Mihalik Hunor moved back from Canada to Hungary in 1998, then held the first Iaido practice in Budapest Főnix Kendo Club in 1999.
Mihalik Hunor sensei’s short biography
At the age of 12, he saw a documentary that changed his life; he started to learn Kyokushin karate in 1970 at Orosháza, and engaged himself with martial arts for ever. In 1986, at the age of 18, he started to learn Kendo at Szeged, from Yamaji Manasori sensei. Two years later, he visited Japan, and get into acquaintance with Iaido. In 1988, he moved to Vancouver, Canada, where he learned Kendo from Asaoka sensei, and Eishin Ryu from Ken Maneker sensei till 1998, when he came back to Hungary. He continued his studies of Tosa Iai as one of the last foreign students of Iwata sensei.
He has been the secretary general of the Hungarian Kendo, Iaido, and Jodo Association since 2002, also one of the members, and the leading coach of the Hungarian National Iaido Team since 2001. The Fighting Spirit was awarded him at the European Iaido Championships in 2001, 2003, and 2005. In 2007, he won the III. prize in the 5. dan category of the European Iaido Championships in Paris. In recent years, has been selected as a European Iaido Championship referee.
He is an assistant coach of the Kendo section of the Hungarian – Japan Kendo Club besides Abe Tetsushi sensei. His current grades are renshi 7. dan Iaido (All Japan Kendo Federation-ZNKR) renshi 6. dan Kendo (European Kendo Federation).
International connections of SHNK Dojos in Hungary
A) Hungarian SHNK members visiting Iwata sensei’s seminars in Leeds, England:
- Mihalik Hunor 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005
B) Hungarian MJER students visiting seminars held by Iwata sensei in Japan:
- Mihalik Hunor, 2003
- Mihalik Hunor, 2004
Mihalik Hunor, Nagy Gábor, Kovács Péter, Rabnecz Gyula, Stadler Gyula: 2005 - Mihalik Hunor, Mester Csaba, Varga Zoltán: 2006
- Mihalik Hunor, Rabnecz Gyula, Demeczky Jenő, Mester Csaba: 2007 Spring
- Mihalik Hunor, Herczeg Iván, Kurucz Csaba, Nagy Péter, Denis Stosic: 2007 Fall
- Mihalik Hunor, Herczeg Iván, Mester Csaba, Bulcsu Gábor, Filák László, Csizmeg István, Antal Kristóf: 2008 Spring
- Nagy Gábor, 2008
- Mihalik Hunor, Kovács Péter, Bajsz Péter, Tihanyi Róbert, Morvay Gyula: 2008 Fall
C) Hungarian SHNK students visiting other Japanese teachers
- Nishimoto: Mihalik Hunor, 2004
- Nishimoto: Mihalik Hunor, Nagy Gábor, Kovács Péter, Rabnecz Gyula, Stadler Gyula, 2005
- Taniyama: Mihalik Hunor, Nagy Gábor, Kovács Péter, Rabnecz Gyula, Stadler Gyula, 2005
- Nishimoto: Mihalik Hunor, Mester Csaba, Varga Zoltán, 2006
- Nishimoto: Nagy Gábor, 2008
- Yabe: Nagy Gábor, 2008
Nishimoto: Mihalik Hunor, Kovács Péter, 2008 - Nishimoto: Füleky András, 2010
- Nishimoto: Mihalik Hunor 2011
- Yabe: Mihalik Hunor 2013
- Nishimoto: Mihalik Hunor 2013
- Yabe: Mihalik Hunor 2015
- Nishimoto: Mihalik Hunor 2015
- Yabe: Budavári Anita 2017
- Yabe : Mihalik Hunor, Varga Zoltán 2018
Aims and organization of the leaders of SHNK dojos in Hungary
In 2005, the MJER school of iaido experienced a strong growth in Hungary. Mihalik Hunor sensei decided to share the tasks of organizing and leading the MJER school in Hungary with the leaders of MJER dojos, and his eldest students. According to his initiative, an MJER Elders’ Council (EC) was formed in 2005, which in turn established the SHNK. Aims of the MJER EC are the same as the most important ones in Iwata sensei’s mission statement:
“We need to strive to preserve the traditional techniques and put them into practice. Good tradition should be handed down to future generations. We should be profoundly conscious of how our iaido and other budo were developed by our ancestors hundreds of years ago. They built budo to survive – they were protecting their lifes. Iaido is one of the best Japanese traditions. High-level students should have ideas like this.”
Currently, EC members are: Stadler Gyula 5. dan, Demeczky Jenő 5. dan, Kovács Péter 4. dan,Rabnecz Gyula 3. dan, Varga Zoltán 5. dan.
The basic task for EC is to learn, preserve, and hand on the MJER tradition learnt from Iwata sensei. Also EC members are responsible for developing MJER, organizing MJER events, and making popular authentic MJER iaido in Hungary.
SHNK Team
