How many 7th - 10th Dans are there?

[shalafi]

I was very surprised to know that Shimadera-san is "only" 6th Dan. I know that from 6th on you only earn Dans by promoting kendama, but I thought he has done a lot for the community, so I wondered:

How many people holds 7th, 8th, 9th and 10th Dans (and who are they)?

I tried to search this information online but so far I haven't found anything about it. Maybe it is only in Japanese.

Does anyone in the forum have knowledge about this?

[The Void]

I think it was Basti that told me that you used to be able to get grades 7-10 by doing tricks. And that there is one person still alive who holds 10th Dan by this method. I don't know who it is though.

[edit: Emailed Shima to ask.]

[AlexSmith]

I'd love to know more about this as well. Perhaps Yoko knows?

[K.Cima]

Hi,
There are 7 10th Dan players in JKA history. And, currently 4 players are alive.

- Mr. Issei Fujiwara, the first president of JKA, died in 1994
- Mr. Kazumitsu Takada, former vice president of JKA, died
- Mr. Yasutaro Arai, died in 2010
- Mr. Shizuo Tobari, former vice president of JKA
- Mr. Kinjiro Nomura, former president of JKA
- Mr. Yoshio Kanai, previous president of JKA
- Mr. Teruki Maruishi, current president of JKA

Basically, 10th Dan is given to JKA president or equivalent position today. And, 9th Dan is given to JKA vice president or equivalent position.
I am not sure how many 9th dan players are. But, I think there are about 10 or less.

7-8 Dan are currentry honorable degree. As Void said, they used to be able to get 7-8 Dan by doing tricks till 1991.
So, there are more 7-8 Dan players than 9-10 Dan. I think there are 20-30 7-8 Dan players are alive today.
In most cases, 7th dan is given to JKA officer after retirement of competitor. I am just a JKA trainer and still active competitor

I will share if I can get more confident information.
Thanks.

[The Void]

That's cool, thanks for the information!

[shalafi]

Thanks a lot!

[BKA]

On Facebook, Mahoto Tsukaguchi says...

How many 7 dan-10-dan are??
It's talked by British Kendama association's board.
http://www.kendama.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,635.msg4646.html#msg4646
10 dan's alive are Maruishi-chairman,Shizuo Tobari,Yoshio Kanai and Kinjiro-Nomura.
Kendama 9 dan are Ryouichi Kobayashi,Matsutaro Nagaoka,Kouji Yamamoto,Kouzou Ikenoue and Yasushi Moroishi.
Kendama 8 dan are Hiroyuki Yamaki,Hiromu Imada,Seiji Otoyoshi,Masanori Nishikawa,Ichiro Suzuki,Yoshiki Matsunaga andToru Shinohara.
Kendama 7 dan are Hisashi Okuzumi,Yoshiteru Ando,Fuyuki Osaka,Shuj Sato,Katsuzo Miyashiro and Hajime Terui.
Since 2005, New Kendama over 7 dan are not born.
I don't know for reason・・・・・・・・・・

[shalafi]

7 years without a new 7th Dan, that's quite a lot.

[BKA]

8th. "Over 7th..."

[shalafi]

8th. "Over 7th..."

:ouch: still it is quite a long time for not having any new 8th dan

[Thorny]

This was very interesting!

[shalafi]

Resurrecting this thread to say that I loved to meet one of the few 8th Dan players (Hiromu Imada) and to cross reference that K.Cima was awarded a 7th Dan http://www.kendama.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=1596.0

[Kev]

Good interesting thread.

Also I did a 'Mod Edit' and added 'there' to the subject line for clarity 

[azleonhart]

That's interesting!
I've always wanted to know who stood above the "seventh heaven" (pardon my analogy, but it seemed fitting).

Was at Hino for the kendama dojo some weeks ago, and remembered Yuutaro Fukushima informing me that there was a elderly gentleman who holds 9th Dan or higher.


Maybe the image below might help. The gentleman in the green polo tee, holding two pieces of paper.

[The Void]

That's Matsunaga-san, the (since last year) president of the JKA.