All the blogs at Kabuto's web site

Hello!

This will be the last post on this blog software. I moved all blogs to http://www.bujinkan.me If you read this with an RSS reader you need to change the subscriptions...

General Bujinkan blog
http://bujinkan.me/blogs/

Mats personal blog
http://kabuto.bujinkan.me/blogs/

Kaigozan's Självförsvarskurser
http://selfdefence.bujinkan.me/blogs/

Kaigozan Dojo blog is coming...

Kaigousuru blog is coming...

Maybe others to?

Updates on the web sites will be done later...

Happy training!

Det står tydligen fel någonstans, men graderingen är på SVEAVÄGEN 130 Torsdag den 30/5 kl 18 och framåt.

June 14-15'th in Stockholm

Now the application for for my Kenjutsu seminar is open, for more information check out this web site. If Swedish is not your language, please feel free to contact me if you are interested to attend.

I will go through the sword katas from Togakure-ryu but with my own twist, not exactly how the basics is supposed to be (I'm not menkyou kaiden in the school so I don't pretend to know). Also Iaijutsu/Iainuki, fast drawing and Battojutsu, cutting with sharp swords against makiwara.

Number of participants is limited so sign up quickly!

Click here for more info and APPLICATION FORM

Times up for this time, 20 trainings in 10 days and my head is full of ideas for training back home. I'm doing the laundry and will start packing after this message. There is not much I can say about the trainings except that they are very good, it is like when Soke asked me to explain the feeling efter taking me down to the floor (without pinning me down). All I could say was that he was soft and not using any muscle power at all, he took my balance completely, the timing and everything was perfectly executed.

He did the same thing to another uke until he was on the floor and then soke was pinning him down. He tried to escape the pain, move to a place where the pain would be less and he almost broke his fingers. Another uke said the pain was terrible (my words), and Soke said that the pain should not be so that the opponent tries to jerk out and try to escape, but it should be in such a way that the uke is too scared to move at all. I strongly belive to achieve that is beyond physical techniques, anyone can inflict pain (so please don't think inflicting more pain in a technique will cause this effect!). Soke also said that you should lock the person and make him feel secure, like you take care of him (like holding a pet and stroking it).

Well I won't go into more details here. When I get home I will try to upload some pictures to the kaigozan photo album. Next weekend I will be teaching a seminar in Istanbul, I hope you can be there... http://www.bujinkanturkey.com

Today the weather was good, so the trainings was sweaty and good. There is still a lot of people, most people I have spoken to will leave on Monday. So if you are coming here you might be lucky, but I don't think so, there will probably come more people this weekend :-D.

It never cease to amaze me how some people don't pay attention to what the teachers is showing. I just realized that I'm now starting to understand Shiraishi sensei's movements and can use them more freely without thinking to much. I think this is because I have paid attention to what, and how he is doing things and most importantly trying to copy his movements. My training partner on the other hand was doing his own stuff

The second class with Nagato sensei was simple movements in to good positions taking the balance and have a strong kamae to make the final technique strong. Not because you use power but because you put the opponent into a weak position and yourself into a strong position (same as Shiraishi sensei!). Then lightly apply the technique. The important point I think is to get into the technique so that you don't have to use so much power. My training partner this session was very stiff and rigid, he took my balance pretty good but when applying the technique there was no "koppo", no technique, just muscles against my stronger points and not the weak points, as if he didn't know how to do a gyaku. Very far away from what was being taught I think.

The third class was with Noguchi sensei. His classes is all about feeling and henka, he show the class something and get the training going and immediately show people henka of what he was just teaching, then he break the class and show something new. You have time to do the techniques two times each if you do it quickly. These training's is very intense and a lot of fun. This training my partner was pretty good and we had a lot of fun.

By being so critical I wondered if I should post this or not, but then it is my blog and why shouldn't I write what I feel. I hope there was some kind of insight.

