Mumeishi Kendo Club London and Melbourne 1968 to 2007
The history of Mumeishi Kendo Club here in Australia actually has its beginnings on the other side of the world in London England.
During the sixties, kendo in the UK was being practised in a small way at a couple of Judo clubs in London. The very first official kendo club in the UK was the Zanshin Kendo Club which started in Bristol under the guidance of Mr John Clarke. The Nenriki Dojo was the only kendo dojo in London, and it is here that many Mumeishi kendo ka started their kendo training, One of those early kendo ka was Mr John Butler who later emigrated to Australia and helped start kendo in Melbourne.
As interest in kendo began to grow some of the early practitioners branched out and started up a third dojo in West London. Mumeishi’s first home was in Hayes Sports Centre, Hayes, Middlesex in the outer suburbs of London. Mumeishi’s first sensei was Mr O Fujii. It was here that Brent Gazzaniga senior instructor at Mumeishi in Melbourne began his formal training in the Art of Kendo. Some 15 years prior to that Brent had begun his lifelong interest in the Japanese Sword Arts whilst at school with exposure to Katori Shinto Ryu Iaido and kenjutsu during his childhood stays at the Japanese Embassy during the school holidays.