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The value of attending a seminar as a “beginner”

Mats Hjelm posted an entry over at taikai.se in Swedish which I thought would be beneficial for non-Swedish speakers to also read (or rather “absorb”). So, I translated it, trying to keep as much of the meanings behind what was stated as possible. The below is this translation.

I would like to note as well that during the weekend, these words proved its worth to me. I went to a seminar teaching Brazilian Ju Jutsu. As someone from a different discipline, it was quite interesting to see that not just those from other arts were doing their best to absorb everything shown, but also those already training in BJJ were absorbing as much as they could. Again, what each one of us brought home with us will be different, we all learned new things. No matter our grade, nor what art we normally train in, we all found new things.

The seminar Mats mentions at the end of his post is the Bujinkan Taikai taking place in Stockholm next weekend. More about that on http://taikai.se

//anders

Sometimes I am asked by beginners wondering if it is worth it going to a seminar, if they will be able to keep up? Will they understand anything? I can understand that it may seem a little frightening or daunting to go to a seminar for the first time when there are so many high ranking buyu there, also training.

But I have to point out that even those that are higher ranking are “beginners” when you go to a seminar! There are perhaps those that take on a “helping instructor” role, warranted or not. But most goes to a seminar to develop, train, have fun and find inspiration.

What you can absorb is of course different depending on earlier experiences. If you have trained for a shorter period you will carry home a lot that can give you many years inspiration for your own training.

I know that there are instructors that rarely or almost never attend seminars, for which there may exist several reasons (I do not wish to judge them). If instructors do not encourage their students to go to a seminar, that may also have its reasons. Maybe they don’t know about the seminar, maybe can’t attend themselves and are worrying about the balance in the dojo will be disrupted if the students learn something new.

What I want to say is that it is you, the beginner, that is the future! It is you that has to look towards your own good. Do not worry about non-training friends wanting to get you out partying this one weekend. If you have good friends they will understand that you will be training this particular weekend. You have to decide on your own over what is important. Neither your controlling instructor or nagging friends can stop you from training if that is what you really want to do.

The instructors you look up to have gotten to their level and proficiency by themselves deciding that their own training comes before controlling instructors, girl friends, boy friends and friends. They too once were beginners and learned to set priorities. Ask them and I can almost promise you that they still see themselves as curious beginners. Which is why they are good practitioners and nothing else.

I remember a discussion about ten years ago with Soke in the Honbu Dojo. Soke was talking about different levels, dimensions etc. in Mikkyo. Someone asked what the highest level was and I remember Soke’s reaction.

He said that he didn’t know, but he was pretty sure that there is always a higher level (than where one is) and that this is why we must keep practising.

It is this which makes me think that the Bujinkan is so wonderful compared to other arts of Budo. Just diving head first into the training, trying to have as much fun as possible, without caring if it is hard or simple.

I hope this has encouraged some beginners to take the step and participate at this fantastic seminar next weekend.

Ganbatte kudasai!

/Mats (translated by Anders Holm)…

Facebook friends and who we associate us with

From 8þ Kabutoshimen by admin

20110625-074959.jpgI just got another friend request from someone who claims to be a “Ninja Sōke” (I only know one and he is not on fb!). I usually say yes to everyone who seems to be a Bujinkan member, or someone I know. This guy probably just want my name to add credibility to what he is claiming. I see we had 37 mutual friends, all (I think) is Bujinkan members. I wonder why do you add people like these as your fb friend, unless you know them?

It’s like saying, hi I’m a ninja master and look at all my high ranking Facebook “friends” from other styles who know and respect me and my style. When in fact they never met each other. His poor students he con might not know this. At least I don’t want my name associated with someone like this.

On the other hand I say yes to all friend invites from people who seems to be a Bujinkan member. We have probably met, and I don’t remember names easily. Or we will probably meet each other in the future, being in the same organisation and travels around frequently.

So what I meant with this rant is that I think we should be more careful on Facebook, and who we associate us together with.

