It’s been my experience at several dojos that when a student leaves, there is a special “goodbye” keiko with that person.

This is usually done with people who anticipate continuing kendo elsewhere. For those who are leaving because they fine kendo’s not for them, I haven’t seen a special keiko for them.

“Goodbye” keiko is kind of like birthday keiko, where everyone in the dojo, regardless of rank, gets to spar with the person leaving. It’s like a short tachikiri. The matches are usually around 1 minute and the motodachi usually doesn’t leave too debilitated 🙂

Tonight, we have an opportunity to give a non-member a goodbye keiko. He’s been visiting from Brazil for the past year and has been a member of the Hamilton Kendo Club. We have been fortunate to have him visit us steadily for many months. We consider him an honourary club member, so tonight, we get to say goodbye. Kendo style 🙂

Here’s the last part of a goodbye keiko from many years back.