August 4-6th, 2006
Madison, Wisconsin
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MWKF
Summer Camp August 4-6th, 2006 Madison, Wisconsin |
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All Photos by Dave Christman unless otherwise noted. |
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This is the gym we used as our dojo for the weekend. The campus is huge and has a lot of facilities. I was standing very near our dorm. So this was about the most distance we had to walk all weekend. We were only two blocks from State street. Please ask me about State street and the 1999 Rose Bowl. I have a story to tell you.. |
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The group of yudansha has been shifted over to a different gym, with Saito sensei in the lead.. |
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This is view of the kenshi lined up to do jiyu-geiko with the sensei at the end of the day. The sensei there to the left, is Matsumoto sensei, still going strong at 80 years plus.... |
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Like this photo, taken from directly over head of the kendoka from the
running track, high above the gym floor.
Interesting sidelight is Professor Kiyota still likes to fence a little even at his advanced age. He and Matsumoto sensei from Chicago had a short practice together in one of the side rooms, I was lucky to be one of the 2 or 3 people who witnessed it. Here is a couple of photos of it. See below. |
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Kiyota (left) and Matsumoto (right) facing off. Both of these men are over 75 years old. Matsumoto sensei is the "modern" kendo man, living in America, a decorated WWII US Army veteran, going through the ranks, helping to found kendo organizations in the U.S. A true American in every sense. Then there is Kiyota, whose life went a different way, he was jailed when he refused to fight for the U.S. in WWII. But he eventually became highly educated in both Japan and the U.S. but he ignored "organized kendo" and stayed true to the kind of kendo he learned in pre-WWII Japan. He sure has " chutzpuh" as the Yiddish would say.....and in his own way introduced a lot of college students to the eastern way of thought, and has been a cultural bridge from the east to the west. |
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Fernando & F2 were thrilled to meet Matsumoto sensei, as they learned that I consider him one of my sensei, so they were eager to get a picture with him. |
Fernando & F2 with Yamanaka sensei. |
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We were happy with the food served, here we are at the cafeteria, Asako Akamatsu (Detroit), Travis, Jordan and Jim. (left to right) |
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This was the party room, some poor people went all weekend unable to find the party, but it was going on, and the beverages were consumed heartily ! Notice Matsuura sensei concentrating on his Texas hold-em hand....Thanks here to my roomie, David Birdsell, a dear old friend of mine, who had some ice-cold growlers of a local brew from the Quad-cities, stashed in a 20 year old cooler that worked as good as a damn refrigerator....the ale stayed ice-cold all weekend. |
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Partying with my homies.......
Photo by Terry Tokuhiro |
Photo by Terry Tokuhiro |
Here is a photo where I present Yamanaka and Saito sensei with a plaque commemorating their visits (3 years ) to the MWKF summer camp. Tagawa and Matsuura helped translate. |
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This was the final and only group photo we managed to take. This is a 3 photo composite. Other people may have a better shot, but I can't tell you who.... |
