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<blogEntry id="4820">
	<title><![CDATA[cherry blossom, mountain storm]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[[INDENT][INDENT][indent][indent][INDENT][INDENT][INDENT][i][URL="http://www.flickr.com/photos/89330362@N03/8137093405/"]Sanshiro Sugata (1943)[/URL] from japanesefilmarchive[/i][/INDENT][/INDENT][/INDENT][/indent][/indent][/INDENT][/INDENT]


[INDENT][INDENT][i]What are heavy? Sea-sand and sorrow;
What are brief? Today and tomorrow;
What are frail? Spring blossoms and youth;
What are deep? The ocean and truth. 
[B]Christina Rossetti, What Are Heavy?[/B]


Fortune, honour, beauty, youth,
Are but blossoms dying;
Wanton pleasures, doting love,
Are but shadows flying. 
[B]Thomas Campion, What If A Day Or A Month Or A Year[/B]


without regret
they fall and scatter
cherry blossoms
[B]haiku by Issa[/B]


They have created the beauty of cherry blossoms.
[b]from Sugata Sanshiro, directed by Akira Kurosawa[/B][/i][/INDENT][/INDENT]


Spring in Japan. No, not yet. Not yet. The air is usually already warmer by the time of Buddha's birthday on 8 April. But this year spring has kept feinting an attack and then has hastily retreated. This week it has felt like we were still in December. 

But the cherry blossoms have fallen. The cherry blossom viewing parties have all been held. 

Cherry blossoms signal the changing seasons. I have written about cherry blossoms before. In 2011 after the Tohoku earthquake in [URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/blogs/moon-in-the-water-19051/cherry-blossom-and-moon-4190/"]cherry blossom and moon[/URL] and also in 2012 in [URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/blogs/moon-in-the-water-19051/beneath-the-cherry-trees-4483/"]beneath the cherry trees[/URL] and [URL="http://mooninthewater.net/aikido/2012/04/15/cherrytrees/"]also here[/URL]. There are some cool poems in those articles.

Cherry blossom viewing can be poignant. Weather forecasts give detailed forecasts of when the trees will be in full bloom. Some of the drinking and karaoke parties in the parks are superficial. But for many Japanese people there is still sadness behind the beauty. The trees bloom. Then the petals blow away in the wind. And decay in the dirt. The transience of life. 

One of the quotes above comes from the movie [I]Sugata Sanshiro[/I]. It was the first movie Akira Kurosawa directed. He obviously didn't know a lot about judo but the movie is anyway excellent. The story is loosely based on the life of Shiro Saigo. He was one of the first two people to be awarded a black belt in judo by Jigoro Kano. The other was Tsunejiro Tomita. Tomita's son Tsuneo Tomita was a novelist and he wrote the original novel Sugata Sanshiro.  

Sanshiro wanted to become a great martial artist. He went to a famous jujutsu teacher. The teacher and his companions ambushed a judo teacher they did not approve of. Sanshiro was invited to come along and watch and learn. Things did not go to plan and the judo teacher threw all the jujutsu attackers into the river. Not surprisingly Sanshiro decided to follow the judo teacher instead.

Gradually Sanshiro became stronger and stronger. He liked to test himself by getting into fights. But his teacher scolded him and told him he knew nothing about compassion.

Like a lot of people who think they know about martial arts.

Sanshiro's special technique was [I]yama arashi[/I], mountain storm. It's a kind of [I]tai otoshi[/I] or [I]harai goshi[/I] with a cross grip. There are similar techniques in aikido.

Niall


[I][B]poems and background articles[/B]

[URL="http://www.haikuguy.com/issa/"]Haiku by Issa[/URL]


[URL="http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/rossetti/singsong/singsong.html"]Christina Rossetti, Sing-Song - A Nursery Rhyme Book[/URL]


[URL="http://www.luminarium.org/renlit/whatday.htm"]Thomas Campion, What If A Day Or A Month Or A Year [/URL]


[URL="http://www.dannychoo.com/post/en/1690/Tokyo+Cherry+Blossom.html"]nice blog post about cherry blossoms [/URL]


[URL="http://judoinfo.com/saigo.htm"]article about Shiro Saigo on judoinfo[/URL]


[URL="http://www.bestjudo.com/article/1233/shiro-saigo-judos-secret-weapon"]article about Shiro Saigo and his possible links to aikijujutsu[/URL]


[URL="http://brightlightsfilm.com/69/69sanshiro_libby.php"]interesting review of Kurosawa's Sugata Sanshiro[/URL]


[URL="http://cdn2.judoinfo.com/images/nauta/yamaarashi.htm"]yama arashi[/URL]


[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanshiro_Sugata[/url]


[url]http://akas.imdb.com/title/tt0036400/[/url]


[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddha%27s_birthday[/url]


movie still: [URL="http://www.flickr.com/photos/89330362@N03/8137093405/"]Sanshiro Sugata (1943)[/URL] from japanesefilmarchive

 
my home page with a mirror of these blog posts plus other articles: [URL="http://mooninthewater.net/aikido"]mooninthewater.net/aikido[/URL]
 

my [URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=75&filter[1]=Niall%20Matthews"]columns[/URL] on aikiweb[/i]


© niall matthews 2013]]></body>
	<date>04-17-2013</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="4794">
	<title><![CDATA[training in japan black and white]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[[INDENT][INDENT][indent][indent][INDENT][INDENT][INDENT][i][URL="http://thejiujitsulab.wordpress.com/2011/06/07/judoka-doug-rogers-documentary/"]judoka[/URL] from thejiujitsulab.wordpress.com[/i][/INDENT][/INDENT][/INDENT][/indent][/indent][/INDENT][/INDENT]



[INDENT][INDENT][i]I was determined to go to Japan to outstrip them all, to learn judo. It wasn't to 
go to the Olympics, it was to become really, really good at judo.
[B]Doug Rogers[/B]


How very Canadian - I had a one-way ticket to the Olympics.
[B]Doug Rogers[/B]


In the tunnel
the black taxi roof
a stream of neon
[B]Colin Oliver, haiku[/B]


Youth is not a time of life
it is a state of mind
it is not a matter of rosy cheeks, red lips and supple knees
it is a matter of the will, a quality of the imagination, a vigor of the emotions
[B]Samuel Ullmann, Youth[/B][/i][/INDENT][/INDENT]


There was a link on a judo site to an old documentary called [I]Judoka[/I]. It's about a Canadian called Doug Rogers and his serious judo training in Japan. He was there from 1960 to 1965. He was obviously an exceptionally talented and determined judoka and he became one of the very best in the world. At the Tokyo Olympics in 1964 he won the heavyweight silver medal.   

It's a very interesting documentary. It shows the training and life of a young martial artist in Japan. It was a simpler, more innocent time.

There is a nice scene of Doug Rogers doing randori free training in the Nippon Budokan. The Nippon Budokan is a huge martial arts hall in central Tokyo. It was constructed for the 1964 Olympics. Over the years it has been used for rock concerts and many artists have recorded [I]Live at Budokan[/I] albums. The All-Japan Aikido demonstration is held there every year in May.   
 
On the wikipedia page about Doug Rogers there is a link to a thesis written about him by his daughter. It adds another dimension to the documentary. She interviews him about his life in Japan and together they go on a trip to Japan to try to make sense of the past. 

Doug, [I]arigatou gozaimashita[/I].

Niall


[I][B]poems and background articles[/B]

[B]Judoka[/B] on youtube
[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=CBFx1a4L2ig[/url]


Michelle Marrian Anna Rogers, Twentieth Century Travels: Tales of a Canadian Judoka
[url]https://dspace.library.uvic.ca:8443/bitstream/handle/1828/691/rogers_2005.pdf[/url]


some poems by Colin Oliver
[url]http://www.poetry-chaikhana.com/Poets/O/OliverColin/[/url]


Samuel Ullmann, Youth
[url]http://www.prmvr.otsu.shiga.jp/library/master/SamuelUllman/Youth.html[/url]
This free poem was very popular in post-war Japan.


[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doug_Rogers_(judoka)[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judo_at_the_1964_Summer_Olympics[/url] 
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nippon_Budokan[/url] 
[url]http://www.sportshall.ca/honoured-members/27738/doug-rogers/[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Ullman[/url]

photo: [URL="http://thejiujitsulab.wordpress.com/2011/06/07/judoka-doug-rogers-documentary/"]judoka[/URL] from thejiujitsulab.wordpress.com


my home page with a mirror of these blog posts plus other articles: [URL="http://mooninthewater.net/aikido"]mooninthewater.net/aikido[/URL]
 

my [URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=75&filter[1]=Niall%20Matthews"]columns[/URL] on aikiweb[/i]


© niall matthews 2013]]></body>
	<date>04-02-2013</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="4776">
	<title><![CDATA[darkness in march]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[[indent][indent][INDENT][INDENT][INDENT][i]photo: [URL="http://www.flickr.com/photos/fatguyinalittlecoat/5679404617/"]Postwar Tokyo Map - showing destroyed areas[/URL] by Justin Cozart[/i][/INDENT][/INDENT][/INDENT][/indent][/indent]



[INDENT][INDENT][i]Long ago, before writing, you'd send someone a stone letter. A stone that suited the way you were feeling. From its weight and touch, they'd know how you felt. From a smooth stone they might get that you were happy, or from a rough one that you were worried about them.
[B]Masahiro Motoki, Departures[/B]


The Word in the desert
Is most attacked by voices of temptation,
The crying shadow in the funeral dance,
The loud lament of the disconsolate chimera.
[B]T S Eliot, The Four Quartets, Burnt Norton[/B]


I felt a funeral in my brain,
And mourners, to and fro,
Kept treading, treading
[B]Emily Dickinson, I Felt A Funeral In My Brain[/B]


After the feast of tear-stuffed time and thistles
In a room with a stuffed fox and a stale fern,
I stand, for this memorial's sake, alone
In the snivelling hours
[B]Dylan Thomas, After The Funeral[/B]


Yet when this Victory's fame shall pass, as grand
And griefless as a rich man's funeral,
Thro' nations that look on with spell-bound eye,
While echoing plaudits ring from land to land,
Alas! will there be none among the good
And great and brave and free, to speak of all
The pale piled pestilence of flesh and blood
[B]Sydney Thompson Dobell, A Musing On A Victory[/B]


ARTICLE XXIV
1. Aerial bombardment is legitimate only when directed at a military objective, that is to say, an object of which the destruction or injury would constitute a distinct military advantage to the belligerent.
2. Such bombardment is legitimate only when directed exclusively at the following objectives: military forces; military works; military establishments or depots; factories constituting important and well-known centres engaged in the manufacture of arms, ammunition, or distinctively military supplies; lines of communication or transportation used for military purposes.
3. The bombardment of cities, towns, villages, dwellings, or buildings not in the immediate neighborhood of the operations of land forces is prohibited. In cases where the objectives specified in paragraph 2 are so situated, that they cannot be bombarded without the indiscriminate bombardment of the civilian population, the aircraft must abstain from bombardment.
[B]The Hague Draft Rules of Air Warfare[/B]

 
In air campaigns against Japan in 1944 and 1945, General Curtis LeMay of the U.S. Army Air Corps also defied the established wartime policy of the United States. That policy called for precision daylight bombing of military targets. Instead, LeMay retrofitted his planes with napalm cannisters (jellied gasoline), and dropped them at night over the northern suburbs of Tokyo, which were then the most densely populated areas in the world. Of course there were no men of fighting age present; there were only women, children, and the elderly packed in their wooden homes.
[B]Professor Anthony D'Amato, History's Two Worst War Criminals[/B]


LeMay said if we lost the war that we would have all been prosecuted as war criminals. And I think he's right. We were behaving as war criminals.
[B]Robert McNamara, US Secretary of Defense, in Fog of War[/B]


Life is so short
Fall in love, dear maiden
While your lips are still red
And before you are cold
For there will be no tomorrow
[B]Takashi Shimura, in Ikiru[/B][/i][/INDENT][/INDENT]


March in Japan. The second anniversary of the March 2011 Tohoku earthquake and the tsunami and the nuclear meltdowns in Fukushima. 

There is another dark anniversary. The blanket firebombing of Tokyo in March 1945.

The deliberate targeting of thousands of civilians. Guernica. Coventry. Dresden. Tokyo. 

We humans learn very, very slowly. 

[I]Grave of the Fireflies[/I] is a novel by Akiyuki Nosaka. It's about two children trying to survive after the firebombing of Tokyo. It was made into a Studio Ghibli animated movie directed by Isao Takahata.

This week was the spring equinox [I]higan[/I] holiday. It is a Buddhist holiday. Many people visit family graves. I was at a funeral. Funerals in Japan are normally held over two days. The first ceremony is in the evening and is a kind of wake. The next day the body is cremated. At the crematorium I saw one funeral party with a Buddhist priest. One funeral party with a Shinto priest. And one funeral party with a Christian priest.   

There are some very good Japanese movies about death and funerals. [I]Ikiru[/I] - [I]Living[/I] - was directed by Akira Kurosawa. It starred Takashi Shimura who was in many of Kurosawa's movies. He played Kambei Shimada in [I]Seven Samurai[/I]. [I]Ososhiki[/I] - [I]The Funeral[/I] - pokes fun at Japanese funeral customs. It was directed by Juzo Itami. Some years later he was attacked by gangsters with swords because he had directed a movie about yakuza. He later committed suicide. Or was forced to by gangsters. [I]Okuribito[/I] - [I]Departures[/I] - was directed by Yojiro Takita. It won an Oscar for best foreign language film. It is about an unemployed musician who gets a job preparing bodies for funerals. 

At funerals you get to hear stories and memories from the past. Death always means that stories and memories are lost for ever. Martial arts can not really be passed on through books. So when budo teachers die their knowledge dies with them. Some of their students will have caught some of the knowledge. But not all of it.

I don't go to funerals of budo teachers often. I train instead. I'm pretty sure they would approve.
 
Niall


[I][B]poems and background articles[/B]

T S Eliot, Burnt Norton from The Four Quartets, 
[url]http://www.americanpoems.com/poets/tseliot/7066[/url]
The Four Quartets
[url]http://ecuy.net/education/Eliot_FourQuartets.pdf[/url]

Dylan Thomas, After The Funeral
[url]http://wonderingminstrels.blogspot.jp/2000/02/after-funeral-in-memory-of-ann-jones.html[/url]

Emily Dickinson, I Felt A Funeral In My Brain
[url]http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/cs6/funeral.html[/url]

Sydney Thompson Dobell, A Musing On A Victory
[url]http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/a-musing-on-a-victory/[/url]


[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_funeral[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Higan[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guernica[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dresden_air_raids[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coventry_Blitz[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombing_of_Tokyo[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombing_of_Japan[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aerial_bombardment_and_international_law[/url] 

[url]http://www.wired.com/thisdayintech/2011/03/0309incendiary-bombs-kill-100000-tokyo/[/url]
[url]http://wwi.lib.byu.edu/index.php/The_Hague_Rules_of_Air_Warfare[/url]

Professor Anthony D'Amato, History's Two Worst War Criminals
[url]http://lawofnations.blogspot.jp/2005/08/historys-two-worst-war-criminals.html[/url]

Naom Chomsky, On the Backgrounds of the Pacific War
[url]http://www.chomsky.info/articles/196709--.htm#11[/url] 

Dresden and Tokyo bombings
[url]http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/T130310003627.htm[/url]

movies and novel
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Departures_(film)[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Funeral_(1984_film)[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ikiru[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grave_of_the_Fireflies[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grave_of_the_Fireflies_(novel)[/url]


photo: [URL="http://www.flickr.com/photos/fatguyinalittlecoat/5679404617/"]Postwar Tokyo Map - showing destroyed areas[/URL] by Justin Cozart


my home page with a mirror of these blog posts plus other articles: [URL="http://mooninthewater.net/aikido"]mooninthewater.net/aikido[/URL]
 

my [URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=75&filter[1]=Niall%20Matthews"]columns[/URL] on aikiweb[/i]


© niall matthews 2013]]></body>
	<date>03-21-2013</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="4740">
	<title><![CDATA[wrestling ghosts]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[[indent][indent][indent][INDENT][INDENT][INDENT][i]photo: [URL="http://www.flickr.com/photos/69184488@N06/8270481384/"]Herakles wrestling with Triton[/URL] from MCAD Library[/i][/INDENT][/INDENT][/INDENT][/indent][/indent][/indent]



[INDENT][INDENT][i]This is how he grows: by being defeated, decisively,
by constantly greater beings.
[B]Rainer Maria Rilke, The Beholder[/B]


which one of them is raw, or baked in the sun or not,
so you might get to know one who is inactive and open,
pulling him down after throwing him over from the Chersonese 
after hooking his leg with yours behind his knee 
then after you turn his shoulder over, 
you fall heavily upon him
[B]Aristophanes, Knights [/B]


If I can catch him once upon the hip,
I will feed fat the ancient grudge I bear him. 
[B]William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice, act 1, scene 3 [/B]


Like all who contended in the games, the Wrestlers were accustomed to rub their bodies with oil, partly to check the excessive perspiration occasioned by the heat and the violence of the exercises, and partly from an opinion that the oil gave the limbs a greater degree of pliancy and agility. As the smoothness occasioned by the oil would have prevented the combatants from grasping each other with firmness, it was customary for them, after being anointed, to roll themselves in the dust of the Stadium, or to be sprinkled with a fine sand kept for that purpose at Olympia. If in falling, one of the Wrestlers dragged his adversary along with him, the combat was continued on the ground, till one of the parties had forced the other to yield the victory.
[B]Jacob Robinson and Sidney Gilpin, Wrestling and Wrestlers[/B]


we need to know what to do
when we're getting cranked
[B]Jeff Kass, All wrestlers practice failing[/B]


Too true it is, deserted of my strength,
These withered arms and limbs have failed at length.
Oh! had I now that force I felt of yore,
Known through Buprasium and the Pylian shore!
Victorious then in every solemn game,
Ordained to Amarynces's mighty name;
The brave Epeians gave my glory way,
Aetolians, Pylians, all resigned the day.
I quelled Clytomedes in fights of hand,
And backward hurled Ancaeus on the sand
[B]Homer, The Illiad[/B]


Here we are, my mercenary Greek,
back at the same crossroads
where you bested my father.
The ground when you pinned him down
is what defeated you in
hold after hold or until
you found the way to filet his strength,
the way a fisherman's instinct
cleans flesh from the bone of earth.
[B]Terreson, Antaeus's Son to His Father's Killer[/B]


we hold until I am exhausted
he is a trickling thing of sand
a scintilla that drains back into the beach
a shock of trees
released by strong winds
he is a fish, a slither
an eel that flits away
then has me pinned
[B]Steve Parker, Lights fall from the Old Man of the Sea[/B]


In fact the modern Olympic style of wrestling most closely resembling that of Ancient Greece is Judo, a sport invented by a Japanese professor of English in 1882
[B]Christopher Miller, Submission Fighting and the Rules of Ancient Greek Wrestling[/B]


If an Olympic champion of 20 years ago were to attend a wrestling tournament now, he probably could not tell what is going on.
[b]Nenad Lalovic, president of the international wrestling federation[/B][/i][/INDENT][/INDENT]


All right, pop quiz. What's the difference between freestyle wrestling and greco-roman?

In February 2013 the International Olympic Committee voted to remove wrestling from the list of core Olympic sports. Japan is one of the strongest wrestling nations at the Olympics and in Japan this was seen as part of a deliberate and continuing attack on Japan and Japanese sport. Baseball and softball were removed from the Olympics for 2012. Both sports in which Japan usually wins a medal. And now wrestling. 

Removing baseball and softball is difficult to justify. They are popular sports played and watched by many, many people of all ages all over the world. But wrestling is different. The number of active participants is small. They are mostly school students. Spectators are mostly wrestlers and their parents. The rules are unfathomable. (What is that guy doing on his hands and knees?). So for the 2020 Olympics wrestling will have to compete with baseball/softball, karate, roller sports, sport climbing, squash, wakeboarding and wushu. What will be the deciding factor? The number of people who play the sport? The number of people who watch the sport? Or the number of sponsors who are prepared to pay to be associated with the sport?
 
Judo was introduced in 1964 when the Olympics were held in Tokyo. Taekwondo was introduced as a demonstration sport in 1988 when the Olympics were held in Seoul. So if Tokyo is awarded the 2020 Olympics there might be a chance for karate. There are different styles of karate which is why it has not been attractive as an Olympic sport. If karate and taekwondo could come to some agreement over common rules the sports could be combined for international competitions. I am quite sure that will happen in the next few decades.   

Judo itself is probably in danger. Modern judo is mostly not very interesting to watch. And the rules are difficult to understand. At the February 2013 Judo Grand Prix in Düsseldorf many matches were decided by penalties. That was not a good sign. So the judo world too should be thinking creatively. Judo is wrestling with jackets. Jackets are useful. They allow easy gripping, dynamic throws and good control. You can even use jackets in ground techniques. When Olympic judo gold medallist Hidehiko Yoshida started mixed martial arts fighting he wore a judogi. He wanted to keep the option of using his own jacket. And he choked out Royce Gracie with sode guruma jime. 

So if wrestlers could be persuaded to wear jackets a universal sport of jacket wrestling could be introduced for competitions. The best of wrestling, judo and sambo. Sambo is a Russian martial art. It already has some similarities with judo and some people have excelled in both. Katsuhiko Kashiwazaki was a world judo champion and also a world sambo champion. By the way he was a superb judo newaza technician. You can check out how he expertly used a jacket to wrap up his opponent's wrist in the video below. 

So we would be down to one sport for kicking and striking and one sport for wrestling with jackets. Then we could get to work on horse sports, rowing, paddling and sailing sports, cycling, diving, basketball, tennis, golf… The Olympics could look more like the Universiade. It has only 13 main sports.  

The evaluation commission of the International Olympic Committee came to Tokyo at the beginning of March 2013. Stations in Tokyo were covered in Tokyo 2020 posters and tv commercials promoting Tokyo 2020 were showing in the trains. The advertising campaign strongly featured some of Japan's Olympic medallists from London 2012. Mostly it looked like wrestling. You know, the sport that won't be at the 2020 Olympics.    

Oh yes. The answer to the pop quiz. "Shoot the hostage" ([I]Keanu Reeves, Speed[/I]). Wrestling has only got itself to blame. Judo you're next.

niall


[I][B]poems and background articles[/B]

[url]http://martyrion.blogspot.jp/2009/11/man-watching-der-schauende-by-rainer.html[/url]
Rainer Maria Rilke, The Beholder

some of the cool poems quoted above are collected on these great pages of wrestling poetry, including:
Terreson, Antaeus's Son to His Father's Killer
Steve Parker, Lights fall from the Old Man of the Sea
Jeff Kass, All wrestlers practice failing
[url]http://clatterymachinery.wordpress.com/2009/11/29/the-mixed-classic-amateur-wrestling-poetry-all-world-meet-48-poems/[/url]
[url]http://clatterymachinery.wordpress.com/2006/11/04/wrestling-with-poetry-in-november/[/url]

[url]http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/37562[/url] 
Jacob Robinson and Sidney Gilpin, Wrestling and Wrestlers

[url]http://www.historical-pankration.com/articles_wrestling.html[/url] 
Christopher Miller, Submission Fighting and the Rules of Ancient Greek Wrestling

[url]http://www.olympic.org/wrestling-greco-roman-equipment-and-history[/url] 
[url]http://www.olympic.org/wrestling-freestyle-equipment-and-history[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olympic_wrestling[/url] 
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pankration[/url]
[url]http://www.institute-of-martialarts-and-sciences.com/[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sambo_(martial_art)[/url]
[url]http://judokafighter.com/katsuhiko-kashiwazaki-the-best-groundwork-move-ever/[/url]
[url]http://www.fightingfilms.com/top/fighter_profiles/world_champions/katsuhiko_kashiwazaki.html[/url] 
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taekwondo[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universiade[/url]
[url]http://www.fisu.net/en/FISU-homepage-3137.html[/url]


photo: [URL="http://www.flickr.com/photos/69184488@N06/8270481384/"]Herakles wrestling with Triton[/URL] from MCAD Library


my home page with a mirror of these blog posts plus other articles: [URL="http://mooninthewater.net/aikido"]mooninthewater.net/aikido[/URL]
 

my [URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=75&filter[1]=Niall%20Matthews"]columns[/URL] on aikiweb[/i]


© niall matthews 2013]]></body>
	<date>03-06-2013</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="4727">
	<title><![CDATA[wild horse]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[[INDENT][INDENT][INDENT][i]painting: [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elena_Drobychevskaja"]Wild Horse[/URL] by Elena Drobychevskaja[/i][/INDENT][/INDENT][/INDENT]



[INDENT][INDENT][i]sinking sand
skin and bone
bring on the dancing horses
[B]Echo and the Bunnymen, Bring on the Dancing Horses[/B]


I am a feather on the bright sky
I am the blue horse that runs in the plain
I am the fish that rolls, shining, in the water
I am the shadow that follows a child
I am the evening light, the lustre of meadows
I am an eagle playing with the wind
[B]N Scott Momaday, The Delight Song of Tsoai-talee[/B]


somewhere up there he's waiting for me
and he knows that I'm coming' for him 
and I just can't rest till I find
that raven black stallion that wears no man's brand 
with a wild restless spirit like mine
[B]Chris Ledoux, Caballo Diablo[/B]


Because the pleasure-bird whistles after the hot wires,
Shall the blind horse sing sweeter?
Convenient bird and beast lie lodged to suffer
The supper and knives of a mood.
[B]Dylan Thomas, Because The Pleasure-bird Whistles[/B]


Sometimes I have no more wit than a Christian or an ordinary man has; but I am a great eater of beef, and I believe that does harm to my wit.
[B]William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night, act 1, scene 3[/B]


wild wild horses 
we'll ride them 
someday
[B]Rolling Stones, Wild Horses[/B][/i][/INDENT][/INDENT]


My first aikido teacher Kinjo Asoh sensei liked art. His father was an artist. Asoh sensei had some pictures of horses. You could feel their power. 

There is a kind of concise Japanese proverb called [I]yojijukugo[/I] &#22235;&#23383;&#29087;&#35486; &#12424;&#12376;&#12376;&#12421;&#12367;&#12372;. [I]Yojijukugo[/I] are very popular and there are many books about them. They are four-character phrases. Sometimes the meaning is clear from the kanji themselves. But there are also lots of idiomatic [I]yojijukugo[/I] with special meanings. In English we have a few four word maxims too. Like [I]more haste less speed[/I]. 

[I]Gyuuinbashoku[/I] is a [I]yojijukugo[/I]. &#29275;&#39154;&#39340;&#39135; &#12366;&#12421;&#12358;&#12356;&#12435;&#12400;&#12375;&#12423;&#12367;. Cow drink horse eat. It means heavy drinking and eating. Drink like a cow and eat like a horse. 

In Europe now there is a food scandal. Horsemeat was sold as beef and used in the manufacture of burgers and lasagna. It seems like a mislabelling for profit scandal more than a serious public health problem. But perhaps the fact that it was horsemeat was shocking. 

Horsemeat is eaten a little in Japan. It can be eaten raw as [I]sashimi[/I] called [I]basashi[/I] or cooked. In the United Kingdom where I'm from horsemeat is not eaten at all. There is no word for it. English words for meat came from Norman French. Beef from [I]boeuf[/I]. Pork from [I]porc[/I]. Mutton from [I]mouton[/I]. Anglo-saxon words were used for the animals themselves. Cow, pig, sheep. Horse.

The nineteenth century novel [I]Black Beauty[/I] by Anna Sewell is one of the best-selling books of all time. It was a sympathetic story about the life of a horse. A similar story [I]War Horse[/I] was filmed by Steven Spielberg in the twenty-first century. 

For centuries horses have been used in war. Alexander had a famous horse called Bucephalus. In Japan some samurai fought on horseback. The [I]katana[/I] used by horsemen was called a [I]tachi[/I]. It had a slightly different rake and it was not worn blade up in the waistband. It was hung blade down on straps. Still today you can see demonstrations of horseback archery - [I]yabusame[/I] - at festivals. 

Niall


[I][B]poems and background articles[/B]

[url]http://www.poetryoutloud.org/poem/175895[/url] 
N. Scott Momaday, The Delight Song of Tsoai-talee 


[url]http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/because-the-pleasure-bird-whistles/[/url]
Dylan Thomas, Because The Pleasure-bird Whistles


[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yojijukugo[/url] 
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horse[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horses_in_East_Asian_warfare[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yabusame[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horse_meat[/url] 
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_meat_adulteration_scandal[/url]
[url]http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2278359/Whats-point-food-safety-quango-save-eating-stallion-burgers.html[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Beauty[/url] 
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_Horse_(film)[/url]


painting: [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elena_Drobychevskaja"]Wild Horse[/URL] by Elena Drobychevskaja

special thanks to Elena Drobychevskaja for permission to use her powerful painting

[URL="http://drobychevskaja.de/modern-horse-paintings-of-elena-drobychevskaja.htm"]Elena Drobychevskaja's home page[/URL]


my home page with a mirror of these blog posts plus other articles: [URL="http://mooninthewater.net/aikido"]mooninthewater.net/aikido[/URL]
 

my [URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=75&filter[1]=Niall%20Matthews"]columns[/URL] on aikiweb[/i]


© niall matthews 2013]]></body>
	<date>02-19-2013</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="4718">
	<title><![CDATA[the dark side of japanese judo]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[[indent][indent][indent][INDENT][INDENT][INDENT][INDENT][indent][i][URL="http://www.flickr.com/photos/ello_there/3197908701/"]Shinai[/URL] by Andrew | andhong09[/i][/INDENT][/INDENT][/INDENT][/INDENT][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent]



[INDENT][INDENT][i]If you make every game a life-and-death thing, you're going to have problems. You'll be dead a lot.
[B]Dean Smith, basketball coach[/B]


Once you've done the mental work, there comes a point you have to throw yourself into the action and put your heart on the line. That means not only being brave, but being compassionate towards yourself, your teammates and your opponents.
[B]Phil Jackson, basketball coach[/B]


This is no democracy. It is a dictatorship. I am the law.
[B]Coach Herman Boone, Remember the Titans[/B]


Serious sport has nothing to do with fair play. It is bound up with hatred, jealousy, boastfulness, disregard of all rules and sadistic pleasure in witnessing violence.
[B]George Orwell, Shooting an Elephant[/B]


As to the moral phase of judo - not to speak of the discipline of the exercise room involving the observance of the regular rules of etiquette, courage, and perseverance, kindness to and respect for others, impartiality and fair play so much emphasized in Western athletic training - judo has special importance in Japan.
[B]Jigoro Kano[/B]


The coaches beat the athletes with bamboo swords and told them to die, a senior Japanese Olympic Committee official said. They also slapped the women's cheeks, shoved their breasts and kicked them.
[B]Asahi Shimbun[/B][/i][/INDENT][/INDENT]


Jigoro Kano developed and codified modern judo from jujutsu techniques. But he also based his vision of judo on the principles of [I]seiryoku zenyo - jita kyoei[/I]. The most efficient use of energy - for the benefit of other people as well as yourself. Judo is a modern sport and it is also explicitly supposed to be positive for society. 

But there is a dark side to judo in Japan. 

At the beginning of February 2013 Ryuji Sonoda the coach of the Japanese national women's judo team resigned. Finally. Fifteen team members had complained of violence and physical abuse and assault. Fifteen. When the complaint was first made in September 2012 the All Japan Judo Federation reacted ineptly. Sonoda was allowed to continue as coach. The athletes tried to take it up with the Japan Olympic Committee. They were still not happy with the response until finally it became a news story. 

They were helped by the synergy of a couple of other elements.  

There have been other shocking stories on bullying and power harassment recently which helped to keep the media focus on the judo story. In December 2012 a high school student in Osaka committed suicide after his basketball coach repeatedly hit and abused him. And a report was released in February 2013 about the 2011 suicide in Otsu in southern Japan of a 13-year old boy who had been relentlessly bullied. The report was very critical of teachers who had failed to stop the bullying.  

Another important factor was that Tokyo is a candidate city for the 2020 Olympics. The IOC will decide on the winning city in September 2013. If there is an unresolved problem with Japanese athletes the Tokyo bid might be in danger. So when the judo abuse story became public there was political pressure to solve the problem fast.  


[I][B]disturbing things about this story[/B][/I]
[LIST=1]
[*]The complaints of abuse were not taken seriously until the media got hold of the story.

[*]The All Japan Judo Federation didn't fire Sonoda.  

[*]Sonoda is a police officer.

[*]The All Japan Judo Federation board has 25 members. All men. There is not one woman member.
[/LIST]

[I][B](the few) good things about this story[/B][/I]
[LIST=1]
[*]The women athletes had the courage to complain about the abuse.

[*]They didn't give up when the All Japan Judo Federation didn't take the complaints seriously. 

[*]And now finally something seems to be happening.[/LIST] 

Judo is a wonderful sport. It should have coaches and administrators who respect it and who can transmit that belief to the next generation. Perhaps this scandal will lead to real changes in attitude. But don't hold your breath.

Niall


[I]I teach aikido. I also have a fourth dan in judo.


photo: [URL="http://www.flickr.com/photos/ello_there/3197908701/"]Shinai[/URL] by Andrew | andhong09


my home page with a mirror of these blog posts plus other stuff: [URL="http://mooninthewater.net/aikido"]mooninthewater.net/aikido[/URL]
 

my [URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=75&filter[1]=Niall%20Matthews"]columns[/URL] on aikiweb[/i]


© niall matthews 2013]]></body>
	<date>02-11-2013</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="4705">
	<title><![CDATA[playing cards]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[[indent][indent][indent][INDENT][INDENT][INDENT][INDENT][indent][i][URL="http://www.flickr.com/photos/reartcycle/2108008514"]matsu1[/URL] by atsukosmith[/i][/INDENT][/INDENT][/INDENT][/INDENT][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent]



[INDENT][INDENT][i]What I say is, patience, and shuffle the cards. 
[B]Miguel De Cervantes, Don Quixote[/B]


A man's idea in a card game is war - cruel, devastating and pitiless. A lady's idea of it is a combination of larceny, embezzlement and burglary.
[B]Finley Peter Dunne, Mr. Dooley on Making a Will[/B]


When I look up at 
The wide-stretched plain of heaven, 
Is the moon the same 
That rose on Mount Mikasa 
In the land of Kasuga? 
[B]Abe no Nakamaro, Ogura Hyakunin Isshu[/B]


Uh, is this a game of chance? 
Not the way I play it, no. 
[B]W C Fields, My Little Chickadee[/B][/i][/INDENT][/INDENT]


Last weekend in a community hall near where I live there was a karuta tournament. Karuta is a traditional Japanese card game. It's often played in the new year. The word karuta comes from Portuguese. 

It's partly a literary memory game and partly a reaction speed battle. 

The traditional game is based on a book of waka poems called the [I]Ogura Hyakunin Isshu[/I]. It was compiled by Fujiwara no Teika in the thirteenth century in the Ogura district of Kyoto. It is a book of one hundred poems by one hundred poets. That is a simple concept for an anthology of poetry and there is a modern anthology of English poetry called [I]100 Poems by 100 Poets[/I]. 

Now there are also karuta with many different themes and designs. There are sets based on popular comic characters like [I]One Piece[/I] and [I]Doraemon[/I] and sets for studying history or Shakespeare. 

There is a popular manga and animé series about karuta called [I]Chiyahafuru[/I]. It's about high school students in a karuta club. A second season started in January 2013. 

There are some similarities with martial arts. Karuta has dan ranks. For formal tournaments the players wear kimono and hakama. And you need very, very fast reflexes. 

Niall


[i][B]poems and background articles[/B]

Ogura Hyakunin Isshu online
[url]http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/japanese/hyakunin/index.html[/url] 

[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karuta[/url] 
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyakunin_Isshu[/url] 
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uta-garuta[/url] 
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Competitive_karuta[/url] 
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chihayafuru[/url] 

100 Poems by 100 Poets selected by Harold Pinter, Geoffrey Godbert and Anthony Astbury
[url]http://www.amazon.co.jp/100-Poems-Poets-An-Anthology/dp/0802132790/[/url]


cool artwork: [URL="http://www.flickr.com/photos/reartcycle/2108008514"]matsu1[/URL] by atsukosmith


my home page with a mirror of these blog posts plus other stuff: [URL="http://mooninthewater.net/aikido"]mooninthewater.net/aikido[/URL]
 

my [URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=75&filter[1]=Niall%20Matthews"]columns[/URL] on aikiweb[/i]


© niall matthews 2013]]></body>
	<date>01-26-2013</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="4701">
	<title><![CDATA[ekiden double take]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[[indent][indent][indent][INDENT][INDENT][INDENT][INDENT][indent][i][URL="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mrhayata/344129706/"]Runner[/URL] by mrhayata[/i][/INDENT][/INDENT][/INDENT][/INDENT][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent]



[INDENT][INDENT][i]Something in me wanted to find out how far I could run without stopping. 
[B]Jacki Hanson, U.S. marathon runner [/B]


My sister and I, you will recollect, were twins, and you know how subtle are the links which bind two souls which are so closely allied. 
[B]Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Adventure of the Speckled Band[/B]


An apple cleft in two is not more twin
Than these two creatures. 
[B]William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night, act 5, scene 1 [/B]


This beggar might be perhaps
An angel, Luther said. 
[B]Robert Browning, The Twins[/B]


Or Basho was just envious
He may be a poet of his age
But his poems never bore 
Him a son
Or a mirror of his own face
[B]Ric S Bastasa, Perhaps to Basho the twins are boring[/B]


Firearms may be kept on your person for use in emergencies. Do not fire them for pleasure or shoot at wild animals as the sound riles the horses.
[B]Wells Fargo stagecoach rules[/B][/B][/i][/INDENT][/INDENT]


One of the new year events in Japan is the Hakone Ekiden. An ekiden is a long-distance relay road race. On 2 January the runners run to Hakone near Mount Fuji. On 3 January runners run from Hakone to Tokyo. The race is broadcast live on television over the two days. It is one of the most popular sports events in Japan.  

