|
|
Volume 5 Issue 3 |
Editor: Dave Christman | May 2003 |
All Photos by D. Christman, unless not |
| **NEWSFLASH**Summer Camp I'm pleased to announce we have an answer to our request for a AUSKF - sponsored sensei for our summer camp. He is Thomas Hooper, Kendo 6th dan Renshi, Iaido 6th dan Renshi. From the Ken Zen dojo in New York City. Besides the normal kendo practices there will be practices held for iaido also. This will make history for our summer camp, as it will be the first time any iaido has been offered in the weekend's curriculum. |
| Dojo News We really have nothing new going on at the the Dojo. Happy to say "Little Bob" and "Mills" have been attending practices without missing lately and it shows. Matsuura has been pushing them a lot lately. The rest of you are beginning to get "spotty". Remember, the more you put in, the more you get out. |
MWKF Iaido Seminar Jerry Morishige (BTC) and Tom Okawara (Choyokan) worked hard behind the scenes to bring two sensei all the way from the Seattle area to help our fledgling iai enthusiasts here in the Midwest. On May 16th, I drove down to Chicago to spend a full day (17th) getting corrected on and learning more deeply the ZNKR iai kata commonly known as Seitei iai. Hosted and held by the Buddhist Temple of Chicago Iaidojo it spanned about 7 hours. We probably practiced 6 of those hours. The teachers came all the way from Bellevue, Washington. They are from the Musokai Iai dojo which is attached to the Bellevue Kendo Club. Tasuhiko Konno, Iaido 7th dan Renshi / Kendo 6th dan Renshi, and Pat Murosako, Iaido 6th dan Renshi / Kendo 7th dan Kyoshi. |
(Lft to Rt) T. Konno, P. Murosako, T. Okawara, J. Morishige |
 |
Here is all of us who attended. The bulk of the group was Chicago natives who were from the host dojo and some who are practicing at the Choyokan. Only three people from outside of Chicago area attended. |
| We started
the day at 9:00 a.m. After some warm-ups led by Morishige sensei, Konno
showed us some iaido strengthening exercises. These I'm going to work into
our practice as well. We then worked long and hard
on kata Mae (#1). Again we were reminded that this is the
most important
kata of all. You must do this one well, if you want to be taken seriously.
|
||
Photo by Tom Okawara |
Photo by Tom Okawara |
|
|
Here Konno sensei is teaching me the noto for Muso Shinden Ryu. |
|
|
Here BTC leaders Jerry Morishige and Rev. Ashikaga get some 1 on 2 time from Konno sensei. Notice they are working on Mae (#1). |
| Here Murosako sensei demonstrates the proper furi-kaburi and kiri-otoshi. That would be suburi to kendo folks. |  |
 |
Konno sensei again goes over Mae. After a nice little lunch (Subway) we went back to work. Eventually we began to cover the rest of the seitei form. Sensei especially covered Ukenagashi (#3), Soite tsuki (#9) and Suo giri (#11). These seem to be the kata we as a group needed the most help on. At the very end, Murosako sensei demonstrated some kata (not all) from the Omori (shoden) kata of the Muso Shinden Ryu. Then Konno performed Hasegawa (chuden) commonly known as Eishin kata. That was extraordinary! He is so precise, you must see him sometime. |
|
UPCOMING EVENTS |
KALAMAZOO: MWKF Summer Camp....Aug 8-10 On the beautiful Kalamazoo College campus. Tom Hooper sensei from KenZen dojo in NYC will be our head instructor. That means iaido will be offered for the first time. Download registration forms here CHARLESTON: AUSKF National Summer Camp......Oct. 11-12 Being held at Citadel University in South Carolina. Top instructors from Japan and the U.S. will be there. A national testing board will hold a test also. |
|
FOR SALE:Toshiba Digital Camera PDR-M1(1.5 megapixels) with 2 smart media cards.......$100 e-mail Dave dtc12(nospam)@attbi.com to reach me just remove the (nospam) from the previous address. |
|
New Monthly Feature |
 |
|
I've collected a lot of stories, quotes, koans, and haiku. Here is one I really like: "He who follows the way, must be courteous, not only in training, but in daily life. While humble and gentile, he should never be servile. His performance of kata should reflect boldness and confidence. This seemingly paradoxical combination of gentleness and boldness leads ultimately to harmony." (Egami Shigeru) Karate master |
e-mail the editor: let me know your comments at: dtc12(nospam)@attbi.com to reach me just remove the (nospam) from previous address.
