Budo Culture

The Annual International Seminar of Budo Culture

By Peter Boylan

I'm on my way home from the 11th International Budo Seminar at the Nihon Budokan Kenshu Center and the International Budo University in Chiba (90 minutes north of Tokyo). It's a five hour train ride. The semiar was fantastic. Non-Japanese martial artists from all over Japan get together (subsidized by the Ministry of Ed.) for 4 days of Budo lectures and training. I had to skip out half-way through the 3rd day to go home and help take care of the kids, but I really would have loved to have stayed for the whole thing.

It started on Friday afternoon with demos by the shihan level instructors who would be teaching the hands on classes. Seki Sensei from the Aikikai Hombu, 2 Judo world champions (and more in attendance), Sumo, Naginata, Jukendo (bayonet), Karatedo, Shorinji Ryu, Kyudo, and Kendo. That night we had a open training in the dojo, so I got to do jodo with guys from Tokyo and elsewhere around Japan. What a rush.

Saturday started with "Experiencing a New Budo" where you went and tried something you've never done before. I did Jukendo. Very intense stuff, and all about entering, since you've only got one attack with a bayonet. You thrust to the throat, the left upper chest (heart), the left side, and the back of the left hand. The teachers were seventh and eighth dan instructors.

After that, we had an hour to do our main budo, if it was represented. I got to work out with the International Budo University Judo Team. These kids are very good, and very dedicated. Thank goodness the Sensei's emphasized that this was to be light randori rather than the usual kill and eat anyone you can that the college students do. I played around a lot, and got up the gumption to ask Kashiwazaki Sensei (yeah, THAT Kashiwazaki) to do one round of randori with me. Later, another attendee who has been going for many years told me that this was the first time anyone had done this. Oh well, Sensei seemed to enjoy it. He took the time during the break to show my the choke he kept taking me out with. I also had a lot of fun working with the college kids, especially as they decided that I wasn't too fragile and started attacking me a little. Great fun.

In the afternoon we had a lecture on the history and development of the philosophy Judo, presented by Naoki Murata, curator of the Kodokan Historical Museum in Tokyo. This was followed by a panel discussion titled THE DIRECTION OF JAPANESE BUDO IN THE AGE OF INTERNTIONALISATION-THE PARTICIPATION OF BUDO AT THE OLYMPIC GAMES. This was not as good as it could have been, since all of the Japanese participants advocate budo sports. It would have been more intersting to hear from some who disagree with the idea. Of course, it was also a hard audience for the panelists, since most of the people at the seminar train in at least one koryu budo, and so we tend to be biased against budo sports to begin with. (I have to admit that the idea of women's sumo just doesn't exite me).

After dinner, the big dojo at the Budokan Center was open again, so most of the participants went there and trained. The seen in the dojo was really incredible. About 100 martial artists from a variety of styles (besides the above mentioned arts, there was also Iaido, Jodo, Koryu Jujutsu and a couple of sogo koryu arts), all training together. It was a like a sceen from a bad martial arts movie, where the villian is showing off his army of deadly martial artists. It was also FANTASTIC!!!

I did Jodo for a couple of hours, and then we packed up because we had been told the dojo would be closed at 10:00PM. I wondered over and started doing some Judo with Mark Gorsuch of the Iaido and Aikido Lists. Then we watched an Aikikai person teach the 31 step jo kata to someone from Yoshinkan (she was having a blast learning it). Then we got drafted into a discussion of sankyo techinques, which segued into me showing some choking techniques. We finally wrapped it up around midnight to get some beer and join the crowd in the lobby talking about all things, budo and otherwise.

When I dragged out of bed this Sunday morning, I grabbed a shower to try and wake up after not nearly enough sleep, and headed for breakfast (the food was great. I ate more than the 5,800 nyen seminar fee cost. Gained 2 kilos in 2 days :)

After breakfast we had "Experiencing a New Budo" again. This time I did Naginata. I'd been entertaining thought of doing sumo, but the idea of anything that involved crashing into other people just wasn't appealing after 2 late nights of budo discussions. The Naginata was great fun. Just as in Jukendo, we covered the basic attacks, which were a bit more varied than in Jukendo, and practiced these. Since I do Jodo, it was interesting using a weapon with a much longer ma-ai.

After this, we had another 1 hour session of doing your main budo, and I went back to the Judo area. It was the same as the previous day, with some light warm-ups and uchi-komis, and then 5 sessions of tachi-waza randori and 5 sessions of newaza randori. This time noticed that Tadanori Koshino, a lecturer at the International Budo University and one of the team's coachs, doing randori with one of his students, so I got in line to get thrown around by him. All told, I had the incredible pleasure of doing randori with 2 former world-championships, and one Pacific Rim champion (Rika Yazaki. Koshino Sensei sent her over to do newaza with me on Saturday)

After practice a couple of us were talking with Kashiwazaki Sensei again, when someone asked him about yoko-tomoenage, so I got thrown for that a bunch so he could demonstrate it. Then I asked him to show me the choke from the day before, which led into a 45 minute discussion of choking techniques. Great fun. So much fun in fact, that I almost missed lunch for talking with him.

After lunch the lecture was INJURIES TO THE JAW AND FACE WHILE PRACTICING BUDO, AND PROTECTION METHODS by Kotaro Katayama, a dental reconstructive surgeon with the Japan Self-Defense Forces. This was a lot more interesting that I had expected. He went into a great deal of depth about how facial injuries and the position of the jaw can effect ones balance and performance in budo sports. He had a number of examples and points. The big one was that if the jaw is not properly aligned and protected, it significantly alters and upsets one's balance.

After this, there was a 3 hour lecture and demonstration of Daito-Ryu Aikkijujutsu by Katsuo Kondo and his students, many of whom were attending the seminar. Unfortunately, I had to leave at this point to return home, so I missed that, and I and open training tonight, and the last lecture tomorrow on SPORTS INJURIES AND IMPEDIMIENTS TO ARMS AND LEGS. It sounds interesting, and I'm looking forward to reading the write up which will be sent out in a few weeks.

The annual International Seminar of Budo Culture (the seminar's proper name) is a fantastic time, and if you get the chance to ever attend I highly recommend it.