Taido Hanshi Taikai

The Taido Hanshi Taikai (or more accurately, "Taido Hanshi Tô Kyôgi Taikai, 躰道範士等競技大会) is held every year in January. It's a kind of "competition" (in fact "demonstration" would be a more appropriate word) reserved to Taido instructors from renshi level (練士, from 4th dan), to kyôshi (教士, from 5 or 6th dan) and hanshi level (範士, from 8th dan).

There are 3 categories to compete mainly in hôkei:

Renshi-no-bu, the hokei category for renshi
Kyôshi-no-bu, the hokei category for kyôshi
Sôsaku-no-bu, a creation category for renshi, kyôshi and hanshi.

Competition is held in a way that is quite similar to shinsa, aws competitors perform their hokei by pair in front of an examining comity composed of three 8th dan hanshi (the highest rank at this time) who judge the performance with the same criterion as shinsa.
Results are not announced at the end of competition, but at the Taido fundation commemorative reception held afterward in an Hotel in Tokyo.

In the Sôsaku-no-bu category, competitors demonstrate their own creation, new hokei or new method. Competitors are also required to submit to the judging comity a paper to explain theorically their work.

Here are some videos of the 34th Taido Hanshi Taikai, held in Tokyo in January 2009.

At first Y.Tanaka performing "Gyakusen-no-hôkei", a hokei he created on the basis of Senai-no-hokei for the Sôsaku-no-bu category:

T.Nakano performing Chisei-no-hôkei in the renshi category (1st place):

T.Kaneko performing Chisei-no-hôkei in the renshi category (2nd place):

H.Kitazawa performing Untai-no-hôkei in the renshi category (3rd place):