The idea of the word ekiden is like a stagecoach. The first ekiden was held in Japan in 1917 over 500 kilometres from Kyoto to Tokyo. The Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper sponsored the first ekiden race. Toki Zenmaro was a poet who worked at the Yomiuri Shimbun at the time and he used the word ekiden for the first time to describe a road race. Now the course is often a full marathon or a half marathon. 

In the Yomiuri newspaper recently there was an article about twins Haruka and Moe Kyuma. They are both great runners. They were members of the Tsukuba University women's team that was third at the 2012 All-Japan Women's College Ekiden Championship in October 2012. 

And in the 2012 men's Hakone Ekiden twins Yuta and Keita Shitara both ran for Toyo University. 

In the past twin brothers Shigeru and Takeshi So were famous Japanese marathon runners. They both competed at the Los Angeles Olympics in 1984. 

I wrote about DNA and family in [URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/blogs/moon-in-the-water-19051/budo-dna-double-helix-4007/"]budo/dna double helix[/URL]. And I wrote about running in [URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/blogs/moon-in-the-water-19051/silent-running-4328/"]silent running[/URL].

In Japanese you don't say my brother or my sister. You always put it in context. My younger brother or my younger sister. If you are watching a movie in English and one of the characters talks about a brother or sister without specifying older or younger the subtitle translator just guesses. 

The den in ekiden means transmission. It is the same letter used in densetsu, legend. And denki, biography. And hiden. Secret transmission. 

Niall


[i][B]poems and background articles[/B]

[url]http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-twins/[/url] 
Robert Browning, The Twins

[url]http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/perhaps-to-basho-the-twins-are-boring/[/url] 
Ric S Bastasa, Perhaps to Basho the twins are boring

[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ekiden[/url]  
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shigeru_So[/url] 
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Takeshi_So[/url] 

[url]http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/columns/musings/T120103003863.htm[/url] 
Musings, from the Daily Yomiuri, including a poem by Zenmaro Toki

[url]http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/sports/T121114004336.htm[/url] 
Twins get Tsukuba back on winning track, from the Daily Yomiuri


photo: [URL="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mrhayata/344129706/"]Runner[/URL] by mrhayata


my home page with a mirror of these blog posts plus other stuff: [URL="http://mooninthewater.net/aikido"]mooninthewater.net/aikido[/URL]
 

my [URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=75&filter[1]=Niall%20Matthews"]columns[/URL] on aikiweb[/i]


© niall matthews 2012]]></body>
	<date>01-14-2013</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="4687">
	<title><![CDATA[forgetting the year of the dragon]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[[indent][INDENT][INDENT][INDENT][INDENT][indent][i][URL="http://www.flickr.com/photos/neilbanas/3172121866/"]dragon fusuma at ryogen-in, daitokuji, kyoto[/URL] by neil banas[/i][/INDENT][/INDENT][/INDENT][/INDENT][/indent][/indent]



[INDENT][INDENT][i]Movement number 4: dragon seeks path - dragon whips tail. 
[B]Bruce Lee, Way of the Dragon[/B]


Hard by the lilied Nile I saw
A duskish river-dragon stretched along,
The brown habergeon of his limbs enamelled
With sanguine alamandines and rainy pear:
[B]Thomas Lovell Beddoes, A Crocodile[/B]


In this altar-piece the knight,
Who grips his long spear so to push
That dragon through the fading light,
Loved the lady; and it's plain
The half-dead dragon was her thought,
That every morning rose again
And dug its claws and shrieked and fought.
[B]W B Yeats, Michael Robartes and the Dancer[/B]


But each day brings its petty dust
Our soon-chok'd souls to fill,
And we forget because we must,
And not because we will.
[B]Matthew Arnold, Absence[/B]


I had to spend many years losing my spirit, to unlearn thinking again, to forget the oneness.
[B]Herman Hesse, Siddhartha[/B]


Well, but something sure is wrong
'Cause I'm so blue and lonely
I forgot to remember to forget
[B]Elvis Presley, I Forgot to Remember to Forget[/B][/i][/INDENT][/INDENT]


Japan in December is the time for parties for the end of the year. In Japanese they are called bonenkai. Parties to forget the year. Companies have them. Neighbourhoods have them. And of course dojos have them. Many people have to go to several. 

So the bonenkai is the chance to forget all the bad things of the last year. It's a nice idea. If you forget all the bad things that happened during the year all you remember are the good things. 

2012 was the year of the dragon. Looking back on the year I'll just take a couple of memories. 

In Japan people were excited when Tokyo Skytree opened in May 2012. It was 634 metres feet high. [I]Musashi[/I] in Japanese slang. I wrote about it [URL="http://mooninthewater.net/aikido/2012/05/28/tokyo-sky-tree/"]here[/URL]. It's one of the most popular tourist spots in Tokyo now.

The 2012 summer Olympics were held in London. The opening ceremony was dramatic and there were some great moments. The one I won't forget was David Rudisha winning the 800 metres. 

There were some farewells in 2012. Every year we lose great martial artists and their irreplaceable knowledge. Hiroshi Kato Sensei died in 2012. He was a Japanese aikido teacher. After he retired he taught in the USA. I trained with him many years ago. I have a good memory of him showing me how to do a dynamic koshi nage from nikyo - a hip throw from a wristlock. 
 
Bad things happened in 2012 too. But I have forgotten them. 

We use forgetting in the highest level of martial arts. All arts in fact.

So I'll finish with another cool martial arts quote. This time from a movie.


[INDENT][INDENT][I]Learn the form. 
But seek the formless. 
Hear the soundless. 
Learn it all.
Then forget it all. 
Learn the Way. 
Then find your own way. 
[B]Jet Li, The Forbidden Kingdom[/B][/I][/INDENT][/INDENT]


So I hope you had a good year. And that you have already forgotten the bad things.

Have a great 2013. Full of fresh and wonderful moments. The year of the snake.

Niall


[i][B]e-books, poems, music and background articles[/B]

[url]http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/arts-entertainment/crocodile-thomas-lovell-beddoes-10967.html[/url]
Thomas Lovell Beddoes, A Crocodile
[url]http://www.poemhunter.com/thomas-lovell-beddoes/poems/[/url]
[url]http://ebooks.gutenberg.us/Poetry_Collection/poem-ab.html#beddoes[/url] 
poems by Thomas Lovell Beddoes online

[url]http://www.web-books.com/Classics/Poetry/Yeats/Michael/index.htm[/url]
W B Yeats, Michael Robartes and the Dancer
[url]http://www.csun.edu/~hceng029/yeats/poemsalpha.html[/url]
poems by W B Yeats online

[url]http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/absence-58/[/url]
Matthew Arnold, Absence
[url]http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/27739[/url]
free e-book: Poetical Works of Matthew Arnold 

[url]http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2500[/url]
free e-book: Herman Hesse, Siddhartha 

[url]http://akas.imdb.com/title/tt0068935/[/url]
The Way of the Dragon on the internet movie database
[url]http://akas.imdb.com/title/tt0865556/[/url]
The Forbidden Kingdom on the internet movie database


[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aD6WMz7losU[/url]
Elvis Presley, I Forgot to Remember to Forget


[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B%C5%8Dnenkai[/url] Bonenkai
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daitoku-ji[/url] Daitoku-ji


photo: [URL="http://www.flickr.com/photos/neilbanas/3172121866/"]dragon fusuma at ryogen-in, daitokuji, kyoto[/URL] by neil banas


my home page with a mirror of these blog posts plus other stuff: [URL="http://mooninthewater.net/aikido"]mooninthewater.net/aikido[/URL]
 

my [URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=75&filter[1]=Niall%20Matthews"]columns[/URL] on aikiweb[/i]


© niall matthews 2012]]></body>
	<date>12-30-2012</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="4680">
	<title><![CDATA[walk. don't walk. drive. read. walk.]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[[indent][indent][indent][INDENT][INDENT][INDENT][INDENT][indent][i][URL="http://www.flickr.com/photos/lestaylorphoto/8163837210/"]Kagurazaka Street[/URL] by Les Taylor[/i][/INDENT][/INDENT][/INDENT][/INDENT][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent]


[INDENT][INDENT][i]You better cross over 
You better walk humble
Or you're gonna stumble
And Satan is waitin' to take your hand
You walk on the wild side
[B]Brook Benton, Walk on the Wild Side [/B]


Hey babe
Take a walk on the wild side
[B]Lou Reed, Walk on the Wild Side[/B]


tangerine, weather, to
breathe them, bite,
savor, chew, swallow, transform
into our flesh our
deaths, crossing the street
[B]Denise Levertov, O Taste and See[/B]


He wore but a thin
Wind-thridded suit,
Yet well-shaped shoes for walking in,
Artistic beaver, cane gold-topped.
"Alas, my friend," he said with a smile,
"I am daily bound to foot ten mile -
Wet, dry, or dark - before I rest.
[B]Thomas Hardy, The Pedestrian[/B]


You meet him on the corners,   
in bus stations, on the blind avenues
leading neither in
nor out of hell, you meet him
and with him you walk.
[B]Thomas Lux, Pedestrian[/B]


And we'll start the driving lessons when you've mastered the walking bit.
[B]Gregory's Girl[/B][/i][/INDENT][/INDENT]


Japanese samurai used to walk in a special way. It's not a natural movement. You have to learn it. As you walk you swing your arm forward on the same side as your foot. It's called namba walking. I'll write about it in more detail another time. 

I ride a bicycle most days. Today a young woman stepped into the road in front of me without looking. Yesterday a woman on a bicycle rode out in front of me without looking. Some Japanese people are perhaps a little vague about the rules of the road. 

The rules become clearer after they learn to drive. A lot of people learn to drive by going off to an intensive residential course deep in the countryside. A gasshuku. The same as a camp for the martial arts. 

Japan has one of the world's highest rates of literacy. I'll write about that again sometime. Four of the five newspapers with the largest circulations in the world are Japanese. People like to read. Last week I was walking behind a middle school boy who was reading as he walked along the street. It must have been an exciting book. Yesterday I saw a truck driver reading a comic book propped open on his steering wheel while he was stopped at a traffic light.

Niall


[i][B]background articles, poems and music[/B]

[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxz_E1Nlo9I[/url]
Brook Benton, Walk on the Wild Side


[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KaWSOlASWc[/url]
Lou Reed, Walk on the Wild Side


[url]http://www.chriscorrigan.com/parkinglot/levertov.htm#_Toc23572783[/url]
Poems by Denise Levertov


[url]http://www.readbookonline.net/readOnLine/10003/[/url]
Thomas Hardy, The Pedestrian


[url]http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/178153 [/url]
Thomas Lux, Pedestrian


[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Driving_licence_in_Japan[/url]


[url]http://gakuran.com/driving-in-japan-passing-the-japanese-drivers-test/[/url]
Great description of how to get a driving licence in Japan


[url]http://filmicability.blogspot.jp/2008/04/film-20-gregorys-girl.html[/url]
nice review of Gregory's Girl


[url]http://akas.imdb.com/title/tt0082477/[/url]
Gregory's Girl


photo: [URL="http://www.flickr.com/photos/lestaylorphoto/8163837210/"]Kagurazaka Street[/URL] by Les Taylor


my home page with a mirror of these blog posts plus other stuff: [URL="http://mooninthewater.net/aikido"]mooninthewater.net/aikido[/URL]
 

my [URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=75&filter[1]=Niall%20Matthews"]columns[/URL] on aikiweb[/i]


© niall matthews 2012]]></body>
	<date>12-20-2012</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="4674">
	<title><![CDATA[tunnel vision]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[[indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][INDENT][INDENT][INDENT][INDENT][indent][i][URL="http://www.flickr.com/photos/pokeken/5366005517/"]tunnel[/URL] by Kin Chan[/i][/INDENT][/INDENT][/INDENT][/INDENT][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent]




[INDENT][INDENT][i]It is the light
At the end of the tunnel as it might be seen
By him looking out somberly at the shower,
The picture of hope a dying man might turn away from,
Realizing that hope is something else, something concrete
You can't have.
[B]John Ashbery, Houseboat Days[/B]


Leaves and bark, leaves and bark,
To lean against and hear in the dark.
Petals I may have once pursued.
Leaves are all my darker mood.
[B]Robert Frost, Leaves Compared to Flowers [/B]


In the umbra, the tunnel, when the mind went wombtomb, then it was real thought and real living, living thought. 
[B]Samuel Beckett, Dream of Fair to Middling Women[/B]


Parting is a trailing streamer,
Lingering like leaves in autumn.
[B]Philip Larkin, As a War in Years of Peace[/B]

 
Rain. Dirt. Tunnel. Problem.
[b]Michael Scofield, Prison Break[/B][/i][/INDENT][/INDENT]


Autumn leaves are important in the Japanese year. The beauty of the changing colours of the leaves represents the coming of winter. Kevin Short writes a cool regular nature column in the Daily Yomiuri newspaper. This week he wrote an interesting explanation of the science of autumn leaves.

In my column [URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=21996"]Eyes in the Martial Arts[/URL] I talked about a gaze like autumn leaves. It was used in traditional budo as advice on where to look. Another phrase from the Japanese sword is to look at the far mountains. Both of these mean roughly that you should look at everything at once. You have to absorb the whole scene without becoming fixed on any single point. 

The opposite would perhaps be tunnel vision. Looking at something but not being aware of the real truth. There is a lot of that in the martial arts.

I was in the mountains a few days ago. The red and yellow and brown autumn leaves were beautiful. We drove through tunnels punched through the mountains. 

There are many mountains in Japan. Japan is basically four large islands plus Okinawa. Most of the population and most of the cities are on the main island called Honshu. It is a long (1300 kilometres or 810 miles) and narrow (210 kilometres or 140 miles) volcanic landmass with a central spine of mountains.    

On 2 December 2012 in Sasago Tunnel in Yamanashi in central Japan some concrete ceiling panels collapsed and fell on to the road. Each panel weighed more than a ton. Several people died. 

Safety inspections are carried out every five years. The last inspection was carried out a couple of months before the accident. 

So exactly what did they inspect? 

Niall


[i][B]background articles[/B]

Newspaper Column about autumn leaves by Kevin Short 
[url]http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/features/science/T121204003475.htm[/url]


[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sasago_Tunnel[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_highways_of_Japan[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_National_highways_of_Japan[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japan_National_Route_20[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honshu[/url] 


photo: [URL="http://www.flickr.com/photos/pokeken/5366005517/"]tunnel[/URL] by Kin Chan


my home page with a mirror of these blog posts plus other stuff: [URL="http://mooninthewater.net/aikido"]mooninthewater.net/aikido[/URL]
 

my [URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=75&filter[1]=Niall%20Matthews"]columns[/URL] on aikiweb[/i]


© niall matthews 2012]]></body>
	<date>12-05-2012</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="4669">
	<title><![CDATA[thanks]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[[indent][INDENT][INDENT][INDENT][INDENT][indent][i][URL="http://www.flickr.com/photos/wallyg/5841620255/"]Ky&#333;to - Nakagy&#333;: Honke Owariya - Hourai Soba[/URL] by Wally Gobetz[/i][/INDENT][/INDENT][/INDENT][/INDENT][/indent][/indent]




[INDENT][INDENT][i]Thanks to the morning light,
Thanks to the foaming sea,
To the uplands of New Hampshire,
To the green-haired forest free.
[B]Ralph Waldo Emerson, The World-Soul[/B]


If we meet someone who owes us thanks, we right away remember that. But how often do we meet someone to whom we owe thanks without remembering that?
[B]Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe, Elective Affinities[/B]


To give thanks in solitude is enough. Thanksgiving has wings and goes where it must go. Your prayer knows much more about it than you do.
[B]Victor Hugo, L'Homme qui rit[/B]


i thank you god for this most amazing
day: for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky; and for everything
which is natural which is infinite which is yes 
[B]e e cummings, I thank you god for this most amazing[/B] 


Thank you. You are a very pleasant person.
Thank you. You are too.
[B]John Ashbery, My Erotic Double[/B]


And here is the one-eyed merchant, and this card,
Which is blank, is something he carries on his back,
Which I am forbidden to see. I do not find
The Hanged Man. Fear death by water.
I see crowds of people, walking round in a ring.
Thank you. 
[B]T S Eliot, The Waste Land [/B]


I thank you. I am not of many words, but I thank you.
[B]William Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing, act 1, scene 1[/B]
 

My desk, most loyal friend
thank you. You've been with me on
every road I've taken.
My scar and my protection. 
[b]Marina Tsvetaeva, Desk[/B][/i][/INDENT][/INDENT]


In Japan there is a Labor Thanksgiving holiday at the end of November.

It was originally a harvest festival. Under the American Occupation after the Second World War it was reborn as Labor Thanksgiving Day. Theoretically it is a day to appreciate everyone's work and also the results of everyone's work. But it also includes the ideas of human rights and environment protection.

There is a tradition in some religions of saying grace before a meal. To say thank you for the meal and perhaps to ask for it to be blessed. [I]For what we are about to receive…[/I]

Before a meal Japanese people say [I]itadakimasu[/I]. I receive this with thanks. It's one of many Japanese phrases that don't have a simple translation.  

It is to give thanks to the plants and animals and fish that you are about to eat. And to the preparers of the meal and to the farmers and fishermen and everyone else in the chain who helped to bring the food to the table. I wrote about food in [URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/blogs/moon-in-the-water-19051/dharma-food-4656/"][I]dharma food[/I][/URL]. 
  
Another way of saying receive in Japanese is [I]ukeru[/I]. In the martial arts the person who receives a technique is the [I]uke[/I]. The act of receiving a technique is [I]ukemi[/I]. The [I]ukemi[/I] can mean the breakfall. Or it can mean the whole process of attacking and then receiving a technique. I'll talk about [I]ukemi[/I] in detail in future posts and columns. 

After a meal Japanese people say [I]gochisousama deshita[/I]. It was a wonderful meal. 

I wrote about saying thank you in the martial arts in [URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/blogs/moon-in-the-water-19051/doumo-arigatou-gozaimashita-3956/"][I]doumo. arigatou. gozaimashita[/I][/URL].

Sometimes Japanese people ask what we say in English for [I]itadakimasu[/I]. Well we can always use French. 

[I]Bon appétit[/I].

Niall

  
[i][B]e-books, poems + background articles[/B]

[url]http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/12843[/url]
Ralph Waldo Emerson, Poems


[url]http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/11366[/url]
Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe, Elective Affinities


[url]http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/5423[/url]
Victor Hugo, L'homme qui rit - in French

[url]http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/12587[/url]
Victor Hugo, L'homme qui rit - in English


[url]http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1321[/url]
T S Eliot, The Waste Land


[url]http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/100[/url]
William Shakespeare, The Complete Works


[url]http://famouspoetsandpoems.com/poets/e__e__cummings/poems/14210[/url]
e e cummings, i thank you god for this most amazing


[url]http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/177263[/url]
John Ashbery, My Erotic Double


[url]http://calmthings.blogspot.jp/2009/02/alberto-giacometti-still-life-with.html[/url]
[url]http://nataliejabbar.wordpress.com/tag/jean-valentine/[/url]
Marina Tsvetaeva, excerpts from Desk


[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labor_Thanksgiving_Day[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvest_festival[/url] 
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thanksgiving_Day[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etiquette_in_Japan#eating_and_drinking[/url] 
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grace_(prayer) [/url]


photo: [URL="http://www.flickr.com/photos/wallyg/5841620255/"]Ky&#333;to - Nakagy&#333;: Honke Owariya - Hourai Soba[/URL] by Wally Gobetz


my home page with a mirror of these blog posts plus other stuff: [URL="http://mooninthewater.net/aikido"]mooninthewater.net/aikido[/URL]
 

my [URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=75&filter[1]=Niall%20Matthews"]columns[/URL] on aikiweb[/i]


© niall matthews 2012]]></body>
	<date>11-27-2012</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="4666">
	<title><![CDATA[sunrise]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[[indent][indent][INDENT][INDENT][INDENT][INDENT][indent][i][URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ishihara_Mishima.jpg"]Shintaro Ishihara and Yukio Mishima[/URL][/INDENT][/INDENT][/INDENT][/INDENT][/indent][/indent][/indent][/i]


[INDENT][INDENT][i]We are not come to wage a strife
With swords upon this hill,
It is not wise to waste the life
Against a stubborn will.
Yet would we die as some have done.
Beating a way for the rising sun.
[B]Arna Bontemps, The Day-Breakers[/B]


My black hills have never seen the sun rising,
Eternally they look north towards Armagh.
[B]Patrick Kavanagh, Shancoduff[/B]


The sun may set and rise:
But we contrariwise
Sleep after our short light
One everlasting night.
[B]Sir Walter Raleigh, From Catullus V[/B]


It is morning, Senlin says, and in the morning
When the light drips through the shutters like the dew,
I arise, I face the sunrise,
And do the things my fathers learned to do.
Stars in the purple dusk above the rooftops
Pale in a saffron mist and seem to die,
And I myself on a swiftly tilting planet
Stand before a glass and tie my tie.
[B]Conrad Aiken, Senlin: a Biography [/B][/i][/INDENT][/INDENT]


It's election time in Japan. There will be a few weeks of incessant election noise. People making speeches outside railway stations. Trucks with blaring loudspeakers driving up and down the streets. 

Japanese politics are mysterious. There are a few new political parties in Japan this year. One is the Sunrise Party. The leader is Shintaro Ishihara. He is an author and politician. When he was a university student he won the Akutagawa Prize for his novel Season of the Sun. The name of the new party deliberately echoes that title. Shintaro's younger brother Yujiro starred in the movie adaptation. Yujiro Ishihara was hugely popular. He died young. Shintaro Ishihara himself is very controversial. Some people like his direct style. But when he was Governor of Tokyo he was xenophobic, racist, homophobic and sexist. 

The People's Life First Party is another new party. Its most senior politician Ichiro Ozawa has finally been cleared in a court case. The decision to prosecute him and the decision to appeal the original not guilty verdict seemed politically motivated rather than based on the evidence. So is Japan really a modern democracy? 

The world of martial arts has a close relationship with the world of politics. Perhaps too close. Politicians write introductions for the programs for martial arts events. They give speeches at the events or the receptions later. Some politicians have been accomplished martial artists. A few have held high ranks in kendo. Judo Olympic and World champion Ryoko Tani was one of the most popular figures in Japanese sports. She became a politician. She is also in the People's Life First Party.

Niall

  
[i][B]poems + background article[/B]

[url]http://www.tcd.ie/English/patrickkavanagh/shancoduff.html/[/url]

[url]http://www.theotherpages.org/poems/aiken02.html[/url]

[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shintaro_Ishihara[/url]

[url]http://www.citymayors.com/mayors/tokyo_mayor.html[/url]

[url]http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/nn20121120f1.html[/url]

[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akutagawa_Prize[/url]

[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ichir%C5%8D_Ozawa[/url]

[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land_of_the_Rising_Sun[/url]

[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryoko_Tani[/url]

[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arna_Bontemps[/url]

[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrick_Kavanagh[/url]


photo: [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ishihara_Mishima.jpg"]Shintaro Ishihara and Yukio Mishima[/URL] from wikipedia


my home page with a mirror of these blog posts plus other stuff: [URL="http://mooninthewater.net/aikido"]mooninthewater.net/aikido[/URL]
 

my [URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=75&filter[1]=Niall%20Matthews"]columns[/URL] on aikiweb[/i]


© niall matthews 2012]]></body>
	<date>11-20-2012</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="4660">
	<title><![CDATA[black on black]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[[indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][INDENT][INDENT][INDENT][INDENT][indent][i][URL="http://www.flickr.com/photos/10154711@N07/4601052717/"]Bebop High School[/URL][/INDENT][/INDENT][/INDENT][/INDENT][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/i]


[INDENT][INDENT][i]Think what was there but now's gone.
Black suit with the black Ray Ban's on.
Walk in shadow, move in silence
[B]Will Smith, Men in Black[/B]


He recollected his initiation, 
And one especially of the rites.
For on his shoulders they had put tattoos: 
The group's name on the left, The Knights, 
And on the right the slogan Born to Lose.
[B]Thom Gunn, Black Jackets[/B]


We're doing mighty fine I do suppose 
In our streak of lightning cars and fancy clothes 
But just so we're reminded of the ones who are held back 
Up front there ought to be a man in black
[B]Johnny Cash, Man in Black[/B][/i][/INDENT][/INDENT]


The other day in Tokyo I saw a young man wearing a black uniform. It was unusual because it had a letter embroidered on the back in black thread. It was black on black so it was easy to miss.

The black uniform is called a [I]gakuran[/I]. It's a military-style uniform. Black uniforms all look the same so some students or groups add subtle individual details in the shape or the stitching. In the video below the band is wearing long jackets and baggy trousers like hakama. They look like a gang from the 1970s or 80s.
 
I wear a black hakama to do aikido. When I get a new one I get the name embroidered on the hip in Japanese kanji. Usually in grey or silver or dark yellow thread. But once I did get it in black. Black on black.  

Niall

  
[i][B]songs + poem + background article[/B]

[URL="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3fpI821FfUM"]Kishidan, One Night Carnival [/URL]
Japanese band in gakuran


[URL="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2Gp2LtiGWs"]Johnny Cash, Man in Black[/URL]


[URL="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KSRF3slguhI"]Will Smith, Men in Black[/URL]


[URL="http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/black-jackets/"]Thom Gunn, Black Jackets[/URL]


[URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_school_uniform"]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_school_uniform[/URL]


photo: [URL="http://www.flickr.com/photos/10154711@N07/4601052717/"]Bebop High School[/URL] from muta's photostream


my home page with a mirror of these blog posts plus other stuff: [URL="http://mooninthewater.net/aikido"]mooninthewater.net/aikido[/URL]
 

my [URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=75&filter[1]=Niall%20Matthews"]columns[/URL] on aikiweb[/i]


© niall matthews 2012]]></body>
	<date>11-09-2012</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="4656">
	<title><![CDATA[dharma food]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[[indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][INDENT][INDENT][INDENT][INDENT][indent][i][URL="http://www.flickr.com/photos/foam/2770290075/"]Taiyoji Temple[/URL] by _foam[/INDENT][/INDENT][/INDENT][/INDENT][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/i]


[INDENT][INDENT][i] Fat was this lord, he stood in goodly case.
His bulging eyes he rolled about, and hot
They gleamed and red, like fire beneath a pot;
His boots were soft; his horse of great estate.
Now certainly he was a fine prelate:
He was not pale as some poor wasted ghost.
A fat swan loved he best of any roast.
His palfrey was as brown as is a berry.
[B]Geoffrey Chaucer describes the monk in the Canterbury Tales, General Prologue[/B]


You are to abstain from meat, except as a remedy for sickness or feebleness. But as, when you are on a journey, you more often than not have to beg your way, outside your own houses you may eat foodstuffs that have been cooked with meat, so as to avoid giving trouble to your hosts. At sea, however, meat may be eaten.
[B]The Carmelite Rule of St Albert Avogadro[/B]


And all I ask for housekeeping
I get and pay no fees,
Leeks from the garden, poultry, game,
Salmon and trout and bees.
[B]St. Manchan of Offaly, Ancient Irish Monk's Poem[/B]


This treasure was discovered in a bamboo thicket
I washed the bowl in a spring and then mended it. 
After morning meditation, I take my gruel in it; 
At night, it serves me soup or rice. 
Cracked, worn, weather-beaten, and misshapen 
But still of noble stock!
[B]Ikkyu, My Cracked Wooden Bowl[/B]


Lots of arms, just like Kannon the Goddess; 
Sacrificed for me, garnished with citron, I revere it so! 
The taste of the sea, just divine! 
Sorry, Buddha, this is another precept I just cannot keep.
[B]Ikkyu, A Meal of Fresh Octopus[/B]


A rich buttery soup is not better than a broth of wild herbs. In handling and preparing wild herbs, do so as you would the ingredients for a rich feast, wholeheartedly, sincerely and clearly.
[B]Dogen, Instructions for the Cook[/B][/i][/INDENT][/INDENT]


Buddhist food is called shojin ryori. Basically it's vegetarian. I wrote about vegetarian food in [URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/blogs/moon-in-the-water-19051/ovo-lacto-pesco-vegetarianism-4631/"]ovo-lacto-pesco-vegetarianism[/URL] and [URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/blogs/moon-in-the-water-19051/translating-japanese-strong-in-the-rain-4644/"]translating japanese | strong in the rain[/URL]. In Buddhism you are supposed to preserve life. So you don't kill animals or fish for food. 

It's very difficult to follow a very strict Buddhist diet. They don't even eat root vegetables because the plants cease to exist when they are uprooted. I'm not sure how long I could live without potatoes or onions or carrots. And they don't eat strong-smelling plants like garlic. What western cook could sacrifice garlic? And a glass of beer or a glass of wine might interfere with awareness. 

I respect simplicity and asceticism but I am sceptical about organized religion. All organized religions. Or perhaps I mean sceptical about people who follow the external trappings but who don't understand the real meaning. A while ago on a train I saw a Buddhist priest going to officiate at a ceremony. His cotton robes were austere and simple. But he was wearing an expensive Swiss gold watch on his wrist.  

I've known a few martial artists who also did zazen. And I've known a couple of Buddhist priests who were also serious martial artists. Some of these people were impressive. Some not. 

And I've known a few martial artists who were centred and serene and compassionate humans. A very, very few. 

Niall

  
[i][B]background texts and articles[/B]

Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales, and Other Poems free e-book
[url]http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2383[/url]

Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales, The Prologue online
[url]http://classiclit.about.com/library/bl-etexts/gchaucer/bl-gchau-can-genpro.htm[/url]

The Carmelite Rule of St Albert Avogadro
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carmelite_Rule_of_St._Albert[/url]

St. Manchan of Offaly, Ancient Irish Monk's Poem
[url]http://prayerfoundation.org/ancient_irish_monks_poem.htm[/url]

Ikkyu poems from Wild Ways: Zen Poems of Ikkyu, translated by John Stevens 
[url]http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/zenpoetry.html[/url]

[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhist_cuisine[/url]

[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tenzo_kyokun[/url]

[url]http://www.wwzc.org/book/tenzo-kyokun-instructions-tenzo-0[/url]



photo: [URL="http://www.flickr.com/photos/foam/2770290075/"]Taiyoji Temple[/URL] by _foam


my home page with a mirror of these blog posts plus other stuff: [URL="http://mooninthewater.net/aikido"]mooninthewater.net/aikido[/URL]
 

my [URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=75&filter[1]=Niall%20Matthews"]columns[/URL] on aikiweb[/i]


© niall matthews 2012]]></body>
	<date>10-29-2012</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="4649">
	<title><![CDATA[moonlight and rain]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[[indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][INDENT][INDENT][INDENT][INDENT][indent][i][URL="http://www.flickr.com/photos/gilderic/6759569677/"]Entre les gouttes et les arcades[/URL] by Fred | Gilderic Photography[/INDENT][/INDENT][/INDENT][/INDENT][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/i]


[i]When the first dawn came
Like a cigarette in the rain
Heard the thunder miles away
Didn't think that it would work out this way
The storm came and it rained all night
[b]Randy Crawford, Cigarette in the Rain[/b]


I need a phone call
I need a raincoat
I really need a raincoat
I really, really need a raincoat
I really, really, really need a raincoat
[b]Counting Crows, Raining in Baltimore[/b]


I remember what he said about that town
He said I went to London once, came back
Wiped the tears from my eyes, looked out the window
And it was still pouring down
More of that rain, rain, rain
Rain, rain, rain
Rain, rain, rain
Rain, rain, rain
I'm gonna get a train
Never coming back again
[b]Ian Hunter, Rain[/b]


I took shelter from a shower
And I stepped into your arms
On a rainy night in Soho
[b]The Pogues, Rainy Night in Soho[/b]


All at sea again
And now my hurricanes
Have brought down this ocean rain
To bathe me again
[b]Echo and the Bunnymen, Ocean Rain[/b][/i]


It's raining again. 

Usually September is the typhoon season in Japan. But September 2012 was the hottest September for more than 100 years. And typhoons are still coming late in October.

I've written about the rain before. About the rainy season in [URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/blogs/moon-in-the-water-19051/endless-rain-4213/"][I]endless rain[/I][/URL]. And about the typhoon season in [URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/blogs/moon-in-the-water-19051/typhoon-4303/"][I]typhoon[/I][/URL]. And last week I wrote about the Kenji Miyazawa poem [I]ame ni mo makezu[/I] in [URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/blogs/moon-in-the-water-19051/translating-japanese-strong-in-the-rain-4644/"][I]translating japanese | strong in the rain[/I][/URL]. There are some great songs about the rain. There are links to some cool ones in those posts and there are a few more below.  

[I]Tales of Moonlight and Rain[/I] by Akinari Ueda is an 18th century collection of stories. A movie adaptation called [I]Ugetsu[/I] was made in 1953. It was directed by by Kenji Mizoguchi. It's a classic of Japanese cinema.

I've been told recently that I've become an [I]ame otoko[/I], &#38632;&#30007;. A rain man. When I go outside it starts to rain. When I get off a train it starts to rain. 

It's raining again.

Niall

  
[i][B]music and background articles[/B]

[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwHIBGaj8Lg[/url]
Randy Crawford, Cigarette in the Rain

[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjF95ZNrhMc[/url]
Counting Crows, Raining in Baltimore

[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mV9MSxSnwFo[/url]
Ian Hunter, Rain

[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3MKMF-qIZk[/url]
The Pogues, Rainy Night in Soho

[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Naw4TQgl_Zs[/url]
Echo and the Bunnymen, Ocean Rain

[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5LprQTMwPU[/url]
[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fT8GqP7ILQY[/url]
Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, Ugetsu parts 1 and 2

[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=osz_zvB7ls0[/url]
Triple ACE and Johannes Enders, Ugetsu

[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfwc7QQD4Ps[/url]
Ugetsu directed by Kenji Mizoguchi on youtube

[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tales_of_Moonlight_and_Rain[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ugetsu[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ugetsu_(album)[/url]


photo: [URL="http://www.flickr.com/photos/gilderic/6759569677/"]Entre les gouttes et les arcades[/URL] by Fred | Gilderic Photography


my home page with a mirror of these blog posts plus other stuff: [URL="http://mooninthewater.net/aikido"]mooninthewater.net/aikido[/URL]
 

my [URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=75&filter[1]=Niall%20Matthews"]columns[/URL] on aikiweb[/i]


© niall matthews 2012]]></body>
	<date>10-21-2012</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="4644">
	<title><![CDATA[translating japanese | strong in the rain]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[[indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][INDENT][INDENT][INDENT][INDENT][indent][i][URL="http://www.flickr.com/photos/thejameskendall/4245535467/"]This is England[/URL] by James Kendall[/INDENT][/INDENT][/INDENT][/INDENT][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/i]


[B]Strong in the Rain[/B] [I]by Kenji Miyazawa[/I]

[I]translation by Roger Pulvers[/I]
 

Strong in the rain
Strong in the wind
Strong against the summer heat and snow
He is healthy and robust
Free from desire
He never loses his temper
Nor the quiet smile on his lips
He eats four [I]go[/I] of unpolished rice
Miso and a few vegetables a day
He does not consider himself
In whatever occurs
His understanding
Comes from observation and experience
And he never loses sight of things
He lives in a little thatched-roof hut
In a field in the shadows of a pine tree grove
If there is a sick child in the east
He goes there to nurse the child
If there's a tired mother in the west
He goes to her and carries her sheaves
If someone is near death in the south
He goes and says, 'Don't be afraid'
If there are strife and lawsuits in the north
He demands that the people put an end to their pettiness
He weeps at the time of drought
He plods about at a loss during the cold summer
Everybody calls him Blockhead
No one sings his praises
Or takes him to heart
 
That is the sort of person
I want to be





This is a well-known poem in Japan. Kenji Miyazawa was a Buddhist and a vegetarian. The poem describes a simple diet. I wrote about being a [URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/blogs/moon-in-the-water-19051/ovo-lacto-pesco-vegetarianism-4631/"]vegetarian[/URL] recently. The poem was written in katakana which was unusual. Katakana is the syllabary normally used in Japanese for foreign loan words.

Translating a poem is very difficult. The translation of something like a manual for a camera must be clear and simple. But literary translation is subjective. 

For example there are many different translations of this poem. Here are a few translations of the first line taken from the links below.

[I]Be not defeated by the rain, David Sulz
Unperturbed by the rain, Steven P. Venti
Standing up to the rain, Toyofumi Ogura 
Someone who is unfazed by the rain, Michael Brase
Bending neither to the rain, Geoffrey Bownas and Anthony Thwaite
Neither rain nor wind will affect, Makoto Ueda
Undaunted by the rain, Donald Keene
Neither yielding to rain, Hiroaki Sato
Strong in the rain, Roger Pulvers[/I]


And what sort of person do you want to be?