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There is a new supplier of training weapons

From 8þ Kabutoshimen by admin

I recently got some new training tools from Mr Gary Phillips from Budo Buki, and I can’t wait to start using them. Not seen on the picture was also a Hanbo in the same colour. I chosed the colours, I guess you can get them in any colour you want.

Budo Buki is committed to providing quality handmade, affordable, padded training tools for the martial arts community. Through a great deal of research, we have developed strong, lightweight, durable products for Budo training. Seeing a lack of safe training tools on the market, we decided to fill the need with our line of covered and padded swords, staffs and long tools.

Good luck to Mr Phillips and the Budo Buki shop.

Happy training!

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Istanbul seminar 2011

From 8þ Kabutoshimen by Toryu

Haburamu dojo

I think this was my 7′th or 8′th time I’ve been invited by Ercan and the Bujinkan Haburamu Dojo in Istanbul. I feel honored to be invited back so many times, I must be doing something right. The organizer hadn’t asked for any special theme so I joked and asked if they wanted chaotic training. And they said yes. Well if you know me I like to have a special theme to go by so I thought I would do the Gyaku-gi from Chi-ryaku no maki, but I would do them all both omote and ura.

Ura oni-kudaki

裏鬼砕 Ura oni-kudaki

逆技 GYAKU GI

  1. 竹折 Take-ori
  2. 表逆 Omote-gyaku
  3. 裏逆 Ura-gyaku
  4. 本逆 Hon-gyaku
  5. 表鬼砕 Omote oni-kudaki
  6. 裏鬼砕 Ura oni-kudaki
  7. 武者捕 Musha-dori
  8. 武双捕 Musō-dori
  9. 大逆 Ō-gyaku

It is said that when you take the opponent on his back you will let him live, you give him the gift of life. And if you take him down on his face you will take his life. When a samurai died on the battle field and was found dead lying with his face down they would say that he died with honor. If they found him dead on his back they would say he died without honor. So if you take the opponent on his back you should let him live and not die in shame.

At the seminar I showed all the above techniques as they should be done (my way!). I did henka, I did them omote and also ura. For example, most of you know that with omote-gyaku and musha-dori you take him backwards. But I also showed how to take him forwards with these techniques. This was the theme I had in mind when starting the seminar, doing an ura technique but taking him omote and the other way.

Henka

I started with the take-ori technique and did many variations, I got lost in time and when it was lunch I realized I had spent half the day on one technique and there was eight more techniques. After lunch I asked what they wanted to do, and someone had asked about musha-dori. So we spent most of the afternoon doing musha-dori, and ended with a simple sword technique.

Istanbul SwordNext day I kept doing the other seven techniques, and later finished with some more simple sword techniques and also hanbo-jutsu. I always enjoyed going to Istanbul for seminars because the students at the Haburamu dojo are so eager and willing to train.

Oh I got a new nick name, “the Bujinkan engineer” from Ercan and his students :-D . Because they said I show so many details in each movement. Well, that is how I look at my own training. I believe this is very important, to look at everything and study it in detail. I’m not satisfied looking at something from only the outside, I want o see how it looks from the inside, under, above, I want to feel the weight, texture, smell, taste, how it sounds and everything else I can think of. Just doing a technique without thinking about it and hope that I someday will understand is just not me.

Of course I can just show 1000 henka on a seminar and let people have fun and maybe not learning anything except moving around, I can do this to, but not too much. Trying to teach like Soke is impossible for me, I’m not technically ready yet. And I’m not doing anyone favors by trying to teach like Soke. But I’m geting there, I like to believe and hope that. I constantly jump between the shu-ha-ri levels; to keep moving, polishing my basics, and also moving freely and let the techniques come naturally. The last part is good for beginners to know about, but they must understand that this can not come easy until the basics have been perfected.

