From Bujinkan Santa Monica by Michael
I began the morning in a hurry because I had to get to the dojo early. My days in Japan are very busy. I run and gun to fit in all of the classes, recording my video reports in between. And I still have to find time for food, laundry, sleep, as well as tourism and shopping.
Today I planned three classes, Furuta Sensei, Nagase Sensei, and Noguchi Sensei. But I didn’t have time to review my notes until the next morning in a cafe. The coffee sure helped.
The FULL video review can be found here: https://www.rojodojo.com/japan-report-seven-reiwa-five/
The first class was at the Bujinkan Honbu dojo with Furuta Sensei. We began class wearing a lot of knives. He said you should wear at least 9 knives. He didn’t mean that literally but the number 9 implies an infinite amount. So you have the ability to respond or attack infinitely.
He kept hiding behind the attack of his opponents. I learned this approach from him a few years ago during our study of 雲隠流 Kumogakure Ryū in his home dojo. He said it is like hiding in the clouds as the name of the school suggests.
I have the understanding that he is often teaching from that school as he is the next Soke. He won’t always mention it directly, so if you aren’t paying attention you might miss the subtlety. Training with him is fun because it feels like we are on this journey together.
As an example, He told us a story about a class with Hatsumi Sensei when they were using the sword. Soke kept telling them to let go of the weapon. Furuta Sensei said they were all confused by this instruction. How do you use a weapon when you let go? But Soke only responded by saying, “class is finished.” They were all left wondering what he meant. Well, Furuta Sensei is still exploring the meaning of this in his own classes.
My next class was with Nagase Sensei. This was at the Honbu dojo, so the feeling of the class is different than when I visit his own dojo. Not sure how I would describe it exactly except it feels more pro forma.
He started the class with 武双捕 musō dori and used that to transition to 竹折 takeori. The takeori he applied to me were the most painful I have experienced. He had me dancing around the dojo and tapping out. That doesn’t happen a lot to me here in Japan. But Nagase Sensei had me flipping and flying because the pain was immense. And if I didn’t take ukemi I felt like I would break.
My training partner in that class was Xάρης Μήτρου from Greece. The pain was intense for both of us. At one point he asked me to ease off a bit. And I apologized because I felt like I was trying to copy Nagase Sensei. We went to dinner later that night and he wasn’t broken, so I guess it was ok.
After dinner was Noguchi Sensei’s class. Xάρης had requested that Noguchi Sensei share some 義鑑流 Gikan Ryū. If you have been following my posts you know I did a whole series of classes with Noguchi Sensei on this topic. And I made my own in depth videos on all 10 of the kata sharing everything I learned from my notes. So this was a refresher course for me.
But Noguchi Sensei rarely does things the same way twice. So the class was full of many surprises and hidden aspects of the kata which he chose to explore, including some ura waza! But I was surprised he didn’t do all 10 of the kata. Normally he moves very fast, but this class was a different feeling from him.
For example, he did a whole sidebar on 抱囲之構 Hōkō no Kamae. His focus was on the 虚実 kyojitsu of this kamae. He kept saying it was not a ホールドアップ Hōrudoappu, or hold up kamae like a mugging, but hōkō. And he would demonstrate the difference and laugh at his own joke.
He showed us how to use it for 蝦蛄拳 shako ken. And he applied a powerful 逆武者捕 gyaku musha dori. He also showed a sneaky but powerful way to strike 歯止 hadome.
I survived my long day of training and made a lot of notes. Don’t tell anyone, but I might have slept in late the next morning. Stay tuned for my Japan Report Eight 令和5年.
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