2015 Budo Practice

Well, barring a few gradings in April/May, 2014 has been a fantastically unproductive year, budo-wise. Most of my energies this past year were given over to studying for my two attempts at the JLPT and, although I will be taking it again next year (the results haven't been announced yet but I'm not holding my breath), 2015 will be dedicated to budo, kendo in particular.

Kendo

After the first five years of practice, the regularity of my keiko tapered off as I started university and work but it has returned to pre-university levels since coming to Japan. I have identified a number of issues I want to resolve in 2015, first of which is to build stamina and the strength in my left side. I am lucky enough to practice at two children's dojos where the adults can usually dictate exactly what waza they want to practice and exactly how to practice them. I plan to start with kirikaeshi before moving on to wazageiko (five times each), alternating between wazageiko and two-minutes' worth of kakarigeiko and uchikomigeiko, increasing the time as my endurance builds.

Secondly, I need to broaden the range of waza I am comfortable with. I am relatively happy with basic waza such as men-uchi, kote-uchi and hikiwaza, but I feel my technique gets quite shaky when it comes to anything more advanced. I want to work especially on kaeshiwaza, nukiwaza and haraiwaza, as this is the direction I want my kendo to go in at the moment. Besides, I have to start somewhere...

Finally, for the last few months, I have had a go at fighting from jodan. I don't think I will ever make jodan my favoured kamae but I do want it in my repertoire so I need to raise its level to equal that of my chudan. Unfortunately, none of the sensei I train with are jodan fighters but, on those occasions when I have used jodan against them, they have been kind enough to give tips and points.

Iaido

While next year's focus in terms of budo will be on kendo, there are also a few habits that urgently need to be kicked; I had previously thought that I had rectified them but both Ishido s. and Nakada s. have made it clear that they are still cropping up, so I will be looking to eradicate them completely.

The first of these is a double nukitsuke in forms such as seitei Mae and koryu Sato, Uto, to name but a few. I think the root of this habit lies in putting too much emphasis on the initial seme and turning what should be one movement into two (seme and cut). I will therefore be taking some of the focus out of the seme.

Second is an old demon I have been struggling with for a while: solidifying my cuts. While my kirioroshi is quite solid (though not as solid as I'd like), my body has a tendency to shift back in standing forms. This problem is quite noticeable in this video from the Kanto Taikai back in November. I suspect part of the issue is that my front leg might be too straight, pushing my body up instead of stopping my body's forward movement. In order to address this, I will be bringing my weight down and making sure my front leg doesn't straighten too much.

In contrast to the previous habit, the last point is one I've only noticed in the last month or so: whenever the right knee comes up for nukitsuke in seated forms like seitei Mae and koryu In'yo Shintai and others, I find my hips turn ever so slightly, also raising my right hip. I think this is due to sayabiki pulling the left hip back, the angle of my shoulders filtering down to the hips, and my right leg trying to make too much distance forward. I have already worked on this point a little during the last few practices of 2014 and putting the focus of hips further into the left hip seems to help, but I will have to have a play around over the year to find the best way of correcting this.

As a general aid to my training, I have also decided to model my iai on Hiraoka Yuki, a 6dan from Nakada s.'s dojo. His technique is very nice and correct, his cuts are sharp and his kamae is incredibly solid, despite his very tall and thin physique.

Jodo

As for jodo, I have only one really major technique that I seriously need to work on and one general habit I need to kick. The technique is makiotoshi, specifically in Midaredome where I find that I generally move too early and rush to bring the jo up, so I'll be working on waiting longer and relaxing the catch. As for the general point, I again seem to have a problem with solidity and sharpness.

Additionally, I'll be making a concerted effort to seriously practice the Omote, Tanjo, Chudan and Kenjutsu (in that order) every chance I get. Unfortunately, not many people in the dojo practice any of the jo koryu, let alone the auxiliary arts, and there's no such thing as a jodo koryu seminar here.

Similarly to iai, I have also chosen someone to model my jodo on: Morimoto Kunihito s., 8dan Kyoshi. He is also quite tall and relatively slim but his technique is absolutely beautiful and very clean and sharp, all things I am trying to incorporate into my jodo. Sadly, he is from Osaka so my exposure to him is limited but I will take every opportunity to study him.

