Category Archives: Demonstrations

News Other demo

Friendswood Demo

Saturday, May 11, was our first demonstration at the Friendswood Public Library, held as part of their observance of Asian/Pacific Islander American Heritage Month (May).  It was held inside their meeting room just inside the front door.  

Earlier in the month I was invited to fill their display case.    This case is in the lobby next to the meeting room door and the display will be up until some time at the end of the month.  Also in the lobby I discovered a display of MA related books in the lobby that library staff were kind enough to put up together with an event flyer that Mr Riley created to publicize our demo.  

The ceiling of the room was a bit low, which caused some on the demo team to change waza or change how they did standing kirioroshi in order to not hit the ceiling.  This is actually one of the side benefits of doing demos outside one’s dojo,- it forces flexibility and awareness of one’s surroundings.  I was joined by Michael Goodman, Billy Tran and Jonathan MacDonald.  In addition to demonstrating waza and Tachi Uchi No Kurai, I took a lot of questions from the audience on a wide range of topics ranging from how I got into Iai, to the why and wherefores of the formal seated bow, to the purpose of sageo, and more.  It was a good crowd.  

News Seabrook display

Embu at Evelyn Meador Public Library in Seabrook, Texas

The joint embu/public presentation by Clear Lake Iaido Dojo and Tora no Tsume Dojo was a great success.  Everyone brought a lot of energy into their demonstration, and the audience had some good questions.  One question regarding the use of the sageo lead down some interesting avenues that high-lighted both functional and symbolic roles.

 

Seabrook display

Seabrook Library display case

Today a new, joint display went up in Seabrook’s Evelyn Meador Public Library that showcases aspects of Japanese history and traditional material culture.  The display represents the joint efforts of Ash Wellborn-sensei, from the local Shin Shin Ryū dojo, and myself.  The display will be up for about a month.  Next Saturday, May 5, there will be a joint embu given by us and the Shin Shin Ryū dojo at the library, starting at 11 AM in the meeting room.  It is open to the public.  This is an excellent opportunity to see two different sword styles and to ask questions.

Photos of the display case can be seen at this Flickr link:

CF359B8C-26DC-489D-9AA0-02B31177FA63

The library address is:

2400 North Meyer Avenue
Seabrook, TX 77586

Houston Japan Festival News

2018 Houston Japan Festival, The Cold One

Many many thanks to everyone, both students and those who support them, who made the demonstration on Saturday and Sunday at Houston Japan Festival possible.  It would not have happened as well as it did without everyone’s help.  There is a photo attached to this post of everyone who demonstrated.

The weather was phenomenal this year.  For those who have never been to Houston Japan Festival, this is a purely outdoor event held annually next to the Japanese Garden in Hermann Park in downtown Houston, so the weather plays a pivotal role.  Usually Japan Festival is a sweat fest. This was the first year ever that I did not break a sweat during the entire event, even during the demonstrations.  It was actually cold in the morning when we demonstrated, making the warmth of a winter weight haori and wool hakama feel very cosy.  

There were more than a few vendors selling vintage Japanese clothing.  The large booth that debuted last year was back selling lots of kimono and yukata.  This event has become a great place to look for obi, koshihimo, juban, kimono, yukata and haori.  

The JAXA booth was displaying a poster of Nemo since he’s currently on ISS until June.  I tried to get an extra copy of the print, but no joy.  So I took a photo which is attached.  

The Japanese Garden in Hermann Park was recently enlarged so I strolled through it, enjoying the relatively quiet and spacious grounds.  I highly recommend it when the hustle and bustle of the rest of the festival starts to wear at one.  If interested in lotuses, there’s a variety grown there that is descended from very old seeds (~2000 years according to the sign) discovered at an archaeological dig in Chiba Prefecture.  

Seabrook display

Seabrook Library Display Photos

A few days ago all items for the display case at the Evelyn Meador Public Library in Seabrook TX were in, so I took some photos and placed them in an album on Flickr. This is a display of Japanese items that I and Ash Welborn, who works at the library, put together from our respective collections.  We’ve been doing this every year since 2012 in observance of Asian American & Pacific Islander Heritage Month (May).  The display will be up for the remainder of May.  On the Saturday (27th) of the Memorial Day weekend there will be a demonstration of Japanese swords arts starting about 1 PM in the library’s meeting room.

The link to the Flickr album for this year’s display is below.  If you tap the ‘Back to albums list’ link near the top it should take you to the rest of the albums, including those for previous display years.

2017 Seabrook display

https://www.flickr.com/photos/30017578@N04/albums/72157681591039621

Demonstrations Houston Japan Festival News

2014 Houston Japan Festival – A long and rambling post

This year the Martial Arts demonstrations were chaired by Mark Lipsinic Sensei, who also heads the Yurusu Aikido of Houston Dojo (Nishio-ryu Aikido & Aiki Toho Iaido). He did a great job coordinating with everyone and making sure we had good facilities. Everything went very smoothly.