Sultan Ahmed Mosque

Besides from the training I had a good time. On Friday Ercan took me to the Basilica Cistern, this is the largest of several hundred ancient cisterns that lie beneath the city of Istanbul (formerly Constantinople). After this we went to the Topkapı Palace which was the official and primary residence in the city of the Ottoman Sultans for approximately 400 years (1465-1856) of their 624-year reign. We also passed the Sultan Ahmed Mosque. Ercan told me this story; when the Sultan ordered the Mosque to be built he asked for gold minarets, in Turkish language gold is altın. But the architect heard altı which means six. Hence the six minarets of the Blue Mosque. After the sightseeing we had dinner and then the boat back home to prepare for the extra training later this evening.

The food in Turkey is excellent, I especially like Adana Kebab and Şalgam. I was a little disappointed about the pubs, the one that was supposed to be the best had recently closed, “The English Pub” did not even have English beer (not even Guine55 or Ki11kenny), the brewpub turned out to be a loud disco with only one bad pilsener on tap and one slightly better on bottle. But the company of old and new friends was very nice and that is much more important.

After all I had a good time, and look forward coming back soon.

I’d like to say thank you to Ercan for organizing everything! And also to all the people attending the seminar which made all this possible.

See more pictures from this trip, click here.

Ercan filmed the seminar, and he also got film from my camera. Contact him if you are interested in a DVD of this seminar.

Sample video clip

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4eDm1UZPOek

Buy the full 75 minute video


75 minutes, 540 Mb for $14.99  

This video is not available as DVD!

 

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Riga seminar in February 2011

From 8þ Kabutoshimen by admin

The past weekend I was invited by Juris from Bujinkan Kurokawa Dojo in Riga to teach a seminar on Sanshin no kata and Juttejutsu.

On Saturday I showed and explained the way I feel is the base for Sanshin no kata. First we did the traditional warm-up routine; doing the first technique five times on the right side, and then five times on the left side, and finally ten times alternately on right and left side. Then the same with all the other four techniques. Sanshin no kata consists of five simple techniques…

Sanshin no kata

三心の型 SANSHIN NO KATA

地 CHI (earth)
水 SUI (water)
火 KA (fire)
風 FŪ (wind)
空 KŪ (void)

In the early 1980′s there was a “guy” that had only been training a couple of years and interpreted these techniques with Buddhism and created his own philosophy around these techniques. He wrote many books on the subject, and almost everyone copied his idea. It was a very nice idea, but it was not the Sanshin no kata that Hatsumi Soke taught as many people believed at the time (and unfortunately still believes). Do not think of the elements too much. Just simply look at them as a way of counting, nothing else.

Some people talk about three different ways of doing these techniques and they also have a name (shoshin, gogyo, goshin). I have never been taught this by Hatsumi Soke or any one else of the Japanese Shihan, and I have never seen the source for this. So I’m not teaching this, but I think this also is a good idea. I think it is important to always look at things from three perspectives. For example left, right and middle. The way I taught on the seminar was the following.

The principle of capturing, strike and quickly capture again

Solo training, try to get the form correct and understand all movements, angles, timing, distance, technique, kamae and everything else. I heard that even the Japanese Shihan who have been training for 30-40 years still do this every day. So there is no reason for you to think that you have already learned it. I to still discover many things when doing the forms.

With a partner you will understand the the solo training forms better. The forms you do in solo training will never bee exactly the same when done with a partner, you need to adjust according the way your partner attacks. We did the base (as I see it!) with five different blocks and five different strikes, then moved on to applications and more direct response from natural posture.

Using weapons will increase the understanding even more. If you use a weapon try to keep to the ideas we learn from the forms. But small adjustments are done according the characteristics of the weapons used.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tN4XcGbDsm8

This 45 minute video from the seminar is available for instant download at BUDOSHOP.SE

十手術 JUTTEJUTSU

the JutteThe jutte or jitte (十手), literally meaning “ten-hand” (i.e., the weapon with the power of ten hands), is a specialized weapon. In Edo period Japan the jutte was a substitute for a badge and represented someone on official business and was carried by all levels of police officers including high ranking samurai police officials and low-rank samurai law enforcement officers (called okappiki or doshin). Other high ranking samurai officials carried a jutte as a badge of office, “aratame” or official inspectors including hotel, rice and grain inspectors carried a jutte.

