Why and When do I take Shinsa?

I traveled to Japan for about two weeks starting in early November to visit my cats friends, Mugi-chan and Mee-chan, who live there.

Around that time every year, both in Hawaii and in Japan, it is the season for kendo promotion examinations(shinsa). So wherever I was, there were always kenshi around me training hard in preparation for their upcoming shinsa.

While I was in Japan, I happened to have the chance to observe a 7th Dan Kendo Shinsa that was being held near where I was staying. I went partly to study and learn—after all, someday Chudan-kun, Celery-senpai, and even I myself might take an exam in that very venue. Hehehe.

At the examination hall, I saw a wide range of examees: some who looked like they might be in their 80s, and others who appeared to be relatively young, perhaps in their 30s.
Thinking that each of them must have trained tirelessly for today’s total of just three minutes of matches (two rounds of one minute and thirty seconds), I found myself watching each tachiai from the spectator seats with intense nervousness, even though I wasn’t the one being examined.

As far as I remember, kendo shinsa consist of two tachiai:

• 1st to 6th Dan: 1 minute per match
• 7th Dan: 1 minute 30 seconds
• 8th Dan: 2 minutes

In everyday life, one or two minutes pass by in the blink of an eye. Unless we are very conscious of time, it often slips away without us even noticing. I mean, if you take a nap, 30 minutes can disappear just like that…

In some countries overseas, people can take 6th, 7th, or even 8th Dan shinsa in their own country. However, in the case of Hawaii, in general, examinations from 6th Dan onward are taken in Japan.

That means that, in addition to the examination fee, one must also pay for airfare, accommodation, domestic transportation, and living expenses such as meals. When you add everything up, it’s frighteningly easy for over $2000 to disappear just to take a single examination. Yikes!

For a 6th Dan exam, you are essentially spending more than $2000 for just “two minutes” of matches. Unbelievable!!

Even within Japan, people who do not live near an examination venue must travel the day before—or very early in the morning—lugging their bogu and shinai by train or airplane. All of that effort, again, for just two or three minutes. I’m honestly jealous of people who can simply walk to the examination site.

When you’re deeply immersed in the world of kendo, these things feel normal—just the way things are. But when I step back and look at it objectively, it really does seem quite unusual, something you don’t often see elsewhere.

While I was in Japan, I heard some sensei says, with a hint of regret,
“In the past, you couldn’t even take shinsa without your teacher’s permission. Nowadays, people seem to take the exam as soon as they become eligible.”

Another teacher remarked with surprise,
“The pass rate for the 6th Dan exam has gone up quite a bit lately.”

Curious about what this meant, I looked up the data on the All Japan Kendo Federation website. Sure enough, the average pass rate for the 6th Dan exam rose from 17.8% in 2012 to 33.1% in 2024. The 7th Dan exam showed a similar trend, increasing from 15.2% to 26.4%.
Meanwhile, for shinsa held in Saitama specifically for foreign kenshi, the pass rate appears to be over 40% in most years, regardless of the year.
(Reference links: https://www.kendo.or.jp/examination/kendo-6dan/
https://www.kendo.or.jp/examination/kendo-7dan)

As I organized all this information and reconsidered shinsa from various angles, I found myself wanting—no, needing—to clarify something within myself:
What is the shinsa actually for?

Three questions came to mind, whether taking the exam in Hawaii or in Japan:

1. Will I continue to take shinsa in the future? → This one was easy. My answer was yes.
2. Why do I take shinsa? (Purpose)
3. When should I take them? (Timing)

As long as the dan-ranking system exists, the moment you step into a dojo, a hierarchy based on rank definitely exists. Wanting to be at least a little higher rather than lower in that hierarchy is probably a very human desire.

But the real question is how I want to advance.

The hardest part for me is deciding when I should take an examination.
In today’s world, if I strongly ask, “I really want to take next shinsa, please let me,” I can probably do so once the required practice period has passed.

However, that only means I have cleared “the minimum required practice period”. It does not necessarily mean that I am truly prepared to pass.

So I went back and reread the criteria described in the All Japan Kendo Federation’s Regulations and Detailed Rules for Dan, Kyu, and Title Examinations, which explain what kind of person is awarded each rank.

And yet…

For example, the requirement for 3rd Dan states:
“Those who have practiced in the fundamentals of kendo and possess excellent skill.”
But what exactly are the “fundamentals” of kendo? When you say “basics,” it sounds simple—but it’s surprisingly hard to define.

For 6th Dan, the phrase used is:
“Those who have attained mastery of the essence of kendo.”
What, exactly, is the “essence of kendo”?

And if we go further, 6th Dan requires “refinement” of that essence, while 7th Dan requires a level of “maturity” or “profound mastery.”
What is the difference between those two?

At this point, I was completely lost.

This book of examination regulations is only about 30 pages long, yet it feels as though the most important answers are deliberately left unwritten—as if it’s saying, “Think it through properly yourself.”

Feeling embarrassed by my lack of understanding—and apologetic to the teachers who devoted so much time and efforts to creating these regulations—I found myself pleading silently:
“Please give me a little more time… I promise that someday, I will fully understand this and take the shinsa properly!”

As I sat there, regulation book in hand, my brain overwhelmed by difficult words, Mugi-chan and Mee-chan were lying beside me, peacefully napping in a patch of sunlight.

Ahh… Mugi-chan and Mee-chan, you are both so precious. ♡
My heart suddenly felt soothed.

So I decided to lie down as well, cool my head, and take a nap together with them.

And with that…I’m off for a nap now ♪