The first class I attended was Sensei’s class and I must say I felt totally lost almost all the time. And the feeling persisted throughout the other classes as well, with Seno Sensei, Noguchi Sensei and Nagato Sensei. But it was impressive to see them move and it made me realize what a long way I still have to go before I can even begin to say I know what I’m doing. Being there, surrounded by their energy, gave me the impression I could do anything, and, though I made a mess of the techniques I was trying to do, I felt like I had wings to fly. It was uplifting.

From the very first class the stress was put on moving your feet, using your body weight, on doing the things that come natural to you instead of trying to copy what you see or force a movement. Since there were so many people present in the dojo, a lot of the techniques focused on taking Uke’s balance in a tight space.

Some of the things Sensei said were don’t grab, hook what you can, what Uke gives you and keep the connection; be direct, take Uke’s balance from the first, because there isn’t always time to think of a certain technique, so a good punch is sometimes better than any technique you can come up with; use the kyusho, use your elbows, your shoulders and do what you can to turn the situation in your favour; the number of people attacking you is not important, what matters is putting yourself in the right place, at the right distance and the right angle and use your body to control your attackers; avoid fighting, take the fighting intention out of the equation; the Kamae are alive, you have to be able to change them, to adapt them according to the situation.

Noguchi Sensei impressed me with the way he moved out of the line of attack, like he was floating or gliding and not walking. He said it is important to be relaxed when you do a technique and move like you’re dancing instead of using force.

Seno Sensei was amazing at controlling Uke using just his wrists and elbows, moving very slowly, softly and going very low on his legs. Same as Sensei, he used his hands as metsubushi a lot.

Nagato was surprisingly soft and very efficient in controlling Uke in a tight space.

The Daikomyosai was just as impressive, with over 400 participants! I saw some friends again and made new ones and met some of the “big names” in Bujinkan in person. It was overwhelming. The main theme of the Daikomyosai was the Tachi, so we focused a lot on training with the feeling of wearing a Yoroi, which was not always easy to do. Despite the sense of total confusion, I had a great training experience and I want to thank all my Uke for every piece of advice that enriched my knowledge of Ninjutsu and helped me take another little step forward towards understanding this wonderful art.

Japan was definitely a unique experience. I’m extremely glad I went on this trip and I can hardly wait for the next one!

Gambatte everyone!!!"

Kunoichi Taikai

The weekend of September 17 to 19 2010 I had the distinguished honour to take part as an instructor in the first Kunoichi Taikai, the first female martial artists’ reunion in the Bujinkan history.

This incredible event was possible thanks to Hatsumi Sensei’s indisputable support, to the unfailing commitment of Sheila Haddad (15^th Dan) and her faithful and very efficient lieutenant Catherine Janssen, as well as to the great help of lots of volunteers.

It is one of the most important events I’ve been to in several years. And I’m tremendously grateful to Sheila for having invited me to teach there, which intimidated me at first, because I was going to teach alongside women like Sheila, of course, but also Mariette Van Der Vliet, Natascha Morgan, Gillian Booth, big names in Bujinkan, and also Frances Haynes, Marie-Valérie Saumon, Cathy Lewis, Sabine Frohlich, Carol Kosh, Patricia Witteman, Angeles Bordòn Mendoza, Beth Zimmerman and Sandra Elster.

But my worries dissipated right away, because, as Frances very well said it, there was no feeling of competition or judgement between us, just the desire to share our passion for Bujinkan. From that moment on, every minute of this incredible event was nothing but pleasure, exchanging points of view, sharing special moments where everybody felt at ease and free to express themselves without being afraid of the challenge or of being judged. One very important thing to know about me: it was the first time I taught without having the feeling that I must prove myself, a feeling that I have to say is always there when men are present in my classes, because, whether they want to or not, there is always one that asks “But why do it like that?”, “But it could be done like this”, “But this doesn’t work on me!” … The kind of questions that, for the first time in 8 years of teaching, no one asked me at the Taikai. It’s unbelievable J.