Niall

  
[i][B]background articles[/B]

The translator Roger Pulvers talks about translating this poem in The Japan Times
[url]http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/fl20080831rp.html[/url]

The poet and translator Hiroaki Sato talks about the difficulty of translating the poem in Japan Focus
[url]http://japanfocus.org/-Hiroaki-SATO/2526[/url]


[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ame_ni_mo_Makezu[/url]

[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenji_Miyazawa[/url]

[url]http://www.kenji-world.net/english/who/who.html[/url]


I read the poem in the anthology Being Human edited by Neil Astley published by Bloodaxe Books. 
[url]http://www.amazon.com/Being-Human-Neil-Astley/dp/1852248092/[/url]


I found the poem online on the Foodstory blog. It is a slightly different draft of the translation by Roger Pulvers
[url]http://ifoodstory.com/20110328/strong-in-the-rain/[/url]
 

The post on Foodstory had a link to a youtube video of Ken Watanabe reading the poem in Japanese.
&#38632;&#12491;&#12514;&#12510;&#12465;&#12474;
[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvFEffacY5g[/url]


photo: [URL="http://www.flickr.com/photos/thejameskendall/4245535467/"]This is England[/URL] by James Kendall 


my home page with a mirror of these blog posts plus other stuff: [URL="http://mooninthewater.net/aikido"]mooninthewater.net/aikido[/URL]
 

my [URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=75&filter[1]=Niall%20Matthews"]columns[/URL] on aikiweb[/i]


© niall matthews 2012]]></body>
	<date>10-12-2012</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="4639">
	<title><![CDATA[gloves]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[[indent][indent][indent][INDENT][INDENT][INDENT][INDENT][indent][i][URL="http://www.flickr.com/photos/rstiller/7471131126/"]kyudo glove[/URL] by yepyep[/INDENT][/INDENT][/INDENT][/INDENT][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/i]


[I]Sometimes a word will start it, like
Hands and feet, sun and gloves. The way
Is fraught with danger, you say, and I
Notice the word "fraught"....
[b]John Ashbery, Variant[/B]


Lawn as white as driven snow,
Cyprus black as e'er was crow,
Gloves as sweet as damask roses,
Masks for faces and for noses.
[B]William Shakespeare, The Winter's Tale[/B]


I saw her hand, she has a leathern hand,
A freestone-colored hand. I verily did think
That her old gloves were on, but 'twas her hands. 
[B]William Shakespeare, As You Like It [/B]


So, hand in glove I stake my claim 
I'll fight to the last breath
If they dare touch a hair on your head
I'll fight to the last breath
[B]The Smiths, Hand in Glove[/B]


Handle with kid gloves
Handle with kid gloves
Then you learn the lessons
Taught in school won't be enough
Put on your kid gloves
Put on your kid gloves
Then you learn the lesson
That it's cool to be so tough

Handle with kid gloves
Handle with kid gloves
Then you learn the weapons
And the ways of hard-knock school
Put on your kid gloves
Put on your kid gloves
Then you learn the lesson
That it's tough to be so cool
[B]Rush, Kid Gloves[/B]


Well, they sprung me out of Quentin,
I'm back on the mob's payroll
They can buy my body
Sure they can't buy my soul.
I'm working out of Stockton
I''m weighing in at two -o -one
But there's a man in the front row
Sent down by the mob with a gun.
For 'Kid Gloves', 'Kid Gloves', 
I'm back out on the street.
'Kid Gloves', the master to the beat
'Kid Gloves', I'll do anything but dive.
[B]Rory Gallagher, Kid Gloves[/B][/i]


White gloves.

In Japan taxi drivers wear them. Politicians wear them. Women at the information desks in department stores wear them. Police officers wear them. Train drivers wear them.

In the martial arts they use gauntlets in kendo and single gloves in kyudo. In some styles of karate they use gloves in sparring. 

The other day at a train station I saw an immaculately dressed man wearing black cotton gloves. He was reading a newspaper and he didn't want to get ink on his hands.

Niall


[i][B]free e-book + background poems and articles[/B]

[url]http://sweatshirtpoesy.com/2010/01/19/john-ashbery-variant/[/url]
John Ashbery, Variant


[url]http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/100[/url]
William Shakespeare, Complete Works free e-book on project gutenberg


[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ky%C5%ABd%C5%8D[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kendo[/url]


This is a very cool blog post on Danny Choo's blog. It's about a high school kyudo club. Great photos.
[url]http://www.dannychoo.com/post/en/25877/Kyudo.html[/url]
 
[B]music[/B]

these are all good songs but for real rock 'n' roll check out Rory Gallagher

The Smiths, Hand in Glove
[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nh2bonnjv70[/url]

Rush, Kid Gloves
[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukz_T9HFLJU[/url]

Rory Gallagher, Kid Gloves
[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7yyWXYh91mM[/url]


photo: [URL="http://www.flickr.com/photos/rstiller/7471131126/"]kyudo glove[/URL] by yepyep 


my home page with a mirror of these blog posts plus other stuff: [URL="http://mooninthewater.net/aikido"]mooninthewater.net/aikido[/URL]
 

my [URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=75&filter[1]=Niall%20Matthews"]columns[/URL] on aikiweb[/i]


© niall matthews 2012]]></body>
	<date>10-06-2012</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="4631">
	<title><![CDATA[ovo-lacto-pesco-vegetarianism]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[[indent][indent][indent][INDENT][INDENT][INDENT][INDENT][indent][i][URL="http://www.flickr.com/photos/givengrace/5352347692/in/photostream/"]a good sandwich[/URL] by Shannalee[/INDENT][/INDENT][/INDENT][/INDENT][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/i]


[I]Scultz: I always thought of you as an Aryan.
The Barber: I'm a vegetarian.	
[B]Charlie Chaplin, The Great Dictator[/B]


Strolling, I yammered metaphysics with Abramowitz,
a jaundice-yellow ("it's really tan")
and fly-weight pacifist,
so vegetarian,
he wore rope shoes and preferred fallen fruit.
[B]Robert Lowell, Memories of West Street and Lepke[/B]


"Don't you know that meat is murder?", 
The dippy hippy cried.
So, I hit him with a leg of lamb - 
And sure enough, 
he died.
[B]Other Theresa, Vegetarian Poem[/B]


who cooked rotten animals lung heart feet tail borsht 
& tortillas dreaming of the pure vegetable kingdom,

who plunged themselves under meat trucks looking for an egg,
[B]Allen Ginsberg, Howl[/B]


Let me confess!
       A languid love for Lilies does not blight me!
       Lank limbs and haggard cheeks do not delight me!
            I do not care for dirty greens
                 By any means.
            I do not long for all one sees
                 That's Japanese.
…
Then a sentimental passion of a vegetable fashion must excite
       your languid spleen,
  An attachment à la Plato for a bashful young potato, or a not-
       too-French French bean!
  [B]Gilbert and Sullivan, Patience[/B]


A vegetable garden in the beginning looks so promising and then after all little by little it grows nothing but vegetables, nothing, nothing but vegetables.
[B]Gertrude Stein, Wars I Have Seen[/B][/i]


I seem to have talked a lot about food recently. Mushrooms. Sushi.

I'm a vegetarian. I don't eat meat but I do eat eggs and milk and fish. Apparently that's officially an ovo-lacto-pesco-vegetarian. 

Years ago when I became a vegetarian I thought I would probably also have to accept some counterbalancing costs. Reduced stamina or power or speed perhaps. 

But I never did. There was no downside. 

Japanese food is basically vegetarian anyway. 

Niall


[i][B]free e-book + background poems and articles[/B]
 
Other Theresa's site and poems
[url]http://www.othertheresa.co.uk/[/url]
[url]http://www.othertheresa.co.uk/poems.html[/url]

Robert Lowell, Memories of West Street and Lepke
[url]http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/memories-of-west-street-and-lepke/[/url]

Allen Ginsberg, Howl
[url]http://www.wussu.com/poems/agh.htm[/url]

The Complete Plays of Gilbert and Sullivan by Sir W. S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan
[url]http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/808[/url]

Gertrude Stein, Wars I Have Seen
[url]http://bindery.net/stein/wars/1_11.html[/url]

[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_cuisine[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vegetarianism[/url]

 
photo: [URL="http://www.flickr.com/photos/givengrace/5352347692/in/photostream/"]a good sandwich[/URL] by Shannalee 
and check out the [URL="http://foodloveswriting.com/2011/01/13/an-alt-sandwich-with-sprouts-and-cheddar/"]recipe[/URL] for that cool ALT sandwich too


my home page with a mirror of these blog posts plus other stuff: [URL="http://mooninthewater.net/aikido"]mooninthewater.net/aikido[/URL]
 

my [URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=75&filter[1]=Niall%20Matthews"]columns[/URL] on aikiweb[/i]


© niall matthews 2012]]></body>
	<date>09-29-2012</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="4627">
	<title><![CDATA[secret transmission]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[[indent][indent][indent][INDENT][INDENT][INDENT][INDENT][i][URL="http://www.flickr.com/photos/nodoca/41882185/"]matsutake mushroom[/URL] by Daisuke Matsumura[/INDENT][/INDENT][/INDENT][/INDENT][/indent][/indent][/indent][/i]


[I]I, a virgin, can make my frank boast that I communicate to no mortal man my secret counsels except to such as I have chosen on account of their taciturnity; then, if these secrets are later discovered, I know whom to accuse.
[B]Elizabeth I[/B]


Unknown to trade, to travel, almost to geography, the manner of life they harbour is an unsolved secret. 
[B]Joseph Conrad, The Secret Sharer[/B]


[INDENT][INDENT][INDENT][INDENT][INDENT][INDENT][INDENT]Music and mushrooms:
two words next to one
another in many dictionaries.
Where did he
write The Three-Penny Opera?
Now he's
buried below the grass at the
foot of High Tor.
Once the season changes
from summer to fall,
given sufficient rain,
or just the
mysterious dampness that's in the
earth, mushrooms
grow there,
carrying on, I
am sure, his
business of working with
sounds.
That we
have no ears to hear the
music the spores shot off
from basidia make obliges us
to busy ourselves microphonically.
[B]John Cage, Indeterminacy[/B]
[/INDENT][/INDENT][/INDENT][/INDENT][/INDENT][/INDENT][/INDENT]


All aikido arts are secret in nature and are not to be revealed publicly nor taught to rogues who will use them for evil purposes. 
[b]Morihei Ueshiba, Budo[/b][/i]


Matsutake are a type of Japanese mushroom. They are quite rare. They have a special fragrance. They are very, very expensive. Domestic Japanese matsutake are about $100 for 100g now. A dollar a gram. Imported ones are much cheaper. Japan now imports many products traditionally thought of as Japanese from other countries. Especially from other Asian countries. So matsutake are imported from South Korea and China. 

Matsutake are only found in certain places. I heard that the locations are kept secret. Even within families. Only the first-born gets to know the secrets. Then the secrets are passed on to the first-born of the next generation. 

This idea of secret teachings being passed on from generation to generation is called [I]hiden[/I] in Japanese. Some traditional schools of martial arts never revealed their secrets to outsiders. 

Niall


[i][B]free e-book + background articles[/B]
 
[URL]http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/220[/URL]
Joseph Conrad, The Secret Sharer

[URL]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matsutake[/URL]
[URL]http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/nn20101109i1.html[/URL]
[URL]http://vegasmagazine.com/dining/articles/matsutake-mushrooms-food-japanese[/URL]
[URL]http://epress.anu.edu.au/apps/bookworm/view/Australian+Humanities+Review+-+Issue+50%2C+2011/5451/ch01.xhtml[/URL]
[URL]http://www.mundusloci.org/fungus/culture/cage2.htm[/URL]
[URL]http://www.lcdf.org/indeterminacy/s.cgi/113[/URL] 
[URL]http://www.nytimes.com/1981/11/22/books/sounds-and-mushrooms.html[/URL]

 
photo: [URL="http://www.flickr.com/photos/nodoca/41882185/"]matsutake mushroom[/URL] by Daisuke Matsumura


my home page with a mirror of these blog posts plus other stuff: [URL="http://mooninthewater.net/aikido"]mooninthewater.net/aikido[/URL]
 

my [URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=75&filter[1]=Niall%20Matthews"]columns[/URL] on aikiweb[/i]


© niall matthews 2012]]></body>
	<date>09-23-2012</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="4623">
	<title><![CDATA[weary of blades | a riddle]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[[indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][INDENT][INDENT][INDENT][INDENT][i][URL="http://www.flickr.com/photos/30591976@N05/3965866417/"]Anglo-Saxon Crystal Ball[/URL] by Paul Walker[/INDENT][/INDENT][/INDENT][/INDENT][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/i]


[INDENT][INDENT][INDENT][INDENT][INDENT][INDENT][INDENT][INDENT][INDENT][INDENT]I live alone, wounded by iron,
 Struck by a sword, tired of battle-work,
 Weary of blades. Often I see war,
 Fight a fearsome foe. I crave no comfort,
 That safety might come to me out of the war-strife
 Before I among men perish completely.
 But the forged brands strike me,
 Hard-edged and fiercely sharp, the handwork of smiths,
 They bite me in the strongholds. I must wait for
 A more murderous meeting. Never a physician
 In the battlefield could I find
 One of those who with herbs healed wounds
 But my sword slashes grow greater
 Through death blows day and night.
[/INDENT][/INDENT][/INDENT][/INDENT][/INDENT][/INDENT][/INDENT][/INDENT][/INDENT][/INDENT] 
[I][B]impressions[/B]
 
An extra post this week about weapons. It is one of the riddles from The Exeter Book put into modern English. There is only one surviving manuscript. It contains 94 riddles. It's a simple, powerful poem. Those adjectives are both from Latin. It's also short, stark and blunt. Those adjectives are all from Old English.
 
[URL="http://mooninthewater.net/aikido/answer/"]This[/URL] is the answer to the riddle.
 
Niall
 
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exeter_Book[/url]
 
[URL="http://www.technozen.com/exeter/1-10.htm"]The riddles of the Exeter Book[/URL]
 
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglo-Saxon_riddles[/url]

[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglo-Saxon_literature[/url]
 
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_English_language[/url]
 

photo: [URL="http://www.flickr.com/photos/30591976@N05/3965866417/"]Anglo-Saxon Crystal Ball[/URL] by Paul Walker


my home page with a mirror of these blog posts plus other stuff: [URL="http://mooninthewater.net/aikido"]mooninthewater.net/aikido[/URL]
 

my [URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=75&filter[1]=Niall%20Matthews"]columns[/URL] on aikiweb[/i]


© niall matthews 2012]]></body>
	<date>09-19-2012</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="4618">
	<title><![CDATA[turning kaiten sushi dreams]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[[indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][i][URL="http://www.flickr.com/photos/creativeobjective/6264763681/"]Sushi Zanmai[/URL] by George Reed[/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/i]


[i]I mount the steps and ring the bell, turning
Wearily, as one would turn to nod good-bye to Rochefoucauld,
If the street were time and he at the end of the street
[b]T S Eliot, The Boston Evening Transcript[/b]


It was my thirtieth
Year to heaven stood there then in the summer noon
Though the town below lay leaved with October blood.
O may my heart's truth
Still be sung
On this high hill in a year's turning.
[b]Dylan Thomas, Poem in October[/b]


To those waiting with bated breath for that favourite media catchphrase, the U turn, I have only one thing to say. You turn if you want to. The lady's not for turning.
[b]Margaret Thatcher, speech to the Conservative Party Conference, 10 October 1980[/b]


Revenge is a dish best served raw
[b]Tagline for the movie Sushi Girl[/b]


Well done boys, looks like ice-cold sushi for breakfast
[b]Skipper the Penguin, Madagascar[/b]


One minute you're on top, the next you're sushi. 
[b]Morgana, Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea[/b][/i]


We use the word kaiten in the martial arts. It means turning or rotation. One of the basic techniques in aikido is kaiten nage - turning throw. 

Kaiten zushi is the sushi that goes around on a conveyor belt.  

The apprenticeship of a sushi chef takes many years. The fish must be of very good quality so that it can be eaten raw. So sushi in a traditional restaurant can be very, very expensive. 

There was a national holiday this weekend and like a lot of families in Japan we went out for sushi. We went to a kaiten zushi restaurant. The first kaiten zushi restaurant was opened in 1958. Of course chain restaurants try to keep costs very low but we were still surprised. There were 50 to 100 customers in the restaurant but there were hardly any people working there. We didn't see any chefs. We didn't even see any serving staff. The only staff we saw were two high school girls working there part-time.

You do everything yourself. So we took plates of sushi off the conveyor belt. And ordered some things on a touch panel. They arrived in a few minutes. We cleared the plates ourselves into a slot under the conveyor belt. Every time five plates were cleared some lights started flashing and if you pressed a button at the right time you could win a little toy. We helped ourselves to drinks from a large glass-fronted refrigerator. If you wanted draught beer you put money into a machine and the beer poured itself automatically. Complete with a perfect head. So it was not quite fast food but it was close. It tasted fine. And it was very, very cheap. 

Going back to traditional sushi for a moment a documentary movie called Jiro Dreams of Sushi was released in 2012. It was about a man who devoted his life to achieving perfection in sushi. His name is Jiro Ono. He is a living national treasure. His restaurant Sukiyabashi Jiro is one of only a handful of restaurants in Tokyo with three Michelin stars. He is in his eighties but he still goes to work every day. Like the Sheffield [URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/blogs/moon-in-the-water-19051/master-craftsmen-knifemakers-4600/"]master craftsmen knifemakers[/URL] I wrote about, Trevor Ablett and Reg Cooper. This is what Jiro Ono said about sushi and his life. 

[QUOTE]I do the same thing over and over, improving bit by bit. There is always a yearning to achieve more. I'll continue to climb, trying to reach the top, but no one knows where the top is.[/QUOTE]

He could be talking about aikido.

Niall


[i][b]background articles[/b]

[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbV6knbeUFE[/url]
Trailer for Jiro Dreams of Sushi

[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zweUMTSHkxU[/url]
Trailer for Dead Sushi

[url]http://www.bartleby.com/198/6.html[/url] 
T S Eliot, The Boston Evening Transcript

[url]http://famouspoetsandpoems.com/poets/dylan_thomas/poems/11399[/url]
Dylan Thomas, Poem in October

[url]http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/104431[/url]
Margaret Thatcher, speech to the Conservative Party Conference, 10 October 1980

[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sushi[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conveyor_belt_sushi[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Itamae[/url] 
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jiro_Dreams_of_Sushi[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sukiyabashi_Jiro[/url] 
[url]http://www.alifewortheating.com/tokyo/sukiyabashi-jiro[/url] 
[url]http://www.alifewortheating.com/tokyo/sukiyabashi-jiro-sushi-revisited[/url] 
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_Sushi[/url] 
[url]http://www.nytimes.com/2001/08/31/world/yoshiaki-shiraishi-87-sushi-innovator.html[/url]
[url]http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20120404/REVIEWS/120409996[/url]
[url]http://akas.imdb.com/title/tt1772925/[/url]
[url]http://akas.imdb.com/title/tt2396429/[/url] 


photo: [URL="http://www.flickr.com/photos/creativeobjective/6264763681/"]Sushi Zanmai[/URL] by George Reed


my home page with a mirror of these blog posts plus other stuff: [URL="http://mooninthewater.net/aikido"]mooninthewater.net/aikido[/URL]
 

my [URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=75&filter[1]=Niall%20Matthews"]columns[/URL] on aikiweb[/i]


© niall matthews 2012]]></body>
	<date>09-16-2012</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="4611">
	<title><![CDATA[shadow]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[[indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][i][URL="http://design1st.net/ja/projects/tozando/index.php"]Tozando[/URL] by Design 1st[/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/i]


[i]And so it has come to be that the beauty of a Japanese room depends on a variation of shadows,
heavy shadows against light shadows - it has nothing else
[b]Junichiro Tanizaki, In Praise of Shadows[/b]


We lingered wordless while a tall
Shade enclouded the shadow's cast.
[b]Allen Tate, Shadow and Shade[/b]


The present is the ever moving shadow that divides yesterday from tomorrow. 
[b]Frank Lloyd Wright (architect), Night is but a Shadow Cast by the Sun[/b]


The shadow of the Venetian blind on the painted wall,
Shadows of the snake-plant and cacti, the plaster animals,
Focus the tragic melancholy of the bright stare
Into nowhere, a hole like the black holes in space. 
[b]John Ashbery, Forties Flick[/b]


Between the conception
And the creation
Between the emotion
And the response
Falls the Shadow
[b]T S Eliot, The Hollow Men[/b][/i]


Recently I saw an interesting profile of an American architect. He lives and works in Kyoto. His name is Geoffrey P Moussas. One of his interests is renovating machiya. Machiya are traditional Japanese town houses. The results are very beautiful. Check out the Design 1st site.

He became interested in Japanese architecture after reading [I]In Praise of Shadows[/I] by Junichiro Tanizaki. He said that in his architecture studies he had been learning how to use light. But after reading the book he realized that there was another approach. In Japan people used shadow. 

I thought it was very interesting. Looking at the same thing from a completely different direction. I like taking photos. Photography is also using light. Painting with light even. For example a lighting technique used for portraits is called Rembrandt lighting. But I had never thought of photography as also painting with shadow.

In a nice coincidence one of the projects on Geoffrey Moussas's home page is Tozando. The martial arts supplier. It looks fantastic. 

And for the last few hundred years one of the main schools of the Japanese sword is called Shinkage Ryu. The new shadow school. 

Niall


[i][b]background articles[/b]

[url]http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/shadow-and-shade/[/url]
Allen Tate, Shadow and Shade

[url]http://www.poemadeamor.net/search/label/John%20Ashbery[/url]
John Ashbery, Forties Flick and other poems with Spanish translations

[url]http://aduni.org/~heather/occs/honors/Poem.htm[/url]
T S Eliot, The Hollow Men with detailed notes

[url]http://www.design1st.net/en/profile/index.php[/url]
[url]http://design1st.net/ja/projects/index.php[/url]

[url]http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/columns/0003/inroads013.htm[/url]

[url]http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2002/oct/05/featuresreviews.guardianreview25[/url]

[url]http://hokodome.blogspot.jp/[/url]
[url]http://www.shogoin.com/[/url]
[url]http://tozando.com/international/accessmap.html[/url]

[url]http://www.newsweekjapan.jp/stories/2010/05/post-1266.php[/url]

[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machiya[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tanizaki_Junichiro[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_Praise_of_Shadows[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Makioka_Sisters_(novel)[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shinkage-ry%C5%AB[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yagy%C5%AB_Shinkage-ry%C5%AB[/url]


photo: [URL="http://design1st.net/ja/projects/tozando/index.php"]Tozando[/URL] by Design 1st


my home page with a mirror of these blog posts plus other stuff: [URL="http://mooninthewater.net/aikido"]mooninthewater.net/aikido[/URL]
 

my [URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=75&filter[1]=Niall%20Matthews"]columns[/URL] on aikiweb[/i]


© niall matthews 2012]]></body>
	<date>09-08-2012</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="4606">
	<title><![CDATA[koreatown]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[[indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][i][URL="http://www.flickr.com/photos/shinyai/5478746983/"]Okubo, Tokyo[/URL] by Shinya Ichinohe[/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/i]


[i]Where's the mountain I 've just come down? 
Where am I? 
[b]Ko Un, Walking Down a Mountain[/b]


Even if you know the way, ask one more time.
[b]Korean proverb[/b][/i]


There has been a Korean boom in Japan for a few years. It started with a TV drama series called Winter Sonata in 2002. Then one or two Korean pop artists released songs in Japanese. Now there are many, many popular Korean singers and groups.  

There are a lot of Korean restaurants and shops selling Korean music and related goods near Shin-Okubo station in Tokyo. It used to be a dying area. Especially during the day. At night it was perhaps a little busier because it is close to some of the Shinjuku entertainment areas. But in the last couple of years it has become a bustling shopping area. Most of the people who go there now are very, very young. They are fans of Korean pop idols and actors. I have to say that Korean movies are usually much more realistic than Japanese movies.

Shin-Okubo is quite near the Aikikai hombu dojo. And it's the closest station to the Iwata budo supply store. I wrote about the store in [URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/blogs/moon-in-the-water-19051/iwata-3973/"]Iwata[/URL]. It's where I get all my aikido uniforms: aikidogi and hakama.

It's nice to see an old decaying area become revitalized. 

When I went to Korea years ago there was no aikido. Not even one dojo. I think there are a few there now. But I did go to a hapkido dojo. Hapkido is written with the same three Chinese characters as aikido. &#21512;&#27671;&#36947;. It's supposed to have descended from aikijujutsu. It was very energetic and athletic. And the uke was expected to be very responsive. I didn't much like training to music though. 

Niall


[i][b]background articles[/b]

[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winter_Sonata[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_wave[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K-pop[/url] 
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koreatown[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shin-%C5%8Ckubo_Station[/url]
[url]http://seoulbeats.com/2012/01/counterpoint-k-pop-in-japan-no-special-treatment/[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ko_Un[/url]


photo: [URL="http://www.flickr.com/photos/shinyai/5478746983/"]Okubo, Tokyo[/URL] by Shinya Ichinohe


my home page with a mirror of these blog posts plus other stuff: [URL="http://mooninthewater.net/aikido"]mooninthewater.net/aikido[/URL]
 

my [URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=75&filter[1]=Niall%20Matthews"]columns[/URL] on aikiweb[/i]


© niall matthews 2012]]></body>
	<date>09-02-2012</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="4600">
	<title><![CDATA[master craftsmen: knifemakers]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[[indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][i][URL="http://www.flickr.com/photos/27963866@N07/7835057424/"]Master Craftsmen: knifemakers Trevor Ablett and Reg Cooper[/URL] by Niall[/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/i]


[i]Remember stories you read when a boy
The shipwrecked sailor gaining safety by
His knife, treetrunk, and lianas for now
You must escape, or perish saying no.
[b]Philip Larkin, Ultimatum[/b]


          ...paring the apple
With a human stillness.
The cool blade
Severs between coolness, apple-rind
Compelling a recognition.
[b]Charles Tomlinson, Paring the Apple[/b]


Only man thinning out his kind
sounds through the Sabbath noon, the blind
swipe of the pruner and his knife
busy about the tree of life
[b]Robert Lowell, Waking Early Sunday Morning[/b]


Having a wheel and four legs of its own
Has never availed the cumbersome grindstone
To get it anywhere that I can see.
[b]Robert Frost, The Grindstone[/b]


There was no man for peril durst him touch.
A Sheffield whittle bare he in his hose.
[b]Geoffrey Chaucer, The Reeve's Tale from The Canterbury Tales[/b][/i]


I was in the UK in the summer. I spent some time in Sheffield in the north of England. Sheffield was famous as a city of cutlery and steel factories. It was one of the main producers of knives in the world. Chaucer mentioned a Sheffield knife in the Canterbury Tales, written in the 14th century. Stainless steel was invented there. The 1997 British comedy movie The Full Monty was set in Sheffield against the background of rising unemployment as many of the jobs in the steel industry disappeared.

When I was in Sheffield I visited the workshop of Trevor Ablett and Reg Cooper. Trevor Ablett is a master maker of pocket knives. Reg Cooper is a master maker of Bowie knives. They are Little Mesters. Little Mesters is what Master Craftsmen are called in Sheffield. 

I didn't like to disturb Trevor and Reg while they were working but like many people from Sheffield they were warm and friendly. And they both have a dry Yorkshire wit. They showed me the knives they were working on and talked about them. 

The law on carrying fixed-blade knives is very strict in the UK. So the demand for sheath knives is now very small. Trevor said that years ago shops in every English seaside town had display panels of knives. All made in Sheffield. 

Reg is 81 now. Trevor is 71. Their schedules are lighter than they used to be. But they both still go in to their workshop seven days a week. I`ll say that again. Seven days a week. 

They are both doing what they love. And they have both been doing it for more than half a century. There are some interesting background articles about them in the links below with photos and videos. 

It was a great experience for me. Almost surreal. The workshop was very mysterious and difficult to find. I got the feeling that if I ever made my way back it might have magically disappeared.

It was humbling and a real pleasure to see master craftsmen at work and to hear about their craft. There are many lessons there if we are open to them. For Trevor and Reg it is nothing special. They are just making tools. But the tools are the best they can make. And the knives they make will be used for generations. 

Trevor and Reg have no apprentices. When they stop making their knives there will be no more. 

They don't need to market their knives and they don't have a home page. If you'd like one of their knives one of the links below is to an online store but it's not run by them. If you can, try to visit them in their workshop. It will be a day you won't forget.
 
Thank you, Trevor. And thank you, Reg.     

Niall


[i][b]poems and background articles[/b]

[url]http://hedgeguard.blogspot.co.uk/2009/03/some-poems-with-titles-beginning-with.html[/url]
Paring the Apple by Charles Tomlinson
This is a very cool blog post of poems beginning with P! 

[url]http://www.blueridgejournal.com/poems/rl-wakin.htm[/url]
Robert Lowell, Waking Early Sunday Morning

[url]http://www.blackcatpoems.com/f/the_grindstone.html[/url]
Robert Frost, The Grindstone

[url]http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Canterbury_Tales/The_Reeve%27s_Prologue_and_Tale[/url]
Geoffrey Chaucer, The Reeve's Tale from The Canterbury Tales


[url]http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2010/jan/23/make-a-sheffield-pocket-knife[/url]

[url]http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/audioslideshow/2010/jan/26/sheffield-pocket-knife-trevor-ablett[/url]

[url]http://www.sheffield-cutlery.com/pocketknife.html[/url]

[url]http://littlemesters.net/[/url]

[url]http://traditionalcraftsblog.blogspot.co.uk/2009/12/trevor-ablett-sheffield-pen-and-pocket_20.html[/url]

[url]http://www.bbc.co.uk/legacies/work/england/south_yorkshire/[/url]

[url]http://greenwood-carving.blogspot.jp/2010/01/apprenticeships-in-traditional-crafts.html[/url]

[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheffield[/url]

[url]http://www.mylearning.org/metalwork-in-sheffield/p-378/[/url]


photo: [URL="http://www.flickr.com/photos/27963866@N07/7835057424/"]Master Craftsmen: knifemakers Trevor Ablett and Reg Cooper[/URL] by Niall


my home page with a mirror of these blog posts plus other stuff: [URL="http://mooninthewater.net/aikido"]mooninthewater.net/aikido[/URL]
 

my [URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=75&filter[1]=Niall%20Matthews"]columns[/URL] on aikiweb[/i]


© niall matthews 2012]]></body>
	<date>08-23-2012</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="4569">
	<title><![CDATA[samurai of nagano]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[[indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][i][URL="http://www.flickr.com/photos/kosei_s/3963365282/"]The Armor of Yukimura Sanada[/URL] by Kosei S.[/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/i]


[i][b]Do not plan for my return.[/b]
General Takamichi Kuribayashi, of Nagano, writing to his wife[/i]


I just got back from sword training in Nagano. Nagano is in the Japanese Alps. The winter Olympics were held there in 1998. It is an area of volcanic mountains and stark and mysterious rock formations. The countryside is beautiful. And the food is delicious. 

Two small details stick in my mind. I could get an English newspaper in Nagano. But it was a day old. Outside Tokyo the newspapers are always a day late. And one organized man bought all his omiyage souvenir presents on the way there.

Sanada Yukimura is a famous samurai from Nagano in the Sengoku Warring States period. He was a master of military strategy. He was called the best warrior in Japan. He fought in many battles. 

His father Sanada Masayuki fought with Yukimura in the Western forces against Tokugawa Ieyasu. But in an astonishing tactical move he aligned his first son Sanada Nobuyuki with the Eastern forces. It was reminiscent of the Judgment of Solomon. Whatever the outcome the Sanada line would survive. But the family would be forever divided.  

General Takamichi Kuribayashi was an impressive warrior from Nagano in the twentieth century. He was played by Ken Watanabe in the Clint Eastwood movie [I]Letters from Iwo Jima[/I].

Niall


[i][b]background articles[/b]
[url]http://wiki.samurai-archives.com/index.php?title=Sanada_Yukimura[/url] 
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanada_Yukimura[/url] 
[url]http://www.tvwiki.tv/wiki/Sanada_Yukimura[/url] 
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People_of_the_Sengoku_period_in_popular_culture#Sanada_Yukimura[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sengoku_period[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ueda_Castle[/url]
[url]http://www.jcastle.info/castle/profile/107-Ueda-Castle[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Sekigahara[/url][/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shinano_Province[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tadamichi_Kuribayashi[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judgment_of_Solomon[/url]


photo: [URL="http://www.flickr.com/photos/kosei_s/3963365282/"]The Armor of Yukimura Sanada[/URL] by Kosei S.


my home page with a mirror of these blog posts plus other stuff: [URL="http://mooninthewater.net/aikido"]mooninthewater.net/aikido[/URL]
 

my [URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=75&filter[1]=Niall%20Matthews"]columns[/URL] on aikiweb[/i]


© niall matthews 2012]]></body>
	<date>07-20-2012</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="4557">
	<title><![CDATA[losing it, a fight, losing it]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[[indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][i][URL="http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/z/zen-calligraphy/"]Dragon and Tiger[/URL]  by Yamaoka Tesshu[/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/i]


[i]at ease talking or remaining silent
moving or staying still
serene even when greeted with sharp weapons
[b]Yoka Genkaku, The Song of Enlightenment[/b]

If you can keep your head when all about you 
Are losing theirs
[b]Rudyard Kipling, If[/b][/i]


This is a true story about a famous aikido teacher.. One day he got into a fight. He let himself get provoked. The blood rushed to his head and he lost his cool. But instead of using aikido he punched the other man. He got into a punching match. It should have been easy for him to handle the situation. All he had to do was keep cool. And let his training kick in. 

So decades of training. And great technical ability. 

Out. The. Window. 

I saw a similar thing happen once with someone who had done judo for many years. He made a completely unjustified aggressive comment to somebody. The man warned him. But the judoka didn't cool the situation down. He took the rudeness up a notch. So the man just punched him. The judoka didn't throw him. Or control him. Or wrap him up and take him to the ground. He headbutted him. 

The final result was that the other man punched him a few more times. The judoka ended up in hospital. The other man ended up in a police cell.

Years of training. Forgotten. In an instant. 

These weren't beginners. One was a professional aikido teacher. The other was a veteran of many judo tournaments. 

I think this is a really important lesson.

If experienced budoka can forget all their training so easily then ANY ONE CAN.  

You can learn this. How to stay calm. You can learn it from aikido if you have the right teacher. And if you are not getting it from your aikido training perhaps you need to do something else as well. Or instead. Run. Or meditate or do zazen. Or yoga. Or play tennis. Whatever works for you. But if you can't stay serene under pressure aikido is just a bunch of self defence techniques.

The aikido teacher had one of the highest dan grades. Although based on this story he certainly didn't deserve it.

Niall


[i][b]e-book and poems[/b]
[url]http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/556[/url]
Rudyard Kipling, Rewards and Fairies including the poem If

You can read If online on several sites including wikipedia 
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/If%E2%80%94[/url] 
and also on the site of Aikido Academy USA 
[url]http://www.aikidoacademyusa.com/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=324&p=514#p514%20%20[/url]

[url]http://www.purifymind.com/drfu34.htm[/url]
Yoka Genkaku/Yongjia Xuanjue, The Song of Enlightenment


calligraphy: [URL="http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/z/zen-calligraphy/"]Dragon and Tiger[/URL] by Yamaoka Tesshu from the Victoria & Albert Museum © Hitsuzendo


my home page with a mirror of these blog posts plus other stuff: [URL="http://mooninthewater.net/aikido"]mooninthewater.net/aikido[/URL]
 

my [URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=75&filter[1]=Niall%20Matthews"]columns[/URL] on aikiweb[/i]


© niall matthews 2012]]></body>
	<date>07-09-2012</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="4552">
	<title><![CDATA[ballad: samurai, spear and halberd]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[[INDENT][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][i][URL="http://www7a.biglobe.ne.jp/~dessin-ikasama/ikasama/illust/2009/img/img1011.jpg"]dessin from ballad[/URL]  by ikasama4[/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/i][/INDENT]


I've written about a time travel movie before in [URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/blogs/moon-in-the-water-19051/time-takes-4205/"][I]time takes[/I][/URL]. I saw another 'time slip' movie recently. This one didn't sound very promising. A time travel movie starring a member of an aging boy idol pop group. Tsuyoshi Kusanagi from SMAP. Let me add an aside here that I really dislike the Japanese habit of inserting idols into what might otherwise be interesting movies and drama series. The movie was a remake of an animated movie. From a long-running anime series about a young boy. The original anime movie was popular and even won some awards. Then somebody somewhere had the idea to make a version with real actors. And made the inspired choice of Takashi Yamazaki the director of [I]Always: Sunset on Third Street[/I] to direct it.

[I]Always [/I]was a huge hit in Japan. It was set in a local community in postwar Tokyo. The director's clever use of a combination of locations and sets and computer graphics brought the Showa era brilliantly to life. It fuelled a nostalgia boom for the simpler and purer life of the nineteen-fifties. There were also a couple of sequels.

