Author: kumablog

I share here on a regular basis my thoughts about the Bujinkan martial arts, training in Japan and all over the world, and

YSTT2010


THANK YOU ALL!

This new edition of the YSTT has been fantastic in terms of quality at all levels: quality of teachers, quality of students, quality of organization, quality of food, quality of kumite.

Calligraphies by Hatsumi Sensei for the "Yûro shi tennô"

Quality of teachers: Each year I am amazed to discover how my friends have been evolving in good. Sven is deeper as ever and the depth of his teachings reminds me often of Hatsumi Sensei. Peter is more and more precise in his forms and understanding of the human anatomy with his Amatsu Tatara Holistic approach. Pedro is always coming with new multiple complex controls that look so simple that he is manifesting wabi itself.

Quality of students: This year we had more than 30% newcomers to the taikai and rapidly I got the feeling it was the same group as the years before. It is so nice to see the same students coming year after year and to see them improve more and more. Even the beginners were so nice to teach to. This taikai is a real pleasure to teach because we can adapt the level of our teaching to the level of the groups we have. This year I really enjoyed a lot going back to the basics with the kyû and the feeling of real fight with the high ranks. There is always something to learn for us.

Quality of organization: This year for the first time Bruno took the responsability of the YSTT as I was teaching abroad a lot. He did a damn good job and I don’t think that any taikai was better organized and managed than this last edition. Thank you Bruno! Being a 15th dan didn’t weaken you it made you more powerful. I also want to thank the taikai Team who made our stay in the dôjô so likeable. They were so committed and efficient that I had a hard time recognizing them. Thank you all for your hard work. All the attendants will remember you.

Quality of food: When Bruno said that one of our students was 1 star michelin “chef” and that he could cook for us at the taikai, I honestly didn’t believe it would be possible for such a big number of people. I was wrong and this has been the best taikai food I ever had the chance to eat. Goodbye sandwich, welcome meatballs, meatpie, butter chicken and starters and cheese and desserts. Jean-marie I love you! Thank you for your hard work and sacrificing your training time in the morning to cook for us.

The group on Saturday

Quality of kumite: Above all a taikai is a kumite, a reunion of many bujinkan practitioners dedicated to learn more about our art and to share friendship. In this respect this YSTT has been a real success. Fri 91 participants, Sat. 123 participants, Sun. 131 participants. No injuries, no violence, a lot of work. This taikai was created to replace the missing taikai by hatsumi sensei. Training is first but in the old days these taikai were the occasion to reunite the bujinkan family. This YSTT was a real kumite regrouping participants coming from 19 countries (the last being bielorussia and poland).

Thank you all and we hope to see you next year again in Paris!

Please note:

1. The YSTT2012 will be held in London for the 25th anniversary of the first taikai directed by hatsumi sensei in Europe and organized by Peter King in 1987.
2. the video of the taikai will be available for download for the members at http://www.koimartialart.com in a few weeks.

YSTT day 1


Today was the first day of the YSTT and we had a lot of fun even if the heat was terrible  over 33°. As always it was a real pleasure to give class with my three friends: Peter, Pedro & Sven.

We had the chance to meet hatsumi sensei and the bujinkan at the beginning and to create this friendship. But without sensei, his budô, and his vision of life this friendship would not have existed.

This taikai in Paris is my way to thank them all for this great opportunity.

Thank you sensei, thank you my friends.

YSTT LAST UPDATE


Dear friends,

I am on my way to get Peter, Pedro and Sven coming to Paris for the Taikai YSTT 2010.

Tomorrow hell will be unleashed! 🙂

Prebooking is now closed but there are still a few places left for the the braves. So far we are 130 coming from 17 countries, I guess this will be a major event again this year.

Budomart.com Success


Note to the Budomart customers:

After the post on our new dvd products yesterday we have received so many orders that I am not sure to be able to supply the dvds immediately. Some delay might occur.