Oh, yesterday I saw a few pages from the new book by Hatsumi Soke. It was just as I expected, text describing the techniques and not pictures describing the techniques as far as I could see. But there was many pictures, some I never seen before of Hatsumi Soke and also pictures of Takamatsu sensei I never seen before. The book was just a sample, and it will probably be ready in June.

Today was a relaxed day, only one training (with Soke in Ayase). I went to Ueno looking for Engrish t-shirt's (found one) and some green tea. Then I went to Akihabara to see if there was something new spectacular, it wasn't. Then it was time for training, I trained with T-san, one of Noguchi sensei's oldest students, that was very good. Dean called me (among four others) up to demonstrate, it was ok, but not so good.

Noguchi sensei showed the techniques in the beginning and Soke played along with variations. There was not much feeling I could pick up, no techniques I could relate to, so I don't know what to say about the training really. So I leave it there. The theme now is no theme at all, only feeling, how do you describe that?

Sorry this post serves no purpose at all, I just wanted to use band width ;-).

I'm back in Japan again for training :-). This time there is a lot of people, some 30 people from Italy, some 30 people from South America and smaller groups from Germany, Croatia and other places (I'm sure?). Today (Sunday there was around 100 people the first class, and another 20 people dropped in for the next class with Sôke.

As far as techniques, it is on a very advanced level. The techniques is simple, yet only shown once. Then it is up to everyone to try and catch the feeling. Tomorrow morning one of the Shihan that is always there on Sôkes classes will sort the techniques out for me (and others that will be present) at his training. I'm so glad I can get the chance to go through Sôke's class and get more details.

There was one simle technique Sôke taught today (women self defence technique) which involved geting out of the way of the punch and kick, grabbing the fingers and pressing the nails in to 2-3 kyusho points. Sôke did it to me and I can assure you it was very painful and effective.

Oh, if you have seen this book...

Spike and Chain; Japanese Fighting Arts

There is two pictures inside, yes that is a young Hatsumi Sôke! I'm not sure about if it is him on this cover?

Taikai Deutchland last weekend was a big success for Bujinkan in Germany, there was about 25 German 10th dans teaching, and in total there was 350 people, mostly from Germany. Holger Kunzmann and his staff did a great job to organize this event. Everyone I talked to was very pleased about this seminar, good for Germany and the Bujinkan! I will upload many, many pictures from this event later in May/June.

I will go to Japan tomorrow and right now I need to go to sleep. There might be some more blog news coming from Japan soon :-).

Last weekend I was in Riga, Latvia. I was invited by my friend Juris attend his birthday party. The party was nice, and the food was excellent.

On the day after (Saturday) we also had some informal training. After the warm up with ukemi, we went through the nine Santo tonko techniques rather quickly. After the lunch break we did henka.

It's nice to see the people in Latvia progressing, and always showing big interest in learning the art. Keep up the good spirit, and good luck with the new dojo!

Ganbatte kudasai :-)

Oh the "thing" I'm wearing on the photo is clothes to use when doing the sauna that the guys had put the 兜, Kabuto embroydery on. I found the helmet with horns specially funny :-D, thank you!

The past weekend I went to a seminar with Bujinkan Shihan Manuel Serrano from Spain. It was a very good seminar I wish that more people would have attended. Anyway there was about 35 people in total, Serrano brought seven students with him.

The first day Serrano taught variations of Taihenjutsu ukemi from Togakure-ryu. And some Taijutsu henka, along with (strange) fun and games. One guy in the middle was jumping on one leg and chasing everyone else and when he whip someone with the belt every one attacked the guy and whipping him with their belts until he got to the safe zone. Then it was his turn to chase the next victim.

The second day more games, and some techniques from Zanto Tonko no Kata. Also some interesting techniques using a rope, since most people didn't have a rope we all used belts instead.

Thanks to Serrano Shihan for coming and Patrik Johansson and the staff at the Bujinkan Gefle Dojo for organizing this seminar.

You can see the pictures at http://kaigozan.se/album/ I also uploaded pictures from the last two seminars at Kaigozan this year.