On Sunday we did the six techniques from the old Hanbo, Tessen and Jutte book published by Hatsumi Soke in 1984 ca. It has six basic techniques, we did them all. In 2003 the Bujinkan theme was Kunai and Hatsumi Soke taught five of these techniques using a Kunai. The weapons are different so adjustments need to be made according the characteristics of these weapons.

落花 Rakka technique

We studied the following techniques with Jutte in mind (not Kunai), first the basic form and then variations and applications.

桐之一葉 KIRI NO HITOHA – falling paulowina leaf (arrival of autumn)
落花 RAKKA – falling blossoms
水鳥 MIZU-DORI – water bird / 五輪碎 GORIN KUDAKI – five rings crush
雷閃 RAI-SEN – flash of lightning
竜下 TATSUGE – inferior dragon
廻捕 MAWARIDORI – revolve and capture

The training both days seemed to be successful and everyone seemed happy about it. I sure had a good time both in the dojo and outside before, between and after the trainings. The first time I was in Latvia in 2002? I asked about traditional masks but I didn’t know so much about them that they understood what I meant. So after the training Juris surprised me with a mask I asked about nearly ten years ago.

The arrival of masked visitors

This practise is variously referred to as budēļi, čigāni “gypsies, going gypsying”, kaladnieki, ķekatas, maski “masks, going masking”, nabagi “the poor ones”, etc. Although this practise could occur at any time of the winter (between Mārtiņi and Meteņi ), it was particularly common on Christmas eve. It is strongly reminiscent of the tradition of mummers and mummering in Great Britain and Newfoundland.

Latvian “mummers” might dress up as animals (bears, horses, cranes) or as Death. They would go from house to house and were warmly greeted, as they were assumed to drive away evil spirits. They would arrive in groups in front of the house, and sing songs and dance. Then they would be invited in and fed with bacon buns (pīrāgi), butter, sausages, and given ale to drink. They made a special effort to disguise their voices and mannerisms, so that no one would be able to guess who each one was, but if a mummer was correctly identified, he or she would have to “unveil”, i.e. remove the cloth which was covering their face.

It is still common for children to be required to recite an appropriate verse before receipt of their presents (there are many).

Vai, lielie ziemas svētki,
Puiši trekni, zirgi vāji;
Puišiem alus, brandavīns
Zirgiem tukšas redelītes.

Oh my, Christmas time
The lads are fat, the horses lean;
The lads get beer and whiskey
But the hay racks are empty.

I’m happy about the whole seminar, and especially happy that people also came from the neighboring countries Estonia and Lithuania. I was asked to come back after summer, maybe in August. I’m already looking forward to it.

Thank you Juris and everyone who attended and made the seminar possible.

Happy training!

Click here for more pictures from the seminar.

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Hatsumi Soke’s new Budō no Gokui book

From 8þ Kabutoshimen by admin

The Essence of Budo: The Secret Teachings of the Grandmaster The new book Budō no Gokui by Hatsumi Soke is available for pre-order now for only $23.60, it will be shipped in the end of June.

Hardcover: 208 pages

Publisher: Kodansha International Ltd (May 1, 2011)

ISBN-10: 4770031076

ISBN-13: 978-4770031075

In a quick hirameki of what is to come in this book (without giving too much away) is the artistic look at the bigger picture of the mindset of Hatsumi Soke in his interpretation of the Pinnacle of Martial Arts. The message to Bujinkan practitioners will be standardly consistent as ever, if you are of the “Keep Going” tribe in the sense that the secret to martial arts can be found in…

- Doug Wilson (one of the translators of this book)