Some precisions concerning these new sets:

The Bujinkan Kyû Program (BKP) represents 19 dvds in 9 boxes, one per kyû. Each Kyû follows the grading requirements based upon the three volumes of the memento. The whole set of the BKP  covers the whole ten chi jin ryaku no maki and the basics of Tantô, Kunai, Shotô, Hanbô, Jo, Biken, Bô, Yari, Naginata.

The Buki Waza Basics for Tantô, Kunai, Shotô, Hanbô, Jo, Biken, Bô, Yari, Naginata represent 8 dvds in 3 boxes. Please note that the weapon footage is the same in the BKP and in the Buki set. The only difference is that the Buki includes the kaeshi waza (counter-techniques) and not the kyû from the BKP.

All products are available but I didn’t expect such a reaction. Therefore I must inform you that the first sets are reserved in priority for the sales at the Paris Taikai this week-end. Bur as I am in Paris tomorrow I will re-order all the dvds so that you will get them with only a few days of delay.

Thank you for your understanding.

Sincerely,

アルノ

Nagare: Sanshin to Mushin


As individuals our actions have very little chance to change the way the Universe is running because Nature does not take our human desires into account.  The meteorite that crashed in the Yucatan 65 millions years ago might have been obeying the laws of the Universe, the dinosaurs didn’t agree with it crushing them all!

As we cannot influence what is outside our Body&Mind (B&M) complex/entity, we must recenter our actions for the exclusive benefit of ourselves by flowing and drifting aimlessly within (or on top of) the outside world. The B&M has to learn to achieve “total coordination” in order to develop this natural ability to flow.

The 流れ(flow, nagare) is more than a movement it is above all an attitude in Life, and this is exactly what I have  been learning during the last 26 years with Hatsumi sensei. We train to suppress the thinking and analytical process in our actions. This is the secret of Hatsumi sensei’s budô.

In a real fight if you are (body + mind + intention + analysis) you are dead . Fighting is about reacting without intention 無想 (musô), and not about having a perfect body shape, a fantastic mind, and a lot of intentions!

Our first objective is to find this unity and  instead of being three (body, mind, and consciousness) to become ONE. This unity is possibly achieved by training thoroughly the fundamentals and the basics of the bujinkan.

Unity is  結束 (kessoku) but the first kanji is yû 結 (like in yûgen) from which we understand that from the ONE we can find the invisible nagare and become ZERO.

When the practitioner reaches this level of “oneness” he gain access to the “zero state” of 無心 (mushin) he can flow without intentions on the stream of Life.

And the proof is that  無心, mushin has also the meaning of “innocence”, like the innocence of a 3 year old kid (cf. sanshin no kata). leads to mushin.

“3” becomes “1” and “1” becomes “0”

Budomart update


Dear friends,

I want to inform you that we have just released the new sets of dvds from 5th kyû to 1st kyû. Each set covers all the techniques (taijutsu and weapons required for the BKP.

The weapon techniques are also available in separate sets that include the counter techniques for the techniques of : jo, biken, bô, yari, and naginata.

They are regrouped in 3 sets: short weapons, medium size weapons and long weapons.

Please visit the www.budomart.com for more details.

Bear vs Lion: 1-0


Yelling & retreating

This week-end in Budapest after a nice seminar organized by Lazslo, we went to a zoo where I had the honour of meeting the “king of the animals”, a baby lion (5 months old). I have been living with cats all my life (I have 3 cats) and this chance offered by Lazslo to meet an actual lion was something I was eager to experience.

Before I entered the cage, another man was playing with him and it was nice to watch. I was hoping to have the same kind of playing time with the young lion. But as you can see on the picture, when I entered the cage, the little guy got so frightened of me that he stepped back and didn’t want to getting close to me. At what point he eventually  yelled and “roared” at me while getting protected behind the leg of his trainer. It took him 30 minutes to come to me but he never stayed. When he was away, his eyes and ears were always turned towards me.