In this movie [I]Ballad[/I] a boy goes back in time to the Sengoku Warring States period of Japanese history. Eventually his parents go back in time too to find him. Just as a battle is about to begin.

So Takashi Yamazaki's recreation of life in warring states period Japan was excellent. The battle scenes especially were very well done. Details like the order of battle and the techniques for besieging a fortified position.

For me as a martial artist there were a couple of very interesting scenes with spears and naginata. One outstanding scene in particular used a concept like aikido. It was similar to the climax scenes in two samurai movies I already wrote about in [URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/blogs/moon-in-the-water-19051/its-hard-being-a-samurai-4512/"][I]it's hard being a samurai[/I][/URL] and [URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/blogs/moon-in-the-water-19051/death-of-a-samurai-swordfights-4517/"][I]death of a samurai[/I][/URL]. The samurai used his spear deliberately in a way that would not harm his opponents - a group of bandits. Even though they were trying to kill him. He used it like a jo or a bo staff or like Robin Hood's quarterstaff.

The director played a little with some of the time travel anachronisms. The boy's mother made curry for the samurai. They liked that. And the samurai all drank some canned beer that happened to be in the family car. They liked that even more. Oh yes the car and Shinichi's mountain bike could travel across time. The boy's father was a photographer and took pictures of the samurai with instant film.

So [I]Ballad[/I] is not a serious movie in the same way as [URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/blogs/moon-in-the-water-19051/its-hard-being-a-samurai-4512/"][I]Twilight Samurai[/I][/URL] and [URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/blogs/moon-in-the-water-19051/death-of-a-samurai-swordfights-4517/"][I]Death of a Samurai[/I][/URL] are. But - to my surprise - it was an excellent movie.

Niall


[i]dessin from ballad by [URL="http://www7a.biglobe.ne.jp/~dessin-ikasama/ikasama/index.html"]ikasama4[/URL]


[url]http://akas.imdb.com/title/tt1424045/[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Always_3_chome_no_Yuhi[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Takashi_Yamazaki_(film_director)[/url]
[url]http://akas.imdb.com/title/tt2180443/[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sengoku_period[/url]


my home page with a mirror of these blog posts plus other stuff: [URL="http://mooninthewater.net/aikido"]mooninthewater.net/aikido[/URL]
 

my [URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=75&filter[1]=Niall%20Matthews"]columns[/URL] on aikiweb[/i]


© niall matthews 2012]]></body>
	<date>07-02-2012</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="4547">
	<title><![CDATA[one arm]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[[INDENT][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][i][URL="http://www.flickr.com/photos/kanaka/1998170884/"]Bethany Hamilton[/URL] by Kanaka Menehune[/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/i][/INDENT]

[I]To pursue surfing not just as an athletic endeavor or as a sunny day diversion, but to try to glean whatever lessons you can from the practice. It means being aware of your surroundings, and respectful of the people and places that you interact with. It means being patient, mindful, kind, compassionate, understanding, active, thoughtful, faithful, hopeful, gracious, disciplined and good.
[B]Brad Melekian, Surfer[/B]

The highest level, the pinnacle of surfing spirituality equivalent to Nirvana, Satori, and total enlightenment, but is rarely attained. The Soul Surfer expresses himself through his unity with the breaking wave. He borrows the wave's spirit for a short while and uses his body and equipment to translate the essence of the wave's spirit into Art.[b]
Thomas Mitchell, The Seven Levels of Surfers[/B]

Surfing equates to living in the very moment of now. When you ride a wave you leave behind all things important and unimportant, the purity of the moment is upon you.
[B]Bill Hamilton, Surfer[/B]

Even a concerto Prokofiev has written for me I have not played because the inner logic of the work is not clear to me, and of course I can't play it until it is.
[B]Paul Wittgenstein[/B]

While boarding the train I lost a button 
- I remember it, I remember it, I have often thought of it since - 
I was sleeping on the trunks and I was very happy to play with the nickel-plated Browning 
that he had also given me.
[b]Blaise Cendrars, Trans-Siberian Prose and Little Jeanne from France[/B]

I don't need easy. I just need possible.
[B]Bethany Hamilton, Surfer[/B]
[/I]

One Arm is a story by Yasunari Kawabata.

Some movies.

I wrote about The Fugitive recently.  One of the characters is a mysterious one-armed man. Dr Kimble needs to find him to prove his own innocence.

By chance a few days later I saw Soul Surfer. It's a true story. It's a movie about Bethany Hamilton, a surfer who lost her arm in a shark attack. She nearly died but recovered and gradually fought her way back to becoming a pro surfer. It was based on a true story. She is a very impressive woman.

Not long ago I saw 127 Hours about Aron Ralston. It's also a true story. He was a climber who got trapped by a falling rock and had to cut off his arm with a pocketknife to save his life. Awesome determination. He still climbs.

I watched Dolphin Tale with my family this week. It's also based on a true story. An injured dolphin eventually gets a prosthetic tail.

Aiki is a Japanese movie from 2002. It's about a young man who becomes paralyzed in an accident. Eventually he finds aikijujutsu and it helps him to come to terms with his life. It is fiction but at the end of the film there is some documentary footage of Ole Kingston Jensen. He is a Danish man who was paralyzed in an accident. The movie is partly based on his life.

Paul Wittgenstein was an Austrian pianist who lost his arm in the First World War. After the war he was determined to continue his career as a concert pianist. He was the brother of the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein.

The Swiss writer Blaise Cendrars also lost an arm in the First World War.

I have taught aikido to a man with one arm. He was very gifted. Very quickly he was able to do techniques without using muscle strength. At first he did the techniques only on one side. But gradually with some small adjustments he was able to do them from both sides. One problem he had was that he did not have a counterbalancing arm to help him to stay aware of his centre.

But most people with two arms are not aware of their centres.

One other thing was even more difficult for him. In fact it became an insurmountable block. He could not believe it when he did a technique without using muscle power. Literally he could not believe that the techniques worked. Because what he was doing was so effortless.

Niall


[I][url]http://mildredbarya.com/2011/one-long-poem-of-blaise-cendrars/[/url] 
[url]http://bethanyhamilton.com/ [/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soul_Surfer[/url] 
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soul_Surfer_(film)[/url] 
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bethany_Hamilton[/url] 
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Arm[/url] 
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blaise_Cendrars[/url] 
[url]http://www.grasslimb.com/sallis/GlobeColumns/globe.07.cendrars.html[/url] 
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Wittgenstein[/url] 
[url]http://www.uqtr.ca/AE/Vol_10/wittgenstein/szabados.htm[/url] 
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/127_Hours[/url] 
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolphin_Tale[/url][/I]


[i]nice photo: [URL="http://www.flickr.com/photos/kanaka/1998170884/"]Bethany Hamilton[/URL] by Kanaka Menehune


my home page with a mirror of these blog posts plus other stuff: [URL="http://mooninthewater.net/aikido"]mooninthewater.net/aikido[/URL]
 

my [URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=75&filter[1]=Niall%20Matthews"]columns[/URL] on aikiweb[/i]


© niall matthews 2012]]></body>
	<date>06-23-2012</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="4543">
	<title><![CDATA[should I teach my child how to fight?]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[[INDENT][INDENT][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][i][URL="http://www.flickr.com/photos/tjstaab/6872046044/"]Aikido[/URL] by Tonya Staab[/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/i][/INDENT][/INDENT]


[INDENT][INDENT][INDENT][INDENT][INDENT][URL="http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/is-it-a-fathers-job-to-teach-his-kid-to-fight/2012/06/15/gJQAHAH8eV_story.html"]Is it a father's job to teach his kid to fight? - The Washington Post[/URL][/INDENT][/INDENT][/INDENT][/INDENT][/INDENT]


This is a cool article from the Washington Post by Joel Stein. And it asks an important question: should I teach my child how to fight? 

As parents we want to protect our children. From harm. From bad things. From the world. Some children - like Joel's perhaps, and like Joel himself certainly - are not interested in learning how to fight.

Joel Stein believes kindness and gentleness are better than fighting. But anyway he'll let his son try a mixed martial arts class.

[QUOTE]Being a dad is knowing when your kid will be receptive to certain lessons. But that's not it. I'm the one who is never going to be ready. Even when he's 20, I'll be trying to distract him from the violence of the world. I'll be proud of his kindness, his gentleness, his ability to extract revenge by firing off pointed satire on Twitter.[/QUOTE]

So what is the answer? Should you? Should you teach your child how to fight? Or should you teach your child how not to fight.

Niall


[i]nice photo: [URL="http://www.flickr.com/photos/tjstaab/6872046044/"]Aikido[/URL] by Tonya Staab


my home page with a mirror of these blog posts plus other stuff: [URL="http://mooninthewater.net/aikido"]mooninthewater.net/aikido[/URL]
 

my [URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=75&filter[1]=Niall%20Matthews"]columns[/URL] on aikiweb[/i]


© niall matthews 2012]]></body>
	<date>06-20-2012</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="4537">
	<title><![CDATA[budo and bonsai]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[[indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][i][URL="http://www.flickr.com/photos/relva/5727991838/"]bonsai[/URL] by Hugo Sousa[/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/i]


[INDENT][i][b]Inspiration is the bonsai's trump card. But it's a person who makes it that way, you know. Look over there, at the black pine. Now that's inspiration. See there? An old tree gives us a lesson in life. Strange, isn't it? The tree may look withered, but it's living just the same. A tree can withstand the passage of time. Humans are the only ones who are at their most beautiful when they're young. But a tree, no matter how many years go by, you train it and train it, and though the tree itself would naturally resist, gradually it bends to your will. And when it does? Why then it's as if life has sprung forth anew, isn't it? Inspiration resides at that point when you begin to feel the miraculous.[/b] 
Natsuo Kirino, Grotesque

[b]All that I love
I fold over once
And once again
And keep in a box
Or a slit in a hollow post
Or in my shoe[/b]
Edith L Tiempo, Bonsai

[b]The bonsai tree
in the attractive pot
could have grown eighty feet tall
on the side of a mountain
till split by lightning
But a gardener
carefully pruned it
It is nine inches high.[/b]
Marge Piercy, The Bonsai Tree

[b]japanese idea
like these bloody haiku
but more expensive[/b]
David Gibbs, Bonsai

[b]pruning my bonsai
which to keep, which to lop...
(sigh) can't decide[/b]
Dave Burke, Bonsai & Haiku

[b]If you have a problem, Cut it off. If you still have a problem, you have a problem.[/b][/i]
John Yoshio Naka, bonsai cultivator[/INDENT]


I often walk past a house with a row of bonsai trees displayed outside. I don't know much about bonsai. I used to feel a little like Marge Piercy perhaps in her poem [I]The Bonsai Tree[/I]. That the end result - a bonsai tree - was sometimes beautiful. Even poignant. But that the aesthetic purity had been achieved by artificially constricting and deforming nature.

But budo - martial arts - might be a bonsai tree. You can even say [I]train[/I] about causing a plant to grow in a certain way. Of course in budo you train your spirit as well as your body. Your body has to learn to move in ways that seem unnatural and awkward at first. I wrote about kata in [URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=21000"]Kata and Aikido[/URL]. Kata based budo especially have a strong intrinsic rigour. Roughness and looseness and unnecessary movements are cut away. Pruned. And one day, one day, the movements will be simple and natural and pure. You will have caught the essence of the tree. Or the essence of the art. And the essence of your own heart.

Niall

[i][b]articles and poems[/b]

[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonsai[/url]

[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edith_Tiempo [/url]
[url]http://ralphseminogalan.blogspot.jp/2008/05/edith-l-tiempos-bonsai.html[/url]

[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marge_Piercy[/url] 
[url]http://faculty.pittstate.edu/~knichols/wpoets.html[/url]

[url]http://www.everypoet.net/poetry/blogs/david_gibbs[/url]

[url]http://mababonsai.org/pages/burke_haiku.html[/url]
Dave Burke, Bonsai & Haiku, Mid-America Bonsai Alliance

[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Naka[/url]
[url]http://www.helpfulgardener.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=3343[/url]


photo: [URL="http://www.flickr.com/photos/relva/5727991838/"]bonsai[/URL] by Hugo Sousa 


my home page with a mirror of these blog posts plus other stuff: [URL="http://mooninthewater.net/aikido"]mooninthewater.net/aikido[/URL]
 

my [URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=75&filter[1]=Niall%20Matthews"]columns[/URL] on aikiweb[/i]


© niall matthews 2012]]></body>
	<date>06-15-2012</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="4533">
	<title><![CDATA[cult]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[[indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][i][URL="http://www.flickr.com/photos/sancho_panza/27416301"]Aum[/URL] by Abel Pardo López[/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/i]


A few days ago I wrote a casual post called [URL="http://mooninthewater.net/aikido/2012/05/26/the-fugitive/"]the fugitive[/URL] about a cool escaped penguin. I talked about the The Fugitive and [URL="http://mooninthewater.net/aikido/2012/06/06/blade-runner/"]Blade Runner[/URL].

Then real life caught up. Aum is a Japanese cult. Aum members committed terrorist attacks in Japan in the 1990s including a sarin nerve gas attack on the Tokyo subway. Three Aum members have been on the most wanted list in Japan since they fled 16 years ago. Their photos are posted outside police boxes all across Japan.

Then one of them [URL="http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/nn20120107a9.html"]Makoto Hirata[/URL] suddenly and unexpectedly gave himself up on 31 December 2011. Perhaps in a deliberate move to force a delay in the execution of Shoko Asahara the leader of Aum. Next the police caught [URL="http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/nn20120604a1.html"]Naoko Kikuchi[/URL] on Sunday 4 June in Kanagawa. Then the third member [URL="http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/nn20120607a1.html"]Katsuya Takahashi[/URL] panicked when he heard the news of Kikuchi's arrest and was caught on video making several large cash withdrawals. It was the first time he had been spotted in the 16 years. The police rushed to arrest him but missed him by one hour. I hope they catch him very soon.

The story of Aum was like many cults that become twisted and deformed by personal greed and pride. Hundreds of young people drifting in Japanese society were attracted to its simplistic pseudo-Buddhist answers. The cult used mind control techniques and resorted to extortion. Gradually the cult leadership came to believe that they were above the law. It was almost impossible for members to leave. A young lawyer called Tsutsumi Sakamoto and his family were kidnapped and murdered by Aum members because he was working on a class-action lawsuit against the cult. So the family just disappeared off the face of the earth. There was a serious clue - an Aum button was found in the Sakamotos' apartment - but the cult claimed that it had been planted by enemies and the police did not have enough evidence.

Then an attack by Aum on the brother of a member who succeeded in escaping resulted in police raids on Aum. It was an important step in the dismantling of the cult.

As the police investigation tightened around Aum it lashed out with the terror attacks.

So they tried to hijack the spiritual word Om. But I refuse to let them.

My friend Del Dennis died in 2010. I wrote about him [URL="http://mooninthewater.net/aikido/2012/05/09/del-dennis/"]here[/URL]. One day he was walking to Shinjuku on his way home after aikido practice at the Aikikai hombu dojo. He walked past a public hall and some young women in the street outside invited him in to see a dance and song performance. Del went in. He was a musician so he was interested. He told me about the strange bearded man who was sitting in the lotus position on the stage during the whole performance. It was only later he realized he had seen a performance by Aum Shinrikyo. And the man on the stage was Shoko Asahara. Del was a good person. He always felt very uncomfortable that he had been at that performance. Close to evil.

Niall


[i]Om by John Coltrane
[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bEXNV6PX2MA[/url]

[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aum_Shinrikyo [/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underground_(stories) book by Haruki Murakami [/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Om[/url]

photo: [URL="http://www.flickr.com/photos/sancho_panza/27416301/"]Aum[/URL] by Abel Pardo López


my home page with a mirror of these blog posts plus other stuff: [URL="http://mooninthewater.net/aikido"]mooninthewater.net/aikido[/URL]
 

my [URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=75&filter[1]=Niall%20Matthews"]columns[/URL] on aikiweb[/i]


© niall matthews 2012]]></body>
	<date>06-08-2012</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="4531">
	<title><![CDATA[samurai | how many days in a month?]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[[indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][i][URL="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bcgovphotos/6331360537/"]Prayer /// Red Vector Thoughts[/URL] by Vector Hugo[/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/i]


The other day someone asked me how you remember the number of days in the months in English. We use this little rhyme. It sounds very old. The rhyme [I]one[/I] with [I]alone[/I] could come from Shakespeare.

[INDENT][INDENT][I]Thirty days has September
 April, June and November
 All the rest have thirty-one
 Except February alone[/I][/INDENT][/INDENT]

I found that there is a mnemonic using knuckles too. When you count out all the months though there are a couple of knuckles left over so - no. There has to be a more satisfactory solution.

In Japan they use a very short sentence:

[INDENT][INDENT]&#35199;&#21521;&#12367;&#22763;

[I]nishi muku samurai[/I]

2   4      6   9       11
[/INDENT][/INDENT]
Ni shi mu and ku are ways of pronouncing 2 4 6 and 9. That's called goroawase. I talked about it briefly in [URL="http://mooninthewater.net/aikido/2012/05/28/tokyo-sky-tree/"]tokyo sky tree[/URL].

Samurai is not the usual kanji for samurai &#20365;. It's the shi &#22763; from bushi &#27494;&#22763;, another word for samurai. It's also used as a suffix meaning scholar in words for professions like bengoshi - lawyer - and keirishi - accountant. The Japanese letter &#22763; looks like the letters for ten &#21313; plus one &#19968;. Or eleven.

So Japanese people remember that all the months have 31 days except the second, fourth, sixth, ninth and eleventh.

So wow. I look at it in admiration. Short, elegant and cool. Perfect. You probably won't forget it now either.

Niall

[i]
[URL="http://babelhut.com/languages/japanese/how-the-japanese-remember-months/"]article[/URL] about this mnemonic

[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thirty_days_hath_September[/url]


cool illustration: [URL="http://www.flickr.com/photos/pointofdesign/2951536326/"]Prayer /// Red Vector Thoughts by Vector Hugo[/URL]


my home page with a mirror of these blog posts plus other stuff: [URL="http://mooninthewater.net/aikido"]mooninthewater.net/aikido[/URL]
 

my [URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=75&filter[1]=Niall%20Matthews"]columns[/URL] on aikiweb[/i]


© niall matthews 2012]]></body>
	<date>06-06-2012</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="4529">
	<title><![CDATA[wood + school = good]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[[indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][i][URL="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bcgovphotos/6331360537/"]Matsudo workers[/URL] by BC Gov Photos[/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/i]



[URL="http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/fe20120603cw.html"]Wood you believe how good school could be . . . | The Japan Times Online[/URL]

I originally didn't plan to post this on aikiweb but I decided to. It is a link to an interesting article by C W Nicol about the advantages of using wood in construction. Following his advice wood was used in the rebuilding of a school in Miyagi after the Tohoku Earthquake.

C W Nicol is a naturalist living in Japan. He is famous in Japan for his work with nature. He originally came to Japan to study karate. [I]Moving Zen[/I] his book about his karate training in Japan was one of the first books I ever read about karate. It's a very interesting and personal book. Anyone interested in martial arts or in Japan would enjoy it. Below is a very complimentary review of it by a karateka.

Niall


[i][url]http://www.theshotokanway.com/movingzenreview.html[/url]

[url]http://www.amazon.com/Moving-Zen-Journey-Bushido-The-Warrior/dp/4770027559[/url] 

[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C._W._Nicol[/url]

[URL="http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/fe20110501cw.html"]article by C W Nicol from May 2011 about Rethinking Tohoku's Rebuilding[/URL]
 

photo: Matsudo workers by BC Gov Photos [url]http://www.flickr.com/photos/bcgovphotos/6331360537[/url] - using lumber in a construction site
BC Gov Photos photostream: [url]http://www.flickr.com/photos/bcgovphotos/with/6331360537/[/url]


my home page with a mirror of these blog posts plus other stuff: 
[URL="http://mooninthewater.net/aikido"]mooninthewater.net/aikido[/URL]
 

my [URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=75&filter[1]=Niall%20Matthews"]columns[/URL] on aikiweb[/i]


© niall matthews 2012]]></body>
	<date>06-05-2012</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="4527">
	<title><![CDATA[hitting the zone: limitless]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[[indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][i][URL="http://www.flickr.com/photos/geeks_lettres/5313214373/"]film Limitless Thriller[/URL] by Des Geeks and des lettres[/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/i]


[i][b]When taken as directed (one pill per day for seven consecutive days), NZT has been shown to be 97.3% effective in improving memory, hand-eye coordination and a host of cognitive abilities.[/b]
NZT-48 home page

[b]I don't have delusions of grandeur, I have an actual recipe for grandeur.[/b]
Bradley Cooper in Limitless

[b]I don't know how to fight. Or do I?[/b]
Bradley Cooper in Limitless[/i]


In the movie Limitless Bradley Cooper takes a new synthetic drug called NZT-48. Humans normally only use 20% of the brain's power. The drug lets him access 100%. 

He starts to see things very clearly. He sees patterns. He is able to think deeply and rapidly and he becomes successful and rich. It's a very cool movie and a great story. 

In one scene he is attacked on a subway platform by a gang of men. He has never been in a situation where he needed to fight. But he instantly recalls distant memories of fight advice and fight scenes from movies. And time seems to slow down as his brain processes the information and the situation and he becomes a dangerous and effective fighter. 

Great scene. And great concept. Timothy Gallwey wrote some books on the inner game. And Mihály Csíkszentmihályi wrote about the flow. He also wrote about autotelic people who do things for the sake of the thing itself. The idea seems similar to zen thinking.

Sometimes sports players and artists and musicians can get into the zone. Martial artists can get in the zone too. When I did my dan promotion tests in aikido I deliberately didn't practise the techniques in the months before the tests. And the same for my partners. I never practised with any of them. For each test I took a day's vacation. I stayed quiet and relaxed until the tests and did a little meditation. And I did the tests with an empty mind. Time slowed down. Everything became simple and easy and natural.  

Niall


[I]fight scene from Limitless
[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UhU9jmBPPFY[/url]

[B]background articles[/B]
[url]http://akas.imdb.com/title/tt1219289/[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limitless[/url] 
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flow_(psychology)[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autotelic[/url]

NZT-48 home page
[url]http://www.theclearpill.com/[/url]
 

photo: film Limitless Thriller by Des Geeks and des lettres [url]http://www.flickr.com/photos/geeks_lettres/5313214373/[/url]
Des Geeks and des lettres's photostream: [url]http://www.flickr.com/photos/geeks_lettres/with/5313214373/[/url]


my home page with a mirror of these blog posts plus other stuff: 
[URL="http://mooninthewater.net/aikido"]mooninthewater.net/aikido[/URL]
 

my [URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=75&filter[1]=Niall%20Matthews"]columns[/URL] on aikiweb[/i]


© niall matthews 2012]]></body>
	<date>06-03-2012</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="4524">
	<title><![CDATA[miyamoto musashi]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[[indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][i][URL="http://www.flickr.com/photos/monkist/4919233448/"]Miyamoto Musashi[/URL] by Szabolcs Arany[/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/i]


[INDENT][i]The Way I Go By Myself
 
1.I never act contrary to traditional morality. 
2.I have no partiality for anyone or anything. 
3.I never try to snatch a moment of ease. 
4.I think little of myself but much of the public. 
5.I am entirely free of acquisitiveness throughout my life. 
6.I never regret what I have done. 
7.I never envy others for their good luck, or on account of my ill luck. 
8.I never grieve at parting from anyone or anything at whatever time. 
9.I never reproach either myself or others; never complain about myself or others. 
10.I never dream of falling in love with a woman. 
11.Likes and dislikes, I have none. 
12.Whatever my dwelling house may be, I take no objection to it. 
13.I never desire dainty food for myself. 
14.I never have antique objects or curios in my possession. 
15.I never perform purification or observe abstinence to protect myself against evils. 
16.I have no taste for implements of any kind, excepting swords and other arms. 
17.I would never grudge my life in the cause of righteousness. 
18.I never wish to have any estate that would make my old age comfortable. 
19.I worship Gods and Buddhas, but never think of depending on them. 
20.I would sooner lay down my life than disgrace my good name. 
21.Never for a moment does my heart and soul stray from the way of swordsmanship.

[B]The 12th day of the 5th month, the 2nd year of Shoho (May 12, 1645) Shinmen Musashi[/B]

This translation appeared in a Japanese Sword Society/US newsletter. The translation was made in 1965 by Professor Giichiro Ikeda.[/i][/INDENT]

An extra post this week to introduce a site I like. I wrote about Miyamoto Musashi as an aside to my wordpress blog post yesterday about [URL="http://mooninthewater.net/aikido/2012/05/28/tokyo-sky-tree/"]Tokyo Sky Tree[/URL]. 

There are a lot of superficial internet sites about martial arts. And a very few good ones. I found one cool budo site [url]http://www.kampaibudokai.org/[/url] while I was looking for a quick way to [URL="http://www.kampaibudokai.org/Script.htm"]convert Japanese measurements[/URL] for swords - shaku and sun - into centimetres. There's a lot of good information about the Japanese sword on it. Some good book reviews too including books about aikido.

One page was about Miyamoto Musashi and on it there was The Dokkodo, the above list of his personal precepts.

Very cool. I have no taste for implements of any kind, excepting swords and other arms.

Niall

[I] photo: Miyamoto Musashi by Szabolcs Arany [url]http://www.flickr.com/photos/monkist/4919233448/[/url]
Szabolcs Arany's photostream: [url]http://www.flickr.com/photos/monkist/with/4919233448/[/url]


my home page with a mirror of these blog posts plus other stuff: 
[URL="http://mooninthewater.net/aikido"]mooninthewater.net/aikido[/URL]
 

my [URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=75&filter[1]=Niall%20Matthews"]columns[/URL] on aikiweb[/i]


© niall matthews 2012]]></body>
	<date>05-29-2012</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="4520">
	<title><![CDATA[karaoke, arikawa sensei and a plane crash]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[[indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][i][URL="http://www.flickr.com/photos/winterofdiscontent/3497901545/"]we are far too young and clever[/URL] by winterofdiscontent[/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/i]

I went to karaoke last week. I only go about once a year. Kara is empty as in karate and oke is short for orche - stra. Empty orchestra. The guy who invented karaoke didn't patent it and didn't make any money from it.

Once after an aikido event I went to a large karaoke bar with a few of the teachers. Sadateru Arikawa sensei came too. That was not so common. He didn't like social drinking much and he didn't like noisy places. He certainly didn't like singing. He was always happy to talk about aikido but it's difficult to talk against a background of karaoke.

Arikawa sensei didn't want to sing but some of the teachers were insistent. So eventually he agreed. Reluctantly. He had damaged his throat when he was young. His speaking voice was very quiet and husky. And his singing voice was very thin. But he liked me to sing songs in English.

Sometimes I sing Japanese songs. One of them is Ue o Muite Arukou. It's a positive and happy song with a catchy melody. I walk looking up. It was the first Japanese song to hit number one in the USA and it is one of the biggest selling singles of all time. It was bizarrely called Sukiyaki in English - a kind of grilled meat hot pot. The singer of Ue o Muite Arukou was Kyu Sakamoto. He died in the crash of JAL 123 on 12 August 1985. I remember that plane crash. It was the worst single plane crash in history. That night Ue o Muite Arukou had been playing when I had a meal in a Japanese pub. And in the following days I got phone calls from all over the world. Someone with a name similar to mine had died in the crash.

One of the songs Arikawa sensei liked me to sing in karaoke was Moon River. That brings us to moon in the water.

Niall

[I][B]background articles | music[/B]

[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karaoke[/url]

[url]http://www.events-in-music.com/who-invented-the-karaoke-machine.html[/url]

[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyu_Sakamoto[/url]

[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japan_Airlines_Flight_123[/url]

[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dexys[/url]


photo:we are far too young and clever by winterofdiscontent [url]http://www.flickr.com/photos/winterofdiscontent/3497901545/[/url]
winterofdiscontent's photostream: [url]http://www.flickr.com/photos/winterofdiscontent/with/3497901545/[/url]

The lyrics on the screen are from Come on Eileen by Dexys Midnight Runners.

Kyu Sakamoto, Ue o Muite Arukou
[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9OGRKTd9rk[/url]

Dexys Midnight Runners, Come on Eileen
[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jW_aWY5PubI[/url]


my home page with a mirror of these blog posts plus other stuff: 
[URL="http://mooninthewater.net/aikido"]mooninthewater.net/aikido[/URL]
 

my [URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=75&filter[1]=Niall%20Matthews"]columns[/URL] on aikiweb


I have an essay in a [URL="http://fortohoku.org/"]charity e-book[/URL] put together by some writers and photographers to raise money for victims of the earthquake and tsunami in Tohoku on 11 March 2011. It costs $9.99.[/i]


© niall matthews 2012]]></body>
	<date>05-24-2012</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="4517">
	<title><![CDATA[death of a samurai: swordfights]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[[indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][i][URL="http://www.flickr.com/photos/alq666/6221892438/"]Ichimei[/URL] by Alexis Lê-Quôc[/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/i]


This week another video clip of a cool swordfight. And how this clip and last week's clip relate to aikido. It's from [I]Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai[/I] directed by Takashi Miike. It's the trailer not the complete fight so try to get hold of the movie. 


[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5I14qkywyQ[/url]


In [URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/blogs/moon-in-the-water-19051/its-hard-being-a-samurai-4512/"]it's hard being a samurai[/URL] I wrote about [I]The Twilight Samurai[/I] directed by Yoji Yamada.
 
There is a superb fight sequence. The actor Hiroyuki Sanada enters, breaks the balance, gets behind his opponent, and completely controls his opponent's weapon. A couple of times he deliberately leaves an opening for his opponent to attack and then counters expertly. As I mentioned he has extensive experience in martial arts and in action movies and his sword work is very natural. 

This other excellent recent samurai movie is [I]Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai[/I] from 2011 directed by Takashi Miike. The Japanese title is [I]Ichimei[/I]. Another movie directed by Takashi Miike I really liked is [I]13 Assasins[/I]. I'll talk about that movie another time.

In fact [I]Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai[/I] is a remake of a great classic Japanese samurai movie [I]Harakiri[/I] directed by Masaki Kobayashi. The Japanese title of that movie is [I]Seppuku[/I]. That's another movie I'll talk about some other time. 

For now there is also a wonderful fight sequence in [I]Hara-kiri: Death of a Samurai[/I]. The kabuki actor Ichikawa Ebizo XI plays the main character. I doubt if he has any direct martial arts experience but I'm sure his long career in kabuki helped him with the fight movements. And he has charisma too. 

There are some differences in the approaches to fighting. Sanada fought a duel. Ichikawa is a lone fighter against dozens of opponents. He uses them against each other entering and spinning and moving and letting them get in each other's way.

There are some similarities in the two fights too.

Both of the samurai main characters use swords without real blades. They both deliberately spare the lives of their opponents. Although the outcomes of the fights cannot be compared both these samurai make the points that they wanted to make. 

Great movies, both of them.  Don't miss them if you are interested in Japanese culture or in martial arts. And if you glance at the lines above again you will see: entering, spinning, breaks the balance, gets behind the opponent, completely controls his opponent's weapon and spare the lives of their opponents. That's a pretty accurate description of aikido. 

Niall

[I][B]background articles[/B]


[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hara-Kiri:_Death_of_a_Samurai[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Takashi_Miike[/url]
[url]http://akas.imdb.com/title/tt1728196/[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ichikawa_Ebiz%C5%8D_XI[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harakiri_(1962_film)[/url]


photo: Ichimei by Alexis Lê-Quôc [url]http://www.flickr.com/photos/alq666/6221892438/[/url]
Alexis Lê-Quôc's photostream: [url]http://www.flickr.com/photos/alq666/[/url]


my home page with a mirror of these blog posts plus other stuff: 
[URL="http://mooninthewater.net/aikido"]mooninthewater.net/aikido[/URL]
 

my [URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=75&filter[1]=Niall%20Matthews"]columns[/URL] on aikiweb


I have an essay in a [URL="http://fortohoku.org/"]charity e-book[/URL] put together by some writers and photographers to raise money for victims of the earthquake and tsunami in Tohoku on 11 March 2011. It costs $9.99.[/i]


© niall matthews 2012]]></body>
	<date>05-17-2012</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="4512">
	<title><![CDATA[it's hard being a samurai]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[[indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][i][URL="http://www.flickr.com/photos/godchased/363258873/"]The Twilight Samurai[/URL] by Jonah Sng[/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/i]


This is a video clip of a very cool swordfight. It's from [I]The Twilight Samurai [/I]directed by Yoji Yamada. 


[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cg5qChXeDdI[/url]


Yoji Yamada is famous as the director of the popular [I]Otoko wa tsurai yo[/I] - It's hard being a man - series of Tora-san movies. They are rather lightweight. So the samurai trilogy Yamada directed subsequently was a wonderful surprise. 

The three movies are [I]The Twilight Samurai[/I], [I]The Hidden Blade[/I] and [I]Love and Honor[/I]. I recommend them - they are all really excellent movies.   

The swordfight is interesting because the main character Seibei uses a short wooden sword against his opponent's katana. A little like Miyamoto Musashi using a sword carved from an oar in his duel with Sasaki Kojiro.

Hiroyuki Sanada who plays Seibei has a background in martial arts and he is one of the few Japanese actors who looks competent when he is using a sword. He was in [I]The Last Samurai[/I] and he is also in [I]47 Ronin[/I] due for release in 2013.   

Niall

[I][B]background articles[/B][/I]

[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tasogare_Seibei[/url] 
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanada_Hiroyuki[/url]
[url] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoji_Yamada[/url]
[url] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otoko_wa_Tsurai_yo[/url]
[url]http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/ff20021023a3.html[/url]

 
[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sEdxb3I3dk[/url]
movie trailer


photo: The Twilight Samurai by Jonah Sng [url]http://www.flickr.com/photos/godchased/363258873/[/url]
Jonah Sng's photostream: [url]http://www.flickr.com/photos/godchased/with/363258873/[/url]


my home page with a mirror of these blog posts plus other stuff: 
[URL="http://mooninthewater.net/aikido"]mooninthewater.net/aikido[/URL]
 

my [URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=75&filter[1]=Niall%20Matthews"]columns[/URL] on aikiweb


I have an essay in a [URL="http://fortohoku.org/"]charity e-book[/URL] put together by some writers and photographers to raise money for victims of the earthquake and tsunami in Tohoku on 11 March 2011. It costs $9.99.[/i]


© niall matthews 2012]]></body>
	<date>05-11-2012</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="4505">
	<title><![CDATA[a sense of history]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[[indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][i][URL="http://www.flickr.com/photos/iseelazers/4129119033/"]Gift shop, Higashiyama, Kyoto[/URL] by Lazaro Lazo[/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/i]


[I][B]All I need is
Co-ordination
I can't imagine
My destination
My intention[/B]
OMD, Souvenir


[b]A way of certifying experience, taking photographs is also a way of refusing it - by limiting experience to a search for the photogenic, by converting experience into an image, a souvenir. Travel becomes a strategy for accumulating photographs.[/b]
Susan Sontag, On Photography


[b]Pieces, bits and pieces
Add up through the years
I've collected a small fortune
In souvenirs[/b]
Jimmy Buffett


[b]falling sick on a journey
my dream goes wandering 
over a field of dried grass[/b]
Matsuo Basho[/i]


We received some Japanese confectionery this week. A souvenir of a trip to Kyoto. Japanese people like to give souvenirs - omiyage - to friends and family after trips. Speciality food from the area they visited is very popular. 

The confectionery was yatsuhashi. There are soft types and hard types. The soft type usually has a sweet filling like bean paste or sesame paste. The hard type is a little like Belgian cinnamon and ginger speculoos cookies.   

The package said [I]since 1689[/I]. Showing the date of a company or a shop has become fashionable. A coffee shop shows [I]since 1977[/I] on its sign. A microbrewery shows [I]since 1996[/I] on its beer labels. But hundreds of years old is very rare.  

About the time that confectionery shop started business Louis XIV was the King of France. Isaac Newton was writing Philosophia Naturalis Mathematica. John Locke was writing An Essay Concerning Human Understanding. In Japan Matsuo Basho was writing the The Narrow Road to the Deep North. 

Aikido, judo and karate are relatively modern. A few decades old. But the kenjutsu I do is more than 400 years old. You can feel the history. Generations and generations of budoka who went before you.

When I started aikido we often went out with our teacher to a Sapporo beer hall after practice. Sapporo Black Label beer shows [I]since 1876[/I]. I think it's the oldest beer in Japan. And it's the best beer in the world.