As was the case last year, the stage was shaded with a high canopy. This is a huge help to the demonstrators who can focus on what they’re doing instead of avoiding the blistering hot sections of the stage. The stage itself was also a bit bigger. This made backing away during paired waza a little easier. One year, in a different group, some folks backing away almost stepped off the edge of the stage. We learned from watching that to be very mindful of the space and to feel for the edge with our feet. The only down side was the surface of the stage was rather dirty and splintery, but that was covered by mats the whole time. The mat created their own problem though, as my feet adjusted to the soft surface in the middle of the demo, but at least I didn’t have to worry about damaging a formal hakama.

The thank-you from the festival this year took the shape of free bottles of water (always welcome!), some food/drink tickets, and an attractive J Fest bandana. Thank you Japan Festival and Lipsinic Sensei!

We were lucky with the weather this year. Both days were warm and mostly dry. Unlike most other Japan festivals that I have been to over the years, the Houston event is an entirely outdoor event held in Hermann Park near the Museum District. Only the tea ceremony demonstrations are held indoors inside the small tea house in the Japanese Garden.

I think the Japan Festival demo team was at its smallest this year with just Ali, Nemo, and myself. The two new students neither had the clothes nor knew enough to be able to participate. Thank you, Ali and Nemo, for your support on both days. And a big thank you to Houston for video taping our demonstration on Saturday.

There were a LOT of anime otaku, especially cosplayers, at the festival this year. In fact talking with Yōko-sensei at class later that week, she and her friend noted that there seemed to be fewer and fewer ethnic Japanese coming to the festival. I think some people assumed I was cosplaying too judging from the comments thrown my way (ronin?), and the several queries by cosplayers wanting to know where I got my outfit. They were disappointed when I said Osaka (both the wool hakama and the white montsuki were from the Meirin Sangyo main store in Osaka). The hat I had on was a lucky find at a Kansas City Japan Festival years ago. Unfortunately the hat is getting too old and frail to wear it much anymore.

On Saturday I dressed out and got to the site early. There were already people wandering about, so I was not surprised to read later that a new attendance record was reached. After using the only flush toilet on the site inside the Japanese Garden for the first and only time that weekend (constant long line ever after) I decided to stroll about the garden, which I hadn’t done in years. Our demo was not until 1:30, directly after another Iai group, so I had some time. While wandering I happened by the tea house where a few people were lined up for the first tea ceremony of the day. On a whim I decided to get in line. Inside I found myself seated in the middle of the second row, a fair spot for taking photos. Mochizuki-Sensei, the head of the Urasenke School of Tea in Houston, was doing the honors, assisted by her students. Watching her, was great. The centered calm, the un-rushed efficient motions made this one of the most impressive things I saw that weekend. One can understand why the samurai took to tea.

After that I circled through the vendor area, visiting with merchants I knew, before heading to the car to eat lunch. Bringing my own lunch and drink this year turned out to be a good idea which saved me from standing in line and saved a little money. Then it was time to get ready.

Regarding vendors, some of my perennial favorites include the Chiba Sister City booth (this year selling Chiba lapel pins, lotus T-shirts and bags), and my favorite Kyoto vendor, KyooHoo, from who I got an attractive furoshiki and few more tabi socks in large sizes. I was too late to the Japanese flea market booth,– by Sunday they were well picked over.

Every year as this demonstration nears it makes me think about Iaido, especially the intangibles, in order to figure out what to say to get across to people the larger picture of what it is we do and why we do it during the five-minute or so introduction I do at the beginning of our demo. This year I thought about Iaido’s place in the culture that created it, and some of the differences between MJER and other Iai and ken systems. Also thinking of how both the originating culture and the setting in which the Iai is intended to be used could greatly influence the entire system. In particular I had been contemplating the differences between our MJER and a more recent system that was developed for a very different setting than Edo-era Japan. So this year my what-is-Iaido talk with the audience included the usual explanation of Iaido as Samurai training to always be prepared both mentally and physically, and this time to high light that I pointed out that we did our waza in civilian attire of the time with our sleeves and hakama unbound and untucked, and not wearing armor. I don’t know if what I said helped them to understand, but thinking about it I think has helped my personal understanding a little.

Also I had with me a short prepared Japanese script that my Nihongo Sensei wrote for me years ago just for this demo. After we were introduced I proceeded to follow this until I noticed that my Nihongo teacher was not in the crowd as she usually was on Saturday. At this point I got impatient to get to the what-is-iaido section of the talk that I had thought so much about and abandoned the script 3/4 of the way in. Later it turned out she was there, but had to step away to answer a phone call. I resolved to do better tomorrow.

