From New Products from Budo Shop Store by New Products from Budo Shop Store
Read MoreBring death to life to preserve life
From Shiro Kuma's Weblog by kumafr
Last class Hatsumi sensei played with the meaning of two words “ikasu” and “kaitatsu“. Ikasu means “being stylish or smart” but written differently is “to keep alive, or to capitalize on experience”. But in sensei’s idea it was more like bringing something to life. As far as I understand, the technique does not matter and our kamae should appear by themselves without thinking. This is quite similar to the idea expressed in the Tao (chapter 38):
The Master does nothing,
yet he leaves nothing undone.
The ordinary man is always doing things,
yet many more are left to be done.
Our actions should be the ones of a master not of an ordinary man. By doing nothing we do not interfere with nature, and are able to seize the subtle information lying there for us in space. This is why sensei linked it to kaitatsu.
Sensei defined kaitatsu as some kind of “mysterious transmission of power”. But later he told me “imagination”. So kaitatsu is actually the ability to imagine new development in our action process based upon the information received by our senses. To receive this “power” (nothing mystical there), we have to develop the ikasu defined earlier.
We can understand this as follows: Life is meant to create not to destroy. As often with sôke the words he used are hiding many deeper meanings within them. Plato said that the “knowledge of words led to the knowledge of things”. This is exactly how sensei is teaching. Everything that he teaches has to be understood and assimilated at various levels. If we stay only at the omote level we train a nice martial art not so much different from the other gendai budô. Conversely, if we play with the sounds, the words and their roots (at the ura level) we enter a multiple entry system like a matrix that goes further, leaves the physical world, and give access to the philosophical world in which we will transform our vision of Life. Those changes and interpretations are infinite, they are like the cycle of life beginning with “A” and finishing with “UN”. The baby first sound and the dying man last. But this is also the Japanese pronunciation of the Indian “OM”. Everything is linked.
So if we are not meant to destroy but to preserve life why do we train budô? We train budô to understand death and by this understanding we come to the conclusion that killing has to be avoided. This is pure common sense. But in order to understand death we have to feel it and that is why the techniques we train at the dôjô can be so devastating. We do not injure our partners but we train in such a way that we are aware of the risks and therefore get to understand death. This whole thing about death is linked to kûkan. Kûkan is the “last frontier” where nothing more is manifested, this is the end of things. To get to kûkan we must go to our “last frontier” where nothing more exist, no waza no kankaku neither. Only then can we communicate death (kaitatsu). By knowing and understanding death we reach the level of kûkan. By being into the kûkan we can manifest it, by manifesting kûkan we manifest death, and we communicate it to the opponent who will stop his attack paralyzed by his own fears and tensions.
This is one way to understand the in-yo kyôjitsu that sensei introduced this year. To preserve life, you have to know death. By sending this death feeling to uke, he cannot attack anymore.
Ikasu unleashes kaitatsu and paradoxically our lethal power perceived by the attacker preserves his life. His life is in his hands, it’s his choice to live or die.
Kuki Taisho!
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Honbu dôjô experience
From Shiro Kuma's Weblog by kumafr
Today Noguchi sensei did the first morning class and he taught us parts of the koto ryû. Then it was the regular class with sôke but as he had some obligations, I was honoured by Noguchi sensei to begin the teaching.
This is not the first time it happens to me on Sundays but I always find it strange when it happens. When I remember my first classes here in Japan more than 20 years ago (no Honbu dôjô at that time) I measure the long path I have been following since then. Back then, I would never have suspected that the young man I was then, would learn so much on how to become a true human being. What Hatsumi sensei is teaching in his budô is not a set of old fighting techniques but really a way of Life that transforms you more than you think. As he said yesterday night we have to behave as members of the samurai class, the upper layer of the Japanese feudal society.
Our actions should be guided by the code of chivalry. Today during the calligraphy session, I asked him to write “chivalry” and I got “shinobi” … I don’t think he made a mistake. He is teaching us through mysterious ways.
During the break, he told me that we (jûgodan) have to follow him and walk by his side as long as we can and do what he asks instead of thinking too much by ourselves.
Being a sensei he is guiding us as far as possible, and the closer we are to him the further we can go. This is, he said, what he did with Takamatsu sensei.
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Special offer! Tachi Kumiuchi w Duncan Stewart – Three set DVD’s
From 8þ Kabutoshimen by admin
TACHI KUMIUCHI - SPECIAL LIMITED EDITION for only 549.00 SEK
3-Set DVD + Bonus CD only valid until the end of April!
We had Duncan Stewart here in Stockholm for a seminar in the beginning of April this year. We filmed all the trainings and will release them on three separate DVDs, each one is 2 hours long, total of 6 hours of very good stuff. They will be available for order separately at BUDOSHOP.SE from May 1'st. But we are offering a special offer for a limited edition only available for a very short time, please read below!
The price is 549.00 SEK (it is around 56.00 EUR or 75.00 USD), this will save you 168.00 SEK. We will even throw in 30 min extra material that we couldn't squeeze in. This bonus CD will not be available again, only the DVD's will be sold separately for 239.00 SEK each from May 1'st.
You can order this now, but it will be shipped in the end of April, if you order more from the shop we might wait and ship everything at once. All our videos is NTSC and region free! We have a flat shipping rate to the whole world for only 49.00 SEK (free shipping with in Sweden). For those of you who pre-ordered and already paid this at the seminar will get the limited edition set.
Click here to buy it from BUDOSHOP.SE (Note we only accept SEK via PayPal!)
Here is some information about each DVD...
the first DVD theme is Kihon Happo. This DVD is from the extra training on Friday. Duncan taught Kihon Happo and basics, but also more advanced, unarmed or weapons, and Tachi Kumiuchi.
the second and third DVDs theme is Tachi Kumiuchi and the concept of Rokkon Shoujou, the theme of this year. Taijutsu, unarmed fighting against one or multiple attackers, with or without weapons, mainly the Tachi sword.
the bonus cd is from the end of Sunday training. We couldn't omit anything from what we filmed in the editing process, and still wanted to give you everything we captured. It will be in the format of H264 movie you can play on your computer or phone.
If you don't know who Duncan is I advise you to ask anyone who has been to Japan the past several years. He is often used as uke by Hatsumi Soke and the Shihan. There is videos on YouTube you can watch, also read his own blog which is very good and insightful.…
Read MoreKankaku – feeling
From Shiro Kuma's Weblog by kumafr
A short note about the word feeling (kankaku in japanese). If you split it in two and use kan (piercing through) and kaku (side). Kankaku can be understood as the way to make visible the invisible by going through the appearance of things.
(free interpretation of Sensei’s class on Friday).
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