This years trip has been just as great as the ones before. Soke looked in excellent health, in fact better than last year. There was a large group of Spaniards present followed by a large group of Irish.
So far Soke hasn�t been really following a set order or pattern like last year. They did start the year with Nichi geki , gekkan and Fubi. But during my trip Soke jumped around from everything between Nichigeki and a couple from the second level (suwari gata).
Nagato sensei is teaching gyokko ryu because soke asked him to, they mentioned a lot that shinden Fudo comes from gyokko and its important to understand gyokko ryu. Our friendly bay area expatriate Fernando Jimenez felt that Nagato sensei was taking the waza from gyokko and then doing it with a shinden fudo feel. I lean more towards him simply taking the base forms and then nagatoizing it, which I suppose you could interpret as dakenizing.
Soke mentioned a lot that shinden fudo is based on nature which has no form no kamae no order. Which is perhaps one reason why they are jumping around freely between the kata and what not.
The first night I had class with Soke he mentioned Ikken Hasso a lot. Someya explained it as like "one cut many variations". I'm taking it as like "one weapon eight directions, or many variations". Soke mentioned it as he was doing many many takes on a basic waza, so i'm taking it kind of as another philosophical phrase for our training method. In fact it has been said before that the bujinkan training method is similar in feel to Shinden Fudo Ryu.
Aside from the taijutsu soke made many references to nature and living. He said he is teaching us how to live in nature amidst its many changes and we have to create a good world we can live in. This was probably the most constant thing between all of the classes with soke. So I am taking this as one of the important feelings to take home and approach the taijutsu with.
Seijin Youjou is supposed to be the kind of keyphrase for this year. Soke didn�t mention it during class (that I was there for), but he did make paintings of it on Sundays class for some people. Borrowing a paragraph from Darren Horvaths February newsletter illustrates how this seijin youjou ties with sokes many references to nature and us living in it as humans.
'Seijin' can mean a saint or person who is a saint or maybe to become a saint and 'Youyjou' with the way sensei has changed the Kanji could mean key point or pivot point. I have done my best to translate what Sensei said about it at the Shidoshi Kai and here it is.
�Takamatsu sensei used to say that for Budo it is necessary to be YOUJOU that means to know the turning point or pivot point of your life. If you do not know YOUJOU you do not make a success. This year I tell you a phrase SEIJIN YOUJOU, that means you should love humanity and nature and should not be selfish and you should know the pivot point of your life. To be SEIJIN you have to have patience and courage.�
As far as taijutsu goes, soke was doing his thing with Shinden fudo waza as an appetizer to get him going. So nothing particularly new in that aspect, that�s soke and we�re always amazed. However a few characteristics particular of the Shinden Fudo Ryu that were covered in one way or another were:
Training methodology
No kamae
Shinden Fudo striking (striking flow)
Throws and immobilizations
Nature
My current understanding of the feeling and movement of the shinden fudo ryu is that it is like a bird flying. Birds bounce smoothly up and down and side to side on the wind as they glide or flap their wings. They adjust and adapt naturally to the constant changes of the wind and nature. They have quite a free range of movement and seemingly limitless choices, of course some better than others. They are free to change midair. It�s like a natural bounce from the next to the next to the next.
Gambatte!
Alex Bushman
Bujinkan Shidoshi