Niall


[i][B]music | background articles | food blogs [/B]

[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQoYeMAS5qo[/url]
OMD, Souvenir

[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8loDRy_zsAw[/url]
Jimmy Buffett, Souvenirs

[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yatsuhashi[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miyagegashi[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meibutsu[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Souvenir[/url]
[url]http://www.shogoin.co.jp/[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speculoos[/url]
[url]http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/ek20110120wh.html[/url]
[url]http://www.justhungry.com/yatsuhashi-cinnamon-sweets-kyoto[/url] 
[url]http://wagashichronicles.blogspot.jp/[/url]
[url]http://timelines.ws/[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokugawa_shogunate[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sapporo_beer[/url]


photo: Gift shop, Higashiyama, Kyoto by Lazaro Lazo
[url]http://www.flickr.com/photos/iseelazers/4129119033/[/url]
photostream: [url]http://www.flickr.com/photos/iseelazers/with/4129119033/[/url]


my home page with a mirror of these blog posts plus other stuff: 
[URL="http://mooninthewater.net/aikido"]mooninthewater.net/aikido[/URL]
 

my [URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=75&filter[1]=Niall%20Matthews"]columns[/URL] on aikiweb


I have an essay in a [URL="http://fortohoku.org/"]charity e-book[/URL] put together by some writers and photographers to raise money for victims of the earthquake and tsunami in Tohoku on 11 March 2011. It costs $9.99.[/i]


© niall matthews 2012]]></body>
	<date>05-05-2012</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="4497">
	<title><![CDATA[out by kirino | rashomon by kurosawa]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[[indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][i][URL="http://www.flickr.com/photos/sheepie/3861838635/"]Out / Natsuo Kirino[/URL] by Laura González[/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/i]


[I][B]It's human to lie. Most of the time we can't even be honest with ourselves.[/B]
Rashomon


[B]As a means of contrast with the sublime, the grotesque is, in our view, the richest source that nature can offer.[/B]
Victor Hugo, preface to Cromwell


[B]Fate is what happens to you in spite of all your plans.[/B]
Natsuo Kirino, Out


[B]In order to induce the process of decay, water is necessary. I think that, in the case of women, men are the water.[/B]
Natsuo Kirino, Grotesque[/i]


Last week I wrote about [URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/blogs/moon-in-the-water-19051/myth-izanagi-izanami-and-the-leech-child-4487/"]Izanagi and Izanami[/URL]. A Japanese creation myth. O Sensei Morihei Ueshiba, the founder of aikido, spoke about this myth. 

I just found out this week - to my surprise - that the popular Japanese crime writer Natsuo Kirino wrote about the myth as part of a series on world mythology. Three of Natsuo Kirino's modernist noir novels have been translated into English. [I]Out[/I], [I]Grotesque[/I] and [I]Real World[/I]. They are very dark psychological thrillers. A little like Jim Thompson or James M Cain perhaps. Ice-cold and matter-of-fact. 

As her stories develop Natsuo Kirino likes to shift the perspective by using different narrators. This is a technique used in [I]Rashomon[/I], one of Akira Kurosawa's most famous samurai movies. [I]Rashomon[/I] was based on two stories by Ryunosuke Akutagawa: [I]Rashomon[/I] and [I]In the Grove[/I]. Narrators do not always tell the truth. Or perhaps they do not understand the real truth. That is called an unreliable narrator. But innocently mistaken or deliberately disingenuous? To find out you'll have to read the books. And see the movie.

Natsuo Kirino's main characters are mostly powerful women. And many of her characters are somehow outsiders in Japanese society. Perhaps she even thinks of women as outsiders in Japanese society. She used the English word [I]Out[/I] - with its many layers of meaning - as the title for her book in Japanese. But for example [I]Out[/I] is also about Japanese Brazilian shift workers. 

The story of the Japanese diaspora is very interesting. There were waves of emigrants from Japan at the end of the nineteenth century and in the early twentieth century. At the end of the twentieth century there were waves in the other direction as Japanese Brazilians and Japanese Peruvians and many others came to Japan to find work. First, second and third generation descendants of Japanese have certain rights to Japanese nationality or visa status. Famously invoked by Alberto Fujimori the former President of Peru in an attempt to escape prosecution. For a while anyway. 

And of course the Japanese diaspora includes all the Japanese aikido teachers who left Japan. I talked about that briefly in [URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/blogs/moon-in-the-water-19051/exiles-4348/"]exiles[/URL].

Niall


[i][B]e-books | poems | texts | background articles[/B]

[url]http://www.gavroche.org/vhugo/cromwellpreface.shtml[/url]
Victor Hugo, preface to Cromwell

[url]http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/8775[/url]
Victor Hugo, Poems

[url]http://www.kirino-natsuo.com/[/url] 
Natsuo Kirino's home page

[url]http://sites.google.com/site/renemalenfant/rashomon[/url] text of Rashomon
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_a_Grove[/url] links to texts of In a Grove

[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natsuo_Kirino[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Out_(novel)[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grotesque_(novel)[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Real_World_(novel)[/url]
[url]http://www.laweekly.com/2007-07-05/art-books/grotesque-natsuo-kirino-s-dark-world/1/[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unreliable_narrator[/url] 
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rashomon_effect[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rash%C5%8Dmon_(short_story)[/url] 
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rashomon_(film)[/url] 
[url]http://www.criterion.com/films/307[/url] interviews about the movie Rashomon
[url]http://akas.imdb.com/title/tt0042876/[/url] Rashomon on IMDb
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_creation_myth[/url] 
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikkeijin[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_Brazilian[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_American[/url] 


photo of book: Out / Natsuo Kirino by Laura González
[url]http://www.flickr.com/photos/sheepie/3861838635/[/url]
photostream: [url]http://www.flickr.com/photos/sheepie/with/3861838635/[/url]


my home page with a mirror of these blog posts plus other stuff: 
[URL="http://mooninthewater.net/aikido"]mooninthewater.net/aikido[/URL]
 

my [URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=75&filter[1]=Niall%20Matthews"]columns[/URL] on aikiweb


I have an essay in a [URL="http://fortohoku.org/"]charity e-book[/URL] put together by some writers and photographers to raise money for victims of the earthquake and tsunami in Tohoku on 11 March 2011. It costs $9.99.[/i]


© niall matthews 2012]]></body>
	<date>04-28-2012</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="4487">
	<title><![CDATA[myth: izanagi, izanami and the leech child]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[[indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][i][URL="http://www.flickr.com/photos/tir_na_nog/536595663/"]Fionnuala, daughter of Lir[/URL] by Liam Moloney[/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/i]


[I][B]I have heard moreover that the monster scorns
in his reckless way to use weapons;
therefore, to heighten Hygelac's fame
and gladden his heart, I hereby renounce
sword and the shelter of the broad shield,
the heavy war-board: hand-to-hand
is how it will be, a life-and-death
fight with the fiend.[/B]
Beowulf: A New Verse Translation by Seamus Heaney


[b]I shall stay here the forehorse to a smock,
Creaking my shoes on the plain masonry,
Till honour be bought up, and no sword worn
But one to dance with.[/b]
William Shakespeare, All's Well That Ends Well


[b]Unknown was law,
Yet safe were all. Unhewn from native hills,
The pine-tree knew the seas not, nor had view'd
Regions unknown, for man not yet had search'd
Shores distant from his own. The towns ungirt
By trenches deep, laid open to the plain;
Nor brazen trump, nor bended horn were seen,
Helmet, nor sword; but conscious and secure,
Unaw'd by arms the nations tranquil slept.[/b]
Ovid, Metamorphoses
 

[b]with a flimsy sword
you cannot be half
a guard for the cardinal
and half
a king's musketeer[/b]
Yevgeny Yevtushenko, Half Measures[/i]


I've read about Izanagi and Izanami in a couple of blog posts recently. It's a legend from the Kojiki. The Record of Ancient Matters. It's an old Japanese text. When I say old I mean more than a thousand years old. 

I am not at all interested in the Kojiki as a technical text about martial arts. I don't read Beowulf or Ovid to learn how to fight with a sword. But if reading Japanese myths helps your training that's cool. 

Anyway the story is worth repeating just as a story. It is a horror story. A story of incest. A story of weakness and sadness and loss. This is a modern retelling from The Book of Loss by Julith Jedamus.


[QUOTE]I think about the story of the Leech Child. My mother told it to me when I was a girl. She said I would ask to hear it again and again, as if something about his misfortunes struck my fancy.

He was the first child of Izanagi and Izanami, the incestuous brother and sister who created our world. Their other children were strong, and became the sun and moon and all the islands of our homeland and its trees, waterfalls, rocks and storms. But the Leech Child had no bones. He was white and formless, and he couldn't stand or walk.

When he was three his parents put him in a boat and set him adrift on the sea. No one rescued him, nor was he transformed through luck or magic into a mythical creature - a phoenix, perhaps, or a dragon. he simply died.

How did he die? I would ask my mother, but she couldn't tell me. I imagined him parched by the sun or cast into the water by a wave.

And did his mother miss him?

No, my mother would say, she was busy having other children. But her last child, the god of fire, scorched her when she was giving birth, and she died. Her husband Izanagi sought her in the underworld and begged her to return. She replied that she could not, but promised that she would appeal to the gods, and warned him not to look at her until she did so. But he broke his vow, and saw her corpse riddled with maggots.

Izanagi was so repelled that he fled the underworld and found a river and bathed himself over and over to rid himself of the taint of his wife's body.

There are no sins in this story, nor any sense of guilt. The Leech Child is born and is left to die; the mother dies also. No one can bring them back.

[B]Julith Jedamus, The Book of Loss[/B]
[/QUOTE]


The Book of Loss is a novel written in the form of a diary. This is a traditional form in classical Japanese literature. It is set in the Emperor's court in Heian period Japan. Like The Diary of Lady Murasaki - written a thousand years ago - it also includes letters as a narrative technique. In The Book of Loss the writer's lover has been forced into exile. Intrigue and revenge drag her life into a spiral of darkness. 

The Book of Loss is interesting, perceptive and very well-written. I liked it a lot. 

Niall


[i][B]e-books | poems | texts | background articles | izanagi and izanami blog posts[/B]
[url]http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/16328[/url]
Beowulf free e-book on project gutenberg

[url]http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/100[/url]
William Shakespeare, The Complete Works free e-book on project gutenberg

[url]http://articles.latimes.com/1991-09-08/books/bk-2773_1_half-measures[/url]
Yevgeny Yevtushenko, Half Measures

[url]http://www.poemhunter.com/yevgeny-yevtushenko/[/url]
poems by Yevgeny Yevtushenko

[url]http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/jhti/search%20gateway.html[/url]
[url]http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/jhti/Nihon%20shoki.html[/url]
[url]http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/jhti/Kojiki.html[/url]
[url]http://www.sacred-texts.com/shi/kj/index.htm[/url]
classical Japanese texts in English

[url]http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/28621[/url] Volumes 1 and 2 in blank verse
[url]http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/21765[/url] Books I-VII 
[url]http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/26073[/url] Books VIII-XV
Ovid, Metamorphoses free e-books on project gutenberg

[url]http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/omori/court/murasaki.html[/url]
The Diary of Murasaki Shikibu online


[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kojiki[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nihon_Shoki[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beowulf[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yevgeny_Yevtushenko[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikki_Bungaku[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Murasaki_Shikibu_Diary[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_mythology[/url]


[url]http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=21106[/url]
[url]http://aikido-auvergne-kumano.blogspot.fr/2012/04/izanagi-izanami.html[/url]
[url]http://www.aikidosangenkai.org/blog/archive/2012-04-08/aikido-and-the-floating-bridge-of-heaven[/url]


photo: Fionnuala, daughter of Lir by Liam Moloney 
[url]http://www.flickr.com/photos/tir_na_nog/536595663/[/url]
photostream: [url]http://www.flickr.com/photos/tir_na_nog/[/url]


my home page with a mirror of these blog posts plus other stuff: 
[URL="http://mooninthewater.net/aikido"]mooninthewater.net/aikido[/URL]
 

my [URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=75&filter[1]=Niall%20Matthews"]columns[/URL] on aikiweb


I have an essay in a [URL="http://fortohoku.org/"]charity e-book[/URL] put together by some writers and photographers to raise money for victims of the earthquake and tsunami in Tohoku on 11 March 2011. It costs $9.99.


[url]http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Book-Loss-Julith-Jedamus/dp/075381935X/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1334979501&sr=8-3[/url]
[url]http://www.amazon.com/The-Book-Loss-Julith-Jedamus/dp/B001G8WA80/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1334979061&sr=8-1[/url]
Julith Jedamus, The Book of Loss on Amazon

[url]http://www.amazon.com/Beowulf-Illustrated-Edition-Seamus-Heaney/dp/0393330109/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1334976127&sr=8-3[/url]
Beowulf, Illustrated Edition: A New Verse Translation by Seamus Heaney on Amazon

[url]http://www.amazon.com/Selected-Penguin-Classics-Yevgeny-Yevtushenko/dp/0140424776/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1334976420&sr=1-2[/url]
Yevgeny Yevtushenko, Selected Poems on Amazon[/i]


© niall matthews 2012]]></body>
	<date>04-20-2012</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="4483">
	<title><![CDATA[beneath the cherry trees]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[[indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][i][URL="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eelssej_/3420576294/"]Hanami[/URL] by Jesslee Cuizon[/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/i]


[I][B]Like wild cherry blossoms
Glowing in the morning sun[/b]
Motoori Norinaga

[b]On a journey
Resting beneath the cherry blossoms
I feel myself to be in a Noh play[/b]
Matsuo Basho

[b]You've got to believe it. Well, otherwise you couldn't possibly believe that cherry trees could bloom so beautifully. I've been out of sorts these past two or three days, because I couldn't believe in such a beauty. But now I've finally understood it: there are bodies buried beneath the cherry trees.[/b]
Kajii Motojiro, Beneath the Cherry Trees[/i]


This year has been cool and the cherry blossoms came into bloom very late. Today it is raining. The rain is beating the blossoms from the trees. Petals are lying everywhere on the wet ground. The cherry blossoms may be gone by tomorrow. 

The year is divided by events of nature. Cherry blossoms. Fireflies. The autumn moon. The changing colours of the leaves. Japanese people admire these signs of change in nature and celebrate them. The ohanami or hanami - the o is an honorific prefix - cherry blossom viewing party is a significant event in the calendar. The end of winter and the beginning of spring. And sometimes perhaps also a celebration of graduation or the start of a new academic year or a new job. After the beauty of the heavy clouds of cherry blossoms on the trees the petals blowing in the wind are like the transience of life. I have a great memory of an aikido dojo hanami party in Maruyama Park in Kyoto.

Cherry blossom parties are especially important this year. In 2011 many parties were cancelled because of the Tohoku earthquake. Last weekend I saw cherry blossom parties still going on even in the almost freezing dark of evening. 

And the next day when it did start to become warm I did go to a dojo hanami party. But it was at night. In a Japanese pub. So there were no cherry blossoms. And no viewing. So ohanami had become an abstract concept. But everyone was happy that it was held.    

Niall


[i]story | haiku | background articles
[url]http://all-wrongs-reversed.net/2011/09/28/beneath-the-cherry-trees/[/url]
Motohiro Kajii, Beneath the Cherry Trees translated by Morgan Giles

[url]http://thegreenleaf.co.uk/HP/basho/00Bashohaiku.htm[/url]
[url]http://www.haikupoetshut.com/basho1.html[/url]
some haiku by Matsuo Basho

[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanami[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cherry_blossom[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motoori_Norinaga[/url]
[url]http://www.norinagakinenkan.com/english/index.html[/url]
[url]http://www.norinagakinenkan.com/norinaga/shiryo/about.html[/url]
[url]http://www.simplyhaiku.com/SHv5n3/features/Marra.html[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motojir%C5%8D_Kajii[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matsuo_Bash%C5%8D[/url]
[url]http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/travel/a/-/travel/13258523/the-cherry-blossoms-of-washington-dc/[/url]


photo: Hanami by Jesslee Cuizon [url]http://www.flickr.com/photos/eelssej_/3420576294/[/url]
photostream: [url]http://www.flickr.com/photos/eelssej_/[/url]


my home page with a mirror of these blog posts plus other stuff: 
[URL="http://mooninthewater.net/aikido"]mooninthewater.net/aikido[/URL]
 

my [URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=75&filter[1]=Niall%20Matthews"]columns[/URL] on aikiweb


I have an essay in a [URL="http://fortohoku.org/"]charity e-book[/URL] put together by some writers and photographers to raise money for victims of the earthquake and tsunami in Tohoku on 11 March 2011. It costs $9.99.[/i]


© niall matthews 2012]]></body>
	<date>04-14-2012</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="4478">
	<title><![CDATA[wrecked]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[[indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][i][URL="http://joshfred90.deviantart.com/gallery/#/d2kcy96"]Titanic[/URL] by joshfred90[/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/i]


[I][B]Each man makes his own shipwreck | naufragium sibi quisque facit[/B]
Marcus Annaeus Lucanus, The Civil War

[b]The Westerly Wind asserting his sway from the south-west quarter is often like a monarch gone mad, driving forth with wild imprecations the most faithful of his courtiers to shipwreck, disaster, and death.[/b]
Joseph Conrad, The Mirror of the Sea

[b]The man who has experienced shipwreck shudders even at a calm sea | tranquillas etiam naufragus horret aquas[/b]
Ovid, Letters from Pontus

[b]My visions were of shipwreck and famine; of death or captivity among barbarian hordes; of a lifetime dragged out in sorrow and tears, upon some gray and desolate rock, in an ocean unapproachable and unknown.[/b]
Edgar Allan Poe, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym

[b]Jerry: Expect a call.
George: Oh my god he's not kidding.
Jerry: Now I should tell you at this point she's under the impression that you are a… 
George: A what?
Jerry: A marine biologist.
George: A marine biologist...? Why am I a marine biologist?
Jerry: I may have mentioned it.
George: But I'm not a marine biologist!
Jerry: I'm aware of that.
George: So?
Jerry: You don't think it's a good job?
George: I didn't think it was a job.[/b]
Seinfeld, The Marine Biologist episode[/I]


A hundred years ago the Titanic sank. A forensic astronomer thinks it was because on 4 January 1912 the moon came close to the earth. The closest for 1400 years. And the day before the earth had been at its closest point to the sun on its annual orbit. This combination of super-high tides and the extra heat led to a dangerous breaking up of ice fields. Many icebergs broke off and floated south into the shipping lanes of the north Atlantic. One of them to a fatal meeting with the RMS Titanic on 15 April 1912.  

Wait. Step back a moment. A forensic astronomer?! I didn't know that was a job. Sounds very cool. 

Shipwrecks. Shipwrecks and castaways played surprising and important roles in the opening of Japan to the world. The Dutch ship Liefde arrived in Kyushu in 1600. It was the only surviving ship of the original fleet of five. Hundreds of sailors were lost. William Adams was on the Liefde. He was the first Englishman in Japan. 

Christopher and Cosmas were the first Japanese to cross the Pacific ocean. They also crossed the Indian ocean on their way to London. Later their ship was lost at sea.  

Otokichi was a Japanese castaway who eventually travelled to London. He returned to Japan as part of the fleet that negotiated the Anglo-Japanese Friendship Treaty.   
  
John Manjiro was a Japanese boy. He was rescued and brought to the USA after his fishing boat was wrecked. Later he was a member of the first Japanese Embassy sent to the United States by the Tokugawa shogunate.  
 
The founder of judo Jigoro Kano died at sea. Not in a shipwreck. But there was a suspicion that he might have been poisoned… 

Anniversaries give us a chance to pause and to remember. The founder of aikido Morihei Ueshiba died on 26 April 1969. Every year on the 29 April national holiday there is an anniversary event at the Aiki Shrine in Iwama.

Niall


[i]e-books
[url]http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/602[/url]
Marcus Annaeus Lucanus, The Civil War
[url]http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/lucan/lucan1.shtml[/url]
Marcus Annaeus Lucanus, Pharsalia | Latin original

[url]http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1058[/url]
Joseph Conrad, The Mirror of the Sea

[url]http://archive.org/stream/ovidtristiaexpon011949mbp/ovidtristiaexpon011949mbp_djvu.txt[/url]
Ovid, Letters from Pontus
[url]http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/ovid/ovid.ponto2.shtml[/url]
Ovid, Epistolae ex Ponto | Latin original 

[url]http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2149[/url]
Edgar Allan Poe, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym in The Works of Edgar Allan Poe Volume 3


background articles
[url]http://www.science20.com/science_20/blog/forensic_astronomy_maybe_moon_sank_titanic-87771[/url]
[url]http://www.txstate.edu/news/news_releases/news_archive/2012/March-2012/Titanic030512.html[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titanic[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Adams_(sailor)[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otokichi[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Manjiro[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_Embassy_to_the_United_States_(1860)[/url] 
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_and_Cosmas[/url] 
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglo-Japanese_relations[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jigoro_Kano[/url]
[url]http://www.seinfeldscripts.com/TheMarineBiologist.htm[/url]

Interesting discussion on judoforum about Japanese Imperial Military Martial Arts including comments about the death of Jigoro Kano. Also aikido and aikijujutsu. 
[url]http://judoforum.com/index.php?/topic/21794-japanese-imperial-military-martial-arts/[/url]


art: Titanic by joshfred90 [url]http://joshfred90.deviantart.com/gallery/#/d2kcy96[/url]
joshfred90's gallery on deviantart: [url]http://joshfred90.deviantart.com/gallery/[/url]


RMS means Royal Mail Ship


shipwreck poem by Gerard Manley Hopkins on my blog
[url]http://mooninthewater.net/poemoftheweek/2012/03/27/the-loss-of-the-eurydice-by-gerard-manley-hopkins/[/url]


my home page with a mirror of these blog posts: 
[URL="http://mooninthewater.net/aikido"]mooninthewater.net/aikido[/URL]
 

my [URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=75&filter[1]=Niall%20Matthews"]columns[/URL] on aikiweb


I have an essay in a [URL="http://fortohoku.org/"]charity e-book[/URL] put together by some writers and photographers to raise money for victims of the earthquake and tsunami in Tohoku on 11 March 2011. It costs $9.99.[/i]


© niall matthews 2012]]></body>
	<date>04-07-2012</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="4469">
	<title><![CDATA[sword/words]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[[indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][i][URL="http://www.flickr.com/photos/marcinbrzezinski/3625441723/"]Sword I[/URL] by Marcin Brzezi&#324;ski[/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/i]


[I][B]I don't know about the idea that a weapon is an extension of your hand, but it sure feels good to have a stick in your hand and go whack, whack, whack.[/B]
Victor de Thouars, Mahaguru of Serak Pentjak-Silat

[b]He hath a killing tongue and a quiet sword.[/b]
William Shakespeare, Henry V act 3 scene 2

[b]If I did not know that I am a genuine Dane, I could almost be tempted to explain my self-contradictions by supposing that I am an Irishman. For the Irish do not have the heart to immerse their children totally when they have them baptized; they want to keep a little paganism in reserve; generally the child is totally immersed under water but with the right arm free, so that he will be able to wield a sword with it, embrace the girls.[/b]
Søren Kierkegaard, Journals and Papers

[b]A storm-beaten old watch-tower,
A blind hermit rings the hour.

All-destroying sword-blade still
Carried by the wandering fool.

Gold-sewn silk on the sword-blade,
Beauty and fool together laid.[/b]
William Butler Yeats, Symbols

[b]Never give a sword to a man who can't dance.[/b] 
Confucius[/I]


A little while ago I wrote about the perfect [URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/blogs/moon-in-the-water-19051/the-perfect-tool-4434/"]tool[/URL]. Tools for aikido are very basic. You need something to wear and somewhere to train. So that's a simple cotton uniform and a room. Or a park or a field. Some styles also train with stylized practice weapons. One of the most important is a wooden sword. A bokken.

Today I want to talk about some practice swords. I wrote about [URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20744"]bamboo swords[/URL] in a column. I'll talk about real swords another time.

In Japan it is not easy to get a licence for a real sword. Even for a martial arts teacher. I wrote once in [URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/blogs/moon-in-the-water-19051/swords-and-guns-4128/"]swords and guns[/URL] about the Japanese Customs destroying a sword sent to me from the USA because it was too modern. If it had had any historical value I might have been able to get a licence. 

In Japan wooden swords are just tools for training. Nobody cares about exotic woods. Simple and tough will do it. I have a few bokken. Different weights and shapes.  

I got the chance to pick up a plastic training sword some time ago. It was cheap. Perhaps many traditional martial arts teachers would disapprove of a plastic sword. Although many beginner shakuhachi - Japanese bamboo flute - players start with a plastic one. And kendo shinai now can be made from carbon fibre. I didn't expect very much from a plastic sword but I thought it would be useful for solo training outside in wet weather. You can't really call it a plastic bokken because bokken means wooden sword. Plakken maybe. On the [URL="http://www.coldsteel.com/bokkens.html"]home page[/URL] there is a video of a guy showing how strong this sword is. He whacks things with it. Seriously. So you know it's tough. It's got a little too much whip in it. But the balance is surprisingly good. And it's perfect in the rain. But how many sensible people train in the rain.

I do have a bokken with terrible balance. It's from Iwama. The dojo in the Japanese countryside where the founder of aikido trained. That bokken feels like it was carved out of an oar. There is a legend that Miyamoto Musashi carved a wooden sword out of an oar in the rowboat on his way to fight Sasaki Kojiro. He won that duel by the way so perhaps balance is overrated. 

After my teacher Kinjo Asoh Sensei died I put a book by Joseph Conrad in his coffin so that he would have something to read on his final journey. I wrote about that in [URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/blogs/moon-in-the-water-19051/the-sea-4249/"]the sea[/URL]. They also put a bokken in the coffin with him. It was a very nice bokken that he had used for many years. But even in death there was a practical side. Before the coffin was closed and burned they took the bokken out again. Oh well. I did leave the book. 

Niall


[i]e-books and online resources
[url]http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/100[/url]
William Shakespeare, The Complete Works free e-book on project gutenberg

[url]http://www.naturalthinker.net/trl/texts/Kierkegaard,Soren/JournPapers/index.html[/url]
Søren Kierkegaard, Journals and Papers online 

[url]http://www.askaboutireland.ie/reading-room/digital-book-collection/digital-books-by-subject/poetry/yeats-the-winding-stair/[/url]
W B Yeats, The Winding Stair online


background articles
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bokken[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miyamoto_Musashi[/url] 


Main photo: Sword I by Marcin Brzezi&#324;ski
[url]http://www.flickr.com/photos/marcinbrzezinski/3625441723/[/url]
photostream: [url]http://www.flickr.com/photos/marcinbrzezinski/with/3625441723/[/url]


my home page with a mirror of these blog posts plus posts not related to martial arts: [URL="http://mooninthewater.net/aikido"]mooninthewater.net/aikido[/URL]
 

my [URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=75&filter[1]=Niall%20Matthews"]columns[/URL] on aikiweb


I have an essay in a [URL="http://fortohoku.org/"]charity e-book[/URL] put together by some writers and photographers to raise money for victims of the earthquake and tsunami in Tohoku on 11 March 2011. It costs $9.99.[/i]


© niall matthews 2012]]></body>
	<date>03-31-2012</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="4466">
	<title><![CDATA[crak!]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[[indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][i][URL="http://www.flickr.com/photos/rocor/6040370460/"]Roy Lichtenstein[/URL] by rocor[/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/i]


[I][B]They are Ghouls:
And their king it is who tolls;
And he rolls, rolls, rolls,
Rolls[/B]
Edgar Allan Poe, The Bells

[b]On a roof stand the swallows ranged in wistful waiting rows,
Till they arrow off and drop like stones[/b]
Thomas Hardy, On Sturminster Foot-bridge

[b]Dirty British coaster with a salt-caked smoke stack, 
Butting through the Channel in the mad March days[/b]
John Masefield, Cargoes

[b]And dark in the dark old inn-yard a stable-wicket creaked[/b]
Alfred Noyes, The Highwayman

[b]A sound in my head that I can't describe
It's sort of whack, whir, wheeze, whine
Sputter, splat, squirt, scrape
Clink, clank, clunk, clatter
Crash, bang, beep, buzz
Ring, rip, roar, retch
Twang, toot, tinkle, thud
Pop, plop, plunk, pow
Snort, snuk, sniff, smack
Screech, splash, squish, squeek
Jingle, rattle, squeel, boing
Honk, hoot, hack, belch[/b]
Todd Rundgren, Onomatopoeia[/I]


This pop-art painting by Roy Lichtenstein is done like a panel of a DC comic. The word [I][B]Crak![/B][/I] sounds like its meaning - a rifle firing. That is called onomatopoeia. 

In English we use onomatopoeia in music lyrics - like in [I]Splish Splash (I was taking a bath)[/I] by Bobby Darin. And in poetry. From Shakespeare to e e cummings. And of course in comics!

But onomatopoeia, ideophones and mimetic words - including words for more abstract concepts that don't have a sound - are very, very important in normal Japanese speaking and writing. Many of these words are made by reduplication - that sounds like a tautology but it means with repeating sounds - like bye-bye in English. 

There are some glossaries in the links below but here are a few examples. Doki-doki means your heart is beating fast with excitement. Toki-doki means sometimes. Niko-niko means smiling. There are even some double reduplications(!). Kenken-gogo means an uproar. Kankan-gakugaku means a frank argument. 

In the Japanese illustration of Daito-ryu Aikijujutsu [I]BA[/I] is the sound of the air during the technique. 

But maybe the best example for budo is giri-giri. At the limit. The last possible moment. 

Niall


[IMG]http://www.aikidosangenkai.org/zenphoto/albums/ueshiba-monogatari/meeting-takeda.jpeg[/IMG]
[indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][i][URL="http://www.aikidosangenkai.org/zenphoto/ueshiba-monogatari/"]Morihei Ueshiba meets Sokaku Takeda[/URL] from Aikido Sangenkai[/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/i]


[i][url]http://www.online-literature.com/poe/575/[/url]
Edgar Allan Poe, The Bells (so that's where the name rock 'n' roll came from…)
[url]http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/10031[/url]
Edgar Allan Poe, The Complete Poetical Works free e-book

[url]http://www.poetryatlas.com/poetry/poem/561/on-sturminster-foot-bridge.html[/url]
Thomas Hardy, On Sturminster Foot-bridge
[url]http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/3255[/url]
Thomas Hardy, Moments of Vision and Miscellaneous Verses free e-book

[url]http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/cargoes/[/url]
John Masefield, Cargoes
[url]http://archive.org/details/saltwaterballads00maserich[/url]
John Masefield, Saltwater Ballads free e-book

[url]http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Highwayman_(Noyes)[/url]
Alfred Noyes, The Highwayman
[url]http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/30501[/url]
Alfred Noyes, Collected Poems free e-book

[url]http://www.famouspoetsandpoems.com/poets/william_shakespeare/poems/1715.html[/url]
William Shakespeare, Winter, from Love's Labour's Lost

[url]http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/10068/[/url]
e e cummings, hist whist


background articles
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roy_Lichtenstein[/url] 
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onomatopoeia[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ideophone[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reduplication[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_sound_symbolism[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mimetic[/url]
[url]http://japanese.about.com/blgitaigo.htm[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sokuon[/url] 
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bells[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diacope[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross-linguistic_onomatopoeias[/url]

onomatopoia in Japanese
[url]http://thejadednetwork.com/sfx/[/url]
[url]http://www.nihongoresources.com/dictionaries/onomatopoeia.html[/url]
[url]http://englishpatterns.com/community/1115[/url]

onomatopoeia in French
[url]http://www.dr-belair.com/dic/Entertainment/Onomatopoeias/dc-onomatopoeias.htm[/url] 

Bobby Darin, Splish Splash on youtube
[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4KmKkV3ddAo[/url]

Todd Rundgren, Onomatopoeia on youtube
[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cSPQfz_Tyd8[/url]

Main photo: Roy Lichtenstein by rocor
[url]http://www.flickr.com/photos/rocor/6040370460/[/url]
photostream: [url]http://www.flickr.com/photos/rocor/with/6040370460/[/url]

Daito-ryu illustration: scan from Ueshiba Morihei Monogatari on the Aikido Sangenkai of Hawaii website
[url]http://www.aikidosangenkai.org/zenphoto/ueshiba-monogatari/[/url] 
[url]http://www.aikidosangenkai.org/[/url]


my home page with a mirror of these blog posts plus posts not related to martial arts: [URL="http://mooninthewater.net/aikido"]mooninthewater.net/aikido[/URL]
 

my columns on aikiweb:
[url]http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=75&filter[1]=Niall%20Matthews[/url]


I have an essay in a [URL="http://fortohoku.org/"]charity e-book[/URL] put together by some writers and photographers to raise money for victims of the earthquake and tsunami in Tohoku on 11 March 2011. It costs $9.99.[/i]


© niall matthews 2012]]></body>
	<date>03-24-2012</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="4461">
	<title><![CDATA[snapshots. police. old. young]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[[indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][i][URL="http://www.flickr.com/photos/n-ino/26296917/"]CHiPs, John or Punch[/URL] by N-ino[/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/i]


[I][B]Doctor, you say there are no haloes
around the streetlights in Paris
and what I see is an aberration
caused by old age, an affliction.[/B]
Lisel Mueller, Monet Refuses the Operation

[b]Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.[/b]
Dylan Thomas, Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night

[b]Though now in her old age, in her young age
She had been beautiful in that old way
That's all but gone[/b]
W B Yeats, The Old Age of Queen Maeve

[b]I have lived long enough: my way of life
Is fallen into the sere, the yellow leaf;
And that which should accompany old age,
As honor, love, obedience, troops of friends,
I must not look to have. [/b]
William Shakespeare, Macbeth act 5 scene 3

[b]He is a policeman you know
All the years and nothing to show
He is a policeman you know[/b]
Chicago, Policeman

[b]She did not really want to know; she believed she understood already.[/b]
Philip K Dick, Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said[/I]


These are all things I saw, heard or read last week in Japan. 

Neighbourhood loudspeakers asked everybody to look out for a man in his seventies who had gone wandering off. And described what he was wearing. Age-related problems like wandering are becoming more and more common. 23% of Japan's population is over 65, the highest percentage in the world. The figure is projected to be 41% by 2055.

A plainclothes police officer caught a man who had groped a girl student on a train. The man was in his sixties. He didn't try to escape. His looked resigned to what was going to happen. Probably there would be serious repercussions for his professional life and his personal life. He might lose his job. Perhaps even his family. The police officer stood beside him on the station platform holding him firmly by the arm with one hand while he telephoned for backup. It was a katatedori one hand grip with the little finger up and towards the opponent. In aikido training the grip would normally be with the thumb up and closest to the opponent. 

The Japanese National Police Agency released some data from the Tohoku earthquake one year on.

65% of the dead and missing were over 60.
5% of the dead and missing were under 19.

A police officer on a white motorbike stopped at a traffic light. He looked very cool and self-confident. He was wearing sunglasses and a scarf. A little boy crossing the road holding his mother's hand couldn't take his eyes off him. They were huge with awe and admiration.  

Niall


[i][b]poetry, e-books, music[/b]
[url]http://www.poetryoutloud.org/poem/236810[/url]
Lisel Mueller, Monet Refuses the Operation

[url]http://www.poetryoutloud.org/poem/175907[/url]
Dylan Thomas, Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night

[url]http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/yeats/isw/isw02.htm[/url]
W B Yeats, The Old Age of Queen Maeve

[url]http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/100[/url]
William Shakespeare, The Complete Works free e-book

[url]http://ff3300.net/gossip/dick_philip-flow_my_tears_the_policeman_said.pdf[/url]
Philip K Dick, Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said pdf 


[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0xs8Xg1Oxs[/url]
Chicago, Policeman on youtube


[b]articles[/b]
[url]http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/T120307006207.htm[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tohoku_earthquake[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ageing[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aging_of_Japan[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elderly_people_in_Japan[/url]
[url]http://www.nbr.org/research/activity.aspx?id=131[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wandering_(dementia)[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groping[/url]
[url]I Just Didn't Do It http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/nn20070202a6.html[/url]


[URL="http://entrenandoaikido.blogspot.jp/2012/03/instantaneas-policia-viejo-joven.html"]Aqui[/URL] la traducción en español

[URL="http://wirtrainierenaikido.blogspot.jp/2012/03/snapshots-polizei-alt-jung.html"]Hier[/URL] die Deutsche Übersetzung


my home page with a mirror of these blog posts plus posts not related to martial arts: [URL="http://mooninthewater.net/aikido"]mooninthewater.net/aikido[/URL]
 

I have an essay in a [URL="http://fortohoku.org/"]charity e-book[/URL] put together by some writers and photographers to raise money for victims of the earthquake and tsunami in Tohoku on 11 March 2011. It costs $9.99.[/i]


© niall matthews 2012]]></body>
	<date>03-16-2012</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="4454">
	<title><![CDATA[time stopped]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[[indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][i][URL="http://www.flickr.com/photos/jmettraux/5541315703/"]earth quake time[/URL] by John Mettraux used with his very kind permission[/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/i]


[I]I wrote this essay a year ago after the earthquake and tsunami hit Tohoku. Everyone in Japan has been affected directly or indirectly. I know people whose houses were destroyed or seriously damaged. I have met refugees from Fukushima who might never, ever, be able to go home. And nuclear power does not look so clean and cheap when you factor in the costs of a meltdown. 
[/I]

[I][B]mother calls but we don't hear
there's lots more things to do
it's only 5 o'clock and we're not tired yet
but we will be
very shortly[/B]
David Bowie, There is a happy land 
[B]
There is a happy land far, far away[/B]
traditional hymn from the movie [URL="http://akas.imdb.com/title/tt0421238/"]The Proposition[/URL], arranged by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis[/I]


At 2.46 p.m. on Friday, 3 March 2011 an earthquake hit the coast of northern Japan. Time stopped. There are 20,000 dead and missing. 

It was at 5.46 a.m. on Tuesday, 17 January 1995 that an earthquake hit Kobe. More than 6,000 people died.

There's something about 46 minutes past the hour. 