This weekend I will be going to Riga, Latvia :-)

We had a very good seminar here recently with Holger Kunzmann, I really encourage everyone to go to his seminars! On the extra training on Friday we had asked him to teach Kihon Happo, and he did. He went through all eight techniques on Friday extra training and Saturday morning. Sunday morning he did Sanshin no kata for warm up training.

But the main theme for the seminar was Togakure-ryu Santo Tonko no Kata.
- Three unarmed techniques against an unarmed opponent
- Three unarmed techniques against a sword attack
- Three armed techniques against several opponents

He taught many very good applications and said many interesting things. One thing related to all the past years of training themes is that if you take each theme and make a map of each theme you can clearly see each theme's structure. Then make them all semi transparent and put them on top of each other and look through them all, this is what we are doing now in training.

Let's take it even further, take all maps and put them together, press them together really hard (under heat and pressure) until it become a raw diamond. What we try to do next is to cut the diamond, so that we can look through each prism. This I would like to think is the Jewel of Bujinkan.

An interesting thought, right? Remember when Soke said 10 years ago or so that he was going away like a rocket from now on, and if people did not train with him frequently they would be left behind. If you honestly look in the mirror and ask yourself, only you know the true answer. What other people think of you is really not important, as long as you can stand in front of the mirror and see your own weaknesses and try to strengthen them, then it is ok. If you do that I say "ganbatte kudasai", if not I'm sorry to say that you have completely misunderstood the Bujinkan training completely. Our training is about "masai" constantly polishing our art.

If you just started training or was left behind, don't worry, just follow the rockets that is following the main rocket. Not all rockets is following the main rocket, so be careful :-D

Well, enough rambling for today... Keep on going!

Stainless steel 28'' iaito Stainless steel 28'' iaito Stainless steel 28'' iaito Stainless steel 28'' iaito

28" Stainless Steel Iaito, mirror polish. Total length including blade and handle is 102 cm, the weight is 1087 gr. If anyone is interested in pre ordering this sword, please contact us!

Pre-order this sword for only 1890 SEK and get 300 SEK discount

Also, we have only one Togakure-ryu Shinken in stock, if you have other requests please contact us!

Stainless steel 28'' iaito Stainless steel 28'' iaito Stainless steel 28'' iaito Stainless steel 28'' iaito

28" Stainless Steel Iaito, mirror polish. Total length including blade and handle is 102 cm, the weight is 1087 gr. If anyone is interested in pre ordering this sword, please contact us!

Pre-order this sword for only 1890 SEK and get 300 SEK discount

Also, we have only one Togakure-ryu Shinken in stock, if you have other requests please contact us!

Stainless steel 28'' iaito Stainless steel 28'' iaito Stainless steel 28'' iaito Stainless steel 28'' iaito

28" Stainless Steel Iaito, mirror polish. Total length including blade and handle is 102 cm, the weight is 1087 gr. If anyone is interested in pre ordering this sword, please contact us!
Also, we have only one Togakure-ryu Shinken in stock, if you have other requests please contact us!

The Hankyou 2007 DVD is ready to be ordered, sorry for taking such a long time! I will start shipping the pre orders today, if you don't get it please contact me!

We still have a limited stock of indoor Tabi from size 24, 25, 26, 27, 28 and 29. Some of the T-shirt sizes are sold out at the moment. Please let me know if there is any interest for sold out sizes so that I know if it is worth ordering more T-shirts. I haven't got any indication that these t-shirts are popular, I'm stuck with some sizes and want to get rid of at least half of them before I make a new order.

Christmas seminar (Hankyou 2007)
Many instructors from Sweden went to Japan to train with Hatsumi Soke and the Shihan. Many of these instructors came to share their knowledge and feelings from their training trips.

Instructors: Mats Hjelm, Christian Spicker, Petter Swedin, Daniel Åberg, Daniel Neiberg

Note: All instructions is in Swedish!