Budo transcends simple combat techniques to ultimately attain a world of peace. Budo includes an array of martial arts developed in Japan, among them Aikido, Judo, Karatedo, Kyudo, and Kendo. In this book, grandmaster Hatsumi explores the essence of Budo, and demonstrates a range of important techniques relating to this essence. The author also reveals secret techniques and the hidden principles of the martial arts, and elucidates the words of his master, Toshitsugu Takamatsu, on Budo and life. Including some three hundred beautiful pictures depicting the author demonstrating his techniques, and around one hundred pictures of rare works of calligraphy, illustrations, and hidden documents on the martial arts and their role in Japanese culture, this book will be relevant and insightful to practitioners of all martial traditions including Judo, Aikido, Karatedo, Kendo, Kenjutsu, Jujutsu, Iaijutsu, and other various fighting sports.

About the Author

Masaaki Hatsumi was born in 1931. After progressing through various martial arts, he found his life's mentor, Takamatsu Toshitsugu, and studied under him for the next fifteen years, becoming the 34th Grandmaster of Togakure-ryu Ninjutsu and eight other arts, which he unified into the Bujinkan system. While travelling the world, teaching thousands of individual students as well as law enforcement agencies, he received numerous accolades from politicians and spiritual leaders of many nationalities.

Click here for more of my recommended Bujinkan book!s

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flashback my past 15 years on the internets

From 8þ Kabutoshimen by admin

I just found my old web site on archive.org :-) , and a lot of memories comes back. When I made my first web site (in 1994 or 1995?) there was only one other web site on the whole internets that contained the word "Bujinkan" (I think his name was Shawn (an American not Canadian ;-) )). But before that I operated my own Fidonet BBS called 2:201/2123 Moko no Tora BBS on a computer under my bed between 1992-1996 (approximately, I don't remember exactly). I was also at Compuserve when they got their first modem pool in Sweden. At that time you could not access the internets from your home as a private person. There was no provider that offered a modem pool you could call up, it was only at big companies and university's at this time. Until Ragnar Lönn started Algonet in 1994 offering a connection for private persons. If I remember correctly, I got my subscription around Christmas time, and immediately started learning HTML by making the web site.

There was only the MS *plorer and Netscape browsers, I remember Netscape was better because you could change the colours on the fonts and background. There was HTML programs, but they where buggy, annoying and didn't keep up with the new features that the Netscape browser gave. So I learned typing HTML with a simple text editor. I still do this, but I also use a CMS system (this site is on W0rpqr*ss ).

Over the years I had projects that grew too big to handle. More and more people got Internet and found my web site, I see that in the oldest record on the way back machine at archive.org that in May 2000 I had 154 016 hits since march 1995, I'm not sure if that counts the hits I had before on my Algonet page (yes it still sucks!). In January 2002 I had 426 844 hits, Anyway some of the bigger projects was...

BUUYUU www.martial.arts links project

This was link site with thousands of Martial Arts links, driven by a text database, but someone had to manually update with new links, lot's of work. Thanks to Baubak G who helped me with this!

Masai forum board

Means polish your sword or skills. With a couple of thousand members it could sometimes get maybe too political, but often there was good discussions. Back then people where new to the internets and was willing to share stuff, even if it wasn't well researched (me included).

NinZine

NinZine actually started before in my Fidonet and Compuserve days. It was a type of multimedia magazine where you needed a PC with DOS to make it work. Later Liz made Ura & Omote which was more text based articles. I think I only released five or six issues. I tried to find the old zip files but can't find them. If anyone have them, please contact me :-) . I have planned for a while to use the NinZine name again for the bujinkan.me web site project.

Bushikai (the whole Bujinkan world on one site)

Was a kind of portal for each country that showed links to web sites, clubs and local seminars for respective country. Here is Sweden for example (13 training groups, 23 web sites and 6 seminars registered at the time).

Ryu-ha history

This was probably the most popular segment. Thanks to Peter C who gave me most of the school information in the beginning. I added more and more to the pages without thinking or being able to check it's sources.

