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Latest News |
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| Volume 9 Issue 8 |
Editor: Dave Christman |
Last update: April 26, 2008 |
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All Photos by D.Christman, unless otherwise noted |
Note from the Editor: I am going to experiment with a different format for our newsletter. Instead of having a totally new "web letter" 8 to 10 times a year, I will make it more like a "blog" and when a item or article get old, I'll store it in the archives. The lower you scroll down the older the news. Until the bottom where the event list and "The Master Says" will still appear. |
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LATEST DOJO NEWS |
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IN MEMORIAM: John Van DeLaare, a kendo student at our club in the years from 1986 to 1992. He passed away from liver failure on April 20th. He was one of the first three people to attain their shodan in kendo after me in the early history of our club. John was a partner with me in the early history of a dojo that we together called the Battle Creek Budokan. We wanted to form a commune of sorts in the Japanese martial arts and house it under one roof. We first tried it down at on Hamblin Avenue where we rehab'ed a car repair garage, and turned it into a dojo. We tried our best, but due to financial and personal differences, the attempt at the dream fell apart. John was a shodan in kendo but died a godan in Uechi-Ryu karate do. He knew more true karate in his little finger than many of the numbskulls in this area who proclaim black belts in Karate. Despite our differences, I always totally respected his skill and knowledge of his chosen art. I sent many people his way, people who were inclined to delve deeply into a traditional martial art. He was one heck of a martial artist. I'm so sorry he went away too soon. |
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Cleveland
Results:
Matsuura sensei has written a report of the results from the 20th
Anniversary Cleveland Tournament:
A smaller group of people
traveled this time to Case Western University in Cleveland, Ohio in order
to take part in the 20th Greater North Eastern Kendo
Tournament. Travis Hill, Jordan Holmgren, Stephen Chaffin, Yutaro
Matsuura, and Kotaro Yoshida made the trip in order to defend the team
title that they had won the previous year.
This doesn’t mean that the trip
was a complete loss. Battle Creek Kendo Kai found great individual glory
on this trip.
Kotaro Yoshida has also done BCKK
proud by winning the Sandan and up Championship. He did so by defeating
Sugawara Sensei in the semi-finals with a spectacular Tsuki strike and
then defeating a young Kenshi from Japan with an easy and convincing 2-0
performance in the finals. BCKK and Michigan in general is very fortunate
to have Yoshida Sensei as a member of our club. |
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Shout out: To Tani sensei from Detroit, he dropped by to get an extra practice in before Cleveland. Welcome, sensei, drop by anytime, our Sunday practices are the better ones to attend. |
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Welcome: To Ashley Wolfe, a CMU Graduate, now working in the Kalamazoo area. She Has joined our dojo and shows some promise. She is a great gal with a lot of guts. It will take some guts too to hang in a dojo with all men, and most of them are yudansha. |
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Goodbye:
To Ryowa Tsurunaga, he was a
joy to have around the dojo, and a good addition to our team in Detroit.
He has to return to Japan for now. He teaches English at a school on the
campus of Keio university. He was at MSU finishing up a teaching degree. |
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Michigan Family: Charlie Kondek has announced May 18th as the date for the "Local" Michigan dojo only, tournament. |
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Student Tournament: The Chicago area Tried out a new idea for a tournament format. It was a "STUDENT" only format. Well, we here in Battle Creek don't have a lot of young people in the dojo, but we do have Travis Hill. The way the youth brackets are set, Travis is still a senior youth, so he got a 1st Place in the Individuals, and led his 3 man team to a 1st place in the senior youth team championships. Congratulations, Travis. |
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Detroit Tournament: Travis Hill, again rocked at the tournament. In his debut as a nidan, he took first place. Borrowing/stealing Tsurunaga sensei from MSU, Battle Creek team still got stopped by Chicago in the court semi-finals. |
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Personal Note: I'd like to stick a photo in here from my ski vacation. This is a photo from Whistler Mountain in British Columbia, Canada. I was there February 2-9th on a ski vacation. What a beautiful wilderness. |
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UPCOMING EVENTS |
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Michigan Family Tournament: To be in Ypsilanti (E.M.U.) on May 18th, 2008. Check in at the Dojo for the information |
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I've collected a lot of stories, quotes, koans, poems and haiku. Here is one I really like: " Isshin." - The state of mind when it is fixed irreducibly on one thing. Example: A Japanese tea master was asked to travel to Edo with his lord, who was to see the shogun. The lord insisted his friend dress in the fashion of a samurai during their visit. Not surprisingly, he fell prey to a ronin who took offense at strangers and challenged him to a duel. Custom demanded that he accept or risk shaming his lord, and his province. The nervous tea master rushed to the nearest fencing dojo in the hope of getting advice. The headmaster listened to his predicament, then asked the tea master to fix him a cup of tea. While he was preparing tea, the tea master realized it may be the last time for him. He became absorbed, wishing for it to be perfect. "THERE" shouted the sword master. "Behave tomorrow exactly as you are now. Approach the ronin, your sword held high, when you hear him shout, cut downward. It will be a mutual slaying, but you will not be shamed." The next day the tea master met the ronin, confident that he would die, but preserve his honor by taking his killer with him. Calmly he tied up his sleeves, and raised his sword to jodan no kamae, possessed by a single thought. Well, the ronin was overwhelmed by the masters terrifying determination, he mumbled an apology and fled the scene. Adapted from Dave Lowery, (buy his books!) |
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E-mail the editor, let me know your comments at: mailto: dtc12@comcast.net to reach me. |