I glance at the clock. 

When I was a boy we played with conkers. Conkers are smooth polished horse chestnuts. We bored holes through them with metal skewers and threaded them with string. Then we duelled, taking swings at other conkers. Eventually one conker would shatter and the one left was the winner. A strong conker could battle on for days or weeks.

We played with marbles too. Marbles are colourful glass balls. You flicked your thumb across your forefinger to shoot them along the ground at other marbles. They were beautiful. Clear glass marbles with oxblood centres. Milky white marbles streaked with blue. Flick. And the chink of the glass. 

A common children's toy in Japan is the kendama. You throw a small wooden ball on a string up to catch it in a cup or to impale it on the wooden handle. It's like ring-and-pin or cup-and-ball or balero or boliche. In Japanese the ken in kendama can be sword or fist. Wood clacks rhythmically on wood.

Another traditional toy that is still popular in Japan is the beigoma. It's a small metal spinning top. There is only one maker left in Japan. You wrap it with string and hurl it spinning onto a fighting surface. All the tops spin and spin. When they touch one will fly off. The one left at the end is the winner. 

All these games have something hitting something else. Percussion. And noise. There is a satisfying noise. Children hear noises differently. They love sounds. Tapping feet. Drumming fingers.

When the earthquake hit on 11 March there was shaking but there was also noise. Like a strong wind was blowing. Like a strong typhoon. It went on and on. Then silence.
  
There was a story on the BBC about a nine-year-old boy who lost all his family members in the tsunami. Of course he didn't have photos to help find them. Or identify them. So he drew pictures. 

2.46. Time stopped. Play stopped. 

I glance at the clock.

Niall


[I][url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HjHHIjBy6ag[/url]
There is a happy land by David Bowie 

[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivAnI2dll8Q[/url]
There is a happy land, hymn by Andrew Young to a tune arranged by Leonard P Breedlove
arranged by Nick cave and Warren Ellis for the movie The Proposition


This essay was originally published in a [URL="http://fortohoku.org/"]charity e-book[/URL] put together by some writers and photographers to raise money for victims of the earthquake and tsunami in Tohoku on 11 March 2011. It costs $9.99.


[URL="http://entrenandoaikido.blogspot.com/2011/11/el-tiempo-se-detuvo.html"]Aqui[/URL] la traducción en español

[URL="http://wirtrainierenaikido.blogspot.com/2011/11/die-zeit-stand-still.html"]Hier[/URL] die Deutsche Übersetzung


my home page with a mirror of these blog posts plus posts not related to martial arts: [URL="http://mooninthewater.net/aikido"]mooninthewater.net/aikido[/URL]
 

I wrote a series of blog posts describing life in Japan after the earthquake starting [URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/blogs/moon-in-the-water-19051/earthquake-4157/"]here[/URL]. 
[/I]

© niall matthews 2012]]></body>
	<date>03-09-2012</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="4445">
	<title><![CDATA[sign of peace]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[[indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][i][URL="http://www.flickr.com/photos/hartsell/4922974450"]Karaoke at the snack[/URL] by Trevor Hartsell[/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/i]


[B]Warning:[/B] There is a little profane language in this post. If you don't want to read it please stop now and check back in next week. Niall


[i][highlight]Those who seek competition are making a grave mistake. To smash, injure or destroy is the worst sin a human being can commit. The real Way of a Warrior is to prevent slaughter - it is the Art of Peace, the power of love.[/highlight]
Morihei Ueshiba, founder of aikido, quoted in The Art of Peace by John Stevens

[highlight]The time of universal peace is near.
Prove this a prosp'rous day, the three-nooked world
Shall bear the olive freely. [/highlight]
William Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra act 4 scene 6 

[highlight]The earth makes a sound as of sighs and the last drops fall from the emptied cloudless sky. A small boy, stretching out his hands and looking up at the blue sky, asked his mother how such a thing was possible. Fuck off, she said.[/highlight]
Samuel Beckett, The End

[highlight]Christy Brown: Fock ahv.
Dr. Eileen Colt: With speech therapy, I can teach you to say "fuck off" more clearly.[/highlight] 
from the movie adaptation of Christy Brown's autobiography My Left Foot[/i]

[img]http://www.bfi.org.uk/features/kenloach/images/kes_poster.jpg[/img]

If someone takes out a camera in Japan young people all pose flashing two-finger peace signs. In the UK that palm out V-sign is a victory sign. Winston Churchill used it during the second world war as a powerful symbol of hope. 

In Japan the sign meant victory until the early nineteen-seventies. There was a sports serial drama on television called [I]Sign wa V[/I]. It was about volleyball. Volleyball became wildly popular after the Japanese women's volleyball team won the gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics in 1964. The V in the title meant victory. 

Then in 1972 the meaning of a V-sign shifted from victory to peace. It already had started to be used in that sense in the USA against the war in Vietnam. At the 1972 Sapporo winter Olympics Janet Lynn, an American figure skater, became very popular in Japan. She fell during her free skating program. She smiled and still went on to win the bronze medal. She became a symbol of figure skating and of the purity of sport. She flashed a V for peace sign in many of her public appearances. Then camera commercials for Konica showed the singer and actor Jun Inoue doing the peace V-sign. For young people it gradually became an automatic reaction to someone aiming a camera. 

But it also has an omote and an ura. A front side and a reverse side. The peace sign has the palm facing out. If the palm faces in the gesture is an insult in the UK and Ireland and Australia and New Zealand. Or sometimes an act of defiance. 

Many cultures use peace in their greetings. Islam and Hebrew use phrases like [I]peace be upon you[/I] or [I]peace be to you[/I] in daily greetings. Some Christian services include [I]peace be to you[/I]. One day, one day, we will all mean it. 

Niall


[i][highlight]links[/highlight]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V-sign[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:V_sign[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peace_symbols[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Beckett[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christy_Brown[/url]
[url]http://www.irishwriters-online.com/brown-christy/[/url]
[url]http://www.japantoday.com/category/have-your-say/view/why-do-young-japanese-make-the-v-sign-when-they-pose-for-photos[/url]
[url]http://www.japantoday.com/category/crime/view/motorcyclist-arrested-for-breaking-speed-limit-while-flashing-peace-sign/[/url]


main photo [URL="http://www.flickr.com/photos/hartsell/4922974450"]Karaoke at the snack[/URL] by Trevor Hartsell; photostream: [url]http://www.flickr.com/photos/hartsell/with/4922974450/[/url]
[URL="http://www.flickr.com/photos/sfj/1505780886/"]
Cruising for Peace?[/URL] by iMorpheus/Derek A; photostream: [url]http://www.flickr.com/photos/sfj/with/1505780886/[/url]

[URL="http://www.bfi.org.uk/features/kenloach/kes_1.html"]Kes poster from the British Film Institute[/URL]

[URL="http://stvmcqueen.tripod.com/salute.jpg"]Steve McQueen v-sign link from Wikipedia[/URL]


[img]http://stvmcqueen.tripod.com/salute.jpg[/img]


[img]http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2068/1505780886_a8bffc0d5f.jpg[/img]

John Stevens, [URL="http://www.amazon.com/Peace-Morihei-Stevens-Translator-Ueshiba/dp/B006U1NQMC/ref=sr_1_13?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1330683882&sr=1-13"]The Art of Peace[/URL] on Amazon

Samuel Beckett, [URL="http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Short-Samuel-Beckett-1929-1989/dp/0802134904/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1330683085&sr=1-2"]The Complete Short Prose[/URL] on Amazon

Christy Brown, [URL="http://www.amazon.com/My-Left-Foot-Christy-Brown/dp/0749391774/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1330683763&sr=1-1"]My Left Foot[/URL] on Amazon

William Shakespeare, [URL="http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/100"]Complete Works[/URL] on project gutenberg


my home page with a mirror of these blog posts plus posts not related to martial arts: [url]mooninthewater.net/aikido[/url]


my columns on aikiweb: 
[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20848"]Aikido Teaching Information Silence[/URL]
[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20744"]Bamboo[/URL]
[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20637"]Aiki and Kokyu Ryoku[/URL]
[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20495"]Resistance[/URL]
[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20409"]Martial Arts in Manga and Animé[/URL] 
[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20289"]Indigo Blue[/URL]
[url="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20047"]Improvised Weapons No.1: The Umbrella[/url]
[url="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19943"]Brothers[/url]
[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19821"]Unbalance - Feet of Clay[/URL]
[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19741"]Half a Tatami[/URL]
[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19617"]Zen in the Art of Aikido[/URL]


I have an essay in a [URL="http://fortohoku.org/"]charity e-book[/URL] put together by some writers and photographers to raise money for victims of the earthquake and tsunami in Tohoku on 11 March 2011. It costs $9.99.[/i]


© niall matthews 2012]]></body>
	<date>03-02-2012</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="4438">
	<title><![CDATA[Sadateru Arikawa Sensei]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[Today the post is going to be technical and about aikido and about a great aikido teacher. 

This morning I woke up to find - to my surprise - that my response to a monthly column on aikiweb had been removed. The column was [URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20845"]It Had To Be Felt #4 Sadateru Arikawa: "Please, put your hand Down."[/URL]

Ellis Amdur who wrote the column apparently didn't like me mentioning his inexperience. I thought it was the only explanation for the huge discrepancy in his account and in mine. His column suggested that Arikawa Sensei set out deliberately to injure people. This did not match my many years of experience training with him. I thought it was a disservice to aikido history and to the memory of one of the truly great aikido teachers. There were a couple of other points about ukemi and about zanshin that were incorrect. 

So the obvious conclusion was that Ellis, who probably had a white belt at the time, did not really have the eyes or the body to know what was really going on. That is not being disrespectful to Ellis. It is a completely normal and objective point. When I had a white belt I am sure I would have been unable to recognize most of what was going on with any teacher. But I would have liked it if Ellis had made the point himself so that the column could be judged in its full context. And I also would have preferred it if he had not asked for my comment to be removed. It seems to me that searching for the truth is one of the main reasons for doing any budo. 

This is my original response:   

[QUOTE]
Ellis I understand that this series is just your subjective reminiscences. It was many years ago and you were certainly inexperienced in aikido and apparently you gave it up soon afterwards. But this article about Arikawa Sensei is misguided. I feel a responsibility to his memory to add some truth. By the way I saw your [URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showpost.php?p=166914&postcount=2"]post[/URL] linked below this thread. I thought it was a nice tribute to Arikawa Sensei. You should have used it verbatim for this article.

I will just stick to facts. I knew Arikawa Sensei and trained with him for twenty years. I was almost exclusively his uke at the hombu dojo for the last 13 years of his life. So I was at almost every single class he taught at the hombu dojo during that time. I never saw him deliberately injure anyone. Ever. His control was superb - the most precise I have ever seen or felt. So perhaps you meant danger when you said violence.

I'm going to disagree with you about actual ukemi also. I never ever moved in the direction I expected the technique to go. He hated that. He also disliked tobu ukemi - I assume that's what you mean by breakfalls - when it wasn't necessary. I probably never used tobu ukemi for shiho nage and only rarely for kote gaeshi. His technique was so fast and powerful that you usually didn't have time to take a big ukemi.

Also you are quite wrong about Arikawa Sensei and zanshin. Again I'm going to have to assume that you were too inexperienced to recognize it. He never - ever - left any opening that was not deliberate before or during or after a technique. Sometimes I attacked him from behind or while he was speaking because I thought I saw a chance. But he had always left the opening on purpose.

It is true that some people were frightened of him. I remember one day getting back to Tokyo from a trip one Wednesday and arriving at the hombu with only moments to spare before the 5.30 training. When I didn't get there at the usual time one of the uchi deshi thought he was going to have to take the ukemi. When he saw me his face lit up and he hugged me with relief. He's a 7 dan shihan now. I don't think he was scared of violence. I think he was scared of not being able to take the ukemi and of Arikawa Sensei getting angry. Arikawa Sensei's standards were very high. He expected you to be able to handle the ukemi or not to waste his time. If a deshi had bruises from forearm smashes he would learn how to block forearm smashes fast. And if Arikawa Sensei could bury his fist in your throat as you said in that earlier post there is something wrong with your ukemi.

As a person he was kind and thoughtful. He was very knowledgeable about all martial arts and I sometimes met him at kobudo and other budo demonstrations. Like at Meiji Shrine.

Regards,

Niall[/QUOTE]

So as I said in that thread make your own judgement about the column. Make your own judgement about my response too. And make your own judgement about whether removing the response was appropriate. It doesn't seem much like aikido to me. 

I've talked about Arikawa Sensei a few times before. He was a great influence on me. That's another point - if he had been a man of violence I would have walked away after the first time and never gone back. Here is one of those posts, [URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/blogs/moon-in-the-water-19051/aikido-and-magic-3960/"]Aikido and Magic[/URL].]]></body>
	<date>02-23-2012</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="4434">
	<title><![CDATA[the perfect tool]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[[indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][i] [URL="http://www.flickr.com/photos/adavey/4857703794/"]Sawing Wood[/URL] from A Davey[/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/i]


[i][highlight]It's in Lu Ji's Wen Fu, fourth century
A.D. "Essay on Literature" - in the 
Preface: "In making the handle of an axe
By cutting wood with an axe
The model is indeed near at hand. -
My teacher Shih-hsiang Chen
Translated that and taught it years ago
And I see: Pound was an axe,
Chen was an axe, I am an axe
And my son a handle, soon 
To be shaping again, model
And tool[/highlight] 
Gary Snyder, Axe Handles

[highlight]Myself was formed - a Carpenter -
An unpretending time
My Plane - and I, together wrought
Before a Builder came[/highlight]
Emily Dickinson, Myself Was Formed - A Carpenter

[highlight]He that sees a Sail first, shall have the best Pistol or Small Arm aboard of her.[/highlight]
The pirate code of Captain Edward Low, Article VIII

[highlight]When you're a carpenter making a beautiful chest of drawers, you're not going to use a piece of plywood on the back, even though it faces the wall and nobody will ever see it. You'll know it's there, so you're going to use a beautiful piece of wood on the back. For you to sleep well at night, the aesthetic, the quality, has to be carried all the way through.[/highlight]
Steve Jobs, interview in Playboy, 1985[/i]


A saw seems like a simple tool. But there are a lot of complicated questions. What is the best angle for the rake of the teeth? How many teeth should there be? How much should the teeth splay out to the sides? That's called the kerf. Is the sawdust removed efficiently? There is a whole specialized technical vocabulary. That's like the martial arts.

A little while ago I had to cut down a tree in my garden. We only had a handy folding saw so I bought a sturdy new saw for the job. It's a Japanese saw. Japanese saws are different from western saws. They take opposite approaches to the problem of designing a tool for cutting wood. 

In western saws the hand position is almost at a complete right angle to the saw cut. But the main difference is that western saws cut with a pushing action. That means that even inexperienced carpenters can cut with power by using their body weight to thrust. 

In Japanese saws the handle is in a straight line with the blade. Or curved slightly down like a pirate's pistol. So you hold it almost like a kitchen knife. Japanese saws cut with a pulling action. It is difficult for beginners to generate power but expert carpenters can cut effortlessly. The saw is connected through the arm to the centre of the body. So Japanese carpenters cut with their centre. That's like the martial arts too. Everything is done with your centre.

Some people say that the differences symbolize the different philosophies of east and west. Pulling in. Pushing out. One day an engineering genius might design a combination saw that cuts on the pull stroke and also cuts on the push stroke. East meeting west. The perfect tool.

Niall


[i][highlight]poems and quotes[/highlight]
[url]http://www.tnellen.com/cybereng/poetry/axe.html[/url]
Gary Snyder, Axe Handles

[url]http://www.americanpoems.com/poets/Gary-Snyder#poems[/url]
Poems by Gary Snyder

[url]http://web.mnstate.edu/gracyk/courses/web%20publishing/LuChi.htm[/url]
Lu Chi's Wen Fu, The Art of Writing


[url]http://www.americanpoems.com/poets/emilydickinson/10440[/url]
Emily Dickinson, Myself Was Formed - A Carpenter

[url]http://www.americanpoems.com/poets/emilydickinson#poems[/url]
Poems by Emily Dickinson online

[url]http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/12242[/url] 
Poems by Emily Dickinson - free e-book from project gutenberg


[url]http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2011/08/24/steve-jobss-best-quotes/[/url]
quotes by Steve Jobs


[highlight]articles[/highlight]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saw[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_saw[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_carpentry[/url]
[url]http://www.dougukan.jp/contents/[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pirate_code[/url]


period photo [URL="http://www.flickr.com/photos/adavey/4857703794/"]Sawing Wood[/URL] from A Davey
and the interesting photostream of photos taken in Japan in the early twentieth century: [url]http://www.flickr.com/photos/adavey/with/4857703794/[/url].


my home page with a mirror of these blog posts plus posts not related to martial arts: [url]mooninthewater.net/aikido[/url]


my columns on aikiweb: 
[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20848"]Aikido Teaching Information Silence[/URL]
[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20744"]Bamboo[/URL]
[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20637"]Aiki and Kokyu Ryoku[/URL]
[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20495"]Resistance[/URL]
[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20409"]Martial Arts in Manga and Animé[/URL] 
[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20289"]Indigo Blue[/URL]
[url="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20047"]Improvised Weapons No.1: The Umbrella[/url]
[url="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19943"]Brothers[/url]
[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19821"]Unbalance - Feet of Clay[/URL]
[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19741"]Half a Tatami[/URL]
[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19617"]Zen in the Art of Aikido[/URL]


I have an essay in a [URL="http://fortohoku.org/"]charity e-book[/URL] put together by some writers and photographers to raise money for victims of the earthquake and tsunami in Tohoku on 11 March 2011. It costs $9.99.[/i]


© niall matthews 2012]]></body>
	<date>02-17-2012</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="4423">
	<title><![CDATA[aikido against a bicycle part 2]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[[indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][i] [URL="http://www.flickr.com/photos/shoudondon/1610193151/"]cycling in town[/URL] by Shohei Hanazaki [/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/i]


In my last post I talked about the time I did an [URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/blogs/moon-in-the-water-19051/irimi-and-cycles-4416/"]aikido technique against a bicycle[/URL].

A guy riding a bicycle in Tokyo on a sidewalk - where you're not supposed to ride bicycles - went hard for a gap just wide enough for one person. He didn't care if he ran me down. He was trying to force me to jump back and out of the way. There was nowhere to escape to the sides because of a wall on one side and something blocking the outside part of the sidewalk.

I did an irimi - entering - movement. I got off the line of the bicycle just enough so that it didn't hit me. And with a spearhand to his throat I got him to brake sharply. It was that or go flying. By the way judging by a recent forum [URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showpost.php?p=299463&postcount=76"]discussion[/URL] about irimi it seems a lot of people don't understand the principle of irimi in aikido very well yet. I live the way I train and I train the way I live. So I ended up with no injury. If you try to do aikido without moving your body off the line of an attack you will end up with lacerations and bruises and possibly broken bones... Well good luck with that.

On the surface this was a great result. There was a dangerous situation caused by selfish and aggressive behaviour. I altered the dynamics. I didn't get hurt. Noone else got hurt. The aggressive guy didn't get hurt. He realized that he couldn't bully his way through the situation. It proved that aikido movements were effective in the real world. I didn't have time to think about a response. I just moved automatically.

This was 15 or 20 years ago and perhaps I am a little more patient now. But even at the time I was not comfortable with the result. It had showed the guy that he couldn't bully a trained martial artist. But so what. That's not really a lesson. He probably felt humiliation and frustration and anger.

So if it happened today I hope the outcome would be different. I hope the result would be that the guy's pride would not be hurt. But that he would realize he had made a mistake.

I'm not quite sure what I would do differently. Aikido is not something you prepare. If you keep an empty mind something just happens. But I would like to think I would be safe, so would he, and that he might not do it again.

At the time of that incident I was on my way to the dojo and as I got changed I told another instructor that I had just done irimi against a bicycle! He must have mentioned it to a student. But sometimes stories get changed in the telling. A few days later one of the students said, Niall Sensei can you show us how to do shiho nage - a turning technique - against a bicycle? Hmm. That might be a little more difficult.

Niall


[i]cool art [URL="http://www.flickr.com/photos/shoudondon/1610193151/"]cycling in town[/URL] by Shohei Hanazaki 
and nice photostream: [url]http://www.flickr.com/photos/shoudondon/with/1610193151/[/url].


my home page with a mirror of these blog posts plus posts not related to martial arts: [url]mooninthewater.net/aikido[/url]


my columns on aikiweb: 
[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20744"]Bamboo[/URL]
[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20637"]Aiki and Kokyu Ryoku[/URL]
[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20495"]Resistance[/URL]
[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20409"]Martial Arts in Manga and Animé[/URL] 
[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20289"]Indigo Blue[/URL]
[url="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20047"]Improvised Weapons No.1: The Umbrella[/url]
[url="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19943"]Brothers[/url]
[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19821"]Unbalance - Feet of Clay[/URL]
[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19741"]Half a Tatami[/URL]
[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19617"]Zen in the Art of Aikido[/URL]


I have an essay in a [URL="http://fortohoku.org/"]charity e-book[/URL] put together by some writers and photographers to raise money for victims of the earthquake and tsunami in Tohoku on 11 March 2011. It costs $9.99.[/i]


© niall matthews 2012]]></body>
	<date>02-08-2012</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="4416">
	<title><![CDATA[irimi and cycles]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[[indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][i][url="http://www.flickr.com/photos/jannem/304941937/"]Captains of Industry[/url] by Janne Moren[/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/i]


[i][highlight]A boy told me
if he roller-skated fast enough
his loneliness couldn't catch up to him,
the best reason I ever heard
for trying to be a champion.
What I wonder tonight
pedaling hard down King William Street
is if it translates to bicycles.[/highlight]
Naomi Shihab Nye, The Rider

[highlight]If you want to get from A to B
I'll give you this advice for free:
You'll find that cycling in the snow
Is not the quickest way to go.[/highlight]
Colin McNaughton, Slow, Slow, Thick, Thick Snow, from There's An Awful Lot of Weirdos in Our Neighborhood

[highlight]a cold
skeleton
that will return to
life
only
when it's needed[/highlight]
Pablo Neruda, Ode to Bicycles

[highlight]Consider a man riding a bicycle. Whoever he is, we can say three things about him. We know he got on the bicycle and started to move. We know that at some point he will stop and get off. Most important of all, we know that if at any point between the beginning and the end of his journey he stops moving and does not get off the bicycle he will fall off it. That is a metaphor for the journey through life of any living thing, and I think of any society of living things.[/highlight]
Wiliam Golding, A Moving Target[/i]


Is this it? The secret of balance in the martial arts? Children in Japan nonchalantly ride unicycles in the street like normal bicycles. Japanese elementary schools have racks of unicycles. So children have great balance. Balance in aikido and judo and karate and sumo probably doesn't seem so difficult.
 
Bicycles seem to exist in a separate reality in Japan. Everyone throws out the rulebook. If there ever was a rulebook. Everybody rides on pedestrian-only sidewalks. People use mobile phones while they are cycling. And nearly every single cyclist in Japan holds up an umbrella in the rain and rides one-handed. None of this is usually a problem because it is so predictable. There are some serious cyclists in Japan but most people ride [I]mama chari[/I] - shopping bicycles. 

This week I was having lunch at a table by a window when a young mother rode past on a bicycle. She had a child on a handlebar seat in front of her. She had another child on a seat behind her. Neither of the children was wearing a bicycle helmet. And she was holding a mobile phone to her ear and talking animatedly. I was speechless.

I know a few people who came off their bicycles in accidents and who were unhurt because they knew how to fall safely. Falling - ukemi. It's probably the most useful martial arts technique anybody ever learns.

Once I did an aikido technique against a bicycle. A guy in a hurry on a bike was determined to take a gap on a sidewalk that was just big enough for one person. He wasn't really trying to run me down - he thought I would have to jump out of the way and let him through. Entering slightly off the line of the bike I ended up with a spear-hand [I]nukite zuki[/I] up against his throat with him leaning back 45 degrees and looking confused and sheepish. And braking very very hard. 

William Golding's metaphor of life as a bicycle ride is a cliché but that doesn't mean it's not true. Don't stop moving forward. Or you'll fall off. 

Niall


[i]articles and online poems 
[url]http://www.loc.gov/poetry/180/165.html[/url]
Naomi Shihab Nye, The Rider
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naomi_Shihab_Nye[/url]

[url]http://library.thinkquest.org/J002670/poems.htm[/url]
Colin McNaughton, Slow, Slow, Thick, Thick Snow, from There's An Awful Lot of Weirdos in Our Neighborhood
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colin_McNaughton[/url]

[url]http://www.bicyclinglife.com/NewsAndViews/BikePoetry.htm[/url]
Pablo Neruda, Ode to Bicycles
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pablo_neruda[/url]

[url]http://www.william-golding.co.uk/[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Golding[/url]

tokyo by bike cycling blog
[url]http://www.tokyobybike.com/2009/02/of-bicycle-laws-in-japan-and-other.html[/url]
[url]http://www.tokyobybike.com/2012/01/what-makes-japan-great-cycling-nation.html[/url]


cool photo [URL="http://www.flickr.com/photos/jannem/304941937/"]Captains of Industry[/URL] by Janne Moren 
and nice photostream: [url]http://www.flickr.com/photos/jannem/with/304941937/[/url].


my home page with a mirror of these blog posts plus posts not related to martial arts: [url]mooninthewater.net/aikido[/url]


my columns on aikiweb: 
[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20744"]Bamboo[/URL]
[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20637"]Aiki and Kokyu Ryoku[/URL]
[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20495"]Resistance[/URL]
[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20409"]Martial Arts in Manga and Animé[/URL] 
[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20289"]Indigo Blue[/URL]
[url="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20047"]Improvised Weapons No.1: The Umbrella[/url]
[url="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19943"]Brothers[/url]
[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19821"]Unbalance - Feet of Clay[/URL]
[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19741"]Half a Tatami[/URL]
[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19617"]Zen in the Art of Aikido[/URL]


I have an essay in a [URL="http://fortohoku.org/"]charity e-book[/URL] put together by some writers and photographers to raise money for victims of the earthquake and tsunami in Tohoku on 11 March 2011. It costs $9.99.[/i]


© niall matthews 2012]]></body>
	<date>02-04-2012</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="4404">
	<title><![CDATA[janken part 2 - and zen]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[[indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][i][url="http://www.flickr.com/photos/dukeyearlook/2698466461/"]Rock, Paper, Scissors[/url] from Duke University Archives[/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/i]


Last week in [URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/blogs/moon-in-the-water-19051/how-to-cross-a-bridge-4401/"]how to cross a bridge[/URL] I wrote about janken: rock paper scissors. There was a comment about always making the same throw. In janken not martial arts. I'm not sure how that strategy would fit into game theory but the comment reminded me of this story from [I]Zen and the Ways[/I] by Trevor Leggett. Trevor Leggett was an influential figure in British judo and Japanese studies. He had lived in Japan and India. He had studied judo, shogi, zen and yoga. He wrote many books about Eastern culture. I recommend very few books about martial arts but [I]Zen and the Ways[/I] is a great book. Most aikido and martial arts books by westerners are superficial and worth reading perhaps once. [I]Zen and the Ways[/I] is a book to keep for a lifetime and to return to often. The imaginative solution is a valuable lesson - especially for anyone who teaches.


  
[INDENT]A teacher has to find something which engages all the faculties of a pupil; through this he can pierce through to the depths. Consider this example: a young married couple were desperately poor, but by hard work and thrift, combined with some luck, they became suddenly well off and then rich. It became necessary now for the husband's business associates and friends to be entertained, but the young wife had such a habit of saving that she could not bring herself to spend, and things were always skimped. It began to be a disadvantage to them, because they were getting an unpleasant reputation of meanness, but though she saw that logically they must accept entertainment expenses for the sake of the business,, she could not bring herself to do it. Even when she did spend the money, it was obvious that she hated doing it.

A zen teacher was asked to see her, and she told him, ‘I know what you're going to say, and I agree with it up here in my head. It's just that I feel down here in my tummy that once we begin spending it'll all simply go pouring away and we shall be without anything like when we started.'

He said nothing in reply, but remarked, ‘I have been told you are very clever at the janken game. I have always wondered how it is that some people can always win at that - can you teach me?'

Janken is a familiar children's game in which two players shoot out one hand, either clenched as ‘stone', or open as ‘paper', or like a v-sign, as ‘scissors'. Paper wraps and therefore beats stone, stone blunts and beats scissors, scissors cut and beat paper. So each one beats one other, and loses to another. If the two hands come out the same, that round is a draw. The hands come shooting out in a rapid succession of turns. The one who wins twice or three times in a row marks up one point.

The outcome of a few turns is pure chance, but some experienced players are able to win consistently when playing against the same opponent. They work by intuition and find it hard to explain, but it seems that most people have certain habits which come out in a long run of rapid janken. Some people when they try stone and lose to paper, immediately change to scissors, apparently on the unconscious assumption that the opponent will repeat his paper with which he has just won. Others always change with each turn; still others tend to repeat the same thing even four or five times. An expert begins to have an intuition of what the opponent is going to do, and can regularly win over a period.

The wife was going to explain some of this, but to her amazement the Zen priest simply came out with stone again and again. She expected him to change occasionally, so sometimes she made the scissors or the stone, and then he won or drew. But as he persisted it became clear he was not going to change; she produced the paper each time, and the game became no game. She stopped and explained, ‘Your Reverence, it's no good always making the stone like that. You have to try something else or it isn't a game at all.'

‘Oh,' he said, ‘oh I see. Let's try again.' Now he began coming out with the paper, and continued with that, so that he lost every time and it became ridiculous. ‘Well,' he said finally, ‘I can see that I'm never going to be able to master this game. Anyway, thank you for putting up with me, and now…' and he took his leave.

When her husband came back she told him what happened. ‘They say he's so clever, but I think he's an absolute fool. You know he kept bringing out the stone,' - and she suited the action to the word - ‘and he went on doing it, on and on and on. And then I told him, I said, you can't win like that, you have to try another one, and you know what? he went paper, paper, paper all the time', and she was laughing and holding out her hand in the paper sign. 

As she held her hand out she stopped laughing and looked at it. She stared at it for quite a little time; then she clenched her fist into the stone and looked at that. She became lost in thought.

At the next party, the entertainment was on the proper level and she was really hospitable. Thereafter she had no trouble in entertaining generously when the occasion called for it, without falling into meaningless expense when not necessary. Through her favorite game she had learned that to keep the hand always closed will not be right, but neither will it do to have the hand always open. But one does not have to do either of those things; one can alternate them appropriately.[/INDENT]
[i][indent]Trevor Leggett, Zen and the Ways[/indent][/i]

Niall


[i]background articles
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trevor_Leggett[/url]
[url]http://www.kanosociety.org/trevor_leggett.htm[/url]

cool photo from Duke Yearlook used under creative commons licence. 
photostream: [url]http://www.flickr.com/photos/dukeyearlook/with/2698466461/[/url].

Trevor Leggett, [URL="http://www.amazon.com/Zen-Ways-Trevor-Leggett/dp/0804815240/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1327684913&sr=1-1"]Zen and the Ways[/URL] on Amazon


my home page with a mirror of these blog posts plus posts not related to martial arts:
[url]mooninthewater.net/aikido[/url]


my columns on aikiweb: 
[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20637"]Aiki and Kokyu Ryoku[/URL]
[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20495"]Resistance[/URL]
[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20409"]Martial Arts in Manga and Animé[/URL] 
[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20289"]Indigo Blue[/URL]
[url="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20047"]Improvised Weapons No.1: The Umbrella[/url]
[url="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19943"]Brothers[/url]
[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19821"]Unbalance - Feet of Clay[/URL]
[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19741"]Half a Tatami[/URL]
[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19617"]Zen in the Art of Aikido[/URL]


I have an essay in a [URL="http://fortohoku.org/"]charity e-book[/URL] put together by some writers and photographers to raise money for victims of the earthquake and tsunami in Tohoku on 11 March 2011. It costs $9.99.[/i]


© niall matthews 2012]]></body>
	<date>01-27-2012</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="4401">
	<title><![CDATA[how to cross a bridge]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[[indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][i][url="http://www.flickr.com/photos/tonomura/107582742/"]janken[/url] by Hidetsugu Tonomura[/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/i]


[i][highlight]Give me today, for once, the worst throw of your dice, destiny. Today I transmute everything into gold.[/highlight]
Friedrich Nietzsche

[highlight]Caesar: [/i][/highlight]Alea iacta est[highlight][i] inquit. - The die has been cast, said Caesar[/highlight]
Suetonius, Vita Divi Iuli 

[highlight]Don't let your right hand know what your left hand is doing.[/highlight]
Matthew 6:3

[highlight]Let's play rock paper scissors. Mail in your answers, and let's see who won.[/highlight] 
Stephen Colbert, The Colbert Report[/i]


The other day at a formal new year party everyone had to choose small gifts. In Japan if people have to choose about something between themselves they play rock paper scissors. In Japanese it is called [I]jankenpon[/I] or [I]jankenpoi[/I] or [I]janken[/I]. It's used for everything. Who gets to choose the first piece of cake. Or who plays first in a game or a sport. Or who gets to cross a bridge first. Japanese people wonder how people in the west get along without it. Well we have games like odds or evens. Robin Hood and Little John decided who got to cross the bridge first by fighting with quarterstaves. A quarterstaff is a strong stick for fighting similar to a Japanese bo. Apparently boy scouts once learned how to use it! But deciding with janken is less painful. 

When I first had to play janken many years ago I did the sign for paper like a karate chop. A tight tegatana or shuto uchi knifehand strike from aikido or karate. My fingers were close together. So people told me I had to relax. That sounded familiar. Everyone who does martial arts has to relax. In janken you have to let the fingers spread slightly so it is more like paper. 

Then there are the tactics. You can sometimes win with beginner's luck. But if there is a tie and you have to repeat the game you are in big trouble. At first I used to try to outthink my opponent. But I usually lost. So then I decided to try a random choice. The trouble was to me it was random but obviously it wasn't to my opponents because again I usually lost. Even if it had been random I could only win 50% of the time playing against one opponent. But some Japanese people never seem to lose. 

And janken is the same as a martial art. You have to do it with kiai. That means not half-heartedly or weakly. You have to be full of determination and energy. A loud voice is good too. Hmm. There's more to this than tossing a coin.

One way to get good at it apparently is to play your right hand against your left hand. Seriously. And you have to do it often. Until it's ingrained in your body. That's like a martial art too. But don't let your right hand know what your left hand is doing. 

Niall


[i]free e-books
[url]http://gutenberg.org/ebooks/7205[/url]
Friedrich Nietsche, Also Sprach Zarathustra

[url]http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/6386[/url]
Suetonius Tranquillus, Lives of the Twelve Caesars, Vol. I

[url]http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/964[/url]
Howard Pyle, The Adventures of Robin Hood


background articles
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock-paper-scissors[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coin_flipping[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morra_(game)[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Odds_and_evens[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quarterstaff[/url]


cool photo by Hidetsugu Tonomura used under creative commons licence. Who won the janken and got to cross the bridge first...?
photostream: [url]http://www.flickr.com/photos/tonomura/with/107582742/[/url].


my home page with a mirror of these blog posts plus posts not related to martial arts:
[url]mooninthewater.net[/url]


my columns on aikiweb: 
[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20637"]Aiki and Kokyu Ryoku[/URL]
[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20495"]Resistance[/URL]
[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20409"]Martial Arts in Manga and Animé[/URL] 
[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20289"]Indigo Blue[/URL]
[url="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20047"]Improvised Weapons No.1: The Umbrella[/url]
[url="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19943"]Brothers[/url]
[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19821"]Unbalance - Feet of Clay[/URL]
[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19741"]Half a Tatami[/URL]
[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19617"]Zen in the Art of Aikido[/URL]


I have an essay in a [URL="http://fortohoku.org/"]charity e-book[/URL] put together by some writers and photographers to raise money for victims of the earthquake and tsunami in Tohoku on 11 March 2011. It costs $9.99.[/i]


© niall matthews 2012]]></body>
	<date>01-21-2012</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="4396">
	<title><![CDATA[men in black]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[[indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][i][url="http://www.flickr.com/photos/draconiansleet/537023076/"]Date Musume Koi no Hikanoko - Bunraku by Draconiansleet[/url][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/i]


[i][highlight]each man must realize
that it can all disappear very 
quickly:
the cat, the woman, the job,
the front tire[/highlight]
Charles Bukowski, Pull A String, A Puppet Moves

[highlight]a clock stopped -
not the mantel's -
Geneva's farthest skill
can't put the puppet bowing 
that just now dangled still[/highlight]
Emily Dickinson, A Clock Stopped

[highlight]whatever men pursue
of pleasure, folly, war, or love,
This mimic-race brings all to view,
Alike they dress, they talk, they move[/highlight]
Jonathan Swift, The Puppet Show

[highlight]I wish I could look inside your head
And read your thoughts
They're so instead, they're so instead
Here we go on again
The same old game...

