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

Shima 05/24/2007

I postponed going to Chesapeake until today so I went to the Shima Dojo instead. It was a really small class with only four of us plus Doug. I believe we started with sanshin gokyo no kata then some tehodoki exercises. I don't know if there are offical names for these other than generic descriptions.

1. Uke: Single hand cross grab of the wrist (katate dori).
   Tori: Move into ichimonji to the side the attack is coming from.
   


2. Uke: Single hand cross grab of the wrist (katate dori).
   Tori: Bring your hand straight up underneath uke's chin, optionally striking it, while stepping forward locking out the knee. This will drive the uke straight back. You can also choose not to lock out the knee and instead strike it from the side causing uke to "buckle" in place.
   

After that we did a couple of the Kukishin sword katas followed by trying to apply those principles from the sword kata to a similiar taijutsu scenario. Then we did an exercise where the tori applied two successive strikes against the uke's initial punch (ie. uke nagashi followed by fudo ken) followed by a couple of flowing exercises where you tried to feel, take and direct the balance of the uke through their attacks.

Good times. Gambatte!

Noguchi Sensei

Japan, originally uploaded by mojmir_ch.

Great photo added to the Budo Taijutsu group on flickr.com

Karasukage 05/10/2007

So I went back to my home dojo for some much needed perspective, bruising, and good old training. It was good seeing old faces and new ones. We started with the way we used to do ukemi, which is, I do a series of ukemi and everyone tries to repeat what they saw. After that is was the up, down, and out of the way muto dori. Then we did a lot of exercises that emphasized using your intention, both projecting and receiving.

We went from shizen no kamae into whatever kamae fit for you from an uke's punch and projected the intent to stop the fight at that moment. Then we worked specifically with ichimonji no kamae. After that performing uke nagashi with the same intent. We got a little more physical after this point. From shizen no kamae the uke performs the classic lunging hook to the side of your head. Simply raise your arm to block it without moving, strike under the chin and use shakoken to the face to take them down. This was a type chi no kata. Then we did one of the basic koto ryu katas. Uke tsuki with a knife and tori just barely rotates to the outside to evade and capture the wrist. Smash the hand and apply omote gyaku. The more intention the better. Then we did additional intention exercises.

I was out really late and got beat up nicely. Can't wait 'til next time.

Gambatte!

Shima 05/01/2007

Tuesday was Paul's birthday so class was kinda short but there was a large turnout. It was the largest of any regular class that I'd seen there. We started with solo sanshin no kata and then continued with the shinken flavored torite kihon gata. We did jumonji and hicho no kata. After that we did a kata from the Kukishin Ryu (not sure which) that went as follows:

1. Uke: Seigan no kamae.
   Tori: Hira no kamae. Uke throws migi tsuki to the face and you uke nagashi to the inside. Uke throws hidari tsuki to face and you uke nagashi to the inside again. Uke throws a migi zenpo keri and you uke nagashi the thigh as you shift forward. Uke then throws another migi tsuki to the face and you uke nagashi by shifting into jumonji no kamae with your hands switched from their usual position. You uke nagashi is really just a block/catch to apply either oni kudaki or ura oni kudaki. You can then either kick or knee the groin or stomach and then step behind to take the uke down. The oni kudaki can be replaced with musha dori.
   


After that the movements were less complex.


2. Uke: Seigan no kamae. Migi then hidari tsuki to face.
   Tori: Hira no kamae. Uke nagashi up for the first one, uke nagashi straight down for the second one, then do whatever.
   


3. Uke: Seigan no kamae. Zenpo keri to stomach area.
   Tori: Hira no kamae. Move to the outside with hira no kamae while pushing straight down onto the uke's leg right above the knee.
   


4. Uke: Seigan no kamae. Zenpo keri to stomach area.
   Tori: Hira no kamae. Apply keri kaeshi.
   

That took about an hour and a half and then it was food and socializing.

Good times. Gambatte!