After the opening reishiki, since there were only three of us we did embu all at the same time, but finished at different times due to the number and type of waza each person did. When all had completed, Nemo sat at the back while Ali and I retrieved our bokutō and proceeded to do Tachi Uchi No Kurai including the formal opening and closing reishiki. As usual the Saturday demo had a few hiccups which were smoothed out the next day. Then we all did closing reishiki. There was some extra time and I attempted to elicit some questions from the audience, but no one had any so we exited to allow the next group on.

Every year there are interesting comments from folks who come up after the demo. This year there was a nice gentleman from Austin, a Sekiguchi MJER person, who thanked us for the ‘seminar’! In the past sometimes students of the language have questions about my choice of words. And then there was the person last year whose ‘helpful suggestion’ testified that they didn’t understand what we were doing or why.

A new thing happened this year. A Ph D. Student of the Department of Anthropology at Texas A&M asked for an interview. As I recall he was interviewing folks who did koryu for a research project related to his graduate studies. We settled down at one of the vacant tables by the path and proceeded. He asked a lot of interesting questions that really got me going, stirring up as it did a lot of mental sediment that had been dormant for years. I talked for what seemed like hours, and could have gone on for longer. He confided afterwards that he was planning to go back to Japan after school to resume his own koryu path, begun during his time in Japan teaching English. I wish him all the best.

On Sunday I arrived early and went on another stroll in the garden. Then there was a little time to shop before heading back to the MA stage to catch the Shin Shin Ryu demo. From the front row I filmed about four minutes, took some photos then just sat and watched. After their demo I was chatting with them when they invited me to a group photo shoot in the garden. One of their own was there that day, but not dressed out so he did the photo of us all, then I volunteered to do one of all of them including camera man. By then it was time to head back to get ready for our own demo.

After the introduction, I started in on the prepared speech and made the mistake of scrutinizing the audience. The reader may recall the comment from above about the dwindling attendance by ethnic Japanese to the festival. This was also very noticeable at the MA stage. So I looked out, didn’t see my Nihongo Sensei (who is normally not there on Sunday), saw only round eyes, asked myself what the point was to doing this English/Japanese speech, and decided on the spot to skip it. I found out later that Yōko-Sensei was there that day too! I felt very bad.

After the demo I sat at the table by the path, provided by the MA chairman for demonstrators to provide a static display, have cards/pamphlets to hand out, and answer any questions by festival passersby. I had brought my nicer silk brocade sword bags to lay out on the table as an eye-catching display. Some thought they were obi. I was able to watch a little bit of the demonstrations as I handed out schedules, and answered questions from passersby.

When the weather threatened to rain, I changed clothes, made one more circuit to spend the remaining food tickets, then headed to the car and home.

PHOTO CREDITS
Thanks to the following we had lots of photos and a video of our demonstration this year.

Yōko Tonu, Nihongo Sensei
MineralBlu, photographer friend of Ali
Houston Porterfield of Clear Lake Iaido
Travis Boardman of Shin Shin Ryu

For a small sample of the photos please look in the photo galleries elsewhere on this site for the 2014 Houston Japan Festival album.
Also, later I plan to add a link to the video once I get it hosted somewhere.

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hatsunuki News Other demo Tanida-Sensei US Embukai

Website redone using iWeb

The website has been completely redone using iWeb mainly for ease of updating.  The photo albums are still in work and will be added later.

What has happened since last I wrote?  Hatsunuki on Jan. 1.  Tanida-Sensei’s visit during Feb. 29 – Mar. 2, during which the following tested:  Ali & Jon for yondan, Ron for sandan, and Dale & Beverly for nidan.  All who tested received menjou (certificate).  No other traveling, even to Denton, occurred after this.  I just felt like staying close to home and working on long neglected projects, such as rebuilding this website from scratch.

Another significant event that occured last year is Jon’s departure from Houston to Kansas City, Missouri, and his establishment of a new dojo there.  See his website www.gingadojo.org for more information.

For the future I look forward to seeing Jon again when I travel to Kansas City to join him and Charles-Sensei in a demonstration of MJER at the their annual Japan Festival.

Also, I want to visit Sensei soon, and visit Neil-Sensei in Baton Rouge.  Then the 8th annual US Embukai is in November.

Demonstrations hatsunuki Houston Japan Festival Japan News Other demo shodan shiken Taikai Tanida-Sensei Tanida-Sensei koshukai US Embukai

Another two years go by….

This is a recap of some of the highlights of the past two years, which have been good for us. For a more complete listing see the Past Events link. The class schedule is unchanged, but the monthly fee has increased.

