Mi sello, mi glifo, mi camino
Hace 1 año
sábado, 2 de enero de 2016
China's Living Treasures
Demonstration of a few masters from a video series "China's Living Treasures". Source: China's Living Treasures - Kung Fu Diplomacy (Vol. 1)
Esgrima mecánica
El año pasado, el 15 de noviembre, colgamos un post de un robot practicando tameshigiri titulado el factor humano hoy un robot practicando esgrima. La ciencia ficción ya es presente!
jueves, 31 de diciembre de 2015
A Turning Point In The Life Of Musashi, The Undefeated Samurai
Miyamoto Musashi was three hours late. This was his way. On the beach the tension in the air was palpable. Sasaki Kojiro paced up and down on the fine sand with his hands behind his back. His wrath was rising with the sun, and with every passing minute he felt the insult to his honour growing. The date was the 13th of April, 1612.
Kojiro was considered one of the greatest Samurai in Japan. He was famous throughout the land for his speed and precision, which was made even more remarkable by his preferred weapon. He wielded a huge no-dachi blade, a curved Japanese sword in the classic style, but with a blade over a meter in length. The size and weight of the no-dachi made it a brutal, unsubtle weapon, but Kojiro had perfected its use to a degree unheard of in all Japan.
As his skill had grown, he had won many duels, and by the time he waited on the beach at Ganryu Island he had secured a comfortable position as weapons master to the Daimyo of the Hosokawa clan. His fame had grown with his skill, and eventually, he came to the attention of Miyamoto Musashi.
miércoles, 30 de diciembre de 2015
martes, 29 de diciembre de 2015
All together now
This post was made by Geoff and it has been published in kendoinfo.net. Please visit the referenced web for more info on this post and kendo.
One of the few times I witnessed a Japanese kendo teacher lose his temper was when he was told by a local kendo instructor that “I do kendo for other people”. The general thrust of his response was that kendo is a shugyo, a way to hone your own mind and body through hard keiko, so regardless of whether you are involved in teaching, refereeing or running a dojo or federation, you should first and foremost focus on your own kendo journey.
This may sound like a very self-centred approach, but essentially kendo is all about the self, or if you want to be specific, supressing it. Kendo is introspective. We train to develop to a level where action becomes instinctive, but to get there you have to think about it. The only person who can change you is you. At the same time we need others as training partners and opponents. The sheer unpredictability of other human beings makes kendo both interesting and challenging.
The chance to test ourselves in keiko is not all we expect from our dojo mates. We offer each other support and encouragement. More experienced kenshi pass on their knowledge to junior members and we work together to improve our technique. Even for the most senior practitioners teaching and learning should be a two way street.
As an example, when receiving kakarigeiko, if you put the same amount of focus into creating the attacking opportunities as your partner needs to respond to them, you both gain the same level of benefit from the process. In hikitate-geiko we should strive to take the first point or shodachi whatever the grade difference. Only after establishing control should we offer points to the student and even when doing so we should work on our own seme.
Unlike many sports that have an “if you can you play, if you can’t you coach” ethos, we expect people to continue to be involved in every aspect throughout their active lives. As a result some of the great competitors have gone on to be amongst the best teachers and continue to prove themselves in the All Japan 8th dan Championships and the Kyoto Taikai.
Whilst we focus on our own kendo, we do it together and friends made through hard training continue to be friends for life. So although we each follow our own path, we need those paths to regularly cross with the paths of others.
lunes, 28 de diciembre de 2015
Death Star Aichi
With Star Wars once again all the rage, it’s probably a good chance to remember that Star Wars and Samurai have a lot in common!
The movie Star Wars was based on the Kurosawa Akira flick, the Hidden Fortress, and the scene change “wipes” were a device used by the samurai movie’s director. The clothes Luke first wore on Tattooine were based on karate wear, the Jedi fashions matched those of the samurai, even Darth Vader’s helmet was based on the samurai’s Zunari Kabuto helmet. The light-saber duels are reminiscent of the samurai katana sword fights. Yoda’s name came from that of a Japanese friend of George Lucas, a Mr. Yoda, and the word Jedi comes from the name for samurai period dramas, Jidai-geki… Jidai became Jedi…and the rest is history.
There’s a Death Star in the center of Aichi Prefecture’s capital, Nagoya! Well, it LOOKS like the Death Star from Star Wars, or one of those Trade Federation ships from Episode 3 has descended onto Nagoya City’s Shirakawa Koen Park! And in fact the Stars are on the inside!!!
Text Taken from: http://intoaichi.tumblr.com
Images taken from Google
sábado, 26 de diciembre de 2015
Bartitsu: The Gentleman's Martial Art
Zacchary Falconer-Barfield, Co-Founder of The Perfect Gentleman, introduces David J Constable to James Marwood, a self defence and Bartitsu instructor, at Brand Exchange, London. With David's stand-in help, James demonstrates three bartitsu techniques: pugilism, artifice, and accessories.
Tiffin on the Trinc Bartitsu Demonstration. This demonstration was done by the Bartitsu Amateur Forum at the Tiffin on the Trinc steampunk event in June 2013.
Yoshimitsu Yamada is 76. What's your excuse?
Yoshimitsu Yamada has been showing students at the New York Aikikai on West 18th Street in Chelsea how to deflect, throw and pin opponents for 50 years. At 76, he can still toss a full-size man onto his head or incapacitate a charging assailant with any number of joint-twisting techniques.
"As a young boy, I wanted to beat up some guy," Mr. Yamada said, recalling his childhood in postwar Tokyo and the impulses that led him to try the then-burgeoning martial art.
The sensei, an eighth-degree black belt and one of the longest active practitioners, is also one of the last living direct students of aikido's founder, Morihei Ueshiba, a pedigree that makes him a sought-after instructor around the world.
As aikido went global, Mr. Yamada brought the martial art to New York in 1964.
"I spoke a little bit of English, and I like American culture, like jazz and musicals, and American girls," he said. "New York was always my dream. If I ended up in a small town in the South, I wouldn't have lasted 50 years."
The art's core practices of harmonizing with an opponent's force and cultivating one's ki have sustained him when most would have long ago hung up the cotton uniform known as a gi. His dojo has survived in part because the organization bought its building about 20 years ago for $500,000.
As the city has become safer, fewer students want to learn how to defend themselves. And many traditional martial arts have become overshadowed by the popularity of mixed martial arts.
Mr. Yamada instead focuses on helping city dwellers better connect mind with body.
"Those who stay with me, they learn something else, not only the physical side," he said. "Depending on how people take it, they gain some positive thinking, gain some confidence."
Suscribirse a:
Entradas (Atom)