In addition to the training, our discussions during the meals lead to new friendships, and the obvious sense of respect that characterized the whole weekend impressed me a lot, not to mention the pleasure of discovering so many extraordinary skilled female martial artists.  The flawless organization, where everything was intended to make our lives easier, the location of the event and the management of the various modules increased this feeling of “well-being”. Hatsumi Sensei’s interview, organized by Cinzia, which was broadcasted every evening and which she was kind enough to translate for us “live” (thank you very much Cinzia), brought a very special touch to the Kunoichi Taikai.

Thank you everyone for this amazing experience that should definitely be repeated, whether in small or large numbers; the important thing is that this event marks only the beginning of the Kunoichi all working together!

Gambatte Kudasai!

Estelle Padeloup

Moreover, this made us aware of the fact that we had let things slide a bit for some time (without realizing it). Even if our classes had so far been centred on the basics, it wasn’t enough, and the same goes for the etiquette. Duncan helped us go back on the right track, steered us in the right direction. This shows the importance of inviting over people like him, who have been living or going regularly to Japan for a long time now.

He reminded us of a very important thing: training slowly. Something that we, Westerners, have a hard time understanding or doing. But this training is based on three principles:

∞ Shu (Uke doesn’t resist at all)

∞ Ha (Uke follows the movement, the pace increases)

∞ Ri (there is interaction between Uke and Tori, at normal speed)

Out of these three principles, we don’t spend enough time on the first one: Shu, the most important of them all; it’s what we use to build the foundations of our future Taijutsu. Just like a house, if the foundations are not solid, the building will crack or crumble. When we work on Shu, we must not forget that this not only allows us to train slowly and develop our flexibility, our muscle strength, but it also teaches us to listen to the body, that is, to the reactions of our partner’s body. Since Uke does not resist, it’s his or her body that reacts and not the brain, which helps us understand the human body and its tensions, as well as the study of angles and distance. And then we discover the vital triptych of our art – body, angle, distance – which we can relate, of course, to Ten Chi Jin. This can be divided into an infinite number of possibilities:

· The body can be viewed as Ten (the upper part), Chi (from hips to feet) and Jin (the Hara)

· The angles: by applying the Ten Chi Jin, you create a sphere

· The distance: which will depend on the way you place your upper body (Ten), your hips/feet (Chi) and your Hara (Jin) that connects the Ten and the Chi

· Etc.

Thank you again to Duncan for this necessary reminder. And for all the wonderful heart-to-heart discussions we had; Manolo was luckier than me in this case (I had to go to work).

Also, I recommend you go read Duncan’s texts on his blog; you will learn a lot, especially about other principles he approached during this seminar: Shugyo

Thank you to all the participants who came from Texas, Quebec, Magog, Ottawa, and to all our students. It’s thanks to you that we can organize this type of events.

"Hello Estelle and Manolo,

I’d like to take a minute and thank you for inviting me to the seminar and dinner with Duncan. For those who have never been to Japan it was an extraordinary seminar, but for those, like us, who have already been there, it was undeniable that Duncan’s teachings really embody the technique and spirit of Hatsumi Sensei, Nagato Sensei and the other Shihan. Duncan’s words were like an echo or an invisible wave keeping us connected to the source, a sort of Nawa no Kankaku.

Thank you again and I hope to see you very soon!

Thank you again to the Montreal Japanese Language Center for having invited us a second time in a row to their spring festival (Matsuri).

Thank you to our students, children and adults, for their presence, involvement and training, which made this beautiful demonstration possible.

It was a wonderful day and the welcome was very warm, as always.

8^th trip to Japan

For my 8^th trip to Japan I had the pleasure of having my student, Fabrice Lhermitte (Shidoshi, Bujinkan Normandy), with me for the whole stay.

This time the trip was a little bit shorter than usual, only 7 days on site. But we had the chance to stay in one of Shawn Gray’s apartments, in Noda, just a 10 min. walk away from the Hombu Dojo.