DVD, 91 minutes, only 239 SEK ($34 / 29 €)

Order now click here

If you want the full version log in to Budo Shop and subscribe to the newsletters...

http://shugyou.com/catalog/images/oscommerce.gif

I looked up "Ninjutsu" on google now and got 1 930 000 links, that's nearly TWO MILLION links. I bet many of these links describes what Ninjutsu is, I tell you know (and this includes even this web site) that this is NOT NINJUTSU!

If we think we know what Ninjutsu is, then it is not Ninjutsu. This is what Hatsumi Soke said several times when I was in Japan in January (I think I mentioned it earlier in my blog). My take on this is that Ninjutsu is a higher level than ordinary Budo. Anyone thinking he knows what Ninjutsu is without even knowing Budo has a completely and utterly wrong image about what real Ninjutsu is.
Even those who know "ordinary" sports Budo (even koryu) very well, can not know what real Ninjutsu is. Maybe we can stretch it even further, even if we who has practiced Bujinkan for 25-50 years think we know what it is, it is probably not that.

You have to drop the whole idea of what, how and why. You have to go beyond the "shu ha ri" (look that up if you don't know what it is), it is beyond this I think.

It becomes Ninjutsu when we don't know what we are doing, but what we are doing is successful. A simple explanation, but really, really, really difficult. Impossible without a lot of training and experience. Something no one without a lot of experience can understand. Imagine that there is a microphone connected to your thoughts, so that the opponent can hear what you are thinking. I suppose most of you know what the Godan test is, the one giving the test is really "shouting out very loud" in his thoughts when cutting. The person taking the test hear this "shout" and moves out of the way. Soke said that this test is very very basic, and easy to do. Imagine fighting some one that is so sensitive that he can hear everything you think. He knows what you intend to do the same instant you think of it.

How do you defeat someone that is so advanced? You have to drop your ego, stop thinking, hide your thoughts completely, or give out false thoughts. If you think you know what I'm talking about, you are most likely wrong. If you are humble enough you will understand what I'm trying to say.

This is my own thoughts and take on what Soke said (through a translator) in January 2008. He explained something similar to what I said above, and finished with saying that it is ok if we don't understand now. He said that he is teaching for the future, and we might understand in 20 years or so. And remember he often says that he is only teaching to 15'th dans.

I think Soke's favorite poem fits well with this...

有ると思ったら無い；無いと思ったら有る。
(Aru to omottara nai - Nai to omottara aru)
"If you think its there, its not; if you think its not there, it is."

Vi tar in nybörjare hela våren fram till och med sista April. Under Maj månad kommer vi att fokusera träningen inför graderingen i slutet av månaden, så vi ber alla som vill börja träna att vänta tills nästa terminsstart den 2:a Juni.

Klubben arrangerar också tre bra läger under våren, klicka på Seminarier i vänster meny. Mats har också blivit inbjuden att instruera på träningsläger i Lettland i April, och Turkiet i Maj, klubbmedlemmar har rabatt på dessa läger (prata med Mats om ni är intresserade att följa med!).

Back at the hotel, doing my laundry and packing. I can't remember much what was said on the trainings today. Something about conscious knowledge is 1 part and the rest that can not be understood or researched is 9 parts, we have to learn how to use these 10 parts, and one way I think is to become zero. My interpretation is that conscious knowledge plus 9 levels/parts is "kûji" which together becomes "jûji" or "shiki". We also have nine schools and with Bujinkan it becomes 10. It was kind of difficult to understand what he was talking about because he also said during the training that you can not understand by just seeing, you need to feel it yourself to (even then it is difficult to understand without experience). Anyway maybe you can research more yourself, please feel free to e-mail me your results/thoughts :-)

Ganbatte kudasai!

Yesterday there was only 25-30 people at Soke's class in Honbu, it was a long time ago I had more than a whole tatami mat for myself during a class with Soke in Honbu. The training was great as always, even more Santo Tonko no Kata with some crazy applications with hanbô and rokushakubô, let's not talk about the shikomi-zue :-D.
OK, one more day of training, let's see what happens the last day.

