Columbia University Naginata Club

As the season comes to a close during , we recognize the significance of practicing and sharing a Japanese martial tradition within an American collegiate sports setting. This year, we introduced a new tradition to reflect both influences: team awards.

In U.S. sports culture, awards like MVP (Most Valuable Player) recognize the athlete who contributes most to the team’s overall success, MIP (Most Improved Player) honors the athlete who has shown the greatest growth over a season, and a Coaches’ Award is given to someone who exemplifies leadership, attitude, and commitment to the team. The coaches select the award recipients.

While individual awards are less emphasized in , there are parallels, such as the sansho (special prizes) in Sumo, which recognize qualities like fighting spirit (kantosho/敢闘賞), technique (ginosho/技能賞), and outstanding performance (shukunsho/殊勲賞) beyond just winning.

We introduced these awards this year as a way to connect both Japanese and American traditions: to honor the values of budo while also recognizing the individual efforts that strengthen our team.

CU Naginata 2025–2026 Award Recipients:

🏅 Most Improved Player: Aiden Park (CC ‘29)
🏆 MVP: Liam Stiles (CC ‘27)
🎖 Coaches’ Award: Nigel DaSilva (CU ‘26)

We are incredibly proud of the dedication, leadership, and growth these members have shown this season.

And that is a wrap for the 2025-2026 season! Thank you all for a wonderful, successful year!

We had a great final graduation mini-taikai, great goodbye speeches, and for the first time, our coaches gave out athletic awards to some of our outstanding members!

Thank you Katrina from for stopping by and sharing this special, final practice with us!

We also got new menjos and very delayed old menjos, and finally presented them to our members!

See you all in the Fall!

#なぎなた部

Thank you for inviting us to perform at ‘s ! It was a fantastic event and the were so beautiful!

Results of our recent shinsa (promotion exam) during the Greater New York Naginata Federation Annual Seminar:

1-dan:
- Nina Kornfeld (CC ‘26)
- Liam Stiles (CC ‘27)

1-kyu:
- Penelope Wu (BC ‘27)

3-kyu:
- Daniel Kang (CC ‘28)
- Cy Fang (CU ‘27)
- Jason Shim (CC ‘29)
- Aidan Park (CC ‘29)

Congratulations to you all! We hope to see more passes in May during the next exam!

We had a fantastic turnout at the recent 9th Yamauchi Memorial Taikai hosted by the Greater New York Naginata Federation. For the first time in history, both Columbia A & B teams placed on the podium, and we also had either current students or alums place in almost all of the tournament events. We even came back with a new, fancy, team trophy (thank you Rabanal Sensei).

Placements:

Dangai Engi-Kyogi:
🥇: Nina Kornfeld (CC ‘26) x Liam Stiles (CC ‘27)

Women’s Dangai Individuals:
🥇: Nina Kornfeld (CC ‘26)

Men’s Dangai Individuals:
🥇: Liam Stiles (CC ‘27)

Yudansha Men’s Individuals:
🥇: Coach Otto Herman (CC ‘24)
🥈: Nigel DaSilva (CU ‘26)

Open Dangai Individuals:
🥇: Liam Stiles (CC ‘27)
🥈: Nina Kornfeld (CC ‘26)

Open Yudansha Individuals:
🥇: Coach Otto Herman (CC ‘24)

Team Shiai:
🥇: Columbia A
🥉: Columbia B

Fighting Spirit Award (敢闘賞): Liam Stiles (CC ‘27)

We are so proud of you all! Congratulations and keep training hard!



📸: , our Safety Officer!

gi !
Left is machine-stitched 🧵Right is hand embroidered🪡

All in prep for the taikai in 2 weeks!

We’re baaaaccckkkkkk! This time, with new from ! We’re working hard to prep for the big NY taikai in 3 weeks! Go lions 🦁

#なぎなた部

And that was a wrap of the Fall 2025 semester and the 2025 year! Thank you all for making a great year and good luck on your finals!
#なぎなた部