Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Shima 08/28/2007

Four training days in a row, I'm on a roll. Class actually started on time so I was late. I'm not sure what Doug was doing when I arrived but when I jumped in here's what happened.


  1. Uke: Ichimonji no kamae tsuki to face.
    Tori: Move into ichimonji no kamae as if you were receiving from the inside but receive to the outside. In other words receive to the outside as usual except use the sayu (left/right; symmetry) of the kamae. Shift forward to strike the face. Sometimes we would move straight into a tsuki from the outside. You can also receive so that the uke's arm is caught in an armbar. Expanding on this receive with ichimonji no kamae and shift for a tsuki to uke's head and follow up with another tsuki to the butsumetsu as you move through.

  2. Uke: Ichimonji no kamae tsuki to face.
    Tori: Receive to the inside with jumonji no kamae. With your rear hand apply ura gyaku. Use atemi where applicable.

  3. Uke: Ichimonji no kamae tsuki to face.
    Tori: Receive to the inside with jumonji no kamae. With your rear hand apply ura gyaku. Pass the gyaku to your other hand while switching kamae. Use taiken with your hip to take the uke down.

  4. Uke: Ichimonji no kamae tsuki to face.
    Tori: Receive to the inside with ichimonji no kamae as usual. With the rear foot apply sokuyaku geri to the inside of uke's front knee as you switch kamae then sokugyaku geri uke's rear leg. Use atemi where applicable.

  5. Uke: Ichimonji no kamae zenpo geri to suigetsu.
    Tori: From shizen no kamae move to ichimonji no kamae to the outside of the attack receiving the attack with keri kaeshi then applying sokugyaku geri to the groin.

  6. Uke: Ichimonji no kamae zenpo geri to suigetsu.
    Tori: From shizen no kamae rotate in place to the outside letting the attack slip past you and extend your front leg back to receive the uke's attack. From there sokuyaku geri to the groin.

  7. Uke: Katamune dori, zenpo geri, tsuki.
    Tori: Receive the katamune dori with ichimonji no kamae, shift and gedan uke the geri, shift and jodan uke the tsuki. Remove the dori by applying ura gyaku. Shift in and strike the uke's chin with happken or shakoken. I don't know if the timing of the gyaku was with the jodan uke or with the happaken/shakoken. Taiken with your hip while pulling the uke's arm across your body throwing the uke.

  8. Uke: Katamune dori, zenpo geri, tsuki.
    Tori: Receive the katamune dori with ichimonji no kamae, shift and gedan uke the geri, shift and jodan uke the tsuki. Remove the dori by applying ura gyaku while you shift towards the uke and juji geri uke's rear leg. Strike the uke's suigetsu as you place your foot back down after the juji geri then rotate away from the uke while you drop to your rear knee bringing the uke down. Maintain ura gyaku throughout.



After class Doug gave his first Bujinkan shodan test. I, among others, assisted in being uke (and tori for some things) for Calvin while Doug gave instructions on what he wanted Calvin to perform. Something Doug did that I found interesting was had Calvin be uke for the kihon happo to see how well he received the techniques. Calvin did well and was awarded the rank of shodan. Congratulations Calvin. Gambatte kudasai!

Kihon Shibu 08/27/2007

The Ninja Summit was fun but it's back to the basics for Johnny and I. Last night we worked on zenpo and koho kaiten. We did it a little bit differently though by starting in a crouched position on the balls of our feet. This method seems like it may be easier for complete newbies to learn. I just need some newbies to test it out on. After practicing zenpo and koho kaiten separately we combined them by going from zenpo kaiten, rotating, then performing koho kaiten.

Next we practiced standing in ichimonji no kamae. From shizen no kamae assume hidari ichimonji no kamae, move back to shizen no kamae, then into migi ichimonji no kamae. It's quite the workout if you're not used to it.

We followed that up by practicing shikanken tsuki from ichimonji no kamae. We practiced slowly being mindful of our body's structure.

After that we revisited the exercise of moving around the compass from ichimonji. Last time we focused on just getting around the compass and this time we focused on how we move from one stop to the next, using the hips to move the whole body.

Next we combined the tsuki and the evasion exercises. One of us would perform the tsuki while the other evaded. The focus was on performing your role the best to your ability and not really worrying about the other. All the tori had to do was get out of the way in time. We moved slowly so no one got clobbered.

I wrapped things up by showing the last of the sanshin: ku no kata. Johnny did a pretty good job of remembering the other four kata. Now that he has seem all five we can practice them together.

Gambatte!

Friday, August 24, 2007

Karasukage 08/23/2007

It was time again to visit my hombu and as usual it was a good time with lots of sweat, very little blood and never any tears. We had a special guest in Mr. Brown, long time martial artists and father of fellow buyu J. Brown, whose job is sending him back to Japan. The Ninja Summit may be the last time I train with him for a while so I'd better make it count!

Class started with a little bit of ukemi: three sets of three types of ukemi. I don't remember the exact combination or order but I know we did tobi kaiten, zenpo kaiten, koho kaiten, gyaku nagare, sokuho kaiten and I may have thrown a yoko nagare in there somewhere. Tenchi tobi muto dori was next followed by the night's lesson.