Two days ago it was snowing and cold (9C in Honbu), yesterday it was warmer but very windy (almost 20C in Honbu). Yesterday one of the Shihan told us about training in the old days when they trained in Hatsumi Soke's chiropractic office, it was only 8 tatami big full of stuff that they had to carry outside before training. They were usually 10 people training, so they had to be careful when moving not to break the glass window (the door to was glass I think he said). During one training Soke wanted to test one student for the Godan test, he used a Shinai but twice in a row the student failed. So Soke went outside and came back with a real sword and said to the student that he would kill him (if he didn't move). Soke raised the sword and brought out his ki-power, and all the lights went out. That is how strong his ki was in those days. I'm sure he is stronger today, but he uses no more than necessary, just like taijutsu, no more power than necessary. The Shihan also continued talking about that Soke never showed the same technique twice, and that he never told anyone what to do, and that we are lucky today because Soke do show the same technique a couple of times and let us know when we are doing things wrong and try to help us.

Another Shihan also told us about training in the old days and said that Takamatsu Sensei never ever praised Hatsumi Soke even once during his 15 years of training with Takamatsu Sensei. He did however praise soke for his paintings, but not for his budo. One day Takamatsu Sensei told Hatsumi Soke that he does not need to come back, he thought that he sucked so bad that Takamatsu Sensei finally had given up. But in reality Hatsumi Soke had been taught everything Takamatsu Sensei knew, and he had been appointed the next Soke for our nine schools in Bujinkan.
The Shihan continued saying that today Hatsumi Soke praises everyone (maybe too much). When someone is doing something on the mat Soke says it was good, when it really was not so good (I know this from experience!). This is also Kyôjitsu I think, Soke is teaching us that nothing is necessarily the way it seems or looks.
The same Shihan also said that if we do exactly what Soke tells us to do we will be ok. "Do as the old man tell you to do", this means also your parents or grand parents, they know a lot of things from experience, and usually knows what they are talking about. So if we do what Soke and the seniors tells us we will be ok. If we don't believe in Soke and do what he tells us to do, maybe we don't really belong in the Bujinkan.

I would like to thank Chris who translated from what the Shihan told us. I must also say that what I've written here above is a mix between my own thoughts and from what I remember, both the translations and the body language from the Shihan etc. I hope I got the essence of what they wanted to tell us right, not necessarily word for word.

Seems like a couple of groups left Japan now, yesterday (Monday) we was just six people on both Shihan classes. But there will probably come other bigger groups soon? The weather has been quite cold the whole trip, yesterday I looked at the thermometer in Honbu and it was 13 C, it has been that cold the whole time I been there.

Today there was no class (in Honbu at least) during the day so I've been sleeping the whole day, and listened to new albums by The Toy Dolls (special Japanese versions not sold overseas). Oh I also found a black tatami mat in Kashiwa that will fit perfect in my newly decorated bedroom.

Soon I will head over to the class with Soke in Ayase.

"tuesday night is bash night this is what they say
we are gonna dig the groove, we've waited all day
we wear trendy trousers with belts a mile too long
we are gonna catch the bus into town
we are boogie on down..."

(lyrics from Dig that groove by The Toy Dolls)

Soke mentioned last night that the new book (with the ryu-ha techniques) will be released in May. He also said that he mentioned to Kodansha (the publisher) that he had a certain manuscript that was very old (I didn't really pick up what it was) he said that they couldn't believe it still existed to this day, and they insisted that it should be included in the new book, fortunately Soke accepted. So the new book should be exciting in many ways, I'm looking forward to it.

Another thing he said that caught my attention is that he is teaching for the future, things that we might understand in 20 years from now. With this I feel more confident on keep focusing on the basics. Also there is no need for me (or anyone else) as young as 40-ish to move like a 70-ish old person. Or try to jump right into the advanced levels without a solid foundation. If you also read Doug Wilson's recent post on his Henka blog you should get a good hint of what he meant (I think!).