I'm just like your puppet on a string
For in this game
You always win[/highlight]
Jasmin Tabatabai, Puppet from the movie Bandits

[highlight]And when I am a puppet
And when I have no voice
I'm in your hands now
I am your puppet[/highlight]
Lisa Germano, Puppet

[highlight]All you got to do
Is wiggle your little hand
I'm your puppet[/highlight]
James and Bobby Purify, I'm Your Puppet[/i]


In [URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/blogs/moon-in-the-water-19051/crow-4294/"]crow[/URL] I talked about Detective Conan. It's a manga and animé series about a boy detective. It's very popular with children and people in their twenties. I only mentioned it in passing in my column [URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20409"]Martial Arts in Manga and Animé[/URL] because it is not directly about learning budo. But in fact several of the characters are accomplished martial artists. This comes into the story occasionally when someone has to use a martial arts technique for self-defence against a murderer. The famous private detective Kogoro Mori is a skilled judoka. His daughter Ran is a karate champion. Heizo Hattori is an excellent kendoka. And his girlfriend Kazuha Toyama has 2 dan in aikido. 

In Detective Conan a possible scenario of what happened at a murder scene is sometimes shown while Conan works out what happened. The murderer is always shown as the same vague black shape. 

It reminded me of the puppet manipulators in bunraku. Bunraku is the traditional Japanese puppet theatre. It has close links with kabuki. In fact kabuki has used many of the stories originally written for bunraku.

The puppet manipulators are dressed all in black and usually wear a black hood and face cover. There are three for each puppet. The main operator the [I]omo-zukai[/I] works the body and the right hand. The[I] hidari-zukai [/I]works the left hand. The [I]ashi-zukai[/I] works the legs. You start as the [I]ashi-zukai[/I] and eventually work your way to become the [I]omo-zukai[/I] after many years. It is very similar to some martial arts. 

If the puppeteers are very skilled you don't even notice them as you watch the puppets move. And a tiny movement of the puppet can catch the essence of a character or suggest a deep emotion. But people were not content with just watching this level of mastery. They wanted to give recognition to the skill of the master puppeteers and so in some traditions they do not wear hoods. 

This has always seemed artificial and unnecessary to me. If someone can do something perfectly why would you want to detract deliberately from the perfection by leaving the head bare. It destroys the suspension of disbelief and brings the performance down to a mere expert skill. I don't want to see how beautifully the puppet master can make a puppet gesture at the moon. I want to see the moon. 

Today in aikido and in other martial arts a lot of heads are uncovered. A lot of faces are showing. A lot of techniques are proudly displayed. If the heads and faces were covered perhaps we would be able to see the clear heart of budo instead of artificial and soulless technique.

Niall


[i]poems and books
[url]http://www.americanpoems.com/poets/Charles-Bukowski/177[/url]
Charles Bukowski, Pull A String, A Puppet Moves
[url]http://www.americanpoems.com/poets/Charles-Bukowski#poems[/url]
poems by Charles Bukowski

[url]http://www.americanpoems.com/poets/emilydickinson/10239[/url]
Emily Dickinson, A Clock Stopped
[url]http://www.americanpoems.com/poets/emilydickinson#poems[/url]
poems by Emily Dickinson

[url]http://www.readbookonline.net/readOnLine/3378/[/url]
Jonathan Swift, The Puppet Show
[url]http://www.readbookonline.net/books/Swift/136/[/url]
free e-book from project gutenberg 
[url]http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/623[/url]
Jonathan Swift, The Battle of the Books and other Short Pieces


music
[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhAOAUzl-6U[/url]
Jasmin Tabatabai, Puppets 
from the very cool soundtrack from the movie [URL="http://akas.imdb.com/title/tt0118682/"]Bandits[/URL] 

[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRdbgZbL_Zs[/url]
Lisa Germano, Puppet

[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6j1jjLAf8Q[/url]
Bobby Purify, I'm Your Puppet
[url]http://www.bobbypurify.com/[/url]
Bobby Purify's site

[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81YMi_gO6oY[/url]
James and Bobby Purify, I'm Your Puppet
Robert Lee Dickey, the original Bobby Purify, died on 29 December 2011. Rest in peace.


background articles
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bunraku[/url]
[url]http://www2.ntj.jac.go.jp/unesco/bunraku/en/index.html[/url]
[url]http://www2.ntj.jac.go.jp/unesco/bunraku/en/contents/creaters/operator.html[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detective_conan[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Case_Closed_characters[/url]

cool photo by Draconiansleet used under creative commons licence. 
photostream: [url]http://www.flickr.com/photos/draconiansleet/[/url].



my home page with a mirror of these blog posts plus poetry and other stuff:
[url]mooninthewater.net[/url]


my columns on aikiweb: 
[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20495"]Resistance[/URL]
[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20409"]Martial Arts in Manga and Animé[/URL] 
[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20289"]Indigo Blue[/URL]
[url="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20047"]Improvised Weapons No.1: The Umbrella[/url]
[url="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19943"]Brothers[/url]
[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19821"]Unbalance - Feet of Clay[/URL]
[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19741"]Half a Tatami[/URL]
[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19617"]Zen in the Art of Aikido[/URL]


I have an essay in a [URL="http://fortohoku.org/"]charity e-book[/URL] put together by some writers and photographers to raise money for victims of the earthquake and tsunami in Tohoku on 11 March 2011. It costs $9.99.[/i]


© niall matthews 2012]]></body>
	<date>01-13-2012</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="4390">
	<title><![CDATA[otaku, nerds and anoraks]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[[indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][i][url="http://www.flickr.com/photos/falsalama/2212712670/"]cosplay by Daniel Griffin[/url][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/i]


[i][highlight]Help! Disaster! Fire and Smoke!
Robin's trod on Batman's cloak.
Torn a rip right up the back…
He'll have to wear his anorak.[/highlight]
Kate Williams, Batman Comes Undone!
 

[highlight]At the buffet at the station we can grab a bite to eat;
Because we're going spotting we'll need three Shredded Wheat;
Well, you've got to keep your strength up and keep yourself well fed
When you're spotting with the big boys down at Crewe South Shed.[/highlight]
Dave Roberts, Crewe South Shed


[highlight]I am a nerd.
Word.
Some have called me
a word nerd.
Geeks are too chic.
You see 'em in the street
Pretending not to be pretty[/highlight]
Charles Linart


[highlight]I will now start the first Occult Club meeting. But I'm the only member. And I'm also the president.[/highlight]
Fuyuki Hinata, Keroro Gunso[/i]


Happy new year to everyone who reads my blog. Best wishes for happiness in your private lives and success in your professional and academic lives. For aikido and budo I wish you a deeper understanding than last year. Nobuyuki Watanabe Sensei once told me that the most important thing was never to stand still. Don't get stuck doing things by rote so that you stagnate. Go in a spiral and always upwards. That applies to eveything not just martial arts. For the first post of the new year I want to write about otaku. 

I went round a bend in a country road in Hakone near Mount Fuji once and was suddenly hit with the surreal sight of a group of middle-aged Japanese men dressed in fake American police uniforms riding on Harley Davidsons. 

The word otaku has connotations of animé and manga and plastic figurines from Akihabara, the electric town area of Tokyo. But the meaning is wider than American words like nerd and geek or British words like anorak and trainspotter. 

Otaku &#12362;&#23429; in Japanese means house and can be just a polite and formal way to say you. How it started to be used for animé and manga fans was apparently something like friends all calling each other otaku in a joking way. Like a group of guys fooling around calling each other sir. So they were all otaku and they recognized other otaku. Eventually the name came into wider use. 

So now it means someone with an obsessive interest in the details of an obscure subject. Otaku have their own specialized vocabulary. Incomprehensible to outsiders. 

It is probably an inexplicable phenomenon. And I haven't got time to try to explain it because now I have to go to aikido keiko at the dojo. I just have to get my gi and my hakama and my bokken and my jo. Just a moment… Oh.

Niall


[i]Batman Comes Undone! © Kate Williams published in Superheroes, McMillan 1999. Kate kindly gave me permission to use her cool poem for this article. 
Please check out her home page at [url]http://poemsforfun.wordpress.com/[/url] for great children's poems.
This is her latest book of children's poetry: [url]http://poemsforfun.wordpress.com/wildlife-poems/[/url]
And the link to her published poetry: [url]http://poemsforfun.wordpress.com/published-poetry/[/url]


Dave Roberts kindly gave me permission to use his great poem Crewe South Shed about the ultimate trainspotter.
This is the complete version: [url]http://oddexception.blogspot.com/2012/01/crewe-south-shed.html[/url]
Please also check out his home page with details of various live performances and also his interesting blogs The Odd Exception and The MiddlewichDiary. I loved his poem Glossop too and I'll use it when I get a chance. Nice rhyme in the last line: shut rhymes with kaput which might throw any readers south of Birmingham. 
Salttown Productions [url]www.salttown.co.uk[/url]
The Odd Exception [url]http://oddexception.blogspot.com/[/url]
The Middlewich Diary [url]http://middlewichdiary.blogspot.com/[/url]
Glossop [url]http://oddexception.blogspot.com/2011/09/glossop.html[/url]


Great photo by Daniel Griffin used under creative commons licence. Check out his wonderful portraits in black and white on flickr.
[url]http://www.flickr.com/photos/falsalama/with/2212712670/[/url]


Ian McMillan performs a hilarious poem about a trainspotter called Derek. Very cool!
[url]http://www.livefortheoutdoors.com/Videos/Search-Results/Walking/Trainspotting-with-Ian-McMillan/[/url] 


Charles Linart's cool Nerd poem
[url]http://www.helium.com/items/1648242-nerd-poetry[/url]


the monologue from the movie Trainspotting
[url]http://www.davidpbrown.co.uk/poetry/john-hodge.html[/url]


wikipedia articles
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otaku[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anorak_(slang)[/url]
[url]http://bquot.com/90g[/url] 
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keroro_Gunso[/url]


manga and animé quotes
[url]http://allanimemangaquotes.tumblr.com/[/url]


[highlight]specialized vocabulary![/highlight]
aikido: pure martial art
bokken: wooden sword
dojo: training hall
gi: cotton training uniform
hakama: wide split over-trousers 
jo: wooden staff
keiko: practice


Finally I want to thank poet Kate Williams and poet and performer Dave Roberts once more for allowing me to use their poems and for being so cool and helpful and so lightning fast! Thanks guys. 
Check out their home pages and buy Kate's books and go to Dave's shows! 


my home page with a mirror of these blog posts plus poetry and other stuff:
[url]mooninthewater.net[/url]


my columns on aikiweb: 
[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20495"]Resistance[/URL]
[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20409"]Martial Arts in Manga and Animé[/URL] 
[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20289"]Indigo Blue[/URL]
[url="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20047"]Improvised Weapons No.1: The Umbrella[/url]
[url="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19943"]Brothers[/url]
[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19821"]Unbalance - Feet of Clay[/URL]
[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19741"]Half a Tatami[/URL]
[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19617"]Zen in the Art of Aikido[/URL]


I have an essay in a [URL="http://fortohoku.org/"]charity e-book[/URL] put together by some writers and photographers to raise money for victims of the earthquake and tsunami in Tohoku on 11 March 2011. It costs $9.99.[/i]


© niall matthews 2012]]></body>
	<date>01-03-2012</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="4386">
	<title><![CDATA[red moon]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[[indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][i][url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucien_Rudaux"]lunar eclipse seen from the moon, [/url]a painting by Lucien Rudaux[/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/i]


[i][highlight]Thy shadow, Earth, from Pole to Central Sea,
Now steals along upon the Moon's meek shine
In even monochrome and curving line
Of imperturbable serenity.[/highlight]
Thomas Hardy, At a Lunar Eclipse 
 
[highlight]It is the very error of the moon,
She comes more near the earth than she was wont,
And makes men mad.[/highlight]
William Shakespeare, Othello Act 5 Scene 2

[highlight]Over the mountains
Of the moon,
Down the valley of the shadow,
Ride, boldly ride[/highlight]
Edgar Allan Poe, Eldorado

[highlight]Under blue moon I saw you[/highlight]
Echo and the Bunnymen, The Killing Moon

[highlight]I saw the crescent
You saw the whole of the moon[/highlight]
The Waterboys, The Whole of the Moon

[highlight]Over Sarusawa Lake when the mist is thick
The rising and setting of the moon
No man knows[/highlight]
Trevor Leggett, Zen and the Ways

[highlight]What has the sword to do with poetry about the moon? What inspirations is the swordsman expected to get from viewing the moon as the day dawns? What secret is here?[/highlight]
Daisetz T Suzuki, Zen and Japanese Culture[/i]


Last week there was an eclipse of the moon. Over Japan the moon became a faded red.&#12288;

I have always liked the moon. It's in the name of my blog. Moon in the water. The moon in the water is an idea from zen and Japanese swordsmanship. The moon is free of emotion. Water is free of emotion. If there is a reflection of the moon on the water or of there is no reflection of the moon on the water it's all the same. In zen and in the martial arts your mind must always be free. Never getting stuck on one point. 

Monday in English means moon day. The day of the moon. Strangely it's exactly the same word in Japanese. Getsuyoubi. &#26376;&#26332;&#26085;. &#12370;&#12388;&#12424;&#12358;&#12403;. The day of the moon. And by the way Sunday - the day of the sun in English - is also the same as the Japanese. Nichiyoubi. &#26085;&#26332;&#26085;. &#12395;&#12385;&#12424;&#12358;&#12403;. The day of the sun. 

The word month also comes from the word moon. In modern Japanese months are numbered simply from one or first month to twelve or twelfth month. The old Japanese names for months are very interesting. December is shiwasu &#24107;&#36208; &#12375;&#12431;&#12377; priests running. Because priests have to rush around at the end of the year performing ceremonies.

In English the names of the months come from Latin. The fifth month of the Roman calendar was eventually renamed for Julius Caesar - July in English. The sixth month was renamed for Augustus Caesar - August in English. September means seventh month, October means eighth month, November means ninth month and December means tenth month. There were only ten months originally. Winter was a period without months. That's such an interesting concept. It's like a ma ai - a critical distance - between the end of autumn and the beginning of spring. Eventually January and February were added. January is named after Janus, the god of the gate. The god with two faces. One face looking back to the old year and one face looking forward to the new year. 

Niall


[IMG]http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5249/5311723435_5b4019baaa_z.jpg[/IMG]

[indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][url="http://www.flickr.com/photos/thekellyscope/5311723435/"]Total lunar eclipse[/url] by Sean Kelly[/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent]

This photo is from 2010 but it is the closest I could find to what the eclipse over Japan looked like on 10 December 2011



[i]Free e-books
[url]http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/3168[/url]
Thomas Hardy, Poems of thePast and Present

[url]http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/100[/url]
William Shakespeare, The Complete Works

[url]http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/10031[/url]
Edgar Allan Poe, The Complete Poetical Works
Eldorado is from Poems of Later Life


music
[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DfqTq5Aso4o[/url]
Echo and the Bunnymen, The Killing Moon

[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pu7AR0-FRro[/url]
The Waterboys, The Whole of the Moon

[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMzFvKuZusE[/url]
Claude Debussy, Clair de Lune - Moonlight - from Suite bergmanesque

[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1PqnruPitzc[/url] 
Ludwig von Beethoven, Moonlight sonata


News article on the eclipse over Japan
[url]http://ajw.asahi.com/article/behind_news/social_affairs/AJ201112110005[/url]

Wikipedia articles
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_calendar[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_eclipse[/url]


my columns on aikiweb: 
[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20495"]Resistance[/URL]
[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20409"]Martial Arts in Manga and Animé[/URL] 
[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20289"]Indigo Blue[/URL]
[url="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20047"]Improvised Weapons No.1: The Umbrella[/url]
[url="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19943"]Brothers[/url]
[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19821"]Unbalance - Feet of Clay[/URL]
[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19741"]Half a Tatami[/URL]
[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19617"]Zen in the Art of Aikido[/URL]


I have an essay in a [URL="http://fortohoku.org/"]charity e-book[/URL] put together by some writers and photographers to raise money for victims of the earthquake and tsunami in Tohoku on 11 March 2011. It costs $9.99.[/i]


© niall matthews 2011]]></body>
	<date>12-15-2011</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="4378">
	<title><![CDATA[smokin']]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[[indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][i][url="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mi-ki/2700743151/"]Tokumochi Matsuri[/url] by Coal Miki[/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/i]


[i][highlight]There are many that I miss
having sent my last one out a car window
sparking along the road one night, years ago.[/highlight]
Billy Collins, The Best Cigarette

[highlight]Time takes a cigarette
Puts it in your mouth[/highlight]
David Bowie, Rock 'n' Roll Suicide

[highlight]Out with the light.
Let the smoke lie back in the dark.[/highlight]
Edwin Morgan, One Cigarette

[highlight]two hours later
you know where I was found
smokin' in the boys room[/highlight]
Brownsville Station, Smokin' in the Boys Room[/i]


My first aikido teacher Kinjo Asoh sensei, 7 dan, was a heavy smoker when he was younger. In the 1950s he smoked 80 cigarettes a day. He said that he was starting to lose the feeling in his hands when he began aikido training. He was 53 years old. He trained every day and twice on Sundays. It was called training 8 days a week in those days. He stopped smoking immediately. He lived until he was 84.  

Japan is late for many things. People can still smoke in restaurants and bars. Even today in the 21st century many sports players smoke. And many martial arts teachers smoke. Sometimes a teacher comes into the dojo smelling strongly of cigarette smoke. They don't have to do a technique. They can just breathe on an attacker. 

Niall


poems
[url]http://www.americanpoems.com/poets/Billy-Collins/816[/url]
Billy Collins, The Best Cigarette

[url]http://famouspoetsandpoems.com/poets/edwin_morgan/poems/15550[/url]
Edwin Morgan, One Cigarette


music
[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jg4ekLG9Zo[/url]
David Bowie, Rock ‘n' Roll Suicide

[URL]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVvMyvQ4ANI[/url]
Brownsville Station, Smokin' in the Boys Room


background articles and smoking manners posters
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Collins[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edwin_Morgan_(poet)[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smoking_in_Japan[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japan_Tobacco[/url]
[url]http://www.jti.co.jp/sstyle/manners/ad/gallery/index.html[/url]


my columns on aikiweb: 
[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20495"]Resistance[/URL]
[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20409"]Martial Arts in Manga and Animé[/URL] 
[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20289"]Indigo Blue[/URL]
[url="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20047"]Improvised Weapons No.1: The Umbrella[/url]
[url="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19943"]Brothers[/url]
[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19821"]Unbalance - Feet of Clay[/URL]
[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19741"]Half a Tatami[/URL]
[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19617"]Zen in the Art of Aikido[/URL]


I have an essay in a [URL="http://fortohoku.org/"]charity e-book[/URL] put together by some writers and photographers to raise money for victims of the earthquake and tsunami in Tohoku on 11 March 2011. It costs $9.99.[/i]


© niall matthews 2011]]></body>
	<date>12-09-2011</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="4368">
	<title><![CDATA[taxi]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[[indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][i][url="http://www.flickr.com/photos/r_id/3577967187/"]The Taxi[/url] by Takadanobaba Kurazawa[/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/i]


[i][highlight]At the violet hour, when the eyes and back
Turn upward from the desk, when the human engine waits
Like a taxi throbbing waiting[/highlight]
T S Eliot, The Fire Sermon, from The Wasteland

[highlight]You talkin' to me?[/highlight]
Travis Bickle (Robert De Niro), Taxi Driver

[highlight]Listen late last night I heard the screen door slam
And a big yellow taxi took my girl away.[/highlight]
Counting Crows, Big Yellow Taxi

[highlight]‘Have you played Hyde Park before?'
‘No but I have walked through it.'[/highlight]
Adam Duritz, Counting Crows[/i]


Once I lost my wallet on the bus on the way to training at the Aikikai hombu dojo in Shinjuku. I got off the bus at Nuke Benten Mae bus stop, the closest bus stop. I quickly realized that my wallet wasn't in my back pocket. I had taken it out to pay the bus fare and so maybe it had fallen out of my pocket when I sat down at the back of the bus. Immediately I grabbed a taxi and told the driver to follow the bus. I had enough change in my pocket to cover the minimum fare shown on the meter. The taxi driver was fast and helpful and we caught up with the bus. I jumped on and asked if anyone had seen my wallet. No. I went to the back of the bus to where I had been sitting. A man was sitting there. I asked him if he had seen my wallet but he said no. I looked around and finally asked him to get up so I could look under the seat. He was sitting on the wallet and had obviously planned to keep it. I gave him a long look and he looked embarrassed. But anyway I had my wallet back. And I wasn't even late for training.

This story reminded me of another time I had to catch a taxi. When I lived in central Tokyo the easiest way to get to Narita airport was to take the airport bus from a hotel near my apartment. In Japan it's called a limousine bus. I was going on a trip home to England so I made a reservation and I arrived at the hotel in plenty of time. And I waited. And waited. I checked a couple of times with the hotel reception desk and was told not to worry, the bus would arrive soon. It was getting nearer and nearer to the deadline to leave to catch my plane. Suddenly a hotel clerk came running out. He apologized profusely and said the bus driver had made a mistake and had somehow thought that there were no passengers from the hotel that day and had gone straight to the airport. He bundled me into a taxi and told me it was courtesy of the hotel. He gave the driver some kind of document and told him to get me to Narita airport fast.  

Nobody takes a taxi to Narita airport. It's about 80 kilometers or 50 miles. The taxi driver promised me we'd make my flight. Things started well. There was an enka show on the radio - sentimental Japanese ballads - and the driver was in a good mood. But then we got stuck in traffic and he seemed to take it personally. When the expressway was clear he got into the outside lane and put his foot down. Then someone in a hurry behind us flashed his headlights for the taxi to move over so he could pass. And the taxi driver went crazy. When the guy tried to overtake on the inside he sped up and drove parallel to the car looking aggressively at the driver beside us. Of course that meant that he wasn't looking at the road. I was thinking to myself, oh no I have my own Travis Bickle. I had visions of road rage and a crash and missing my flight for sure. The other driver wisely backed off and dropped back. My driver looked at me proudly as he pulled up at Narita with five minutes to spare. I breathed a silent sigh of relief. The ride cost more than 200 dollars. 

Just another day in Japan.

Niall


[i]poem 
[url]http://www.bartleby.com/201/1.html[/url]
T S Eliot, The Wasteland


music
[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8rjGB3lR7s[/url]
Counting Crows, Mr Jones/Big Yellow Taxi


background article
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enka[/url]


my columns on aikiweb: 
[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20495"]Resistance[/URL]
[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20409"]Martial Arts in Manga and Animé[/URL] 
[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20289"]Indigo Blue[/URL]
[url="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20047"]Improvised Weapons No.1: The Umbrella[/url]
[url="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19943"]Brothers[/url]
[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19821"]Unbalance - Feet of Clay[/URL]
[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19741"]Half a Tatami[/URL]
[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19617"]Zen in the Art of Aikido[/URL]


I have an essay in a [URL="http://fortohoku.org/"]charity e-book[/URL] put together by some writers and photographers to raise money for victims of the earthquake and tsunami in Tohoku on 11 March 2011. It costs $9.99.[/i]


© niall matthews 2011]]></body>
	<date>12-03-2011</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="4362">
	<title><![CDATA[danger + japanese + w]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[[indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][i][url="http://www.flickr.com/photos/takaogi/2995690242/"]night[/url] by Takashi Ogino used under creative commons licence[/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/i]


[i][highlight]you were dangerous and angry
red wrists and flashes of light
in the Hungarian bar[/highlight]
Jason Crane, Danger

[highlight]"You must be indeed a brave man, Sir Priest," the peasant responded, "to lie down here. This place has a bad name - a very bad name. But, as the proverb has it, kunshi aya-yuki ni chikayorazu - the superior man does not needlessly expose himself to peril - and I must assure you, Sir, that it is very dangerous to sleep here."[/highlight]
Lafcadio Hearn, Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things

[highlight]"Danger! What danger do you foresee?"
Holmes shook his head gravely. "It would cease to be a danger if we could define it," said he.[/highlight]
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Adventure of the Copper Beeches

[highlight]Danger knows full well
That Caesar is more dangerous than he.
We are two lions littered in one day,
And I the elder and more terrible,
And Caesar shall go forth.[/highlight]
William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar act 2 scene 2

[highlight]The language of Ky&#333;to, the ancient capital of the country, and until the restoration the residence of the Imperial Court and of literary men, has been considered the standard and of highest authority; but since the restoration and the removal of the capital to T&#333;ky&#333;, the dialect of the latter has the precedence. Dialectical differences are numerous, and provincialisms and vulgarisms abound. The dialect of Satsuma is said to be so different as not to be intelligible in other parts of the country. This subject, however, has not yet been fully investigated. A few of these differences may here be mentioned. In T&#333;ky&#333; kwa is pronounced ka; kwan, kan; gwai, gai, as, gun-kwan is pronounced gunkan; kenkwa, kenka; kwaji, kaji; gwai-koku, gaikoku.[/highlight] 
J C Hepburn, A Japanese-English and English-Japanese Dictionary, third edition

[highlight]Rinzai Gigen distinguishes four kinds of "Katsu!" One of them is likened to the sacred sword of Vajrar&#257;ja, which cuts and puts to death anything dualistic appearing before it. When it is actually uttered by the zen people it sounds like "K&#257;tz!" or "Kw&#257;tz!" &#257; somewhat like a in ah and tz like tz in German "Blitz." It is primarily a meaningless ejaculation.[/highlight]
D T Suzuki, Zen and Japanese Culture[/i]

I talked about the letter w before in [URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/blogs/moon-in-the-water-19051/w-aikibunnies-4203/"]W + aikibunnies[/URL]. In Japanese it is shorthand for double. Two of something. But here it is again in romaji, the transcription of Japanese into Roman letters. It's in the name of the Budokwai, the first martial arts club in Europe. It was founded in 1918. The title of Lafcadio Hearn's book of Japanese ghost stories is Kwaidan. I intoduced Lafcadio Hearn in [URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/blogs/moon-in-the-water-19051/the-daimyo-morning-of-battle-4232/"]Daimyo - morning of battle[/URL]. And the zen exclamation "Kw&#257;tz!" can be written with a w. Perhaps that silent w is not silent in some parts of Japan. 

There is a phrase in Kwaidan: kunshi aya uki ni chika yorazu &#21531;&#23376;&#21361;&#12358;&#12365;&#12395;&#36817;&#12424;&#12425;&#12378; a person of wisdom does not flirt with danger. If something happened because of your carelessness it could have repercussions far beyond yourself and your own family. So stay away from dangerous places and dangerous situations. And don't let yourself be goaded into any duels with swords.

Niall


[i]poem and e-books
Jason Crane, Danger
[url]http://jasoncrane.org/2011/09/06/poem-danger/[/url]

read the Lafcadio Hearn story online
[url]http://gaslight.mtroyal.ca/kwaidanJ.htm[/url]

Lafcadio Hearn, Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things
[url]http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1210[/url]

William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar
[url]http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1120[/url]

William Shakespeare, The Complete Works
[url]http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/100[/url]

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
[url]http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1661[/url


background articles
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romanization_of_Japanese[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hepburn_romanization[/url]
[url]http://www.halcat.com/roomazi/doc/hep3.html[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kwaidan:_Stories_and_Studies_of_Strange_Things[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kwaidan[/url]
url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Budokwai[/url]


my columns on aikiweb: 
[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20495"]Resistance[/URL]
[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20409"]Martial Arts in Manga and Animé[/URL] 
[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20289"]Indigo Blue[/URL]
[url="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20047"]Improvised Weapons No.1: The Umbrella[/url]
[url="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19943"]Brothers[/url]
[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19821"]Unbalance - Feet of Clay[/URL]
[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19741"]Half a Tatami[/URL]
[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19617"]Zen in the Art of Aikido[/URL]


I have an essay in a [URL="http://fortohoku.org/"]charity e-book[/URL] put together by some writers and photographers to raise money for victims of the earthquake and tsunami in Tohoku on 11 March 2011. It costs $9.99.[/i]


© niall matthews 2011]]></body>
	<date>11-25-2011</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="4358">
	<title><![CDATA[green]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[[indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][i][url="http://www.flickr.com/photos/38639509@N07/4141481459/"]pouring tea[/url] by Neko1998 used under creative commons licence[/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/i]
 

[i][highlight]Green is the night and out of madness woven, 
The self-same madness of the astronomer[/highlight]
Wallace Stevens, The Candle a Saint

[highlight]All in green went my love riding
on a great horse of gold
into the silver dawn.[/highlight] 
e e cummings, All in green went my love riding

[highlight]He with cowslips pale,
Primrose, and purple lychnis, decked the green
Before my threshold[/highlight]
Mark Akenside, Inscription for a grotto

[highlight]The art of tea symbolizes simplification, first of all, by an inconspicuous, solitary, thatched hut erected, perhaps, under an old pine tree, as if the hut were part of nature and not specially constructed by human hands.[/highlight]
D T Suzuki, Zen and Japanese Culture[/i]


In my column [URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20289"]Indigo Blue[/URL] I talked about how in Japan green is blue. But sometimes of course green is green. 

Green tea and matcha powdered green tea products are very popular in Japan. You can buy matcha latte drinks and matcha ice cream and even matcha chocolate. I mentioned green tea and ichigo ichie &#19968;&#26399;&#19968;&#20250; before in my  blog post [URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/blogs/moon-in-the-water-19051/doumo-arigatou-gozaimashita-3956/"]Doumo. Arigatou. Gozaimashita[/URL].

If you are ever in Kyoto drop in at ran Hotei for some green tea. It's run by a martial artist. In the Daily Yomiuri interview below he talks about Bun Bu Ryo Do &#25991;&#27494;&#20001;&#36947; &#12406;&#12435;&#12406;&#12426;&#12423;&#12358;&#12393;&#12358;[I] the way of the pen and the way of the sword - follow them both[/I]. It's a nice coincidence because I talked about Bun Bu Ryo Do just last week in my blog article [URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/blogs/moon-in-the-water-19051/the-eleventh-hour-4353/"]the eleventh hour[/URL].

It is easy to see the connection between shodo - Japanese calligraphy - and martial arts. In Zen and the Ways by Trevor Leggett there is a striking photograph from the dojo of Omori Sogen Roshi. A man about to write a character is attacking the paper using his brush almost like a sword. It is much more difficult to see the connection between the tea ceremony and budo. The Japanese tea ceremony can fall into mannered and empty and effete aestheticism. So approaching the tea ceremony as a budoka - martial artist - must give it a vitality and awareness. You can see the zanshin awareness - remaining mind - in the photo above.  

I used to drink matcha with my first aikido teacher in a tranquil pottery shop and café near the Nippon Budokan. 

And recently I found some green tea toothpaste. 

Niall


[i]poems
[url]http://seamonkeyrodeo.blogspot.com/2005/02/candle-saint.html[/url]
Wallace Stevens, The Candle a Saint

[url]http://www.americanpoems.com/poets/eecummings/11875[/url]
e e cummings, All in green went my love riding

[url]http://www.readbookonline.net/readOnLine/48281/[/url]
Mark Akenside, Inscription for a Grotto


background articles
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_tea[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matcha[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_tea_ceremony[/url]
[url]http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/columns/0003/inroads027.htm[/url]
[url]http://www.ranhotei.com/english/[/url]
 

my columns on aikiweb: 
[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20495"]Resistance[/URL]
[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20409"]Martial Arts in Manga and Animé[/URL] 
[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20289"]Indigo Blue[/URL]
[url="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20047"]Improvised Weapons No.1: The Umbrella[/url]
[url="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19943"]Brothers[/url]
[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19821"]Unbalance - Feet of Clay[/URL]
[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19741"]Half a Tatami[/URL]
[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19617"]Zen in the Art of Aikido[/URL]


I have an essay in a [URL="http://fortohoku.org/"]charity e-book[/URL] put together by some writers and photographers to raise money for victims of the earthquake and tsunami in Tohoku on 11 March 2011. It costs $9.99.[/i]


© niall matthews 2011]]></body>
	<date>11-18-2011</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="4353">
	<title><![CDATA[the eleventh hour]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[[indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][i][url="http://www.flickr.com/photos/14284621@N06/2583831556/"]Poppies[/url] by aj lopes used under creative commons licence[/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/i]
 

[i][highlight]Mountain, river grass and tree grow more barren;
For ten miles winds smell of blood in the fresh battlefield.
Conquering horses do not advance nor do men talk;
Outside Jinzhou Castle I stand in the setting sun.[/highlight]
General Maresuke Nogi

[highlight]Dead in the gas and smoke and roar of guns, 
Dead in a row with the other broken ones[/highlight]
Robert Graves, Last Post

[highlight]We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie,
In Flanders fields.[/highlight]
John McCrae, In Flanders Fields

[highlight]The tragic news touched us like the bitter wind which awakens the trees and the grass sleeping in the remotest corners of the countryside.[/highlight]
Soseki Natsume, Kokoro (on the death of General Nogi)[/i]


In Japan a samurai was supposed to be proficient in the arts of war and in the art of literature. Bun Bu Ryo Do &#12406;&#12435;&#12406;&#12426;&#12423;&#12358;&#12393;&#12358; &#25991;&#27494;&#20001;&#36947; [i]the way of the pen and the way of the sword - follow them both[/i]. The first epigraph at the top of this article is a kanshi Chinese poem by a famous general, Maresuke Nogi.

It is raining outside. I am writing this on 11 November. On the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month the armistice to end the First World War was signed. 11 November is Remembrance Day in the United Kingdom. Ceremonies are usually held on the nearest Sunday. When I was a boy at school in England there was a one-minute silence at 11 a.m. on 11 November. Even traffic mostly stopped. Then a bugler played the Last Post, a haunting bugle call. 

The red poppy is the symbol of remembrance. Red can be the colour of hope or it can be the colour of blood. I saw Kokoro recently. It's a 1955 black and white movie directed by Kon Ichikawa. The original novel was by Soseki Natsume. I mentioned it before once. It was the first novel published by the publishing company Iwanami Shoten. In one scene the main character is shocked by the suicide of General Nogi. 

Maresuke Nogi was a respected general but under his command the Japanese forces suffered heavy casualties in the siege of Port Arthur in the Russo-Japanese war. Nogi's sons also died in that war. Nogi wanted to kill himself to take responsibility for the deaths of his men but Emperor Meiji refused permission. 

So General Nogi patiently waited for the death of the Emperor. On 13 September 1912 the day of Emperor Meiji's funeral General Nogi and his wife committed suicide. Some people thought that he was following the Emperor into death as a loyal retainer. There is now a shrine, Nogi Jinja, at the site of his house in Nogizaka in Minato-ku in Tokyo. 

In Japan 11 November is Pocky day. It is a thin stick biscuit dipped in chocolate. So 11.11 is Pocky day because the figure ones look like Pocky sticks. This year is a special Pocky day: triple eleven. Someone I know got married on 11 November. Her husband chose that day on purpose even though it meant they had to get married on a weekday instead of on a Saturday or Sunday. At the time it was inconvenient but he has never forgotten their wedding anniversary. 

Niall 


[i]poems and free e-books
Robert Graves, Last Post
[url]http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-last-post/[/url]

John McCrae, In Flanders Fields
[url]http://www.greatwar.co.uk/poems/john-mccrae-in-flanders-fields.htm[/url]

online version of Kokoro by Soseki Natsume
[url]http://www.ibiblio.org/eldritch/ns/k1.html[/url]

The Muse in Arms poetry of World War I
[url]http://www.archive.org/details/museinarmscollec00osbouoft[/url]


background articles
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remembrance_Day[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Papaver_rhoeas[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Last_Post[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nogi_Maresuke[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russo-Japanese_war[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Port_Arthur[/url]
[url]http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Siege_of_Port_Arthur[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natsume_Soseki[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kokoro[/url]
[url]http://www.eurekavideo.co.uk/moc/catalogue/kokoro/[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_poets[/url]


my columns on aikiweb: 
[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20409"]Martial Arts in Manga and Animé[/URL] 
[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20289"]Indigo Blue[/URL]
[url="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20047"]Improvised Weapons No.1: The Umbrella[/url]
[url="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19943"]Brothers[/url]
[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19821"]Unbalance - Feet of Clay[/URL]
[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19741"]Half a Tatami[/URL]
[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19617"]Zen in the Art of Aikido[/URL]


I have an essay in a [URL="http://fortohoku.org/"]charity e-book[/URL] put together by some writers and photographers to raise money for victims of the earthquake and tsunami in Tohoku on 11 March 2011. It costs $9.99.[/i]


© niall matthews 2011]]></body>
	<date>11-11-2011</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="4348">
	<title><![CDATA[exiles]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[[indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][i][url="http://www.flickr.com/photos/neilsingapore/4622051158/"]T.S. Pelican of London, and another old ship in Braye Harbour, Alderney[/url] by Neil Howard used under creative commons licence[/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/i]
 

[i][highlight]There is an economic and there is a spiritual exile. There are those who left her to seek the bread by which men live and there are others, nay, her most favoured children, who left her to seek in other lands that food of the spirit by which a nation of human beings is sustained in life.[/highlight]
James Joyce, Exiles

[highlight]The hearts that would have given their blood like water,
Beat heavily beyond the Atlantic roar.
Fair these broad meads - these hoary woods are grand:
But we are exiles from our fathers' land.[/highlight]
Canadian Boat Song

[highlight]I am a Kentish man, born in a town called Gillingham, two English miles from Rochester, one mile from Chatham, where the King's ships do lie: from the age of twelve years old, I was brought up in Limehouse near London, being Apprentice twelve years to Master Nicholas Diggins; and myself have served for Master and Pilot in her Majesty's ships; and about eleven or twelve years have served the Worshipfull Company of the Barbary Merchants, until the Indish traffic from Holland began, in which Indish traffic I was desirous to make a little experience of the small knowledge which God had given me. So, in the year of our Lord 1598, I was hired for Pilot Major of a fleet of five sails, which was made ready by the Dutch Indish Company.[/highlight]
William Adams, the only foreign samurai

[highlight]You can't go back home to your family, back home to your childhood, back home to romantic love, back home to a young man's dreams of glory and of fame, back home to exile, to escape to Europe and some foreign land, back home to lyricism, to singing just for singing's sake, back home to aestheticism, to one's youthful idea of the artist and the all-sufficiency of art and beauty and love, back home to the ivory tower, back home to places in the country, to the cottage in Bermuda, away from all the strife and conflict of the world, back home to the father you have lost and have been looking for, back home to someone who can help you, save you, ease the burden for you, back home to the old forms and systems of things which once seemed everlasting but which are changing all the time - back home to the escapes of Time and Memory.[/highlight] 
Thomas Wolfe, You Can't Go Home Again

[highlight]Oh the sun is on the harbour, love,
And I wish that I could remain,
For I know that it will be a long, long time,
Before I see you again[/highlight]
The Pogues, The Leaving of Liverpool

[highlight]Most Japanese miss miso soup. In Japan I didn't drink miso soup.[/highlight]
Seiichi Sugano, 8 dan Aikikai, aikido teacher

[highlight]In fact, Hombu dojo didn't send us out, particularly. It was sort of a contagious disease, you know, like a flu, that spread from one to the other. One left, then the next left. I wanted to come to New York, and I hated the idea of going to England, because I had heard a lot of stuff about bad food, bad weather and stiff lips.[/highlight]
T K Chiba, 8 dan Aikikai, aikido teacher

[highlight]There shall be
In that rich earth a richer dust concealed;
A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware[/highlight]
Rupert Brooke, The Soldier

[highlight]Dead, too, in exile![/highlight]
George Gissing, Born in Exile[/i]


These are the names of a few foreigners who lived and died in Japan.