The trainer said that this was the first time she was seeing this reaction with a human as this is the typical attitude of the young lion when facing his lion father. This little guy was afraid of me even though my attitude was very open. Some will say that this is also why young students are afraid of me. 🙂

Nevertheless I found that interesting and sad. Interesting because it proves that the sakki might be really something that is changing our attitude, and sad because I would have loved to play with this oversized kitty as I do with my own cats.

When we undergo the sakki test, something is revealed and grows and unfolds more over the years, this is why training is so important. Truth does not lie in the technique but in the attitude.

Keep going!

Only Nagare Matters


the flow is permanent adaptation

When we begin the study of the bujinkan arts we are surprised to hear the teacher speaking of nagare (流れ, flow). Our intention when entering a dôjô was to learn a set of fighting techniques but we finally ended up learning how to flow with things!

The first encounter with this “flowing reality” is when we learn the uke nagashi. Uke nagashi is wrongly translated as blocking and is very far from reality and many should try to understand it in order to better their taijutsu.

Uke (受け) is the receiver of the technique in martial arts but ukemi (受身, the fall) also has the meaning of “passive  attitude”, from that we understand that uke nagashi, receiving in a flow, can also mean “flowing passively in a natural manner”. As you see the idea of “blocking” is not the only thing here!

In fact uke nagashi has multiple forms such as: Absorbing, Blocking, Countering, Deflecting, and Evading (remember the first letters of each word read:  ABCDE). The flow with which we act is not impeding the movement on the contrary. Flowing in the technique is to follow a natural succession of actions created by the encounter. As sensei said last week, there is no possibility to change what is happening, the only thing to do is to adapt to it. This is the true definition of nagare.

Whatever event  happening on the planet we are nothing and cannot modify the outcome of it, but as an individual we have the power to adapt our actions to it and to flow mindlessly with it. This flow is similar to the crossing of a river, thinking and fighting against the stream is useless. Trying to understand it will not change its power,  we just have to follow its flow and to drift through it until we reach safely the other bank.

In the dôjô, all our movements should be done according to this natural flow. We should wait “passively” and react when the opportunity emerges. Taijutsu is nagare and nagare is achieved when thinking, analysing and pre-conceiving are abandoned.

Adaptation is the essence of nagare!

The King is Back


Controlling or healing?

In a few weeks now, Peter King will join the Shi Tennô Taikai in Paris like every year.

Peter is one of the oldest students of Hatsumi sensei and I am proud to count him amongst my best friends not only in the Bujinkan but also in Life.

The shi tennô: Peter, Sven, Pedro and Arnaud were friends in kokoro long before being friends in budô. As far as I remember, our friendship revealed itself when the four of us became the first Europeans promoted to 10th dan in the 90s’. Today everyone can easily consider becoming a jûdan or more but back then it was quite a huge responsibility to take.

Peter has always been there to support me even though he had a lot more experience in the bujinkan than me. To help me, Peter would often come to Paris to teach my students when I was in Japan, and my students use to train with him and to learn his “efficient” real fight oriented taijutsu. Of all the teachers I know, Peter is one of the few with real street fight experience as he spent a few decades in the wild parts of London as a police officer. Remember that until recently the bobbies were not allowed to carry any weapon… but the bad guys had weapons. So each encounter with a thug was like a true sakki test where failure meant death or injury.

Today after a long career in the police, Peter is a therapist and is the best Amatsu Tatara (he is menkyo kaiden) teacher you can find in the West. Knowing how to destroy he is now a healer. A nice example of inyo!

Peter who has been in Japan recently and will teach us at the YSTT, and I know for sure that we will, once again, learn a lot from him. It is still possible to attend this 3 day July seminar with the shi tennô in Paris, Fri 9th, Sat 10th, Sun 11th.

The only thing to do is to register here.

PARIS TAIKAI YSTT 2010


The other shi tennô

There are about 20 places left to attend the Paris Taikai 2010

Join Pedro, Sven, Peter, Arnaud for 3 days in the now called Yûro Shi Tennô Taikai.

Come and meet your friends from over 12 countries and train with them.

online registration