Ganbatte!

We have trained mostly on the first six techniques from Santo Tonko no Kata, the 7th technique is two opponents and you throw metsubushi, strike and disappear, the 8th technique is two in front and two behind, and the 9th is three in front and two behind, you throw teppan and metsubushi, and then disappear. Training on these three techniques seems somewhat pointless, more important is that any technique you train on with your partner you should also try to see everyone else in the dojo as a potential opponent. But there is also many other techniques in Togakure-ryu I hope I will get a chance to study this trip.

This year is even more formless than before, the idea is that a really skilled fighter will pick up what technique you is about to do the same instant you think of it. Almost like the sakki test, but more advanced, it is like the really skilled person can read your mind. So how can we defeat someone that knows what you will do the second you think of the technique? Well, this is not easy, but this is the level Hatsumi Soke is teaching now. If you don't understand, don't worry he is teaching to those with 15th Dan, the so called true Shihan of Bujinkan. In other words those who have reached the highest rank in the Bujinkan system.

Traditionally the highest rank in a ryûha is called 免許皆伝 (men-kyo-kai-den、initiation into the secrets of the art), on the new scroll in the honbu Sôke has written Menkyo kaiden with alternative kanji ( 免虚怪伝 ), where the second character means void, emptiness or untrue, the third character means suspicious or mysterious. So maybe becoming a menkyô kaiden in Bujinkan means that you are walking along the mysterious tradition where nothing is as it seems.

and it is just the end of the first weekend :-). Today Soke continued with more Santo techniques, very good training. It was a lot of training, no demonstrations at all (come to think about it, there wasn't any demos last Friday either). Another weapon he used was the shinobi-zue, the one with a hook and chain. He tied up Shiraishi sensei pretty good with it.

I'll keep it short because I want to go to bed now. In case you wonder, I got my luggage yesterday.

So I'm at the hotel going to bed soon after my first training with Hatsumi sôke this year. Soke was in good spirit as usual. Two basic techniques from Santo Tonko kata was covered, first one being when someone grab the collar from behind. Soke's kept uke on the toes most of the time by moving before he could get a good grip, it was like he had eyes in the back of his head. He said that we shouldn't worry if we fail or not, and referring to the poem; "if you think it is there it is not, and if you think it is not there, it is".

There was around 30-40 people training in Ayase. I think it went pretty well with the techniques and feeling. We trained with Ninja-to, Senban, Shuko and Kyoketsu-shoge, or I should say we tried to, since we didn't have any weapons to train with. My luggage got stuck in Zurich, I also almost got stuck to, I had to run between the flight connections because the flight from Stockholm was one hour late. But I had three seats on the flight all by myself, so after lunch/dinner I put myself horizontally and sleept until breakfast.

Well, now is bedtime, I should try to rest for tomorrows two trainings. Oh I also got myself a new Tokaido keikogi and belt, so now I look good.

I made an even smaller seminar application that you can put on your web sites, check it out here. I forgot to tell you about the two previous versions, the slick one and the facebook application. It is still free to advertice seminars! For more info see here.

I updated the Shugyou portal now with seminar lists for this year and next year. When we moved the websites to a new server some things crashed. I found out that the newsletter mod didn't work, and I had to upgrade this module. And even that one did not work, so I had to spend half the day reading support forums, and I finally fixed it. So if you subscribe to the newsletters you have a new mail from us today.

BTNet is also up and running, the forum software is still beta, but it seems pretty stable now. I won't do any major work on it until the stable release. But this concerns only the back end, so start using it, the messages will still be there after the uppgrade...

There is a lot of new pictures up at the Kaigozan photo album. There was however a lot of spam on it, so I had to update the software. But it is still possible to add spam. It is quite easy to remove, but if it get too much I will close the registration process and ask you to contact me if you want to add pictures. But until then, please start uploading your pictures (Bujinkan related only!).

