Bujinkan Dojo Montréal had the pleasure and the great honour to receive on March 13 and 14 Mr. Peter King, 15^th Dan and Menkyo Kaiden in AmatsuTatara Hichibuku Goshinjutsu, for our first seminar of Amatsu Tatara, module 1, level 1.

Peter has also done us the honour of teaching a Budo Taijutsu class Friday night, before the seminar. Peter is one of our closest friends, we’ve known him for many years now, and he never ceases to impress us with his joint control, his ways of taking the balance and the fluidity of his movements, but most of all with his kindness, which makes him a charming person, easy to approach and always ready to answer questions. Thank you Peter for this wonderful class on the different ways of using Ura Gyaku.

The Amatsu Tatara seminar was a reflection of the previous day’s class. Peter explained us the historical origins of Hichibuku Goshinjutsu, the connection to the Ten Chi Jin and Sanshin No Kata. Then we moved on to the first application: how to balance the body by using different acupuncture points, in a very strict order, as well as how to approach a patient (whether a martial arts practitioner or not), everything accompanied by stories from Peter’s experience that illustrated one specific point or another. Which gave the seminar a very joyful and friendly atmosphere.

The second day we did a quick review of the first day in order to fully understand the body balancing sequence, then we started learning about the self-treatment. This self-treatment uses a precise sequence too, and in fact we can see a part of it when we look at Hatsumi Sensei, who uses it very often when he is sitting down watching or listening to a student.

During the weekend, it felt in the beginning like the quantity of information received was very small, and at the end of the first day I found myself wanting to see more. But at the end of the second day, well, I was glad it wasn’t the case, because I was really tired energetically. In the end, we learned to use 17 parts of the body to rebalance it (some using about fifteen acupuncture points and others 2 to 6 specific movements) and around  22 self-treatment movements (some using 2 to 15 points too). Peter’s gentleness, his amusing stories and his perfect mastery of the subject made module 1 fly by without us even realizing it; he also showed us the applications that will help improve our Budo Taijutsu.

A big thank you to Peter for this very, very enriching introductory seminar to Amatsu Tatara.

And thank you to all the participants: Robert and Rudolpho who came especially from Texas, Michael from Toronto, Frédéric Métivier and Michel Grandmont, as well as our students who helped us a lot with the organization, and Kazuyo and Keiko for their wonderful Bento.

Everyone agreed unanimously to continue the program. We have set the date for the next seminar for module 2, which will be held from October 1 to October 3. And, after discussing it with Peter and some of the participants, Peter suggested a review of module 1 for those who could not be present the first time, so that they can attend the second module. This review will take place Friday, October 1, from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. And Peter will do us the honour again to teach a Budo Taijutsu class Friday night, from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.

So, if you want to discover Amatsu Tatara, come join us the first weekend of October; you will learn a really simple way to balance the body and relieve its tensions, and you will discover a new approach to Budo Taijutsu.

See you soon,

Estelle Padeloup

It was only an introduction into this art of “magic fingers”, with more modules to follow this year and next year, but it gave us an insight in what Hichibuku is. Although we were told it was not a Budo seminar and that it was going to be very different from our usual martial arts seminars, I found it had an extraordinary connection to Ninjutsu; they both require you to know how the body works in order to be efficient in what you’re trying to do: destroy the enemy or heal your friend. Peter said to look at it as the other side of the same coin: on one side Ninjutsu, where you get thrown all over the place and end up with pain and bruises :), and on the other side Hichibuku, where you put everything back together and relieve the pain.

Before the seminar, I also had the privilege of seeing Peter teach a Ninjutsu class Friday night. He showed Ura Gyaku, among other things, but done using more the elbows than the hands. The way he moves, the way he does the techniques is awesome. He can move slowly and softly at first, leading Uke to the right spot, before finishing the technique off with a swift (and I’m sure very painful) movement. He uses the information Uke’s body is giving him to take his balance and bring him down. And this applies to Hichibuku, too. It’s actually the most important thing: pay attention to the information the body is giving you, weather you’re treating yourself or someone else, learn to “listen” with the hands.

All in all, it was a wonderful experience and I’m looking forward to the next Hichibuku seminars and to seeing Peter again, especially for his killer jokes :). Thank you for your teachings, Peter, and thank you Manolo and Estelle for organizing such an event. It is definitely different than Budo, but so very much related.

Luiza,

Chi Ryaku No Maki Seminar, January 2010

Class outside in the snow, February 2010

 

Special class: Bo Shuriken, February 2010

Our beginning of the year was very busy with the various seminars and special classes.

Chi Ryaku No Maki Seminar, January 2010

Chi Ryaku No Maki Seminar, January 2010

My trip to Japan, November – December 2009, where I was able to do six classes with the Shihan and two classes with Soke, in addition to the Daikomyo Sai, Hatsumi Sensei’s big seminar in honour of his birthday.

