​All Japan Kendo Championship

Kendo is one of Japan’s most popular martial arts and has its roots in samurai swordsmanship. These images are from 2011, when I was invited by Kendo World Magazine to photograph the All Japan Kendo Championship at the Nippon Budokan in Tokyo. I was extremely fortunate to get a place in the press box up close to the action. I wanted to captured some of the grit and pain of top level kendo. A decade later, having move back to the UK, I started practising kendo myself, and I am still going. But I doubt I’ll be competing in Tokyo any time soon.

November 2011, Tokyo, Japan