Hoku Tozai Taikai – 北東西大会

Hoku Tozai Taikai is a good will event where Sweden/West and Finland/East meets in one single great team match. The hosting part is rotated between Finland and Sweden every year.

The teams are allowed to bring on anyone to fight on their behalf. in 2022 for example East had fighters from Finland, Latvia and Estonia

The name of the event is a reference to the japanese East West championships Tozai Taikai; Hoku ToZai Taikai basically means Northern East West Championships.

What is it all about?

The spirit of this event is to summon anyone that is willing to fight for either West or East. Your effort is valued the same whether you are a junior, a beginner without a bogu, a national team member or a 7 dan senior.

The managers of the teams will review rosters and will try to match the players, as closely as possible in both age, grade and experience.
In case of beginners and juniors, a high safety level for the participants is also taken into consideration.

Because of this we also do not have any full time referees (everyone should compete!) but the participants are refereeing the matches. Participants with 3 dan or higher will be referees and for the lower grades there will be two shiai-jo’s. When the referees’ matches are starting there will be only one shiai-jo.

If you are in a bogu and have experience in ji-geiko you will do regular shiai; if you are not, you will compete in Kirikaeshi, Uchikomi or similar.