The weather was very strange; between the snow and the 25°C, we didn’t really know how to get dressed.

We started with Seno Sensei’s class. It’s always a real pleasure to go to his classes. Seno Sensei is so kind and available; his classes are very, very difficult technically speaking, but it’s a fantastic experience every time. And we can only be proud to be one of his students.

Over the next days we continued, of course, with Noguchi Sensei’s, Nagato Sensei’s and Oguri Sensei’s classes. They are all incredible as always and we keep discovering little details that we know it will take us months, even years, to “master”.

Naturally, we were able to attend three of Hatsumi Sensei’s classes. In fact, it’s during Hatsumi Sensei’s class at Budokan that Fabrice passed his Godan test successfully. His teacher was just as proud, I’ll tell you that much (lol)!

It’s always interesting to come here with your students, because you get to relive through them a bit of that confusing magic of your own beginning, when you didn’t know how things worked, whom to address your questions to, what you had the right to do or not to do… It’s funny and touching, even if sometimes it annoys you a little, but it’s normal and it’s always a good experience.

We have to be aware of what’s going on around us and this time Sensei insisted a lot on the fact that we have to be very careful whom we teach. For that matter, during one of the classes at Hombu, he asked me to take his message back to Canada:

         Be careful whom you teach. We travel a lot these days and we don’t really know the people we meet. If you’re teaching (during a seminar or a class) and you don’t like someone in the crowd (you have a bad feeling about them), then don’t teach them anything, even if that means not teaching at all.

It was quite surprising and completely confusing for me, because it was the first time Sensei talked to me that way. This shows that Sensei knows perfectly who surrounds him; we often think he doesn’t recognize us or doesn’t remember what country we’re from (he sees so many people!), but, on the contrary, he’s observing all of us and I think not much gets by him. It’s what makes his classes so amazing, because he plays on different levels every time and that makes the translators’ job very difficult, because, in the end, when he talks about the theme of the year or other things, everything can be translated differently and all the interpretations can be right. It depends on us, on our path in life, on where we are in our evolution; one interpretation may be the right one now and another may be the right one in a couple of years, because we have, hopefully, evolved.

All in all, a very enriching and wonderful trip, as always, and there are really no words to describe it; you simply have to live it.

Which means another trip in perspective at the end of the year, I hope.

Gambatte Kudasai!

Estelle Padeloup

Bujinkan Shihan

Bujinkan Dojo Montréal had the pleasure and the great honour to receive on March 13 and 14 Mr. Peter King, 15^th Dan and Menkyo Kaiden in AmatsuTatara Hichibuku Goshinjutsu, for our first seminar of Amatsu Tatara, module 1, level 1.

Peter has also done us the honour of teaching a Budo Taijutsu class Friday night, before the seminar. Peter is one of our closest friends, we’ve known him for many years now, and he never ceases to impress us with his joint control, his ways of taking the balance and the fluidity of his movements, but most of all with his kindness, which makes him a charming person, easy to approach and always ready to answer questions. Thank you Peter for this wonderful class on the different ways of using Ura Gyaku.

The Amatsu Tatara seminar was a reflection of the previous day’s class. Peter explained us the historical origins of Hichibuku Goshinjutsu, the connection to the Ten Chi Jin and Sanshin No Kata. Then we moved on to the first application: how to balance the body by using different acupuncture points, in a very strict order, as well as how to approach a patient (whether a martial arts practitioner or not), everything accompanied by stories from Peter’s experience that illustrated one specific point or another. Which gave the seminar a very joyful and friendly atmosphere.

The second day we did a quick review of the first day in order to fully understand the body balancing sequence, then we started learning about the self-treatment. This self-treatment uses a precise sequence too, and in fact we can see a part of it when we look at Hatsumi Sensei, who uses it very often when he is sitting down watching or listening to a student.

