International Budo Seminar (Part 1)
Mark Gorsuch (markgorsuch@HOTMAIL.COM)
Along with Peter Boylan (who already posted a review) and Michael
Rogers, I attended the 11th International Seminar of Budo Culture in
Katsuura, Chiba, Japan from March 12-15 (BTW, Peter, Katsuura is 90 min.
SOUTHEAST of Tokyo. If you go north, you`ll end up in Saitama or
Ibaragi). This was my second time at this event, but the first time I
was able to attend the entire seminar. Like last year, I found the 4 day
weekend to be stimulating and enjoyable and am already looking forward
to next year's seminar.
Since Peter already posted a write-up, I'll try not to repeat too much
of what he said and just add my own comments. The seminar is a mix of
lectures, training, and socializing (drinking). I found all the lectures
to be quite interesting this year which was not the case last year. I
just wish it were possible to stay awake through them after only 4 hours
of sleep and then about 3 hours of training in the morning. There were
two training sessions in the morning, one where you got to try a new
budo, and the second, a practical, where you train in the budo you
normally practice. The socializing was quite enjoyable as everyone was
very friendly and I heard some very interesting stories (more on that
later).
Training began on the second day of the seminar in the morning. I did
judo as my new budo even though I`ve done it for two years. I practice
at a dojo where most of the students are children so I don`t get much
good practice in and I figured that barely puts me ahead of those were
trying judo for the first time. We paired off with a student of the judo
club of International Budo Univ. (IBU) which is also located in Katsuura
and served as the location for some of the seminar events. So, for about
90 minutes, we got to throw, choke and lock a student who had to smile
and pretend he was enjoying it. I talked with the student I was paired
up with after practice and he told me that the IBU judo club has 300
members! It must be somewhat frustrating to join the club as a freshman
and know that your chances of ever making the "A" team (varsity) are
extremely slim. He invited me to do judo again for the practical but I
declined since I don`t have much confidence in my judo.
I did aikido instead. The instructor was Seki Sensei of the Aikikai
Honbu and he was assisted by Kanazawa Sensei also of the Honbu. There
were a lot of people doing aikido, probably around 40. Seki Sensei keeps
things moving very quickly. He gave little explanation, preferring to
demonstrate the technique about 8 times before having us practice. This
was just as well since we were in a very large gym and there were
several other groups practicing including kendo which made it difficult
to hear anyway. We practiced each technique for about 10 minutes
non-stop. This was quite tiring since it differed from a normal practice
at my dojo where the senior member might take time to explain the finer
points in the technique, thus giving both people a chance to rest. I was
quite exhausted and ready for lunch by the time it was over.
I got to take ukemi for Seki Sensei once when he was walking around. The
waza we were doing was gokyo from yokomen uchi. Maybe I don`t get around
to enough dojos, but I`ll have to say that until then, I thought gokyo
was pretty much one of those techniques that requires a certain level of
cooperation between shite and uke for it to work. In other words, I
didn`t think this waza was effective. That all changed when Seki Sensei
blocked my yokomen uchi and took control of my arm. The best I can
describe it is that it was a whipping motion you feel when going around
a corner while riding a roller coaster. He completely broke my balance
and put my face in the mat before I knew it. He did this 4 times, both
omote and ura and I was helpless each time. I will definitely look at
this waza differently from now on.
The afternoon lecture was on the history and development of judo.
Surprisingly, the lecturer spoke in English. I found it interesting, but
I think it might have been more easily understandable if he had spoken
in Japanese and an interpreter had translated it into English.
Next up was a panel discussion. I agree with what Peter Boylan said
about how all the Japanese on the panel were very much for the
popularization and sport aspect of budo and it would have been nice to
hear from someone opposed to the idea. What I disliked most was how
Japan is pushing for sumo to become an Olympic sport in 2008 if Osaka is
chosen as the host city. There was someone from the Japanese sumo
federation (I don`t recall the official name) who was a big supporter of
this movement. I can`t help but think how much of judo has been lost
since it became a sport and how the same thing is happening to karate in
many ways. I think it will be even worse for sumo since it is centuries
old and very steeped in tradition. This discussion is way too off topic
so I`ll move on.
There was one aikidoka on the panel, Fumiaki Shishida. He is a shihan in
Tomiki Aikido which is probably why they chose him as opposed to an
aikidoka from a style with no competition.
That night I got to roll around the mats with Peter Boylan. Peter showed
me some newaza to my delight. I`ve always been interested in the newaza
aspect of judo but get very little training in it at my dojo. Peter said
the same thing about his dojo. We spent over an hour at newaza and I
would like to thank Peter for taking the time out to show me some great
waza which I`ve already forgotten. If only I had someone to show me this
stuff on a regular basis.
I`ll write more later.
Mark Gorsuch
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