!
Here is an example of our pamplet from the 2026 tournament: