kanshu sunadomari sensei

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[jeff.]

hello

i'm looking for some information on kanshu sunadomari sensei. i have the one book he has published in english (enlightenment through aikido), have read the interview in aikido journal (at least as much as i can get without being a member of aikido journal), and have watched the clip with him in it on aikido journal. i'm curious about his style, what and how he teaches (both external and internal, as well as spiritual), etc. any information actually would be great. also, any other videos of him around? anyone know of any plans to translate more of his writings?

are there any folks in the states who have trained with him? anyone teaching his style in the states?

also, i can not read or understand japanese... so i realize i am limited in what i can actually get from available material.

thanks!

jeff.

[batemanb]

Hi Jeff,

I have the same book, and also have a couple of the Friendship videos purchased from Aikido Journal. I can't remember if he's on both, but he is certainly on one of them for about 20 minutes or so.

rgds
Bryan

[Jorge Garcia]

At http://www.budovideos.com/shop/customer/search.php?substring=sunadomari
there are some books and videos. I have the videos that are listed here in three parts. They are mostly of him lecturing so if you want to see Aikido, avoid these. There is a new one further down the page listed as a demonstration by him and some of his top students that I may buy myself.
My teacher, Hiroshi Kato Sensei told me that on the very first day started practicing Aikido, his partner for the hour at the Aikikai Hombu Dojo was Sunadomari Sensei. He said it was a pretty rough hour for him. Of course, that was his first day though!
Best wishes,

[Don_Modesto]

FWIW, a biography of Osensei. Not Kanshu but Kanemoto...

http://www.aikidojournal.com/articleindex.php?freesearch=sunadomari&articleTypeID=&authorID=0&issueID=0&lang=en&page=4

[Dennis Hooker]

hello

.

are there any folks in the states who have trained with him? anyone teaching his style in the states?

also, i can not read or understand japanese... so i realize i am limited in what i can actually get from available material.

thanks!

jeff.

One of my old students has been living near and studing with him for several years now. His name is Dennis Clark

[Jon Sharp]

I used to live in the area where Sunadomari sensei is based i.e. South Kyushu and visited some of the Manseikan dojos there. It is seperate from the Aikikai as I was led to believe and has a 'local' feel to it.

Out of the 2 dojos I visited, 1 was a v.small suburban dojo, and the style of training involved a lot of of specialised warm-ups that I had never seen before. ( I had trained in a standard hombu-style for a couple of years). They involved large tai sabaki from different forms of attacks in a continuous progression. Also interestingly they had a gyaku-hanmi katatedori exercise where they would look to move the point of contact laterally to the side (without any stepping) by focussing on the contact point, in a completely amuscular way (I hope that makes sense!)

The other dojo was a university dojo so less of the middle-aged lifers, and a lot more flying. i watched a demonstration where the movements where very large and circular/dynamic. The attacks did seem contrived and very generous, but these were only uni kids. My personal take on it - and I base this from extremely limited contact was that some of the techniques seemed over complicated, as to say, there was almost an extra turn or sweep, which kinda felt superfluous at times.

My own aikido was iwama stlye so there was a contrast in what I was doing at the time, so please take my opinions in context. Obviously Sunadomari sensei was a reasonably well known figure (in aikido circles anyway) and I gather that his own technique is famously dynamic and kokyu-oriented.

Hope this helps

Jon