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From the Foreign
Correspondent's Desk
I hope this finds you well.
Training at the Hombu has been very busy recently with visits
from several branch and overseas dojos keeping things
interesting. I would like to pass on some information about a
project one of our members from our Tokyo Dojo has completed.
During the recent seminars in Basel Switzerland and Odessa the
Ukraine, Daisuke Natsuno-san put the skills from his day job to
work. He and his lovely partner Mine-san are professional
videographers, and luckily for us they lugged their very
expensive and heavy equipment with them in order to capture a
ground level view of what happened in the European Kobudo
seminars.
These DVDs are available for
purchase at the following link:
http://www.rocketjapan.com/shop/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=3_4
They cover a
number of topics including bo kihon, sai, tonfa, tekko,
nunchakku, and kata up to Nidan.
The majority of the comments on the Swiss Seminar are available
in Japanese and English with some German. Kagemasa Yoshimoto
Shihan was the chief instructor of the Swiss Seminar. He was
assisted by Paul Vermiglio Shihan who shows some interesting
bunkai interpretations, Tim Jurgens as your humble translator to
English (the mistakes are all mine), the talented Dell Hamby
rendering comments in German, and the lovely Setsuko Yoshimoto
who proves that being petite and a lady is no barrier to having
strong technique. Several other black belt members joined the
training including Natsuno-san, Kiri-san, Lothar, John, Andreas,
and Jose allowing for a fast pace with lots of interesting
drills.
The Ukraine Seminar was led by Akamine Hiroshi Kaicho, and
covers much of the same ground but also shows the spirit and
enthusiasm evident in Eastern Europe. Comments are in Japanese,
English and Ukrainian/Akamine Kaicho was joined by Yoshimoto
Sensei, Paul Sensei, Tim, Setsuko Sensei, Natsuno-san, Kirii-san,
and Skip Taylor from our Tokyo Dojo.
The tournament DVD shows the kids and adults competition in
Odessa. It also has clips of the demo we did prior to the
tournament. It will be particularly interesting to the people
who competed as all competitors are shown.
They are hoping to give people a look into what happens in our
seminars and also provide a memory aid for people who are
training in Ryukyu Kobudo. It should be noted that this is a
single event type DVD, where the instructors did their best to
render the information as best as they understand it. It has
been reviewed by Akamine Kaicho for major mistakes and approved
for release, however the efforts are specific to the seminars
and there may be some variance between how certain teachers
understand and present the information and how others understand
and present the same material. Also there are some flat out
mistakes, such as my rendition of the Nunchaku Kata near the end
of the Ukraine DVD. I started the aifuri or Figure 8 techniques
done on the 45% angle to the outside instead of the inside.
Akamine Kaicho mentions it, but unless you understand Japanese,
you might not catch the correction. I also wasn't happy with my
translation of Yoshimoto Sensei's emphasis of how the sai are to
be used to control the bo in the Swiss DVD. I am sure there
would be other errata that would come up if these were intended
to be definitive DVDs on technique. They are not. What they
are however are some nice reference material, memory aids, and
an opportunity for people to have a chance to see some of the
faces of our association that they might not get to meet
otherwise.
Additionally we would like to welcome Mr. Valeriy Kussiy from
the Ukraine and the other members of our newest Dokokai in
Odessa.
I hope to see as many of you as possible in September when we
have our international competition in Okinawa.
http://www.ryukyu-kobudo.com/events/comp/2008_tournament_1.htm
Please note that while the website says the location will be the
Budokan the actual location will be at the International
University's Gymnasium.
Regards,
Tim Jurgens
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Ryukyu
Kobudo in Tasmania
Sensei Hennie de Vries conducted a
Kobudo seminar from the 9-11 May in Launceston, Tasmania.
Friday evening was a private lesson with Mike Clarke working on
Chikinshitahaku no sai. Saturday consisted of two, two, hour
sessions working on kihon waza and kumite for bo and sai.
On Sunday a three-hour session recapping of previous work with a
discussion and an explanation on Okinawa covering its people and
Honbu dojo. It was stressed that the Honbu dojo expects
everyone to behave in a dignified manner and that we have a
responsibility to up hold the standard as set out under the
leadership of Hiroshi Akamine Keicho.
A special thanks to Mike for organizing the seminar and to David
for the use of his dojo
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