Before I got to Gasshō, I began my morning commuting to 菊川駅 Kikukawa station. I was on my way to visit 井上刃物 Inoue Hamono. I had some questions to ask and maybe some items to purchase. At the shop they sell Japanese woodworking tools. Their business has been around since the Meiji era. It is currently run by third and fourth generation family members 井上 時 夫 Inoue Tokio, and 井上 真 俊 Inoue Masatoshi. Some tools they sell include: 鉋 kan’na (planes); 彫刻鑿 chokoku nomi (carving chisels); 玄能 Gen’nō (hammers); 鋸 nokogiri (hand saws); and all variety of 刃物 hamono for specific use cases. They even had 尺 shaku and 寸 sun measuring squares. They also displayed a collection of cute 源氏鶴亀 墨壺 genji tsurukame sumitsubo (turtle and crane ink pots). These are used like the chalk lines that I grew up using in construction to snap lines on lumber. After running some more errands, I ended up walking to 両国駅 Ryōgoku Station. I caught the train from there all the way to Nodashi. It was...
A few Shuriken at Nagase Sensei's House I woke up early because I had to ride four different trains to go to a 棒手裏剣 Bō Shuriken training session with 菅 祐寿 Kan Hirotoshi. If you haven’t met him, he is the son of Kan Sensei and has become an expert with shuriken. In fact, they were training for the 棒手裏剣競技世界大会 Bō Shuriken world championships, so I might learn something! Kan Hirotoshi interview about Bō Shuriken During the practice session, I interviewed him with some basic questions. Q: How did you get interested in shuriken? A: While doing Bujinkan practice, the shuriken is included as part of the training. Q: Why do you like shuriken so much? A: It’s the result you get. You know whether it sticks or not, that result comes out, and that teaches you something very good. Michael with 菅 祐寿 Kan Hirotoshi and new Shuriken friends They were training in the basement of a building that was converted into a dojo. There were just 5 of us there but each person was working on their o...