2005 – Everyone who tested at the Shodan Shiken in 2005 received their rank. Also that year I went to Japan to participate in the annual All Japan Eishin-Ryu Embukai in Sakai City, and several practices in Chiba and Sakai City. When not involved in Iaido activities I did some sight-seeing around the Tokyo/Chiba area. In early October we traveled to Denton for the 5th US Embukai.

2006 – At dawn New Years Day members of the dojo who could attend participated in our annual hatsu-nuki outside despite the warm weather and attendant mosquitoes and fire ants. In March at the annual koshukai & shodan shiken in Denton there were four people testing. They were Ali for sandan, Jon & William for nidan, and Ron for shodan. All who tested achieved their rank. Also this was my first time sitting at the judging table with Tanida-Sensei, John-Sensei, and Susan-Sensei. In April we had a very successful demonstration at the annual Houston Japan Festival. Thanks to the Japan America Society of Houston for inviting us. In late May & early June David and I traveled to Washington & British Columbia to tour around the area. In addition to sight-seeing and eating some of the best salmon in my life I visited the Hokusei Dojo in Everett (thanks, Scott), and attended the annual Canadian Iaido Association (CIA) summer seminar in Vancouver BC (thanks to Esaka-Sensei and Ted-Sensei). On Aug. 20 we did a demonstration at a church on the Northwest side of town. In mid November we traveled to Denton for the 6th US Embukai.

2007 – For our hatsu-nuki the weather was actually cold so we had no bugs to bother us. The hot sake toast tasted very good! In March we had six testing. They were Emily for godan, Jon & William for sandan, Ron for nidan, and Dale & Beverly for Shodan. All who tested achieved their rank. In April we were fortunate to have Charles-Sensei come to help us with our best ever demonstration at the annual Houston Japan Festival. Thanks to to Charles, and thanks to the Japan America Society of Houston for inviting us back. In August we heard the terrible news that Ted Davis-Sensei, president of the Canadian Iaido Association (CIA), suddenly died after a brief illness. In late August David and I went to Japan to participate in the World Science Fiction Convention held in Yokohama. This was the first time this particular convention had been held in a non-English speaking country. The Japanese fans put on a very memorable event. After the convention we joined a group of fans for a 9 day whirlwind tour of Japan that included Tokyo, Hakone, Mt. Fuji, Hiroshima, Kyoto, and Osaka. During the convention I stole away for a day to attend a practice lead by Tanida-Sensei. After the tour was over we stayed over in Osaka to attend another practice in Sakai City. In mid November we traveled to Denton for the 7th US Embukai.

 

Also in November our dojo building came under new management, and our dues increased from $50 to $79/month.

Denton hatsunuki Houston Japan Festival Japan News San Antonio Sword Show schedule shodan shiken Tanida-Sensei Tanida-Sensei koshukai US Embukai

Lots going on; Mirror installed

Saturday Practice Moves to Sunday & Friday Practice Time Change

I am finally getting around to making some much needed changes to the web site. Thank you for your patience, and thanks to those who offered to help. As the regular students already know, the Saturday practice has moved to Sunday from 12:30 – 2:30. Also, as of April 25, the Friday practice is now 8:30 – 9:30.

 

Events Past

This is a quick overview of events past.  In October the 2nd Annual Texas Embukai was a great success with six instructors in attendance. Four from our group attended. In December Jack Bieler of Denton visited us one day and lead a special practice. On New Year’s Day we had our first ever Hatsunuki celebration in Houston. In January Charles Mahan of Denton visited us one weekend, leading practices on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. In early February Joe and I went to Denton for training with sensei. Later that same month, four of us journeyed to Denton for Tanida-sensei’s seminar, and two of us tested for nidan in the shodan shiken held on Sunday. In March most of the school was involved in one way or another in the wall construction (for a large mirror), and general dojo upgrade/remodeling. In April three of us and Charles Mahan, who happened to be in town, demonstrated at the 2003 Japan Festival in Hermann Park in downtown Houston. Also that same weekend, Charles lead our Sunday practice, and two of us entered the traditional sword division at a local martial arts tournament,– Joe Charles won first place and I took second in the advanced track. The very next weekend Sensei and Tom Thomas came down to spend a very enjoyable weekend with us. We trained hard during the day, and at night watched videos and had a lot of fun (and little sleep). In May I had two five foot tall sections of mirror installed on the newly built wall. This was a tremendous improvement over the hanging closet door mirrors.

 

Events Future

The San Antonio Sword Show, May 23-25, is rapidly approaching. We will be joining Sensei and his local students in a demonstration of Eishin Ryu from 2 -2:30. In the future is a trip to Baton Rouge when Sensei travels there to visit Neil and Doug. In the not-too-far future is our trip to Japan in October.