Taiseidokai Blog

Dan in Japan 2007 Part 1

2007-10-10T13:20:00.000Z

Guys and Gals,

I decided it is about time to get in contact with the lot of you, and seeing as i am a bit of a lazy-ass recently, i decided to do one mass email.

All is good here. I spent the first 3 weeks here at Fukuoka University of Education practising with Honda-sensei and his lads. A lot of kirikaeshi, a lot of Kakarigeiko and a lot of getting beaten up by guys half my size. On a plus note, Max Davies is here, so I had someone to beat up.
We both managed to do the summer training camp for 1st and 2nd years (a sort of initiation rite for the newcomers)...even more kirikaeshi, even more kakarigeiko...and even more of getting beaten up. For 4 days we had 3 2 hour practises a day with Sumi and Honda senseis. We managed to have a session with Sumi-sensei on kodachi-kata. Awesome stuff (once i get a camcorder, i will ask him (Him?) to make a few kata vids, ought to be useful).
Thankfully after the whole thing we had a damn good party, with a lot of beer, whiskey, shochu and all sorts of weird foodstuffs made from various seacreatures. All in all good stuff.

From 27th September i moved into my student dorm in the Ijiri area of Fukuoka city. Since then I have been commuting daily to the University, where i spend all of my waking hours (8am - 10pm). I managed to get into the practise of the Kyushu Denryoku company dojo (one of Sumi's sons practises there). 2 hours every tue and thur evening and a good morning session on saturday. And so far all is going well.

I was thinking of useful stuff to write to you guys on the kendo i learned so far here, check it out, try it out, see if it works out for you (and if it does, use it).

1). Feet position in the kamae. I was told that even though the traditional way is to align the toe of left foot with the heel of right foot, the younger folk should put the left foot slightly further back (about a fist's width from the heel). This is supposed to be more powerful and elastic (I noticed that Sumi and Honda do this as well).

2). Position of arms in the kamae. Once again, i found out that it might be advaisable (under certain circumstances) to hold the shinai further from the belly than usually. So basically start outside of issoku-itto-no-maai with the hands stretched out a bit...and as you sneak your way closer...adjust your arm position as well so it looks to the other guy that nothing is changing (where in fact you are getting closer).

3). Honda was teaching us how to cut men from Toi-maai, when we moved a little step (doing suri-ashi) in and then lunching a men attack. I talked to a few students and i was told (and later shown) that this is how they do their seme. They start at issoku-itto...do a small quick step in (with suriashi, so the basic position is still correct) and then launch a fumi-komi.

4). At Kyushudenryoku, the taisho of the company team (that also happened to win the west japan area company team competition this weekend) has been doing this really awesome men on me. I was trying to figure out what it was....and basically...he launches the fumikomi first and _then_ does a big men uchi. Doesnt matter how slow your hands are, the body is already moving in and there aint that much time to dekote it anyway.

Thats about all the points I can think of right now. I am sending Sofie some books and the Kendo Nippon/Kendo Jidai magazines with a lot of good stuff in them (Kendo Nippon ; ways to cut do taught by Sumi-sensei and his students...).

That would it be it for now....hope you guys keep practising kendo and get stronger by the time i get back.

I would also like to thank everyone that was involved in practises at GUKC, that thing gives scottish kendo great opportunities ! (Reminder Niall, sacrifices ;) ).

Dan

Budo Clip of the Month

2007-07-09T19:57:00.000Z

Budo Clip of the Month

2007-05-17T14:46:00.000Z

An All Japan Kendo Championships match from 1979. Nice.

Good luck to all going to Lisbon

2007-04-24T12:35:00.000Z

I'm stuck working down south and didn't get a chance to wish good luck
to club members going off to the European Championships. Hope everyone does well.

Budo Clips of the Month

2007-04-12T10:20:00.000Z

Some good stuff this month.

Firstly some you tube submissions.

Tenshin Shoden Katori Shinto Ryu
Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Aikido and Kendo

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

And Finally

A Korean Shiai Ippon Compilation

Budo Clip of the Month

2007-03-22T09:19:00.000Z

Have you ever wondered how Kendo armour is made?

I found this illuminating link on Kendo World Forums (Thanks to AMatsuda)

http://sc-smn.jst.go.jp/ayyyymm/meta/aB030601-156.asx

Enjoy.

Miyakawa Sensei Visit - Preston

2007-02-26T17:19:00.000Z

Last Sunday I attended special practice at Oni Kai Kendo Dojo Preston. The session was lead by visiting 6th Dan Miyakawa Sensei.

Gotta Have Rhythm

Miyakawa Sensei started the lesson with kihon practice, making us cut big men and then small men and told us that it is important to learn the different rhythms of big and small men. He said that it is necessary to be able to do all cuts with many different rhythms, if your big men is the same as your small men you will not succeed as you will become predictable.

He then went on to talk about the ultimate timing for a men cut. He stated the ideally the cut should be launched just as your opponent is preparing to launch, so that the cut lands a moment before their preparation becomes actual movement. This means they will be unable to escape. If you cut a moment before, they may be able to counter, a moment after, it will be ai-uchi. Miyakawa Sensei demonstrated this by having various seniors pair up, motodachi was instructed to launch on the count of three, shidachi to launch on the count of two. Motodachi was on the verge of launching for men when shidachi's cut landed.

Miyakawa Sensei also had us doing Kote-Men, but again with different rhythms. He again stressed that the important thing is not to simply do it as fast as you can, but to use the appropriate timing. The three major rhythms being Kote-Men, teMEN and Kote......MEN.

