“WAILUKU – The president of the World Ki Society in Japan has named the acting head instructor of the Shushinkan Ki-Aikido dojo in Wailuku a hachi dan, or eighth-degree black belt – the 16th person in the world to reach the rank.
Christopher Curtis, who is also chief instructor of the Hawaii Ki Federation, received the hachi dan certificate awarded by Shinichi Tohei at a banquet at the dojo on Jan. 24. He received the certificate from the retired head instructor and founder of Maui Ki-Aikido, Shinichi Suzuki.”
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“He ended up in southeastern North Carolina at Fort Bragg, home of the Army’s elite Airborne and Special Forces. This is where the Army’s renowned survival school is located. It’s also where they believe in something called stress inoculation. Like vaccines, a small challenge or dose of a virus in your system prepares and defends you against a bigger challenge. In other words, they expose you to pressure and suffering in training so you’ll build up your immunity. It’s a kind of classic psychological conditioning: the more shocks to your system, the more you’re able to withstand.”
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“While you may not get to Bruce Lee’s level overnight, you can start getting in shape without the use of a lot of fancy (and expensive) equipment. You can do it from the comfort of your own home, in a space as large as a bathroom.
“Yagyu Munenori was known to be a great rival of Miyamoto Musashi. Yagyu Munenori was the kendo teacher to the shogun, a great and gifted swordsman who was the founder of the “No Sword” school of kendo and just as famous as Musashi. Munenori was known to have favored using an early form of kendo bogu for the safe practicing of kendo. His mentor the the zen priest Takuan Soho was instrumental in forming his ideas for his kendo style and his book that he wrote for the shogun “The Life-Giving Sword”. It is unclear how much he knew or if Musashi read this great and insightful book “the life-giving sword”. But it was clearly on his mind since soon after the book was released the Musashi wrote his own book on kendo “a book of five rings” the most famous of all kendo books and unmatched in its wisdom. I am only speculating on what motivated Musashi to write his book but it is interesting to note that in the last chapter “the wind book” he criticizes by inference the kendo style of Munenori and other great swordsmen? This was very provocative in an age where one wrong word would mean a duel to the death. Great rivals? YES. We are fortunate that both of these great masters decided to write these treasures of kendo books, treasures for all time.”
The other day while we were warming up at morning practice, the conversation turned to the gloomy economic situation. One of us was out of work, another couldn’t sell his house; anyone with an IRA account had seen it leak thousands. Somebody remarked on the poignancy of hindsight, of seeing too late how a situation might have been handled differently, how one might have noticed something in time, but hadn’t. The atmosphere of the dojo suddenly filled with wistful should-haves, could-have-beens, and ought-to-have beens. Then the warm-up was over and we got down to practice. As blows were aimed and struck, there was the clear recognition that our interests lay in responding to what was needed, just then. We quieted down, and the should-haves evaporated.
We are currently working on a new DVD project that is somewhat of a departure from our normal fare. Allow me to elaborate.
“The descriptive names help to focus on the intent of the techniques. Atemi implies a hit or strike but since we are practising aikido (harmony with your opponent) the hitting/slamming/punching is replaced with a controlled contact push/throwing feeling. This is extremely difficult to achieve. Atemi-waza throw someone on their back, either by a frontal, sideways or rear application of technique on uke. Without first controlling uke, by catching their hands, it is extremely difficult to apply technique, especially when they are attacking forwards and if your timing is out obviously with avoidance (tai sabaki), you will meet their incoming power and obviously get stopped in your tracks, unless you are bigger.
“The founding of Takenouchi Ryu in 1532 is the earliest reliable record of what we think of as ju jitsu, and appears to have been a formulation of unarmed fighting techniques which were undoubtedly present in the culture, and surely as an adjunct to the armed combat systems of Japan, which were reaching their maximum influence and development during that century.(2)
Below is a link to a video clip featuring highlights from the exciting 2005 Aiki Expo Demonstration held in May 2005 in Los Angeles.
Kenji Ushiro Sensei teaches a style of Okinawan Karate called Shindoryu. His teacher, Nikichi Zaha, was a direct student of Choshin Chibana, a pivotal figure in the development of modern Okinawan Karate. Ushiro Sensei is an 8th dan Kyoshi of Shindoryu Ushiro Karetedo and 7th dan Kyoshi of Iaido, All-Japan Kendo Federation.