Naginata World Championships 2007

The 4th Naginata World Championships were held yesterday in Brussels. It was quite surprising to see all the different types of competition they have: rhythm naginata, engi and shiai. Naginata is still very young in terms of international competitions: only 12 countries participated in the Championships!

The most different form of naginata was the rhythm naginata. The teams had created their own choreography based on the naginata movements. The jury gave points for musicianship, construction, artistry, content and technique. I took a little video of Japan's performance; they were the 2nd.

Japan took the 1st and 2nd places in the engi competition, as well as in the women's individual competition. Belgium did very well: they won the rhythm naginata and got the 3rd and 4th places in the engi and the 3rd place in women's competition. Congratulations to all!

We couldn't follow the whole day and therefore don't know what happened in the men's individual and team competitions.