2014 - NinZine 3.0

Kaigozan Spring Seminar with Sveneric & Dean

adminApril 11, 2014April 11, 2014

Hello.

If you want to attend this seminar you must sign up on the website now before Sunday 13’th.
http://kaigozan.se/seminarier/

If you don’t sign up now you should read my ranting below. I will have no tolerance for people not showing me respect for organising a seminar by following my simple requests…

More than two weeks ago I wrote on Facebook and Twitter that I needed x amount of people signed up for the seminar to decide if I need to rent a bigger dojo before yesterday. I thought I’ll use this news list and extend the time to this Sunday evening.

If you are interested to attend this seminar I want to know now, you need to sign up on the web site (I don’t accept sign ups by email, Facebook etc, only from the web site form). And you need to do it before Sunday to be guaranteed a place at the seminar.

If I don’t get more than 33 people by Sunday evening I will not be able to book a bigger dojo and accept more participants.

You need to understand that I’m taking the financial risks. The instructors will get paid from my own pocket if I can’t get exactly 33 paying members. And we can’t squeeze in more people in the dojo, it wouldn’t be fair to the people that did what I asked and signed up early.

If you decide you want to attend late we might have filled up all places because I didn’t book a bigger dojo. If you’re high ranking or friend doesn’t matter you caused me problems. If you come unannounced and expect to be welcome you take things for granted. You could stand there and cry, but it doesn’t help the situation. If the seminar is in my dojo we have limited places, and there will be no special treatments.

I’ve seen this trend more and more the past 20 years. The first seminars I organised we had ~50 people signed up three months ahead, ~10 more signed up late. Now it is the opposite which makes it difficult to plan things, and we need to change this trend back.

I know there are those who can’t decide until last week, it is the same for me sometimes. But if it is a seminar I really want to go to, I sign up immediately and make sure I can attend. The art of planning and commitment seems to be disappearing.

Sometimes I can’t decide until the last week, then I’ll check to see if I would be welcome. If not I wouldn’t blame the organisers or cry about it.

Alright sorry for ranting but I don’t think everybody understand or take things for granted. If I get enough people that it would pay the extra rent for a bigger dojo I have no problems, this time.

If I rent a bigger dojo we can accept up to ~70 people. I kinda promised free beer if there is more than 50 people.

Again please sign up now!
http://kaigozan.se/seminarier/

Happy trainings!

The post Kaigozan Spring Seminar with Sveneric & Dean appeared first on 8þ Kabutoshimen.…

A Gift From the Heart to All of the Bujinkan

Michael GlennApril 4, 2014

From Bujinkan Santa Monica by Michael Glenn

Today a most extraordinary thing happened in Hatsumi Sensei's class. As you probably know, the Hombu Dojo we currently have in Japan is slated for demolition. Many of us will miss it very much when a new Bujinkan honbu dojo is built.

But my friend and student William Kelly O'neill did us all a service. He spent the past many weeks painstakingly (emphasis on pain) recreating the Bujinkan Hombu dojo in miniature as a gift for Hatsumi Sensei.

Hatsumi Sensei and Bill O'neill with mini Hombu

What he didn't know was that it was a gift to the entire Bujinkan. Tonight he presented it to Soke Hatsumi.


Hatsumi Sensei checks out mini Hombu

Bill has been sending me pictures and explaining his design process over the last few weeks. The amount of detail, research, and thoughtful personal elements in his project have been very inspiring to hear about. At first I thought he was a bit crazy, but when you see the results...

Hombu Miniature

I know Bill put his whole heart into this project in a genuine spirit of giving. And everyone who was there was touched. Hatsumi Sensei decided tp present Bill with a Bujinkan Gold Medal. Well, this is when Bill was overcome with emotion and gratitude.

Hatsumi Sensei told me he was going to put the miniature in the new Hombu dojo.

Bill keeps appologizing to me for missing classes back home while he was in a race to finish his artwork for this trip to Japan. I told him, don't worry, you have your own dojo to train in. But since he gave his dojo to Hatsumi Sensei, he'd better come back to class!

Thank you Bill for the inspiration. This was a wonderful gift for Soke and all of the Bujinkan.… Read More

How to Notice the Big Changes in a Small Breeze

Michael GlennMarch 19, 2014

From Bujinkan Santa Monica by Michael Glenn

Michael Glenn under the cherry tree, 新宿御苑 Shinjuku Gyoen

Last year I had one of the most profound experiences of my life. Yet it was really nothing unique. In fact, many poets and artists have made note of it in their work. And this experience informs some core ideas in the Bujinkan.

I was standing under the cherry trees. A light breeze fluttered across my face. Then I was showered with falling petals.

I felt blessed and melancholy at the same time. Such is the power of sakura. In Japan this reverence for the signs of change is a deep subject of poetry, art, religion, and our own Bujinkan training.

