Dojo Portrait, Gakushinkan: Odense Kendo Club Part I
Dojo Facts
Age: Second oldest active kendo club in Denmark
Population: Seventh largest in Denmark
楽真館 Gaku shin kan means ‘really fun place’.
Member count: 6 men, 1 boy.
Trainer count: 1
Homepage: http://www.kendosyd.dk/begyndkendoodense
Training frequency: 3 times a week (breaks for school vacations)
Training level: mudansha with bogu
Head Trainer
David Mwaipaya is the current president of the Danish Kendo Federation (DKF), and has been an active in the Danish kendo scene for more than 20 years. This is his second stint as federation president. The first time was from around 2005-2008, and he resumed the position in 2013, because the previous president, Jens Møllgaard Jensen, was being shipped off to Afghanistan, and contacted him expressly to see if David would be willing to resume the position and og stå i spidsen for kendo forbundet.
“I have a tendency to move forward slowly- and maybe sometimes too slowly…” but the other board members know that David is very conscientious in his decisions, and will not set something in motion unless he believes there is a good chance of success. Since 2013 DKF has built up what is to date its best organized national team structure and he is constantly working to expand and improve it.
David started kendo in 1995 at Odense’s Gakushinkan, at the time it was one of only two Danish kendo clubs in existence, the other being Copenhagen.
”I don’t remember why I started, I had just moved to Odense and I was trying a bunch of things: boxing, jujitsu and kendo. Kendo was just the one boksning, jujutsu og kendo. Kendo was just the most challenging (maybe).” He was Yukio-sensei’s first student and has trained in Odense for the last twenty five years. In 2013, Yukio-sensei started a club in Nordfyn called Goshikan and that’s when David became the main trainer at Gakushinkan with Yukio-sensei visiting every second or fourth week. After some time, Yukio-sensei said “you can now take over the club as the head trainer, right?” And thus it was so.
“As you can see, it was a very ‘organic’ development, and I simply ‘overtook’ the club I had ‘grown up’ in.”
David is known in his club for his detailed explanations of technique and theory, thought provoking teaching style and a really strong kote strike.
There are seven students in Odense’s Gakushinkan, including David’s only son. All the students in the club are males and they are particularly cohesive bunch with a warm group dynamic. One students said of David that he is a really good sensei, good at combining kendo philosophy with its practical side, very detail oriented and inspiring!
His favorite waza is debana, but he is enamored of nuke dou, because it is so elegant when it works.
His best experience is when he feels like something is going right for him.
David is currently working on some big plans for the national team and continues to improve the trainers workshops. He is pleased with his every day keiko and looks forward to seeing the direction of Denmark kendo’s future.