18th-19th January 2014 - Regional Jodo Seminar

Held in Edogawa Sports Centre in Tokyo, this seminar was organised by the ZNKR and headed by Shiiya Mitsuo Sensei (椎屋光男先生; 8dan Hanshi), the current jodo incho. The other high grades present in a teaching capacity (there were quite a few 8dans from all over the country but not all were there to teach) were: Tominaga Shozo Sensei (富永彰三先生; 8dan Hanshi), Arai Hiroshi Sensei (荒井洋先生; 8dan Hanshi), Kurogo Genji Sensei (黒郷源慈先生; 8dan Kyoshi), Otake Sensei, Morimoto Norifumi Sensei (森本訓史先生; 8dan Kyoshi), Yasumaru Susumu Sensei (安丸進先生; 8dan Kyoshi).

Tandoku Dosa and Sotai Dosa

The first hour or so was spent going over the Tandoku and Sotai Dosa with Otake S. and Morimoto S. demonstrating the Sotai Dosa on jo and tachi respectively, Yasumaru S.demonstrating the Tandoku Dosa and Arai S. providing the explanations. Morimoto S. was a joy and a pleasure to watch; an excellent example of footwork, posture and all-round technique. I sincerely hope Morimoto S. is chosen as part of the ZNKR delegation to the EJC sometime in the near future. Arai S. then went through everything in the book point by point, emphasising the following points:

• jo and tachi should overlap by 10cm when in awase
• when receiving gyakute-uchi, the tachi should allow the josaki to reach the centre
• the front hand should not drop when preparing for kaeshi-tsuki
• the extension line of the jo should be pointing at the solar plexus when preparing for kaeshi-tsuki
• in gyakute-tsuki, the jo should remain as close to the centre line as possible
• the back foot should not be allowed to drag during this technique (or any other) but should be the source of all forward movement
• in maki-otoshi, the right hand should be eye height
• when in chudan-no-kamae, the kissaki should be at upper chest (大胸) level
• the kissaki, just before the tsuki in tsuki-hazushi-uchi should be aiming for the solar plexus
• in dobarai-uchi, uchidachi should be cutting from left hasso
• in dobarai-uchi, there should be a distinction between the strike and the seme
• when pulling the jo through in preparation for the strike in dobarai-uchi, the left hand should move as little as possible; the majority of the action should come from raising the right hand

Kurogo S. then led us in a warm-up before practicing the Tandoku Dosa but as the dojo was incredibly full we were only able to practice each technique a total of eight or nine times.

After lunch, we gathered again to go through the forms with Morimoto S. and Kurogo S. demonstrating jo and tachi respectively and Tominaga S. providing explanations. This took only an hour as Tominaga S. kept his explanations short and to the point and only took questions at the end. The following points were brought up:

• maintain control of the jo when you take the opening kamae (Tsukizue)
• ensure you make enough distance on the final honte-uchi so you don't overextend (Tsukizue)
• maintain control of the tachi, even when receiving hiki-otoshi
• generally, both sides should maintain stability in the hips and not allow too much movement in the upper body

Finally, we all split up into grade groups with 2dans and below and 7dans and above going to a different dojo with 3dans to 6dans stayed in the main hall. The 2dans and below were taught by Yasumaru S., 3dans by Otake S., 4dans by Arai S., 5dans by Morimoto S., 6dans by Kurogo S. and 7dans and 8dans by Tominaga S.. We only managed to get up to Sakan on the first day and spent the second on the remaining forms, with Arai S. providing reminders of the points mentioned by Tominaga S. for each form as well as a few points of his own (such as having the head in the middle of the jo in kuritsuke, kurihanashi and taiatari, the right wrist being turned out when preparing for maki-otoshi and the tachi's feet always returning to okuri-ashi).

All in all, it was a great day of practice. I had the chance to practice with a very strong partner from Hokkaido and although my jodo felt even worse than usual, I was able to work not only on the points we'd just been given, but also on those I have been given over the last month.