This was on my mind when I taught 桐之一葉 Kiri no Hito Ha in a recent class. I wrote about this in my Bujinkan training notes, but I felt even more reflective after class. The name of this kata gets to the heart of the subtle signs of change.

Hatsumi Sensei tells us we should know the verse from which the name of this kata is formed:

桐一葉落ちて天下の秋を知る
One leaf of the Paulownia tree falls to earth/ The inevitable winds of change have come.

This verse comes to us from a classical Kabuki drama, 桐一葉 Kiri Hitto Ha written by 坪内逍遥 Tsubouchi Shoyo. The true story of a retainer of Toyoyomi Hideyoshi, named 片桐且元 Katagiri Katsumoto, who wrote this haiku after being driven into exile just before the siege of Osaka in 1614.

But this idea is much older. We even find it all the way back in 139 BC. Where it is found in some Chinese writing known as 淮南子 Huáinánzǐ. Here you can find the clues to "knowing autumn has come by seeing a single Paulownia leaf fall."

Beyond noticing a subtle change to the seasons, what does this tell us about combat?

It tells you how to read the attack of your adversary and how to recognize the small changes that precede the big movement or big changes of his attack. But it also suggests that when you yourself make small changes, they add up to something bigger. This is the 十方折衝 juppo sessho I reflected to my students. It is a good tool to plan for chaos.

The next kata in this series is 落花 Rakka, or falling petals. Flowers are powerful symbols of change. They have a magnificent arrival with the season, but fall just at their peak.

Then the scattered petals lie on the ground and are blown this way and that. They are crushed under our feet as we pass through their soft, quiet, shower. Hatsumi Sensei says we should "see the beauty in their determination as they fall to their death."

This is the spirit of muto dori. Can a swordsman kill a falling cherry blossom? Enter in with this determination and you will know the meaning of 捨て身 sutemi.

This is how to find 詒変 ihen in training. It is a profound look at change, as Longfellow described in his poem, Rain in Summer,

With vision clear,
Sees forms appear and disappear,
In the perpetual round of strange,
Mysterious change;

And so you will blossom again when the season is right.… Read More

Box and stand

buki stolarMarch 10, 2014March 10, 2014

From paart budo buki by buki stolar

Dear Buyu's,

one of my old idea is finally realized, because my friend needed a gift for some of his friends, and here it is.
The idea was to make a box for storage, which can also be used as a stand for presentation. What you see is a box for Tanto, but is possible to make a case for Wakizashi,Katana, or something else.

Photo's that you are watching for the first time I did not do it, it make them a friend, whom I mentioned above, Denis Stosic, a pro when it comes to photos, I only could say tahnk you Denis for these amazing pictures

Go! Safecast 3 year Anniversary on March 15-16, 2014 in Tokyo

Michael GlennFebruary 27, 2014February 27, 2014

From Bujinkan Santa Monica by Michael Glenn

Safecast Office window, Shibuya, Tokyo. Photo by Michael Glenn

My friend Sean Bonner, a long time Bujinkan student, is organizing the Safecast 3 year Anniversary on March 15-16 in Tokyo. He asked me to extend an invitation to any Bujinkan members who live in Japan, or who will be in Japan on those dates.

Safecast is a volunteer organization started a week after the 3/11 earthquake and resulting tsunami that caused the meltdown at the Fukushima power plant. Since there was a absence of reliable information for residents of Japan that really needed it, Safecast began,

"working to empower people with data, primarily by mapping radiation levels and building a sensor network, enabling people to both contribute and freely use the data collected. After the 3/11 earthquake and resulting nuclear situation at Fukushima Diachi it became clear that people wanted more data than what was available. Through joint efforts with partners such as International Medcom, Keio University, The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and GlobalGiving, Safecast has been building a radiation sensor network comprised of static and mobile sensors actively being deployed around Japan – both near the exclusion zone and elsewhere in the country."

Watch a short Safecast documentary: http://vimeo.com/51823402

The 2-day anniversary program will consist of both talks and hands on events, including:

Beginning Saturday evening and running until late Sunday evening we’ll host a global hackathon,
Presentations, discussions, and reception at Tokyo University
a bGeigie Nano workshop. Build your own award-winning radiation detector with assistance from the designers, and learn how to contribute radiation data you’ve collected to our public database.

Here's a great vid (in Japanese and English) about one of these workshops:

http://youtu.be/1vZUg1HEKI4

I know all of us Bujinkan members are hands-on people who take action. This is a great opportunity to do that and connect with other people in Japan and around the world who are already in action making the world a bit safer.

If you'd like to attend, please contact Sean Bonner for more info (you have my permission to punch him when you see him).

Oh, if you're not in Japan, they will probably be live streaming the anniversary activities on safecast.org… Read More

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Year: 2014

Kaigozan Spring Seminar with Sveneric & Dean

A Gift From the Heart to All of the Bujinkan

How to Notice the Big Changes in a Small Breeze

Box and stand

Go! Safecast 3 year Anniversary on March 15-16, 2014 in Tokyo