During the weekend, it felt in the beginning like the quantity of information received was very small, and at the end of the first day I found myself wanting to see more. But at the end of the second day, well, I was glad it wasn’t the case, because I was really tired energetically. In the end, we learned to use 17 parts of the body to rebalance it (some using about fifteen acupuncture points and others 2 to 6 specific movements) and around  22 self-treatment movements (some using 2 to 15 points too). Peter’s gentleness, his amusing stories and his perfect mastery of the subject made module 1 fly by without us even realizing it; he also showed us the applications that will help improve our Budo Taijutsu.

A big thank you to Peter for this very, very enriching introductory seminar to Amatsu Tatara.

And thank you to all the participants: Robert and Rudolpho who came especially from Texas, Michael from Toronto, Frédéric Métivier and Michel Grandmont, as well as our students who helped us a lot with the organization, and Kazuyo and Keiko for their wonderful Bento.

Everyone agreed unanimously to continue the program. We have set the date for the next seminar for module 2, which will be held from October 1 to October 3. And, after discussing it with Peter and some of the participants, Peter suggested a review of module 1 for those who could not be present the first time, so that they can attend the second module. This review will take place Friday, October 1, from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. And Peter will do us the honour again to teach a Budo Taijutsu class Friday night, from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.

So, if you want to discover Amatsu Tatara, come join us the first weekend of October; you will learn a really simple way to balance the body and relieve its tensions, and you will discover a new approach to Budo Taijutsu.

See you soon,

Estelle Padeloup

It was only an introduction into this art of “magic fingers”, with more modules to follow this year and next year, but it gave us an insight in what Hichibuku is. Although we were told it was not a Budo seminar and that it was going to be very different from our usual martial arts seminars, I found it had an extraordinary connection to Ninjutsu; they both require you to know how the body works in order to be efficient in what you’re trying to do: destroy the enemy or heal your friend. Peter said to look at it as the other side of the same coin: on one side Ninjutsu, where you get thrown all over the place and end up with pain and bruises :), and on the other side Hichibuku, where you put everything back together and relieve the pain.

Before the seminar, I also had the privilege of seeing Peter teach a Ninjutsu class Friday night. He showed Ura Gyaku, among other things, but done using more the elbows than the hands. The way he moves, the way he does the techniques is awesome. He can move slowly and softly at first, leading Uke to the right spot, before finishing the technique off with a swift (and I’m sure very painful) movement. He uses the information Uke’s body is giving him to take his balance and bring him down. And this applies to Hichibuku, too. It’s actually the most important thing: pay attention to the information the body is giving you, weather you’re treating yourself or someone else, learn to “listen” with the hands.

All in all, it was a wonderful experience and I’m looking forward to the next Hichibuku seminars and to seeing Peter again, especially for his killer jokes :). Thank you for your teachings, Peter, and thank you Manolo and Estelle for organizing such an event. It is definitely different than Budo, but so very much related.

Luiza,

My trip to Japan, November – December 2009, where I was able to do six classes with the Shihan and two classes with Soke, in addition to the Daikomyo Sai, Hatsumi Sensei’s big seminar in honour of his birthday.

I arrived at Narita on November 26, late in the afternoon, still having to go to Unga (just south of Noda), where I was to stay during my trip. Knowing I was going to wake up very early the next day because of the jetlag, I went the same evening to Noguchi Sensei’s class, for I knew it would do me good and maybe help me sleep a bit more the next morning.

So off to Hombu Dojo for the class, where I found lots of friends, especially the two Mitrou brothers from Greece.

I trained with Antonis Mitrou during the class, which was based on the fourth level of Koto Ryu and a couple of techniques from the first level:

The fourth level Kata are all Muto Dori, but since there were a few people there, the movements were adapted to Taijutsu. The principles approached by Noguchi Sensei during class were: Juppô Sesshô and Yoko Aruki (which is used a lot in Koto).

The next day I spent some time with Arnaud Cousergue who had just arrived; we took advantage of that to talk about several things related to Bujinkan. In the evening we had a class with Soke, where I trained with Arnaud:

Training with Arnaud is very interesting, especially to me. Because he is a 15^th Dan and he has been my teacher since 1993, he helped me a lot in my training and my life. He is like a father to me, but now he wants us to abandon this image and become adults responsible for our actions. But I’d like to add that, even if we become independent in some sort (responsible adults), we must not forget where we come from and respect those who have shown us the way.

One of the things that Sensei said during class was never finish the techniques.

The next day was the most important one of my entire trip:

First of all, it was the first class with Seno Sensei, who is very important to me. I have a special feeling about him, a feeling that I’ve never been able to explain completely. And just before class I had a private conversation with him, to ask him something very important: if he wanted from that moment on to be our Sensei, Estelle’s and mine, and he formally answered Hai (yes, in Japanese).

SENSEI, DOMO ARIGATO GOZAIMASU!

The day continued with his class, then I went to Oguri Sensei’s class, followed by Nagato Sensei’s class in his Dôjô.

And it’s already Sunday, with Sensei’s class, in a Dôjô full of 197 people. The class was very good, with little training, but a lot of explanations from Sensei and demonstrations from the 15^th Dan. And a session of Sensei’s calligraphy as well.

The concepts approached by Sensei are too many to name all of them, so here is one: ENNO KIRI NAI, or do not cut the connections.

The next day was the beginning of the Daikomyosai, three days of hard training with Soke and the whole Bujinkan family present in Japan.

During those three days I was able to train with Brad Hutchinson, 15^th Dan from Canada, Duncan Stewart, 15^th Dan from Japan, Arnaud Cousergue, 15^th Dan from France, Robin Doenicke, 15^th Dan from Japan, José Manuel Rodriguez Conde, 15^th Dan from Spain, Rosa María Doménech, 11^th Dan from Spain, and many more.

Soke did a lot of Henka on the techniques shown in front of everyone by the 15^th Dan during the DKMS. And one of the things that touched me were the stories that the Japanese Shihan told us of their experience during their classes with Sensei at the beginning of their training.

And, if I understood well all the stories they told us, our training right now is very gentle and has nothing to do with the classes they did with Sensei in those days.

Now that my trip is over, I have only one desire: to go back as soon as possible.

Manolo Serrano

Bujinkan Shihan

We were very happy to welcome in our freshly renovated Dojo the thirty participants who came from Quebec, Ottawa, Halifax and Montreal to this first seminar on two of the nine Bujinkan schools.

Saturday was dedicated to Ten no Kata of Shinden Fudô Ryû. We were able to review the eight techniques with their two Ura Gata, staying faithful to the principles used with Shinden: Shizen, the use of the natural movement, and Ikken Hasso, hitting in eight directions fluidly and without preparation, in order to take Uke by surprise.

Sunday was dedicated to Omote Gata of Takagi Yoshin Ryû. We were able to review the 13 techniques of this first level. Some of the students realized that wearing a Hakama makes moving around more difficult, but this shows us the posture and movement flaws we might have and goes perfectly with the principles of Koteki Ryûda Juppô Sesshô no Jutsu (Hibun) (no Kami): “The techniques (secrets) (spirit) of the Tiger and Dragon (applied) in 10 directions”. Without forgetting the use of Teko (leverage) and Shiten (point of leverage), essential in the application of the Takagi Yoshin Ryû techniques.

The last hour of each of the two seminar days was dedicated to the use of the principles of each of the two schools, but without intending to do any techniques. And it was a pleasure to see the black belts demonstrate efficiently some of these techniques and principles, the same going for the green and white belts.

Thank you all for your enthusiastic and dynamic participation. A big thank you to Gaétan and his numerous students from Quebec, to Yvan and Kevin from Ottawa and to George, who came especially from Halifax, without forgetting our students.

A special thank you to Mr. Aida from the Montreal Japanese Language Center, who came to visit us Saturday.

Next year we’ll do more seminars in order to cover all the levels of Shinden Fudô Ryû and Takagi Yoshin Ryû.

And don’t forget the review Japan seminar on December 19 and 20, with Shihan Manolo Serrano.

Gambatte Kudasai!