My Documents\KOM 5\Aricles

Cover Page

News

Articles

Technique of the month

Miscellaneous

Links

ARTICLES

If you have any article regarding Japanese sword arts and budo arts in general (training tips, discussions, assays, historical overviews, etc.), please send it over. KIAI is made for instructors to exchange their knowledge and experiences.

IT COULD HAPPEN ...
          Everyone around my area knows I am into japanese swords and sword arts. One day a man comes in, he is a friend of a man who once took classes with me and heard I knew about that "jap stuff". He tells me his grandfather brought back a bunch of stuff from WW2 and he's got it all in the back of his pickup truck. We go to look and what I see amazes me. Among the paintings, dishes and dolls is a stack of swords (shingunto and katana and yari).
         He lets me bring them in and we spread them out on the mats. There are ten swords and four yari. (enclosed are scanned photo's of three of the swords and one of the yari.) There is no telling how long these peices stayed in the back of this man's truck, but what I ended up with is
1.One Tachi dated 1200-1500(blade pictured - photo # 1),
2. One O-tanto by a smith named Tsunyoshi dated 1327,
3. One very long wakizashi dated 1666 and made by a Kunisada.
4. One wakizashi made by cutting down a naginata tang and mounting as a sword (blade pictured - photo # 2).
5. One Tachi made in 1800 by a student of a sword school (pictured - photo # 3).
6. One Shira-saya Tanto marked "kouneyoshi old sword".
7. One Yari dated 1600 made for the "Fujiwara" clan (blade pictured - photo # 4).
8. One yari marked "war 206"
9. One very long yari (about 13 inch blade).
10. One wakizashi in "aikuchi" type mounts (no tsuba) dated 1700's.
11. One very short Yari (about 4 inch blade).
12. One Tanto with the tsuba mounted to the saya (I have never seen this type of mounting before and cannot find it mentioned anywhere).
        I explained to him that I could not pay collector's prices but made him a meager offer anyway and I was suprised that he accepted. I aquired all the above mentioned weapons as well as two shingunto (one officers model and one enlisted mans model), for about the cost of one shingunto on e-bay. I contacted the police to see if any swords had been reported stolen and was very pleased when they confirmed that they had no reports of stolen antiques or swords of any kind. That was two years ago and these weapons still reside in my collection. Call it luck or fate or whatever you like, but let word get out that you are serious about japanese budo and some one might come to you with something of no value to them and priceless to you. Just thought I would share this with my budo brothers at KIAI. If anyone out there knows about a type of blade mounting that mounts the tsuba to
the saya and not the tsuka, please let me know at bushey@nts-online.net.

                                                                Arigato Gozaimasu,
                                                                Walt Bushey

We Have Come Of Age By Philip S. Porter, Judo kudan, President of USMA , one of two single white judo kudans alive: " (...) The biggest battle we we had in former years was getting our teachers up to the rank they deserve. In some cases, especially Judo, American customs for promotions are totally unlike in homeland of judo, japan. In japan, when i started judo in 1951, there were 2,700 Judo 6th Degree Black belts UNDER THE AGE OF 30! The custom in japan was that every teacher should hold teacher's rank, which is 6th or 7th degree black belt. In America, it is not unusual for a teacher who has been training and teaching Judo for 30 years to be a 2nd or 3rd degree black belt. This is truly ridiculous and distressing situation. (...) American Martial arts are famous throughout the world for being subservient to Far Eastern teachers. This situation has been commercially exploited for years. Often, Oriental Martial Arts teacher receive what we call "airplane promotions": They climb on a plane in the Far East as 3rd degrees, and land in America as 6th degrees. The fact is that we have leaders in this country in many Martial Arts who have worked harder, studied more and know more, after 40 or 45 years of training, than foreigners who have very high rank after only 25 years in training. We respect all Martial Artists, the world over. But we accept domination from no one. We have come of age, period. (...)"

I asked our member from Sweden, sensei Johan Pettersson, to describe their syllabus. Here's what he sent: Swedish way

This will be little difficult because all syllabus are in swedish. But I will try to describe it for you. In Gake Dojo we train some different arts, wich we keep stricly seperated.

1 Hoku Shin Ko Ryu Jujutsu

This is a modern selfdefence system. Students are graded from 5 kyu (yellow) to 1 kyu (brown), before tst is done to dan level. At present the highest grade I have awarded is 2 dan. I my self has 5 dan in this. At yellow level the student only learn how to move (tai sabaki, tsugi ashi), get free from grips (nuki-waza), breakfalls (ukemi-waza). At next levels we start with different types of trows and take down. No atemi are used. Atemi are used first att shodan level. Exampel of techniques used are: kote gaeshi, ude osae, o soto otoshi, atama otoshi, atama osae, atama gaeshi, harai goshi etc.

2 Hontai Yoshin Ryu Jujutsu

Led by Soke Inoue, Japan. In sweden Jan-Erik Karlsson is headinstructor. Here we train 6 katas with a total of 55 technics. I am currently 1 kyu in this art.

3 Toyama Ryu Iaido

We practice Yamaguchi-ha Toyama Ryu Iaido. Are led in sweden by Jan-Erik Karlsson. We practise Iai-kempo, 8 cutting exercise, first kata (Seitei Renmei Kata) which is 8 series of moves, second (Oku No Kata) kata wich is 10 series of moves. I am currentli 1 dan in this art.

4 Kobujutsu

In our kobujutsu we train Hontai Yoshin Ryu weapon techniques.

Kodachi vs Odachi, 5+5 sets
Hanbo vs Odachi, 10+10 sets
Bo vs Odachi, 10 sets
Odachi vs Odachi, 5 sets
Bo vs Bo, 8 sets

I am currently 2 dan in this art.

5 kenjutsu

I trained during 1987-1997 under Kyoshi Robert von Sandor. He was the one who brought kendo and Kyudo to sweden. He was also president for EKF during a period. For him I trained kenjutsu 4 katas, kodachi 3 katas, ryo-to 4 katas. He was also Ph D in Japanology and a expert of zen. He was the most skillfull budomaster in Sweden. My own opinion. Unfortunatelly he died 1997.

Hope this gives you an idea of wath I am doing.
Best wishes
Johan Pettersson

HONTAI YOSHIN RYU Sensei Brian Barnes, new KIAI member, sent us this info about sword arts included in the syllabus of Hontai Yoshin Ryu

SHODAN --Basic kamae (geidan, seigan, jodan, hasso, chudan, etc., and their opposites); basic cuts (kesa, shomen, yoko, tski, etc. and variations); basic parries; movement, timing, distance, and footwork drills; various batto; various chiburi; various noto; proper wear of hakama, uwagi, obi, and weapon; tameshigiri; kata set: Kiso (basic eight techniques) of Yamaguchi-ha Toyama Ryu Iaido; Kiso set of Hontai Yoshin Ryu Iaido (five techniques)

NIDAN--Ura set of Hontai Yoshin Ryu Iaido

SANDAN--First 5 suwari-waza; Oku set of of HYR Iaido; Basic set of Kodachi waza (5)

YONDAN--Remaining 8 suwari-waza; Ura set of Kodachi waza (5); various kumitachi