After a short break Miyakawa Sensei spoke to us about the importance of Reigi. He reminded us that Kendo is not simply a case of hitting each other with a shinai and that showing each other respect was necessary in order to learn. He said that for the same reason we should thank someone for cutting us as by not denying or dismissing the cut we can learn from it.

We then proceeded into a gruelling hour of Mawarigeiko (I say gruelling, I had got up at 6am and driven down to Bolton for the 10-12am practice, then gone straight to preston!). Everyone gave it their all, and after a short break we were into sensei-geiko.

Into the Fire

I queued first for Miyakawa Sensei as I had not had chance during the Mawarigeiko. Miyakawa obviously prefers debana to oji-waza and with good reason for it is something he is very good at and is able cut you as you're about to start you forward motion and therefore have very limited options available. However, his seme-waza is simply amazing. He is able to keep his kensen down until the very last moment (much further in than most) and then cut the most appropriate target, this means you never know what he will cut until he has cut it.

I came away feeling very tired but elated, and went on to have my best fence of the day against Andrew Fisher.

Conclusion

Miyakawa Sensei has some thought provoking things to say about Kendo, and in particular his comments about having an arsenal of different Rhythms in the same way we have an arsenal of different waza, is something I feel I could really use to help improve my Kendo.

Miyakawa Sensei finished the lesson with the following thought (heavily paraphrased). It is important to learn how to be cut and well as how to cut. Do not block and do not duck your head (sideways) when caught without ability/time to do proper debana or oji-waza. Doing so will give you a false sense of improvement (i.e "Well at least he didn't cut me"). If you are caught, then be cut and say thank you. If you do this you will get better at not being caught out. The way to learn is to do this thousands of times. If you do it this way, you will learn (vocal emphasis suggesting a silent eventually here).

I am certain everybody found this a very worthwhile lesson, I know I did.

Budo Clip of the week

2007-02-22T14:32:00.000Z

This is a clip of some Kata from the Mizoguchi Ha (Branch) of Itto Ryu Kenjutsu.

It's interesting to see the similarities between this and Kendo no Kata.

Gareth.

Dan in Japan (Old)

2007-02-12T22:58:00.000Z

To start things off I'll repost this piece from the old website about Danny in Japan.

Gareth.

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The past month was very busy for the Bekka-sei students On 29th of April we went to Tokyo to see the All Japan Judo Championships at the Nippon Budokan. Was rather interesting, especially the fight between Suzuki and Inoue in the finals, both men were matched in body size and relative experience, so it came down to a half point being taken off Inoue for being too defensive (or something like that) And that's how the Golden Week started, we had 6 days of holidays, unfortunately, the weather was pretty bad, and we just ended up staying in our rooms, drinking coffee, playing cards, going for walks etc.

Next weekend some of us went to Akihabara district in Tokyo, or the "electronic city" as it might be more famous as. But to be frank, the place is overrated, everything is expensive, and every shop is selling exactly the same items. Nothing too special, weeks are pretty normal here, just lessons and training, so nothing interesting to talk about i suppose.

Last weekend, me, the Brazilian Dave and a Chilian friend with his wife, hit the Roppongi district for some late night partying, it was very fun, lots of interesting bars, but very expensive, (entrance 15 bucks, drinks 10 bucks a piece). So we didn't go too nuts, just dancing with some girls having a few drinks. In the morning, the guys went off back to Katsuura, while i stayed behind in Tokyo to watch the Kanto Region Kendo Taikai, (on a side note, it took longer to get from Roppongi to Nippon Budokan than it did to get from Katsuura to Tokyo) being seriously sleep-depraved didn't help too much hehe. The Budai guys did pretty well, one got to the quarter-finals, but was taken out in encho by the eventual winner. As the Japanese say :"Shooga Nai, no ginger" (sh33t happens in English). This weekend we are travelling back to Tokyo to see the Girls Individual Kanto Taikai.
Looking forward to seeing that one ;-)

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Well, the summer holidays started in Japan. Its hot, steamy, and tiring. Sweating around 4 litres off per hour of practise.
The Budai kendo club activities ceased for the duration of the holidays but i managed to hook up with Micheal Komoto and we`re travelling around the katsuura area visiting dojos and doing extra kendo. Mostly high-school ones, on fridays we practise in the Katsuura Kenshuu centre dojo, which gets visited by the area senseis.
I and Tada-sensei from Budai visited a high-school seminar held over a period of a week. It was inspiring. 140 kids (imagine all of them like clones of mark) doing 30 mins of kakarigeiko, kirikaeshi, haya-suburis etc. I managed to wiggle my way in as a motodachi for this during the final 2 days and man i was beat just receiving.
On free time me and the guys are having off-time in Onjuku (famous beach in japan) drinking beer, surfing, enjoying the sights.

Other than that just counting down the time till I'm back in Scotland...beware ;).

P.S.

congrats to all who passed in the in-club-shinsa, good job.

Dan

Welcome

2007-02-12T19:29:00.000Z

This is the Members Blog.

If you have any thing you want to post in the way in event reviews, or (if you are Nat) the story of the latest country you have practise Kendo in. Then here is the place.

Content here will be resonably unmoderated. So be sensible. Please!

If you want an account, see me.

Most browsers can subscribe to this page via RSS or Atom feeds. Links are at the bottom of the page.

Cheers

Gareth.