History of Kendo in Taiwan

News and academic writing in Taiwan date the local root of kendo to the Japanese colonial period, when it was taught in schools and among police, as in Japan and Korea. After 1945 the art had to be rebuilt. Yuan Yan-feng (袁埏烽, 1924–2014) is the organiser most often named: in 1958 he applied to form an “Eastern” section under the national martial-arts committee, and in 1959 a Taiwan provincial kendo association was initiated, with county committees following. ROCKA’s own letter of 30 June 2016 dates the present Republic of China Kendo Association to 1973 and calls it a founding member of FIK. That letter describes the national body; it does not erase the 1959 provincial start. The All Japan Kendo Federation records that on 21 November 1965 Taipei hosted the 1st International Goodwill Kendo Club Championship, with Japan, the United States, Ryukyu (now Okinawa), and Taiwan, held in honour of the centenary of Sun Yat-sen’s birth. AJKF treats that meeting as a forerunner of the World Kendo Championships.

The Taipei Times, citing Chen Hsin-an, dates the Dai Nippon Butoku Kai’s entry into Taiwan to 1900, with committees in Taipei, Taichung, and Tainan, and a national branch in 1906. Most early members were police. The first Martial Virtue Hall (武德殿) was built in Taipei in 1902 and has been demolished. More than 70 halls were built; sixteen survive, four of them on former prison grounds and not open to the public in the colonial years: Chiayi Old Prison (1922), Tainan’s Yodokan (要道館, 1932, opened to the public on 1 August 2026 after restoration), and Taichung’s 1937 hall, now part of the National Taiwan Museum of Comics. City tourism pages add halls a visitor can still open.

FIK’s past-results table lists two third places, so the last column is a shared third, not a fourth. A common misprint puts Chinese Taipei third, shared with Brazil, at the 1997 championship in Japan. FIK’s table for that 10th championship lists Japan-B, Japan-A, USA-B, and Korea-A in the top four. Chinese Taipei is not in that top four, and that line is removed here. In the individual table, C. T. Wu is in the 1976 men’s shared-third column. At the 2006 championship, J. M. Yeh received a fighting-spirit award on the women’s team. C. Cheng and M. Ho received fighting-spirit awards in the men’s individual, and L. Chen and S. Cho in the women’s individual. Later names include W. Chou in 2012 and C.-Y. Chang in 2015.

The congress ran 6–11 December 2006 at the Taiwan University Gym. The matches were 8–10 December. FIK organised it and the Republic of China Kendo Association hosted it. About 44 countries entered. On the 6th there was a referee seminar and the EKF general meeting. On the 7th, FIK board and general meetings and a fighters’ meeting. On the 8th, the opening and the women’s team. On the 9th, the men’s individual. On the 10th, the men’s team and the closing. President Chen Shui-bian spoke at the opening and said selection of Taipei, ahead of bids from Japan and Korea, showed international recognition of Taiwan’s kendoka. The same week included an international seminar and dan examinations from shodan to 7-dan. That is still the largest kendo event the island has staged.

Taiwan Panorama (September 2019) records that Hsu Yin-ko (許寅科, 1909–1975) co-founded the Republic of China Kendo Association and led the 1970 team — the same men’s team FIK places second. His son Hsu Heng-hsiung (許恒雄, 1940–2014), a Taoyuan ear, nose, and throat doctor, coached school teams and youths. The magazine says those teams won the kendo event at the Taiwan District Games for 23 years running, from 1979 to 2003. After his death, his brother Hsu Yen-lang (許彥郎) founded the Taoyuan Kendo Story House on the old clinic. Students named in the article include Yueh Chien-chung (岳建中), whose dojo is on the clubs page, and Liu Yu-yuan (劉玉源), whom FIK lists for a fighting-spirit award in the 1997 individual event.

Recent notices address Cheng Chao-chun (鄭朝俊) as president. Names that recur on pass lists and seminars include Wu Hsiang-lo, Huang Yu-po, and Wu Chung-shan, each recorded as hanshi 8-dan. A notice dated 2 April 2026 says Wu was elected vice president of the Asia-Oceania Kendo Federation, and Yu Chien-hung (尤建宏) a director. The legal registration number printed on ROCKA letters (內政部台內社字第0940064378號) is a 2005 society registration. The 1959 provincial association, the 1973 founding named in the 2016 letter, and this 2005 registration are three layers. They do not replace one another. The association’s open letter of 30 June 2016 says more than sixty kendo groups were registered then, and that the dan certificates it issues are the ones FIK authorises in Taiwan. The roster is attached to that letter. This year’s cups and the student championship are on the competitions page; Tamkang’s hall is on the clubs page.