Shoryuhai

The Harvard Invitational Shoryuhai Intercollegiate Kendo Tournament, or Shoryuhai (昇龍杯^?, Shōryuhai) for short, is the largest intercollegiate kendo tournament in North America. Currently in its 21st year, the Shoryuhai is hosted annually by the Harvard Radcliffe Kendo Club each spring. This year's Shoryuhai will be held March 18-19, 2017. Teams come from all over North America and Europe, including teams from Canada and Mexico and Germany. The tournament is held in the Harvard University Malkin Athletic Center (MAC) basketball court. The fundamental purpose of the Shoryuhai is to promote kendo at the collegiate level.

In April 1997, several Northeast-region college students came together at Harvard for an informal good-will kendo tournament. The tournament was sparsely attended - totaling not more than 15 competitors. The following year, attendance increased three-fold, and included teams from Harvard, Yale, Cornell, McGill University, the University of Connecticut and the University of Waterloo in Canada. In 2009, a team from the University of Muenster in Germany joined the competition for the first time, making it the first European team to participate.

In 1998, the two tournament trophies were donated by the former Prime Minister of Japan, Mr. Ryutaro Hashimoto, as tokens of his encouragement. At the time, Hashimoto-sensei saw this tournament and all of North American collegiate kendo as a "rising dragon," or 昇龍 (shōryu), hence the name shoryuhai. The first of the trophies - permanently held at Harvard - bears the engraved names of each year's victorious team. The second, traveling trophy is loaned to each year's winning team to be displayed at their respective university or college until the following year's tournament.

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