Har uppgraderat fotoalbumet till coppermine 1.4.14. Laddade upp en hel bunt bilder igår också. Det var en hel del spam på albumet, det var ganska enkelt att ta bort. Jag tänkte prova och se om man kan öppna upp så att man kan registrera sig igen. Blir det spam igen så stänger vi och man måste mejla admin för att bli godkänd.

Forumet tror jag att jag glömt blogga också har blivit uppgraderat. Finns det intresse för medlemmar så öppnar vi ett Kaigozan forum på BTNet, aktivera er på forumet först!

Lade till en Clustermap längst ner till vänster också. Snart kan man se loggstatistik varifrån alla besökare kommer.

Vi flyttade alla hemsidorna till en ny uppdaterad webserver under helgen. Så om allt inte fungerade som det skulle berodde det på det. Förhoppningsvis kommer det att fungera bättre och snabbare snart.

We moved all our web sites to a new updated web server over the weekend. So if you had problems connecting, this was why. Hopefully everything will work as usual, or better. Sorry if you had problems!

Sorry about the title but I promised Dean that this would be the title for this blog. It is an internal joke that might not be apprpriate for this blog, but please feel free to ask me or Dean in person :-D.

Last week we had a Shinken Kata seminar in Stockholm with Dean Rostohar from Croatia. Where he taught unarmed defence against one or more unarmed opponents, opponents with knife or pistol. He mainly taught how to use knife and pistol in a real fight situation (Shinken kata). Also a couple of tactical manouvers how to take out a guard, or arresting someone, protecting someone else and much more.

The feeling of the techniques felt very real, one 9th dan participant told me that Dean sure have a lot of experience compared to what he have seen from other military combat instructors. I agree, Dean certainly knows what he is talking about when it comes down to Shinken kata. I personally have not so much experience with what the police or military teach, I know they teach Krav Maga (KM from here) to police and military now. That might be good, I don't know? What Dean taught was not KM, but Bujinkan Budo Taijutsu! He claims that what he teach and practice all comes from Hatsumi Soke and Bujinkan, and yes I have to agree.

I have seen Hatsumi Soke many times teach techniques and principles the same way as Dean taught at this seminar. Hatsumi Soke is teaching many people in many layers at the same time. So for example if you are into "real fighting" (in Bujinkan we just call it Shinken kata) and have experience you can learn a lot. It is not like KM, it is way more. Like Dean expressed many times during the seminar you should practice from the worst possible condition. One example he showed was that his pistol was under his sweatshirt and jacket and not so easy to draw quickly. It was quite obvious that he had trained a lot on this when he draw the pistol.

Techniques is not so important as to train the mind for real fighting. You should also prepare your mind for worst possible outcome so that you will not be surprised. In Bujinkan we call this banpen fuugyou (10 000 changes no surprise).

There is quite a few police, military, bodyguards, security guards that is practicing in Bujinkan, and Dean is one of the best in my opinion. I highly recommend you to attend one of his Shinken kata seminars if you can. He will be back here in Stockholm in September 2008, make sure you don't miss it.

Take a look at Kaigozan Dojo's photo album of pictures from this seminar, CLICK HERE!

This seminar was also recorded and will be released on DVD, CLICK HERE for more information.

A big thanks to Dean from all of us, for coming here and so happily share your knowledge. You are a really good guy :-)

/Mats

We've added pictures from the latest seminar with Dean Rostohar. Also pictures from Mats most recent Japan trip, it is great pictures. Pictures from Togakushi is also coming soon.

Det blev ett riktigt lyckat seminarium som väckte många tankar (se bilderna i fotoalbumet). Vi var runt 50 deltagare från Sverige, Finland och Holland (plus Dean från Kroatien). Som annonserat var det försvar med och mot kniv och pistol, vilket inte så många är lika duktiga på och har så mycket erfarenhet som Dean. Han var väldigt mån om att alla skulle förstå och gick runt och hjälpte alla.

