Bujinkan Santa Monica

The Dainichi effect happened around midday, but first this morning I went to the 大江戸骨董市 Oedo Antique Market with Peter Crocoll. This market is quite large with many collectibles, art, and weapons. Many people bought and even wore vintage clothing. Peter found a book of 春画 shunga full of erotic woodblock prints as an amusing gift for one of his students back home. From there we made a visit to 美術刀剣松本 Bijutsu Tōken Matsumoto . Peter brought another tsuka from home to be wrapped and restored. You may remember my trip last year when he had his first tsukamaki from Matsumoto. While we were there, a koshirae for a dagger caught his eye. The fittings had a rare decorative 海老鞘 ebisaya and Peter couldn’t resist adding it to his collection. The Dainichi Effect Later, seeking some inspiration, I returned to ponder the copy of Dojo Giga at the bookstore. When I randomly opened the pages, it fell open to Hatsumi Sensei’s painting of 大日如来 Dainichi Nyorai. Dainichi represents the center,...

Today I had class with Nagase and Furuta 先生方. I wake up early these days. So I made some coffee with an AeroPress in my hotel room. Then I went out to take a few street photographs. By the time I had to catch the train, I was ready for more coffee. I installed myself at the lunch counter of a cafe. A handsome elderly woman sat next to me, drinking tea, and eating pasta. Her hair was pulled tight, and a jacket draped from her shoulders. I noted her posture with tucked elbows and a delicate use of the fork and spoon. Holding a proper teacup. I was no match for her. Nagase and Furuta 先生方 I thought about her as I rode the train to go to Nagase Sensei’s class at the Bujinkan Honbu Dojo. I normally train with him at his own Dojo, but things are more convenient now with him having classes at the Honbu. When he arrived, I helped him unload his bags from the car. Nagase Sensei started class with a 手解 tehodoki technique leading to both 武者捕 musha dori and 武双捕 musō dori. But these techn...

Enso by Isan Shinko (1740-1815) I'm sure you've all studied kihon happo. But it's one thing to study those eight basic fundamentals and a entirely different thing to study the kihon OF the happo. Hatsumi Sensei says this idea can be expressed very simply with a common Zen symbol of Enso which I will share below, but what will it mean to us? Sensei has said that the word happo suggests infinity. He said that placing the number eight on its side gives us that symbol ∞. Soke goes on to explain that a technique does not have a beginning or end but just flows one into the other like the symbol. A simple way to consider this is with tai sabaki. In angling we often start with cardinal points for evasion or striking (please excuse my clumsy finger diagrams): Then we split those four directions to make 8:  Then split again: You can see how it begins to get infinite... especially if you add the up and down directions so any angle in space is possible leading to ...