Shima 06/07/2007

We started the class with sanshin gogyo no kata then went into the practice of applying omote gyaku and urate gyaku from hicho no kamae with a few kicks involved. The idea was to apply kicks while maintaining your balance and applying the waza. After that we practiced tsuki komi with and without the sword and tsuki kake with the sword. It was a very hot and sweaty night. Good times though.

Gambatte!

Shima 06/05/2007

There was a fairly large group last night with about 14 total. That's partly because Kelly is back and partly because it was Daryl's last training session at Shima Dojo. He's off to Toronto in a week so he had the floor last night. We started with various combinations of zenpo and koho kaiten followed by a daijodan shomen giri muto dori. We used that muto dori movement as a basis for each of the kihon torite goho from a tsuki.

Uke performs suigetsu tsuki for each.

1. Omote Gyaku
   Evade to the outside shifting back and slightly tugging the uke's hand/wrist to disrupt his balance. Apply omote gyaku while striking the uke. Omote shuto, boshiken, zenpo sokugyakuken geri...
   


2. Urate Gyaku
   Evade to the inside shifting forward striking the face, shift back taking the hand and apply urate gyaku. Trap the foot, boshiken, fudoken, shakoken, zenpo sokugyakuken geri, hongyaku, takeori...
   


3. Musha Dori
   Evade to the inside shifting forward striking the face and apply musha dori. Urate shuto, boshiken, juji geri...
   


4. Oni Kudaki
   Evade to the inside shifting forward striking the koe or suigetsu and apply oni kudaki. Cover the knee. Zenpo sokugyaku geri, juji geri...
   


5. Ganseki Nage
   Evade to the inside shifting forward striking the face, move in and apply ganseki nage. Urate shuto, zenpo sokygyaku geri...
   

With all there are plenty of opportunities to apply additional atemi.

Class was really fun with all those people in attendance and Daryl did a good job keeping the energy up. Good times. Sayonara and good luck Daryl! We'll see you around!

Gambatte

Karasukage 05/30/2007

Tonight we covered just a handful of the Togakure Ryu methods of survival. Most of the techniques involved the use of the shuko. First we did various tehodoki with shuko. This was henka of the various ude tonso gata.

Taijutsu Ukemi

1. Kaeshi dori
   Uke: Daijodan shomengiri
   Tori: Zenpo kaiten into the uke kicking to the hara, groin or leg while covering with the shuko. Koho kaiten away. When you koho kaiten disarm the uke. Unleash shuriken or metsubushi if necessary. Some would say it's always necessary.
   


2. Ken nagare
   Uke: Daijodan shomengiri
   Tori: Hidari ichimonji no kamae. Quickly move into uke's space with a migi shikan ken to the hara and assuming a migi gedan ichimonji no kamae. Koho kaiten away disarming the uke. I don't remember how the shuko is used here.
   

Santo Tonko no Kata

1. Atekomi tonsou gata
   Uke: Daijodan shomengiri
   Tori: Hidari ichimonji no kamae. Quickly move into uke's space with a migi shikan ken to the hara and assuming a migi gedan ichimonji no kamae. Several take downs are available: you can stand up in between the uke's arms; reach up with the shuko, etc.
   


2. Ichinokamae
   Uke: Daijodan shomengiri
   Tori: Hidari ichimonji no kamae. Move in from the outside striking the uke's hand with the hidari shuko and striking the uke's face with the migi shuko. Pull the two points apart.
   


3. Ittoh dori
   Uke: Daijodan shomengiri
   Tori: Migi ichimonji no kamae. Switch to hidari ichimonji no kamae as you catch the blade. Lock the blade with the shuko. Kick to the hara, groin, or ribs as you take the sword.
   


4. Kubisugi tonsou gata
   Uke: Migite kubisugi
   Tori: Shizen no kamae. Reach up and grab the uke's hand as you turn and strike the ribs with an uke nagashi. Apply ura gyaku in an up-down motion to get the uke away from you.
   
   
   A few henka.
   
   1. Uke: Migite kubisugi
      Tori: Shizen no kamae. As you turn strike the ribs with an uke nagashi while rotating your head under and to the other side of the uke's arm. Apply ura gyaku. This is basically a shortcut of the kata.
      
   
   
   2. Uke: Migite kubisugi
      Tori: Shizen no kamae. As you turn strike the ribs with an uke nagashi followed by a fudo ken. Tenchi tobi into the uke's leg striking the knee with your rear foot and the top of the thigh with your front foot. This one is kinda hard to practice safely.
      
   
   
   3. Uke: Migite kubisugi
      Tori: Shizen no kamae with sword. This was actually the first one we did. Tsuki the uke's hara with the saya, draw the blade as you turn around and cut the uke down. Stay low.
      

As always I had a blast. Gambatte!

I'm always curious to the spelling and meanings of the techniques, which I'm sure many budoka are, so I looked at the materials I have on the Togakure Ryu and found this category of kata spelled two different ways: santo and zanto. Plugging both of those into my favorite dictionary and got the following:

三徳 (さんとく)
Santo - Three primary virtues.

竄匿 (ざんとく)
Zanto - Diving under cover and hiding.

Because this is Togakure Ryu I would put my money on zanto being the correct spelling but of course the video spells it santou. My notes show zanto tanko no kata meaning "escaping forms" and the video doesn't say what san tou ton kou means and more than three kata are shown. Usually when this happens you just look at the kanji but the kanji in the video don't match any I saw in the dictionary. Also, tonso is "fleeing" so I would guess "zanto tonso no kata" is a more accurate description. Oh well. This is part of the training.

Other terms.

首筋; 頸筋 (くびすじ)
Kubisugi - (noun) Back of the neck

首筋を違える (くびすじをちがえる)
Kubisugi - (expression) To wrench one's neck

遁走 (とんそう)
Tonso - fleeing; escape

Kaeshi - This spelling didn't return an exact match but the variation kaesu is congruent with the general meaning of kaeshi.

還す (かえす)
Kaesu - to send back

返す (かえす)
Kaesu - to return something

反す (かえす)
Kaesu - to change; to turn over; to turn upside down