Dean instruerade också lite markkamp mot knivman, taktik på hur man agerar tillsammans med en partner, hur man skyddar sig själv eller någon annan person mot en eller flera beväpnade motståndare. Det hela var mycket lärorikt!

Många hade frågat Dean om han skulle komma tillbaka snart, och han kommer tillbaka till Stockholm ungefär samma tidpunkt nästa år så håll ögon och öron på denna hemsida. En utförligare rapport kommer senare på Kesshi bloggen.

PS Vi har redan laddat upp bilder till fotoalbumet. Förhoppningsvis kommer det också fler bilder snart!

We just received the Kaigousuru DVD, and will be sending them to everyone who preordered them. You can also buy it at the Budo Shop...

We also got the Bujinkan Shinken Swords we ordered, more info about them soon!

Lägret som var i helgen blev ganska lyckat och uppskattat. Speciellt huggträningen tror jag, så att jag bestämde mig för att lägga in 2-3 timmars Tameshigiri på mitt nästa klubbläger också i Oktober.

Ta en titt på bilderna på vår hemsida. Tycker du att det såg kul ut kan du ju anmäla dig på lägret i Oktober, då blir det mera huggträning (och Taijutsu från årets tema).

Har laddat upp lite bilder på hur lokalerna på Sveavägen ser ut... http://www.kaigozan.se/2007/kaigozan-svea.shtml

Laddade upp en reklamfilm för klubben, kommer att läggas upp på första sidan snart. Men titta på den och sätt höga betyg :-)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYS5748_ZJY

Om ni är intresserade av inomhus tabi, utomhus tabi eller nåt annat från Japan, kontakta Mats senast 10:e September! Han kommer inte att ligga på nåt större lager så kontakta honom snarast.

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Here is the newsletter #21

Often people come up to me and asks me how I tied my belt, even very high ranked people. So I guess the technique I use is not so well known.

I have seen many variations of tying the belt, some is not so good and it looks sloppy or even bad (I think). Some people take the ends and forcefully apply the knot, which destroys the belt, it doesn't look so good.

I tie the belt as most people do but I use a technique where the belt knot holds better. There is a trick to it that even works on brand new silk belts so it doesn't open up so easily. This is how I do it...

First make sure both ends are equally long, and layered on top of it self (the belt should not cross on the back). It doesn't matter from which side the belt is rolled on the body. Here the top layer goes under both layers and up (my right hand).

Here everything is as usual, but look carefully how I do it...

stick both ends of the obi between both layers as you do the knot.

Here I loosened up the whole knot to show you where the ends go, between the layers of the obi.

The I pull the ends to finalize the knot. I don't pull hard, just enough to make the knot look good. This is an older belt so it holds better than a new one, I never need to adjust the belt for the whole class.

If you have a brand new silk belt, instead of pulling the ends hard to make it stay, use this technique. Make the knot fairly tight without letting the belt to "curve", and flatten the knot against your body, just squeeze the knot to your stomach so it gets flat, don't pull it so hard that the belt get curved or bent. With a brand new silk belt this knot might hold the whole class if you've done it properly. If you have cotton belt, it will guaranteed hold the whole training session.

Happy Training!

Träningarna på Torsdag 21/6 och Söndag 24/6 är inställda. Vi fortsätter som vanligt nästa vecka. Trevlig midsommar!

Har flyttat över bilder från Kaigousuru albumet till vårat foto album.
Också bilder från årets andra utomhusträning, ta med era jika tabi!
Ska ladda upp en hel del gamla bilder också från gamla läger så kom tillbaka ofta :-)

We moved all the ppictures to the Kaigozan web site. We also added 77 new pictures we got from Mr Tamouree Jordan. We still accept more pictures from you other guys, please send them to us!
http://kaigozan.se/album/index.php?cat=2

We have updated the web site portal again. We added this blog as our headline news segment on the portal page. We will try to keep you updated through this service, so please subscribe to this blog in your news reader, or live bookmarks.