Shima 04/26/2007

We started with solo sanshin no kata then did an exercise similar to the one we did last time. One individual stood in the center of the dojo and applied ichimonji no kata to everyone else in turn. The kata was supposed to be applied with more of a shinken and flowing feeling. So instead of performing two distinct moves the kata was blended into one. Next we did simple counters/escapes from omote gyaku, urate gyaku, and musha dori. After that we reviewed some sword work. First we did tsuki komi and its sayu gyaku. Then we did what looked like the kiri age kata but we didn't use a kiri age cut. Uke performs daijodan shomen giri and the tori applies a tsuki to the face with or without a kai from seigan no kamae, the uke reacts by retreating and the tori follows through with a do cut to the left while stepping left. The sayu gyaku was cutting and stepping to the right. Next was kocho gaeshi. After that the uke attacked with kesa giri and the tori, from hasso no kamae, countered with the same cut aiming for the uke's front wrist. Calvin and I also practiced that from daijodan shomen giri and gyaku kesa giri. We wrapped up class with an unarmed defense against daijodan shomen giri. Tori baits the uke with his posture, switches to the outside to capture the hands and disarms the uke. Good times.

Gambatte!

UR 04/23/2007

Last class at UR for me. It was fun and hopefully those few students will continue. We did the sanshin no kata solo and with a partner. Then we did some free response exercises where the uke gave to attacks and the tori had to evade and perform something from the sanshin or kihon happo.

Good times. Gambatte!

Shima 04/17/2007

I went to Doug's on that Tuesday to coordinate travel and sleeping arrangements for that weekend's seminar in Bedford. It's been a while since I trained there and it was good to see old friends again and meet new ones, namely Russell. The material covered was...

We started with solo sanshin no kata. Then we each took turns mixing each of the koshi kihon sanpo with something from the kihon happo against everyone in attendance. It was a good, simple exercise. After that we alittle muto dori. Uke performed daijodan shomen giri and tori evaded to the side and disarmed the uke. Then we did the same thing but armed the tori with a tanto. Lastly we did something with no weapons. I can't remember if Doug showed something specific or not. I just remember Russell and I doing free response training.

Good times. Gambatte!

UR 04/16/2007

Second to last week for the UR class. If I remember correctly we did the sanshin no kata and koshi kihon sanpo with an emphasis on hicho no kata.

Gambatte.

UR 04/11/2007

Wednesday's class was kinda slow with only two students and three instructors. We did the usual stretching and ukemi. Then we covered the basic muto dori again from Monday's class. After that we did jumonji no kata and finally introduced hicho no kamae.

Gambatte!

UR 04/09/2007

Class is still going fairly well. Those who have stuck with it have made a lot of progress. Daryl is back in the driver's seat and we covered one basic muto dori movement then used that in a basic tehodoki gata. Then we moved into the following simple technique:

Uke: Migi tsuki to the face.
Tori: From shizen no kamae rotate to the outside dropping back into hidari ichimonji no kamae as you lightly catch the wrist. Apply takeori and oni kudaki as you step forward switching to migi ichimonji no kamae.

Good times. Gambatte!

UR 03/28/2007

Another small class with one-on-one instruction. This is good because WE get to talk less and train more. We practiced zenpo and koho kaiten, the ichimonji line drill but with a gedan uke nagashi, omote gayku and urate gyaku. Good times.

Gambatte kudasai!

UR 03/26/2007

We practiced the usual ukemi then a couple of ichimonji drills, then jumonji no kata from the kihon torite gata. The jutaijutsu of the evening was urate gyaku. We did two forms of it: one that was similiar to hon gyaku and then the typical one. We finished with omote gyaku. The class is nearly finished with only a month left.

Gambatte!

UR 03/21/2007

It was a really small class last night with only three students. With Daryl out of town that left one student for each teacher. We practiced zenpo and koho kaiten, oni kudaki, musha dori and introduced jumonji no kata.

Gambatte!

UR 03/19/2007

I took the helm for class last night and it went well. We did the usual stretching and practiced zenpo and koho kaiten; two ichimonji line drills, one for taisabaki practice, one for uke nagashi practice; two versions of ichimonji no kata from the kihon kosshi sanpo; and I introduced omote gyaku from the kihon torite goho. They seemed to really enjoy it. Good times.

Gambatte!

UR 03/14/2007

The classes are going by so fast. We practiced the sanshin gokyo no kata, an ichimonji line drill, ukemi and musha dori. Good times.

Gambatte!

UR 03/12/2007

Spring Break is over and class is back in session. Attendance has tapered off and leveled out at five or six students. It's good to be back after more than a week of no training. Not even Saturday classes for me.

Yesterday we did some sanshin gokyo no kata, zenpo geri, ukemi and musha dori. The time went by way too fast. As always it was good times, good times.

Gambatte!

UR 02/28/2007

Last class before Spring Break. Not surprisingly it was a small group. We covered the sanshin gokyo no kata again and then whatever each group wanted. Good times.

Gambatte!