Search:

One of my own favourite definitions comes from prominent Suio-Ryu practitioner, Katsuse Yoshimitsu who said: "For me, the essence of iai is simpy not dying."
It doesn't supply any sense of what the...

All from my iaido sensei:

"人間とは、ロボットではない！": "A human being is not a robot!"

"ウィリアムはソーシャルダンスが上手かもしれない！　ハハハ" "I bet you're a good dancer, but... Hahaha!"

And, somewhat more...

Hey everyone.

I've been putting together a glossary of budo terms for an upcoming event here in town. It's a seminar aimed at long-term foreign residents of Nagano Prefecture who have limited or,...

Hey everyone. I've been out of the loop here for a while.

I had been thinking about applying for this year's International Seminar on Budo Culture in Katsuura this coming March, but then...

6dan, eh? Gorsh.

If ever I meet you, you'll have a two-four in my name.

It says "i-FILTER".

It's been a while, but if I recall correctly, there was a dojo called Hyaku Dojo (百道場) on Staunton Island. You couldn't actually go in to it, though.

I would honour his wishes.

In other news, a friend of mine passed her nidan in naginata today wearing a tenugui given to her by Chiba Sensei. Sentimental or not, I'm sure it was significant.

Your post reminds me of the Woody Allen line: "My grandfather sold me this watch on his deathbed."

James Joyce defined sentimentality as "unearned emotion." I think that's correct and I admit...

I don't like any of the seiteigata. The one I do the most often is mae though, currently, I probably prefer tsuka ate.

I wish I could do even a reasonable job of uke nagashi, as that would...

What? Doesn't the Seven Smutty Samurai Chat Thread fill that role nicely?

While I'm here, I might as well say that I knew this thread would go south the moment I saw the title. I mean, what...

Well, at 35, I feel I'm still too young to have anything with that much significance or that has seen me through so much. Especially since I've never had a proper trade, fought in a war, etc.

I...

I loved the last bit about the woodcutter's tribute to his axe. Almost brought a tear to this cynical old boy's eye.

I'm posting this here as a partial follow-up to the now-locked "bowing to swords", thread, which I had been reading with pleasure until its headlong descent into a irrelevance.

A great little...

That's her. And yes, she lives and works in the same rural Nagano town I do.

Oh, well that's that then. I thought they were gonna make me drink baby's blood or something.

Guh, forget atheism; where's the cue to convert to Satanism?

Heh heh. This thread now sports adds for "Roman Catholic Prayer" and "The Truth about Islam." Guess we're reaping what we have sown.

Just my two cents, but here goes:

In iai, you bow to a sword as you would to a person. It is a display of respect not to be done without. Take the reigi out of any budo and you take away its...

I'm an MA, but not in MA (sadly).

Anyway, they give the former out in Cracker Jacks boxes these days.

I think this guys might be the new champ of life-endagering Japanese sword misuse:

http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=rwLYOgYVqvA&feature=related

Yes and no. His nationalism stemmed from his belief that Japan had been enfeebled by its post-war, US-penned constitution. Politically, he didn't have all that much in common with the uneducated...

...and I'm betting that's the sword itself in the vid.

Yup, the very same. Only it was the 70s.

I was surprised to find this little nugget on Youtube. Not sure if it's been mentioned here before:

http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=DPAZQ6mhRcU

What does anyone make of it?