At the end I removed most of the ryu-ha history notes because I was fed up with some people who knew better that liked to critizice instead of helping, people who took the information and presented it as their own. But mostly because it became too much work, people expected me to update the web site continually, and I wasn't making any money on it. In 2005 I moved the forum to another web site, and about his time I went from 10 000 hits per month to a couple of thousand.

today...

Sure I miss some of the projects a little, but if it means I have to do all the work and it is too much work or I don't enjoy it I won't do it any more. But I moved some of the projects to the bujinkan.me web site...

  • The bujinkan.me/ninzine is the new NinZine! It is a script that get articles via selected RSS sources. Contributions is by people with their own blogs that I think make a good contribution to the Bujinkan community.
  • The Dojo locator is the new Dojo address database!. This is now handled by Google places, just make sure to include Bujinkan as a tag to get included here.
  • The Seminar database is practically the same as before.
  • The links..., when I started there was no Google!

My Kabutoshimen / Kesshi web site is more my personal web site and blog, if you are interested in what I'm up to. The Kaigozan Dojo web site is my dojo. I got a bunch of other sites to, I keep it separated (Bujinkan, me, dojo etc.)...

Well I don't know how to wrap this article!
Can't believe I've been doing this for more than 15 years!
I wonder how it will look like in another 15 years?

Anyway... HAPPY TRAINING!
( I think I used this phrase for 15 years to :-) )

/Mats…

Scam alert for Martial Artists

From 8þ Kabutoshimen by admin

Today I got another scam message (see the original below). I googled his name and found several warnings. I got a similar e-mail a year ago. First I thought it was too good to be true (warning bell 1), then the more I communicated the more warning bells I heard, but it seemed reasonable, until...

He wanted me to charge a credit card number for my salary plus their hotel, meals and expenses. He wanted me to do it very quickly and he prompted me to immediately give 60-70% of the money to his contact so he could pay for their hotel and expenses.

Now it was obvious it was a scam. He had stolen the credit card number, and if I had charged the credit card and given these 60-70% of the money to "his contact", soon after the police would knock on my door and I would end up in jail, having problem explaining why I was so stupid.

So don't fall for this, they might change name and everything so you won't find it on Google. The message below is very general, it doesn't mention my name, my club or even the art I train. Please be aware!

Date: Mon, 23 Aug 2010 02:57:19 +0000 (GMT)
From: Paul Howard
Subject: Training Classes
To: [email protected]

Hello,

My name is Howard Paul. I want to book training services for a group of six who shall be on vacation to your country for 8weeks.We want an intensive training sessions with you. Their stay will last from Sept to October,2010.They are all beginners and six in number.What can you offer? Can I know your qualification and service rate? This program coincides with our vacation timetable and it is designed towards improving the mental and physical fitness by challenging ourselves beyond our capabilities. Our aim is to improve our confidence, gain self defense skills, increase fitness and enjoy new challenges.

Do you have a training facility where you conduct classes? if not,we can arrange one for it.
I would love to know the possibility of working with you during this period.Kindly get back to me with your proposals so that we can make booking asap.

Best regards.
Howard Paul
BCSSA,Egerton Training Ground,
Mereheath Lane,
Knutsford,
Cheshire, WA16 6SL,Uk

Here is a new one :-/

Hello,

My name is Robert Dickson, I want to book training services for a group of six who shall be on vacation to your country for 8weeks.We want an intensive training sessions with you. Their stay will last from May 2011.to July, 2011. They are all beginners and six in number. What can you offer? Can I know your qualification and service rate? This program coincides with our vacation timetable and it is designed towards improving the mental and physical fitness by challenging ourselves beyond our capabilities. Our aim is to improve our confidence, gain self defense skills, increase fitness and enjoy new challenges.

Do you have a training facility where you conduct classes? if not,we can arrange one for it. I would love to know the possibility of working with you during this period.Kindly. Kindly get back to me with your proposals so that we can make booking asap.

Best regards

Robert Dickson,
BCSSA,Egerton Training Ground
109-113 Queen’s Gate, South Kensington,
London,UK, SW7 5LR

…