17th Impact: sports and martial arts

300 sqm of tatami on the 3 Budo areas proposed close to 7 hours of demonstrations and initiation classes every day, that is over 81 hours in all during the festival. Martial art fans, novices interested in starting a new activity or curious passers-by alike, all met with the 6 associations who were showing their disciplines, and allowing you to try them with experts.

You may well have recognized some of those associations as they are regular attendees of the festival, always ready to share their knowledge and passion with the public. Ken Ryu France was back with some of the most famous disciplines in Japan: kendô, iaidô, chanbara, naginata, and jôdô. The bravest among you stepped onto the tatami alongside the members of the associations, who also performed impressive demonstrations. 

Other associations were back too: Shorinji Kempo Club Neuilly showing you shorinji kenpô, a zen and efficient self-defense method; Temple du Ninja showing the way to ninjutsu to make you take your first steps as a ninja; and USV Aïkido and FFAAA who shook up the tatami with aikidô in a most friendly atmosphere. Nihon Budo Watanabe Ryu unveiled the many aspects of nihon budô with the exceptional presence of Master Mitsuru WATANABE.

And if you wanted to try sword fighting, Futsu nushi no kami gave demonstrations of bô-jutsu and iaijutsu, 2 sword techniques.

With demonstrations and real shows on stage, martial arts have been showed at their best. About a dozen meetings invited you to watch outstanding performances. The group TOEI TSURUGIKAI performed movie action scenes, giving you an insight of the fighting techniques used in Kyoto’s swashbuckler films. Chanbara and samurai techniques unveiled on stage and on the booth of Kyoto city. 

Katanaya Ichi offered you swordplay demonstrations and a sword training so you can become a samurai too, for a few minutes.

And to go a bit further, you could call on the booth Au fil de la lame and watch a real blacksmith forging real blades in front of you!

Martial arts weren’t the only sports you could find at this 17th Impact. Among them, you could find puroresu (professional wrestling). This year, Lucharesu was under the spotlight. 6 professional wrestlers invited you to spectacular matches with acrobatics techniques. Kenbai, Taro NOHASHI and Ken 45, the 3 wrestlers who sum up the major assets of a style unique in the world, and Tengkwa, Senza Volto, and Ace Angel, the 3 European representatives of Lucharesu were fighting on the wrestling ring.

Every day, you could attend 3 incredible matches or take part in initiation classes to try Lucharesu style on your own.

Yakyû was back too! As the national discipline in Japan, baseball has numerous fans in Japan and teams among the best in the world.

To allow you to try baseball, the association Tomcat Baseball Club de Tremblay-en-France had settled at Japan Expo. Inside the inflatable structure, you could hit the ball. And many of you tried the home run… or at least took a few steps towards victory!