  1. Uke: From ichimonji or jumonji no kamae tsuki to face.
    Tori: From shizen no kamae evade to the outside using yoko aruki or other taisabaki and gently take the balance before striking at just the right moment. Control the uke as they go down. This later became slightly evading to the inside and striking when/where the uke is weak. We also played with using a weapon as a distraction. Striking when the uke is weak is done with body language and control of the uke's balance.

  2. Uke: From ichimonji no kamae tsuki to face.
    Tori: From ichimonji no kamae step past the uke to the outside being sure to maintain contact with your arm or body. Once you're behind the uke strike with shukiken to the nearest kidney. This can be done with either elbow.

  3. Uke: Katamune dori then zenpo geri.
    Tori: Evade to the inside or outside and strike when the uke is weak. Control the situation.

  4. Uke: Katamune dori then tsuki.
    Tori: Move the uke's elbow to take the balance and strike with sokkiken, fudoken, boshiken, etc.

  5. Finally we practiced a three person exercise. The tori in this scenario was a third party to an altercation between two others. The uke would attack the innocent bystander with ryoumune dori or katamune dori with a fudoken tsuki or knife tsuki. The tori had to save the day.



Good times as usual.

Gambatte!

案山子

Thursday, August 16, 2007

Kihon Shibu 08/15/2007

Last night was the first class in the last two weeks and Allison's first ever. For Johnny and Allison I kept things simple. We started out with some much needed junantaiso. After that I had Johnny demonstrate zenpo kaiten then promptly told Allison that what he did was our goal and that we probably wouldn't reach it tonight since her experience with this was nil. Therefore we started literally started from the ground and didn't get up. The same went for koho kaiten. Normally we would have spent more time of that but since Allison didn't have a gi and the grass and insects were taking their toll we left the ukemi at that and moved onto introductory kamae.

Naturally, ichimonji no kamae was the chosen kamae and we spent some time getting a general feeling and idea of what this posture is supposed to look like. I tried not to be too specific because you can't overload newbies but at the same time when you're new you don't do everything correctly so you have to pick certain things to correct and over time whittle away at it. We practiced standing in kamae, shifting forward and backward from left to right in place, and moving forward from left to right kamae.

To help reinforce the kamae we did a simple punching drill with the focus mits with the focus on the alignment of the body and using the legs to propel the fist. After that we switched back to taisabaki and did some zenpo and koho yoko aruki from ichimonji no kamae. We wrapped up the evening with chi no kata.

It was good to be training again and everyone had a good time.

Gambatte!

Thursday, August 02, 2007

Kihon Shibu 08/01/2007

We were all over the place last night so I'll try and recall what we did.

We kicked off the evening with chi, sui, ka, and fu no kata. That lead us to a short exercise on one of the first things you do in four of the five sanshin and in nearly everything else we do: stepping off the line of attack. We practiced stepping off at a 45 degree angle by imagining a large compass beneath your feet. In shizen no kamae you would be standing in the center. Step back into ichimonji no kamae and you would be facing north with your rear foot on the south point or your body on the south line. If you were in hidari ichimonji you would be moving to the right in a counter clockwise circle. Your first step would place you facing northwest with your body/feet on the southeast line. The next step would place you facing west with your body on the east line, etc. We did this in both directions a few times.

We then lined up and as a pair practiced zenpo and koho kaiten back and forth across the yard. After the ukemi we practiced some atemi. Since fu no kata was the most recently introduced kata and it uses a boshiken, we broke out the punching mits. After a short talk on the boshiken we took turns striking the mit with a boshiken from ichimonji no kamae exactly the same as when we practice the standard fudoken atemi. When then did a simple application of this ken.

With uke and tori in ichimonji no kamae, uke performs a fudoken tsuki to the tori's face. Tori then evades with a gentle uke nagashi before rocking in with a boshiken to the ribs. Pretty straight forward. Be sure to evade correctly and maintain contact with your arm.

Next was the formal introduction to hira no kamae followed by a simple application. Uke is in ichimonji no kamae and performs a fudoken tsuki to tori's face. Tori is in hira no kamae and steps to the outside of the attack and strikes the uke's head/face with either a fudoken or happaken. The evasion was practiced two ways. The first being the tori moves from hira to hira and the uke pretty much runs into the atemi. The second being the tori moves from hira and does a more proactive atemi by shifting/leaning into the atemi. I mentioned the various targets of the head and which fist would be appropriate with this exercise. We then expanded on this exercise to include a sokuyakuken keri with the rear foot after the initial strike. Again, being aware of the target and the ken being used. We're not just throwing punches and kicks hoping they land on something.

Next we took this exercise and turned it into an atemi drill against one of the nearby trees. Pick a tree, gauge your distance and assume hira no kamae. Move off the line of attack striking with happaken followed up by the sokuyakuken keri. I chose a tree that was skinnier than the others we practice with so that the happaken atemi would be applied to the side of the tree much like the side of someone's head. It's probably better on the wrists too.

Finally, I formally introduced jumonji no kamae and the jumonji no kata from the kihon kosshi sanpo.

Gambatte!