I arrived at Narita on November 26, late in the afternoon, still having to go to Unga (just south of Noda), where I was to stay during my trip. Knowing I was going to wake up very early the next day because of the jetlag, I went the same evening to Noguchi Sensei’s class, for I knew it would do me good and maybe help me sleep a bit more the next morning.

So off to Hombu Dojo for the class, where I found lots of friends, especially the two Mitrou brothers from Greece.

I trained with Antonis Mitrou during the class, which was based on the fourth level of Koto Ryu and a couple of techniques from the first level:

The fourth level Kata are all Muto Dori, but since there were a few people there, the movements were adapted to Taijutsu. The principles approached by Noguchi Sensei during class were: Juppô Sesshô and Yoko Aruki (which is used a lot in Koto).

The next day I spent some time with Arnaud Cousergue who had just arrived; we took advantage of that to talk about several things related to Bujinkan. In the evening we had a class with Soke, where I trained with Arnaud:

Training with Arnaud is very interesting, especially to me. Because he is a 15^th Dan and he has been my teacher since 1993, he helped me a lot in my training and my life. He is like a father to me, but now he wants us to abandon this image and become adults responsible for our actions. But I’d like to add that, even if we become independent in some sort (responsible adults), we must not forget where we come from and respect those who have shown us the way.

One of the things that Sensei said during class was never finish the techniques.

The next day was the most important one of my entire trip:

First of all, it was the first class with Seno Sensei, who is very important to me. I have a special feeling about him, a feeling that I’ve never been able to explain completely. And just before class I had a private conversation with him, to ask him something very important: if he wanted from that moment on to be our Sensei, Estelle’s and mine, and he formally answered Hai (yes, in Japanese).

SENSEI, DOMO ARIGATO GOZAIMASU!

The day continued with his class, then I went to Oguri Sensei’s class, followed by Nagato Sensei’s class in his Dôjô.

And it’s already Sunday, with Sensei’s class, in a Dôjô full of 197 people. The class was very good, with little training, but a lot of explanations from Sensei and demonstrations from the 15^th Dan. And a session of Sensei’s calligraphy as well.

The concepts approached by Sensei are too many to name all of them, so here is one: ENNO KIRI NAI, or do not cut the connections.

The next day was the beginning of the Daikomyosai, three days of hard training with Soke and the whole Bujinkan family present in Japan.

During those three days I was able to train with Brad Hutchinson, 15^th Dan from Canada, Duncan Stewart, 15^th Dan from Japan, Arnaud Cousergue, 15^th Dan from France, Robin Doenicke, 15^th Dan from Japan, José Manuel Rodriguez Conde, 15^th Dan from Spain, Rosa María Doménech, 11^th Dan from Spain, and many more.

Soke did a lot of Henka on the techniques shown in front of everyone by the 15^th Dan during the DKMS. And one of the things that touched me were the stories that the Japanese Shihan told us of their experience during their classes with Sensei at the beginning of their training.

And, if I understood well all the stories they told us, our training right now is very gentle and has nothing to do with the classes they did with Sensei in those days.

Now that my trip is over, I have only one desire: to go back as soon as possible.

Manolo Serrano

Bujinkan Shihan

We were very happy to welcome in our freshly renovated Dojo the thirty participants who came from Quebec, Ottawa, Halifax and Montreal to this first seminar on two of the nine Bujinkan schools.

Saturday was dedicated to Ten no Kata of Shinden Fudô Ryû. We were able to review the eight techniques with their two Ura Gata, staying faithful to the principles used with Shinden: Shizen, the use of the natural movement, and Ikken Hasso, hitting in eight directions fluidly and without preparation, in order to take Uke by surprise.

Sunday was dedicated to Omote Gata of Takagi Yoshin Ryû. We were able to review the 13 techniques of this first level. Some of the students realized that wearing a Hakama makes moving around more difficult, but this shows us the posture and movement flaws we might have and goes perfectly with the principles of Koteki Ryûda Juppô Sesshô no Jutsu (Hibun) (no Kami): “The techniques (secrets) (spirit) of the Tiger and Dragon (applied) in 10 directions”. Without forgetting the use of Teko (leverage) and Shiten (point of leverage), essential in the application of the Takagi Yoshin Ryû techniques.

The last hour of each of the two seminar days was dedicated to the use of the principles of each of the two schools, but without intending to do any techniques. And it was a pleasure to see the black belts demonstrate efficiently some of these techniques and principles, the same going for the green and white belts.

Thank you all for your enthusiastic and dynamic participation. A big thank you to Gaétan and his numerous students from Quebec, to Yvan and Kevin from Ottawa and to George, who came especially from Halifax, without forgetting our students.

A special thank you to Mr. Aida from the Montreal Japanese Language Center, who came to visit us Saturday.

Next year we’ll do more seminars in order to cover all the levels of Shinden Fudô Ryû and Takagi Yoshin Ryû.

And don’t forget the review Japan seminar on December 19 and 20, with Shihan Manolo Serrano.

Gambatte Kudasai!