Plans for 2008
Martial Arts Demonstration at "Naru 2 U" Anime Convention
The days are indeed shorter, but that only underscores how many things have been going on recently.
In addition, we have been invited to demonstrate our martial arts at the local anime convention, Naru 2 U. We're very excited about the demonstration,
as it will represent our largest potential audience, and an opportunity to perhaps meet people interested in this intersection between old and new Japanese culture! We will be demonstrating classical jujutsu, tantojutsu (dagger), kodachi (short sword), jutte (truncheon), kenjutsu (sword), and bojutsu (staff). In addition, we may also be demonstrating something truly rare...
We will be performing on Saturday, November 15th at two times: 1:30 PM and 6:30PM.
Japanese martial arts have been a rich source of stories, legends and myths in the ancient culture and modern film, manga and anime artists have mined this tradition to create epic, exciting stories and characters. We're very excited by this opportunity to present these arts in their original form to an interested audience.
Annual Seminar with Manaka Sensei in Los Angeles
On October 25th - 26th the Jinenkan
Los Angeles Dojo hosted Kancho Manaka for the annual North American seminar. Over the course of two days, we received Sensei's personal instruction in the use of kyoketsu shoge, the hooked-blade-and-flail, shurikenjutsu, the throwing blades, and suitonjutsu the swimming and underwater combat techniques of our martial arts predecessors. I arrived Friday evening, and was immediately given an LA welcome, including getting picked up at the airport in a yellow Ferrari: from there, rubber-necking all the way, I was taken to the dojo where I lead an eager class in throwing techniques. After working several important points in setting up throwing techniques, Leif from Sweden took over instruction to lead a heart-pounding class in jumping and related conditioning. This was our lead-in to the next two days: in an exclusive modern LA gym, Manaka Sensei lead us in exploring these rare arts, rarely if ever seen outside of Japan. We were challenged to expand our perspectives; to take what we thought were our strengths and examine them against weapons which require great accuracy and finesse; and to take our unarmed techniques into the water. I have nothing but gratitude to everyone I trained with; the warmth and enthusiasm I experienced was remarkable.
Start of regular class times
Starting on September 3rd we will follow the
community centre to regular hours: this means
our Monday
and Wednesday class hours will be changing to
7:30-9:30PM, from 7-9PM. So we'll be starting
and ending half-an-hour later. Also, after August
31st, Bojutsu is changing time and location. We
we train each
Sunday from 12:30PM-2:30PM
in the Heron Room.
Summer Training Camp
The first Summer Training Camp was quite successful:
on August 2nd, a solid group of our regulars joined
the Ottawa Medieval Sword Guild on private farm land
near Kemptville to observe and train in both Eastern
and Western historical martial arts. They braved rain and mosquitos, but I think they came away happy and with many new experiences.
We warmed up with tomahawk throwing, which is a
good way to start out after the drive up. Unlike
shuriken, the tomahawk isn't very particular- whether
you hit with blade, head or handle, with the weight
of the axe alone you're going to be making an impression!
With very basic instruction and a selection of axes,
we made good progress, and everyone had at least
one notable "stick" on a throw.
Guild Instructor Nick
Conway then lead us through some fundamentals of
Medieval Grappling. With a small collection of postas,
or stances, he laid out very clearly the underpinnings
and logic of their unarmed combat, including wrestling
positions, head and spine manipulations, and throws.
These techniques were simple to apply, but rich in
detail. Nick did a very good and entertaining job
of instructing newcomers to this system.
The biggest event of the day was watching the armored
charge, where a line of six men-at-arms in full plate
armor charged a line of archers. Accompanying the
archers was a reproduction trebuchet, an ancient
siege engine resembling a teeter-totter on a seven-foot
scaffold. This small model wasn't lobbing rocks
at a castle wall (which is just as well, since not
only aren't there any castles around, but a full-scale
model could easily have launched missiles into the
nearby township!), but, with a mighty groan each
time it was fired, it arced a football up the field
at the knights. It's amazing, between the arrows
and the trebuchet, how hard it actually was to hit
even the slow-moving knights, but it wasn't for lack
of trying, and the archers soon improved.
Afterwards, we retreated to the canopies, and set up to practice naginata, the light horse-cutting halberd of the Feudal Japanese battlefield. We worked out way through all the basics of this weapon: many people had painstakingly worked to attach wooden kodachi blades to a six-foot long staff, and the additional weight was unfamiliar and required additional control. Nick joined us, wielding an eight-foot long spear, and I think he'll agree that the naginata would have been a weapon requiring dynamism and control: the power behind its cuts would rapidly level the playing field!
The following rainstorm cut into our training time, not that anyone was complaining. We went under the canopies for some late lunch, and even covered some testing requirements, before seeking out a target for bo shuriken practice. The hanging burlap sack filled with straw served as an excellent target: by the end of practice, the nine throwing spikes I'd made had been entirely buried in the target, to the point where we'll actually have to wait for them to cut down and empty the sack! Everyone really took to this new skill: it's often talked about, but rarely practiced. Everyone caught the hang of powering the the spike straight towards a target, starting at about 6 feet, by exploding their body weight behind their throwing arm. As with the tomahawk, all it takes is one hit and people are hooked!
As always, we concluded the day with the pig roast feast; I'd like to thank the Ottawa Medieval Sword Guild for their friendship, hospitality, and kind instruction.
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