Chanbara - スポーツシアンバラ
Chanbara – in Japanese means a stick fight, which young Japanese played. The master of samurai fencing, kaicho Tetsundo Tanabe transformed it into a new safe sport, and at the same time still great fun that takes us back to the times of Japanese samurai or European knights.
It does not require expensive armor, there are no complicated, detached from reality rules, it does not pose a threat to the health of combatants. The combatant has the task of hitting the opponent as quickly and as best as he can with a soft weapon, which is a substitute for the Japanese sword, spear, naginata, knife, etc. It is possible to confront different fighting styles, European and Asian weapons.
Is there anything more wonderful than being able to fight with a sword and shield against a „samurai” armed with a Japanese sword? Isn’t it thrilling to be able to safely confront the school of fighting with two swords against the yari – the Japanese spear? Isn’t that what many young and old enthusiasts of old times and knightly weapons dreamed of?
Since chanbara includes several different weapons, categories and competitions, the name spochan is now used, which was formed from two words: „sports” and „chanbara”. It can be called Japanese sport fencing, samurai sport fencing, a modern form of kendo or sports historical fencing.
The founder of the sport of chanbara, Japanese swordsmanship master Tetsundo Tanabe called chanbara the gate to the world – the world of friendship, fun, getting to know other nations and cultures.
The European Budo Association supports the development of spochan. He closely cooperates with Spochan Polska, a representative of spochan in Poland, helping to organize the annual Open Polish Spochan Championships. The head of Spochan Polska is currently shihan Michał Piotrkowicz, son of hanshi Tomasz Piotrkowicz.
All representatives of European countries in spochan must be active members of the International SportsChanbara Association International SportsChanbara Association