The 19th All Japan Jukendo Championship was held on August 5th, 2011, at the Nippon Budokan.
After the 03/11 great earthquake and tsunami, soldiers from the Self Defense Force were dispatched in Tohoku area, and doubts arose at some point about holding or not the event. Nevertheless, the 64 participants (6-dan renshi and above) finally gathered in Tokyo to dispute the title.
After a few hours of shiai and a deluge of tsuki, the four survivors to reach the semi-finals were: – Takeshita Yuuji from Ehime prefecture ; winner of the 16th edition, third place in the 13th edition, and 8 times winner of the Yuushou Taikai. – Matsuno Kazuki, Tokyo, placed once third in the Kokutai, and once winner of the Yuushou Taikai – Tobinaga Masazumi, Shizuoka Prefecture, once winner of the Kokutai – Yamada Souichi, Miyagi prefecture, the defending champion.
In the first semi-final, Takeshita let no chance to his opponent, scoring after a few seconds an incredibly powerful nodo-tsuki that knocked down Matsuno. Matsuno could hardly get over it and lost shortly after to a dattotsu to the upper chest.