William Adams arrived in Japan in 1600, the first Englishman in Japan. He became the first and only foreign samurai. His Japanese name was Miura Anjin &#19977;&#28006;&#25353;&#37341;. He was an important advisor to shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu. He had a family in England but he was not allowed to leave Japan. He died in Japan in 1620 after living there for 20 years. Shogun by James Clavell was based on his story.

I've talked about Lafcadio Hearn before. He was half-Irish and half-Greek. He died in Japan in 1904 after living there for fourteen years. 

Thomas Glover was called the Scottish samurai. He lived in Nagasaki and was influential in the early history of Mitsubishi and other companies. He died in Japan in 1911 after living there for more than fifty years.

And then I think of the generation of young aikido teachers who left Japan in the nineteen-sixties. Most of them were in their twenties and early thirties. They went off to strange countries to start new lives. Nobody told them what to do. They just did their best. 

And they couldn't go home again. 

Niall


[i]free books
free e-book from project gutenberg australia
[url]http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks07/0700231h.html[/url]
Thomas Wolfe, You Can't Go Home Again

free e-book from project gutenberg
[url]http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/4526[/url]
George Gissing, Born in Exile

poems
[url]http://bartleby.com/103/149.html[/url]
Rupert Brooke, The Soldier

[url]http://www.rampantscotland.com/songs/blsongs_canadian.htm[/url]
Canadian Boat Song

[url]http://www.uwo.ca/english/canadianpoetry/cpjrn/vol06/dowler.htm[/url]
about who wrote The Canadian Boat Song


music
[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WnTmVirM8sY[/url]
The Pogues, The Leaving of Liverpool


background articles
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Adams_(sailor)[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lafcadio_Hearn[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Blake_Glover[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglo-Japanese_relations[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_in_the_United_Kingdom[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese-American_history[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_diaspora[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sh%C5%8Dgun_(novel)[/url]


my columns on aikiweb: 
[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20409"]Martial Arts in Manga and Animé[/URL] 
[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20289"]Indigo Blue[/URL]
[url="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20047"]Improvised Weapons No.1: The Umbrella[/url]
[url="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19943"]Brothers[/url]
[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19821"]Unbalance - Feet of Clay[/URL]
[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19741"]Half a Tatami[/URL]
[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19617"]Zen in the Art of Aikido[/URL]


I have an essay in a [URL="http://fortohoku.org/"]charity e-book[/URL] put together by some writers and photographers to raise money for victims of the earthquake and tsunami in Tohoku on 11 March 2011. It costs $9.99.[/i]


© niall matthews 2011]]></body>
	<date>11-04-2011</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="4342">
	<title><![CDATA[luck and pomegranates]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[[indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][i][url="http://www.flickr.com/photos/wallyg/5889490927/"]Nara: T&#333;dai-ji - Daibutsuden - Omamori[/url] by Wally Gobetz used under creative commons licence[/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/i]
 

[i][highlight]The harder you practice the luckier you get.[/highlight]
Gary Player (professional golfer)

[highlight]Arma virumque cano - I sing of arms and the man[/highlight]
Virgil, The Aeneid

[highlight]Depend on the rabbit's foot if you will, but remember it didn't work for the rabbit.[/highlight]
R E Shay

[highlight]The Greeks have snatched up their spears. 
They have pointed the helms of their ships 
Toward the bulwarks of Troy.[/highlight] 
Euripides, Iphigeneia in Aulis translated by Hilda Doolittle

[highlight]Try to learn to breathe deeply, really to taste food when you eat, and when you sleep really to sleep. Try as much as possible to be wholly alive with all your might, and when you laugh, laugh like hell. And when you get angry, get good and angry. Try to be alive. You will be dead soon enough.[/highlight]
William Saroyan, The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze[/i]


Someone I know just got back from a trip to Turkey. I heard about the sense of history at the site of Troy. It is in Anatolia. That area used to be called Asia Minor. And I was given a souvenir. A lucky charm. It is supposed to protect me against the evil eye. The evil eye is a curse or harmful wish. So it is not really a good luck charm. It's to protect me against evil specifically directed at me.

In Japan an amulet or lucky charm is called an omamori &#12362;&#12414;&#12418;&#12426; &#12362;&#23432;&#12426;. You can get them at shrines and temples. Some of them are also for specific kinds of protection. Against harm on a journey, or for protection during pregnancy, or for help for exams, say. Many martial artists and sports players have an omamori on their equipment bags to protect against injury. 

In English we say "good luck" to people who are doing an exam or playing in a sports match. So we are saying that we hope some higher power will look kindly on them. 

In Japanese they say "gambatte!" Do your best! or fight! or try your hardest! So they are saying: Don't rely on a higher power. Do the work yourself. Train hard. Prepare well. Succeed by your own ability and your own efforts. Maybe that is a more effective approach.   

A strange thing happened that day. My friend had told me that the best food in Turkey was pomegranates. Then later the same evening someone else I know told me that while he was clearing out some old things he had found a book that he had bought in Kochi many years ago. It was a bilingual edition of some short stories by William Saroyan. He told me the story that he had always remembered was The Pomegranate Trees. Wow, pomegranates twice in one day. In Japanese pomegranate is zakuro &#12374;&#12367;&#12429;, &#26584;&#27060; or &#30707;&#27060; or &#33509;&#27060;. 

Niall


[i]poems
[url]http://www.tastearts.com/fruit-poem-pomegranate-by-d-h-lawrence[/url]
D H Lawrence, Pomegranate

[url]http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15385[/url]
Eavan Boland, The Pomegranate

[url]http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/181803[/url]
Hilda Morley, Pomegranates


background articles
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazar_(amulet)[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evil_Eye[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luck[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Touch_pieces[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omamori[/url]
[url]http://japanlifeandreligion.com/2011/04/14/omamori/[/url]
[url]http://home.uchicago.edu/~coleman/public_html/overview.html[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troy[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pomegranate[/url]


my columns on aikiweb: 
[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20409"]Martial Arts in Manga and Animé[/URL] 
[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20289"]Indigo Blue[/URL]
[url="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20047"]Improvised Weapons No.1: The Umbrella[/url]
[url="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19943"]Brothers[/url]
[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19821"]Unbalance - Feet of Clay[/URL]
[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19741"]Half a Tatami[/URL]
[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19617"]Zen in the Art of Aikido[/URL]


I have an essay in a [URL="http://fortohoku.org/"]charity e-book[/URL] put together by some writers and photographers to raise money for victims of the earthquake and tsunami in Tohoku on 11 March 2011. It costs $9.99.[/i]


© niall matthews 2011]]></body>
	<date>10-28-2011</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="4334">
	<title><![CDATA[freedom, ashes and diamonds]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[[indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][i][url="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bswise_/5374673273/in/photostream/"]still of Zbigniew Cybulski from Ashes and Diamonds[/URL] from the collection of bswise, used under creative commons licence[/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/i]
 
[i][highlight]you know not if flames bring freedom or death[/highlight]
Cyprian Norwid, Polish poet

[highlight]What had the Caesars but their thrones?[/highlight] 
W B Yeats, Demon and Beast

[highlight]And each in the cell of himself is almost convinced of his freedom[/highlight]
W H Auden, In Memory of W B Yeats

[highlight]I believe in the freedom song
I'll choose my own destiny[/highlight]
Thin Lizzy, Freedom Song

[highlight]We learn history not in order to know how to behave or how to succeed, but to know who we are.[/highlight] 
Leszek Ko&#322;akowski, Polish philosopher

[highlight]I think we practice to achieve dynamic movement and a freedom that lies within that movement.[/highlight]
Seishiro Endo Sensei, aikido teacher[/i]


The Arab Spring has turned into summer and autumn and winter. Throughout history leaders blinded by hubris have underestimated the groundswell of the desire for freedom. 

In the 1980s the fall of communism was also called the Autumn of Nations. Some of the first rumblings began in Poland. The trade union Solidarity sparked a broad-based movement for social change. It's Polish name Solidarno&#347;&#263; was written in dripping red letters. In 1985 Mikhail Gorbachev came to power in the USSR and advocated a new mood of perestroika, economic restructuring and glasnost, openness. The eventual result was the fall of communism. 

The quotation in the first epigraph at the top of this article is from a poem by Cyprian Norwid. The poem is inscribed on a wall in the movie Ashes and Diamonds. It's directed by Andrzej Wajda, from a novel by Jerzy Andrzejewski. It is one of the great European films of the twentieth century. It's set in Poland after the end of World War II. The resistance movement against the Nazis develops into a resistance movement against communism. But resistance against an oppressor does not justify betraying your own humanity.

I went to Moscow in the early eighties. In my carry-on baggage I had a book about aikido and the mystery novel Gorky Park by Martin Cruz Smith about a Moscow detective. Both books were confiscated by customs officers. When I left the USSR a few days later the aikido book was returned to me. I never got Gorky Park back. 

Later I discussed this with a friend in Japan. He had studied martial arts for many years and he was familiar with Eastern Europe. He told me they would never allow aikido in the Eastern Bloc. Not because it was possible to use aikido for unarmed combat. Judo and other martial arts already existed. But because aikido represented freedom. Aikido was freedom. 

Seishiro Endo Sensei's words about freedom were in a recent [URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20399"]thread[/URL]. Through continuous rigorous - and unfree - practice finally you can reach freedom. That is still at a technical level. Beyond that there is real freedom.

And I'd like to think that somewhere in Moscow on a retired customs officer's bookshelf there is an old copy of Gorky Park.

Niall


[i]background articles and reviews of Ashes and Diamonds including a contemporary review
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashes_and_Diamonds_(film)[/url]
[url]http://www.amielandmelburn.org.uk/collections/ulr/07_40.pdf[/url]
[url]http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2007/jun/03/dvdreviews.thriller review[/url]
[url]http://www.criterion.com/current/posts/363-ashes-and-diamonds[/url]
[url]http://www.ucis.pitt.edu/eehistory/H200Readings/Topic3-R4.html[/url]
[url]http://www.kinoeye.org/03/03/rucinski03.php[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyprian_Norwid[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armia_Krajowa[/url] 
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perestroika[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glasnost[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_Bloc[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gorky_Park_(novel)[/url]
[url]http://www.opendemocracy.net/article/leszek-kolakowski-thinker-for-our-time-0[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solidarnosc[/url]


poems by Cyprian Norvid
[url]http://daisy.htmlplanet.com/nor1.htm[/url]
[url]http://www.chopin-paderewski.org/chopin.htm[/url]

more Polish poetry
[url]http://www.utoronto.ca/tsq/10/chernavsky10.shtml[/url]
[url]http://www.archive.org/stream/PolishPoetryInEnglish/polishpoetryfree_djvu.txt[/url]
[url]http://www.translatorscafe.com/cafe/MegaBBS/thread-view.asp?threadid=429&start=1[/url]

W B Yeats, Demon and Beast
[url]http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/demon-and-beast/[/url]

W H Auden, In Memory of W B Yeats
[url]http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15544[/url]


aikido articles by Seishiro Endo Sensei
[url]http://homepage3.nifty.com/aikido_sakudojo/cosmos-e.html[/url]
[url]http://homepage3.nifty.com/aikido_sakudojo/Shihan09E.html[/url]


my columns on aikiweb: 
[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20409"]Martial Arts in Manga and Animé[/URL] 
[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20289"]Indigo Blue[/URL]
[url="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20047"]Improvised Weapons No.1: The Umbrella[/url]
[url="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19943"]Brothers[/url]
[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19821"]Unbalance - Feet of Clay[/URL]
[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19741"]Half a Tatami[/URL]
[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19617"]Zen in the Art of Aikido[/URL]


I have an essay in a [URL="http://fortohoku.org/"]charity e-book[/URL] put together by some writers and photographers to raise money for victims of the earthquake and tsunami in Tohoku on 11 March 2011. It costs $9.99.[/i]


© niall matthews 2011]]></body>
	<date>10-21-2011</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="4328">
	<title><![CDATA[silent running]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[[indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][i][url="http://www.flickr.com/photos/hanspama/4199315435/"]Silent running[/URL] by Hans Pama used under creative commons licence[/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/i]
 

[i][highlight]There are three reasons I failed. Not enough training. Not enough training. And not enough training. [/highlight]
Haruki Murakami

[highlight]We are different, in essence, from other men. If you want to win something, run 100 meters. If you want to experience something, run a marathon.[/highlight] 
Emil Zátopek, Czech long-distance runner

[highlight]I train for good luck.[/highlight]
Arturo Barrios, Mexican long-distance runner

[highlight]Even activities that appear fruitless don't necessarily end up so.[/highlight]
Haruki Murakami

[highlight]"I find," he said, "that one needs some one really pure single activity."[/highlight]
D H Lawrence, Women in Love[/i] 


What I Talk About When I Talk About Running is a short book by the Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami. It is a real pleasure to read. I mentioned him in passing in my column [URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20289"]Indigo Blue[/URL] about the colour blue in Japanese culture. The title is an hommage to a book of short stories by Raymond Carver, What We Talk About When We Talk About Love. Murakami's book is not a novel or a short story. It's a kind of notebook of his thoughts about running and writing and life. Some parts of it were originally written for magazines and it is very readable and very interesting. It is not really a book for runners but if you run you might appreciate it on a different level. Murakami writes very clearly and simply. He is honest about his running and about himself. He is very aware. And writing something down helps him to understand it. 

Murakami talks about many things in the book. In a way it's almost like the thoughts running through his head while he's running a marathon. But the book has a structure linked to some of the races he has run and his preparation. He thinks that a writer needs three things. Ability. Then focus. And then endurance. He runs a marathon every year and sometimes does triathlons. He never recommends running. He just acknowledges that it suits his own personality.

I'm not a serious runner. I don't like the potential effect on my knees of millions of impacts of my feet on asphalt. But I run occasionally. If possible on soft surfaces like grass or sand. But I can feel strong parallels between Murakami's single-minded focus on running and my own journey in aikido and budo. Long distance running needs patience and determination. And as Murakami says, even if running is pointless or futile or inefficient finally it allows him to grasp something of value.

I was going to call this article what I talk about when I talk about What I Talk About When I Talk About Running. But my wife just gave me a look so now it's just called Silent Running. If you have a chance read the book. It is more interesting, more useful and more relevant to us as martial artists and as human beings than any book about aikido or budo published so far in the twenty-first century.

And Haruki Murakami's novel 1Q84 is published in English on 25 October 2011. 

Niall


[i]Free e-book from project gutenberg
D H Lawrence, Women in Love
[url]http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/4240[/url]


music
Silent Running, Mike and the Mechanics
[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ddi2TBnzdPo[/url]
Silent Running was a song by Mike and the Mechanics. It's a cool title and a good song. The band was a side project of Mike Rutherford of Genesis.

movie intro
The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner
[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXMS5ZXKvYA[/url]
incidentally the background music is the hymn Jerusalem. So Jerusalem in the soundtrack of Chariots of Fire might also have been a reference to The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner. 

Chariots of Fire finale
[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPB7r0UpNIE[/url]

Iron Maiden, The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner
[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0Ki06FA7sU[/url]


articles - and there are more links including interviews with Murakami in the [URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20289"]Indigo Blue[/URL] article
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zatopek[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arturo_Barrios[/url]
[url]http://wynlok.com/2007/08/runners-world-told-me-to-readwatch-these/[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1Q84[/url]


my columns on aikiweb: 
[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20289"]Indigo Blue[/URL]
[url="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20047"]Improvised Weapons No.1: The Umbrella[/url]
[url="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19943"]Brothers[/url]
[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19821"]Unbalance - Feet of Clay[/URL]
[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19741"]Half a Tatami[/URL]
[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19617"]Zen in the Art of Aikido[/URL]


I have an essay in a [URL="http://fortohoku.org/"]charity e-book[/URL] put together by some writers and photographers to raise money for victims of the earthquake and tsunami in Tohoku on 11 March 2011. It costs $9.99.[/i]


© niall matthews 2011]]></body>
	<date>10-14-2011</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="4323">
	<title><![CDATA[chestnuts + tokyo olympics]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[[indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][i][url="http://www.flickr.com/photos/ikuman/2957785638/"]Kurigohan[/URL] by ikuman used under creative commons licence[/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/i]
 

[i][highlight]You fell,
you struck
the ground,
but
nothing happened,
the grass
still stirred, the old
chestnut sighed with the mouths
of a forest of trees,
a red leaf of autumn fell,
resolutely, the hours marched on
across the earth[/highlight]
Pablo Neruda, Ode to a Chestnut on the Ground


[highlight]Under the spreading chestnut tree
I sold you and you sold me:
There lie they, and here lie we
Under the spreading chestnut tree[/highlight]
George Orwell, 1984 [/i]


[highlight]&#26647;&#39151;&#12516;&#30149;&#20154;&#12490;&#12460;&#12521;&#22823;&#39135;&#12498;[i]

kurimeshi ya
byounin nagara
ookurai

Rice cooked with chestnuts
Even though I'm sick 
I can't stop eating it![/highlight]
haiku by Shiki Masaoka[/i] 


I usually eat cereal and fruit for breakfast. But most Japanese people I know eat rice. Several Japanese people who do sports or budo seriously have told me that you get more energy from eating rice. I heard that Ichiro, the great Japanese baseball player who plays for the Seattle Mariners, eats curry with rice every morning. Ichiro is famous for his work ethic and his meticulous preparation. So it is probably based on scientific research or at least his considerable experience. But I don't think I can face curry for breakfast. 

It's the season for chestnuts. Marrons in French and kuri in Japanese. They are often cooked together with the rice to make kuri gohan. Chestnut rice. It is very, very good. Most Japanese people cook rice in an electric rice cooker but serious cooks use a saucepan. 

Next week there is a national holiday in Japan. It's called Sports Day. It was started to commemorate the Tokyo Olympics in 1964. One of the demonstration sports at those Olympics was budo. O Sensei Morihei Ueshiba gave a demonstration of aikido. My aikido teacher Kinjo Asoh Sensei - who spoke perfect English - was the translator for the aikido demonstration. I believe he also translated for the official judo events. It was the first time that judo was included in the Olympics. 

The Tokyo Olympics started on 10 October - even though they were called the summer Olympics. The national holiday for Sports Day is now the nearest Monday to 10 October. In Japan it is vaguely suggested that you celebrate national holidays by doing the activity that the holiday is for. On sea day you go to the coast. On culture day you go to the theatre or the cinema or to a concert. And on sports day you play sports. 

In the dojo where I started aikido there was always an event for Sports Day. There were races and sports displays. I remember one relay race. A man from our dojo was running. In his dogi and hakama. Suddenly he stepped on his hakama and tripped and went flying head first. But without breaking step he rolled into a perfect mae ukemi rolling breakfall and came up still running hard. Everyone around the track cheered. 

It will be the full moon just after the national holiday. That will be the end of the season for viewing the autumn moon. 

Niall


[i]Free e-book of 1984 by George Orwell
[url]http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks01/0100021.txt[/url]
there are some references to George Orwell in the comments to my blog post about [URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/blogs/moon-in-the-water-19051/tilt-4291/"]Don Quixote[/URL]


above translation of haiku by Niall Matthews
other poetry by Shiki Masaoka 
[url]http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/japanese/shiki/beichman/BeiShik.utf8.html[/url]


Pablo Neruda, Ode to a Chestnut on the Ground
[url]http://www.famouspoetsandpoems.com/poets/pablo_neruda/poems/15746[/url]
poems by Pablo Neruda
[url]http://www.famouspoetsandpoems.com/poets/pablo_neruda/poems[/url]


background articles 
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chestnut[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ichiro[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokyo_Olympics[/url]


my columns on aikiweb: 
[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20289"]Indigo Blue[/URL]
[url="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20047"]Improvised Weapons No.1: The Umbrella[/url]
[url="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19943"]Brothers[/url]
[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19821"]Unbalance - Feet of Clay[/URL]
[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19741"]Half a Tatami[/URL]
[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19617"]Zen in the Art of Aikido[/URL]


I have an essay in a [URL="http://fortohoku.org/"]charity e-book[/URL] put together by some writers and photographers to raise money for victims of the earthquake and tsunami in Tohoku on 11 March 2011. It costs $9.99. Funnily enough I mention horse chestnuts in it.[/i]


© niall matthews 2011]]></body>
	<date>10-07-2011</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="4317">
	<title><![CDATA[the last game]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[[indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][i][url="http://www.flickr.com/photos/takuyaabe/528628242/"]old ball[/URL] by Takuya Abe used under creative commons licence[/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/i]


[i][highlight]Everyone suddenly burst out singing;
And I was filled with such delight
As prisoned birds must find in freedom
Winging wildly across the white
Orchards and dark-green fields; on; on; and out of sight.[/highlight]
Siegfried Sassoon, Everyone Sang


[highlight]The language of the game is interesting. You can think of the pauses as caesuras, breaks between the lines. As a poem the game is composed of a number of short lines representing the pitches. The number of lines per batter form a stanza. Then there is a space. Sometimes the stanzas become breathless, rushing full paragraphs that build rapidly on each other until the poem-inning explodes.[/highlight] 
Andrei Codrescu


[highlight]In baseball, home plate is where you begin your journey and also your destination. You venture out onto the bases, to first and second and third, always striving to return to the spot from which you began. There is danger on the basepath - pick-offs, rundowns, force-outs, double plays - and safety only back at home. I am not saying, as a true fan would, that baseball is the key to life; rather, life is the key to baseball. We play or watch this game because it draws pictures of our desires.[/highlight]
Scott Sanders


[highlight]Calamus Gladio Fortior - The pen is mightier than the sword[/highlight] 
Motto of Keio University[/i]


I'm British. So I don't know much about baseball. I picked up the rules roughly by occasionally listening to games on the armed forces radio in Japan. The announcers were great. They painted vivid word pictures of the games. The duel between the pitcher and the batter seemed to be much more intense than in the English game cricket. 

Then I eventually got to see my first game. It was in the old Giants stadium before the Tokyo Dome was built. The Yomiuri Giants against the Hanshin Tigers. The Giants are the most popular team in Tokyo and the Tigers are the most popular team in Osaka. There is a fierce rivalry between the teams. That day there was a fight between the groups of supporters. 

A few days ago I saw a movie called The Last Game: Waseda vs. Keio. In Japanese the title is Last Game - [I]Saigo no Soukeisen[/I]. [I]Sou[/I] is the [I]on[/I] reading of the [I]Wa[/I] in Waseda and [I]Kei[/I] is the first syllable of Keio. 

The Last Game is about the baseball clubs at these two famous Tokyo universities. It's set in 1943 against the background of World War II. Many of the students were about to be called up. Baseball itself was criticized as trivial and even un-Japanese by the authorities. But eventually, knowing that some of the students would not come back from the war, the two universities managed to arrange a game. The last game. 

The score wasn't important. There was a moving moment at the end of the game when the students of each university showed their respect by singing the other university's school song. Some of the players died in the war. Perhaps because of the impending tragedy of war the movie transcends the usual formula of sports movies. One of the main characters is played by Ken Watanabe's son Dai. 

Keio University and Waseda University are both there in the history books of aikido. 

For example Koichi Tohei Sensei the founder of the Ki Society and Shin Shin Toitsu Aikido went to Keio University. So did Koretoshi Maruyama Sensei the founder of Aikido Yuishinkai. 

Kenji Tomiki Sensei, the founder of Tomiki-style/Shodokan Aikido was a graduate of Waseda and taught aikido there. 

The second Doshu Kisshomaru Ueshiba also went to Waseda. He was an undergraduate at Waseda at the time of the last game. Perhaps he even went to see it. Perhaps he even sang Keio's school song.


Niall


[i]articles about the last game
[url]http://www.waseda.jp/student/weekly/contents/english/e062a.html[/url]
[url]http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/adv/wol/dy/culture/081217.htm[/url]
[url]http://www.waseda.jp/student/weekly/english/2007/e138b.html[/url]


Siegfried Sassoon, Everyone Sang
[url]http://www.poetryarchive.org/poetryarchive/singlePoem.do?poemId=7098[/url]
There is a short biography of Siegfried Sassoon on that page. He was one of the poets who fought in the First World War.


asiamediawiki page for the movie
[url]http://asianmediawiki.com/Last_Game_(2008-Japan)[/url]
imdb page for The Last Game: Waseda vs. Keio
[url]http://akas.imdb.com/title/tt1139399/[/url]


wikipedia articles
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keio_University[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waseda[/url]
The pen is mightier than the sword
[/urlhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_pen_is_mightier_than_the_sword[/url]
articles about the founder of Keio
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fukuzawa_Yukichi[/url]
[url]http://www.ibe.unesco.org/publications/ThinkersPdf/fukuzawe.pdf[/url]
article about the founder of Waseda
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C5%8Ckuma_Shigenobu[/url]


wikipedia article about Tomiki Sensei with links to an Aikido Journal interview
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomiki[/url]


interviews with Koretoshi Maruyama Sensei 
[url]http://www.martijnvanhemmen.nl/?p=157[/url]
[url]http://www.aikidojournal.com/article?articleID=539[/url]
[url]http://www.aikidojournal.com/article.php?articleID=667[/url]


my columns on aikiweb: 
[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20289"]Indigo Blue[/URL]
[url="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20047"]Improvised Weapons No.1: The Umbrella[/url]
[url="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19943"]Brothers[/url]
[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19821"]Unbalance - Feet of Clay[/URL]
[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19741"]Half a Tatami[/URL]
[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19617"]Zen in the Art of Aikido[/URL]


I have an essay in a [URL="http://fortohoku.org/"]charity e-book[/URL] put together by some writers and photographers to raise money for victims of the earthquake and tsunami in Tohoku on 11 March 2011. It costs $9.99.[/i]


© niall matthews 2011]]></body>
	<date>09-30-2011</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="4311">
	<title><![CDATA[form/function]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[[indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][i][url="http://www.flickr.com/photos/geishaboy500/3983811907/"]Bernard Leach Pottery Studio St.Ives Tools[/URL] by geishaboy500 used under creative commons licence[/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/i]


[i][highlight]It seems reasonable to expect that beauty will emerge from a fusion of the individual character and culture of the potter with the nature of his materials.[/highlight]
Bernard Leach

[highlight]I make functional pottery in an effort to preserve local culture in our modern throw-away society. My main goal is to inspire other people to make their own creative work.[/highlight]
Bernard Leach 

[highlight]Every artist knows that he is engaged in an encounter with infinity, and that work done with heart and hand is ultimately worship of life itself.[/highlight]
Bernard Leach[/i]


Bernard Leach (1887-1979) was a British potter and artist. He grew up in Asia and had close links to Japan. In his art he was strongly influenced by wabi-sabi, a Japanese concept of simplicity. He believed that function had overriding importance and he disapproved of art that was artistic for the sake of being artistic. 

He established the Leach Pottery in St Ives in Cornwall in western England. He collaborated closely with a Japanese potter, Shoji Hamada. He was also involved with the Mingei functional folk art movement and its leading figure Soetsu Yanagi. He had a deep and lasting influence that went far beyond pottery and that has affected modern western concepts of design.  

There are some interesting parallels with martial arts. At a basic level Bernard Leach studied with a master potter, Kenzan, and eventually developed his own style and even philosophy. But the Japanese aesthetics of simplicity and the purity of function over form go deeper than making objects. 

Techniques in the martial arts should be simple and pure also. There shouldn't be any beautiful movements just because they are beautiful. Everything should be for a reason. And as we become more experienced all unnecessary and wasted movement should gradually be cut away. Not form over function. Not even function over form. Form becomes function and function becomes form. The pure essence of budo. 

Niall


[i]articles
interesting review of The Etchings of Bernard Leach by Simon Olding
[url]http://www.isendyouthis-artdiary.com/?p=469[/url]

article about Bernard Leach
[url]http://www.ceramike.com/Suzuki.asp[/url]
tiles by Bernard Leach on the same site
[url]http://www.ceramike.com/BernardLeachTiles.asp[/url]

good review of Bernard Leach Life and Work by Emmanuel Cooper
[url]http://www.japansociety.org.uk/2677/bernard-leach-life-work/[/url]

Victoria and Albert Museum  
[url]http://www.vam.ac.uk/[/url]


[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wabi-sabi[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernard_Leach[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoji_Hamada[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janet_Leach[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leach_Pottery[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mashiko,_Tochigi[/url]
[url]http://wikitravel.org/en/Mashiko[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soetsu_Yanagi[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mingei[/url]


my columns on aikiweb: 
[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20289"]Indigo Blue[/URL]
[url="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20047"]Improvised Weapons No.1: The Umbrella[/url]
[url="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19943"]Brothers[/url]
[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19821"]Unbalance - Feet of Clay[/URL]
[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19741"]Half a Tatami[/URL]
[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19617"]Zen in the Art of Aikido[/URL]


I have an essay in a [URL="http://fortohoku.org/"]charity e-book[/URL] put together by some writers and photographers to raise money for victims of the earthquake and tsunami in Tohoku on 11 March 2011. It costs $9.99.[/i]


© niall matthews 2011]]></body>
	<date>09-23-2011</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="4303">
	<title><![CDATA[typhoon]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[[indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][i][url="http://www.flickr.com/photos/altus/4970891236/"]Tokyo Typhoon[/URL] by Altus used under creative commons licence
[/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/i]


[i][highlight]Think of the storm roaming the sky uneasily
like a dog looking for a place to sleep in,
listen to it growling.[/highlight]
Elizabeth Bishop, Little Exercise

[highlight]Thought and beauty, like a hurricane or waves, should not know conventional, delimited forms.[/highlight]
Anton Chekhov, The Letter

[highlight]Let chaos storm!
Let cloud shapes swarm!
I wait for form.[/highlight]
Robert Frost, Pertinax

[highlight]Why now, blow wind, swell billow, and swim bark!
The storm is up, and all is on the hazard.[/highlight]
William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar act 5 scene 1 

[highlight]This is where the typhoon starts
inside the fourth paragraph,
ten city blocks away[/highlight]
Nick Carbo, Typhoon Signal No. 1

[highlight]An earthquake, a landslip, an avalanche, overtake a man incidentally, as it were - without passion. A furious gale attacks him like a personal enemy, tries to grasp his limbs, fastens upon his mind, seeks to rout his very spirit out of him.[/highlight]
Joseph Conrad, Typhoon[/i]
 

Late summer and September is the typhoon season in Japan. Typhoons are numbered each year starting again from number one. We have just had this season's Typhoon number 12. Its international name was Typhoon Talas but that name was never heard in Japan. The very heavy rain caused [URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/blogs/moon-in-the-water-19051/land-slide-4296/"]landslides[/URL] and there have been many deaths in western Japan mainly in the area around Wakayama. 

Japanese people sometimes ask me about the UK. [I]No earthquakes?[/I] No. [I]No typhoons?[/I] No. [I]It must be nice to live in such a quiet place... [/I]

The word typhoon is a strange word that seems to come partly from the Greek word for whirlwind and partly from the Chinese word for big wind. Perhaps the first time I saw the word was in a comic when I was a small boy. The hero was a big man called Typhoon Tracy. He helped people in trouble and he loved getting into fist fights. Then a few years later I read Typhoon by Joseph Conrad. It was about a ship in the China seas struggling to survive against the relentless power of a huge typhoon. Conrad also often uses the word hurricane. So my image of typhoons was of an almost mythical powerful storm. In Japan typhoons bring strong winds and heavy rain and some train lines temporarily stop all services but deaths on the scale of Typhoon number 12 are very, very rare. 

Many Japanese TV stations send young reporters out into the storms to make reports wearing plastic raincoats and safety helmets so the viewers can see the real effects of a storm. I remember walking through water 40 or 50 cm (about 20 inches) deep on the streets in central Tokyo in the middle of a typhoon. 
   
Years ago I was at an aikido summer camp on the Japanese coast when a typhoon hit. After the camp finished I went to the station to catch a train to Tokyo but all trains had stopped. I asked how long the delays would last and I was told, [I]Nobody knows. But last time the trains were stopped for two days.[/I] Luckily they started again a few hours later. 

Niall


[i]free e-books
The Bishop and Other Stories by Anton Chekhov from project gutenberg including The Letter
[url]http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13419[/url]

The Works of William Shakespeare from project gutenberg
[url]http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/100[/url]

Typhoon by Joseph Conrad from project gutenberg
[url]http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1142[/url]


poems
Elizabeth Bishop, Little Exercise 
[url]http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/little-exercise/[/url]
There is a link on that page to a downloadable pdf file of her poems
Biography
[url]http://www.poemhunter.com/elizabeth-bishop/biography/[/url]

Nick Carbo, Typhoon Signal No. 1
[url]http://www.americanpoems.com/poets/Nick-Carbo/17395[/url]
more poems by Nick Carbo. 
[url]http://www.americanpoems.com/poets/Nick-Carbo#poems[/url]
Nick Carbo is a Filipino poet who now lives in Florida. Biography from NPR.
[url]http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1667164[/url]

Poems of Robert Frost downloadable text file
[url]http://www.archive.org/stream/poemsofrobertfro029898mbp/poemsofrobertfro029898mbp_djvu.txt[/url]
Pertinax is on page 357


articles
difference between a hurricane and a typhoon
[url]http://www.aoml.noaa.gov/hrd/tcfaq/A1.html[/url]

comic hero Typhoon Tracy
[url]http://www.internationalhero.co.uk/t/typhoon.htm[/url]

Typhoon Talas
[url]http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/sep/04/japan-hit-by-typhoon-talas[/url]


my columns on aikiweb: 
[url="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20047"]Improvised Weapons No.1: The Umbrella[/url]
[url="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19943"]Brothers[/url]
[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19821"]Unbalance - Feet of Clay[/URL]
[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19741"]Half a Tatami[/URL]
[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19617"]Zen in the Art of Aikido[/URL]


I have an essay in a [URL="http://fortohoku.org/"]charity e-book[/URL] put together by some writers and photographers for Tohoku. A pdf version is $9.99. 100% goes to the Japanese Red Cross to help victims of the earthquake and tsunami. [/i]


© niall matthews 2011]]></body>
	<date>09-15-2011</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="4296">
	<title><![CDATA[land slide]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[[indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][i][url="http://www.rapo.com/icrgallery/Aberfan.htm"]Three men survey the fallen tip[/URL] By permission © I.C. Rapoport
[/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/i]


[i][highlight]
Elegy for David Beynon[/highlight]
by Leslie Norris

[highlight]David, we must have looked comic, sitting
there at next desks; your legs stretched
half-way down the classroom, while
my feet hung a free inch above

the floor. I remember too, down
at The Gwynne's Field, at the side
of the Little Taff, dancing with
laughing fury as you caught

effortlessly at the line-out, sliding
the ball over my head direct to
the outside-half. That was Cyril
Theophilus, who died in his quiet

so long ago that only I, perhaps,
remember he'd hold the ball one-handed
on his thin stomach as he turned
to run. Even there you were careful

to miss us with your scattering 
knees as you bumped through
for yet another try. Buffeted
we were, but cheered too by our

unhurt presumption in believing
we could ever have pulled you down.
I think those children, those who died
under your arms, in the crushed school,

would understand that I make this
your elegy. I know the face you had,
have walked with you enough mornings
under the fallen leaves. Theirs is

the great anonymous tragedy one word
will summarize. Aberfan, I write it
for them here, knowing we've paid to it
our shabby pence, and now it can be stored

with whatever names there are where
children end their briefest pilgrimage.
I cannot find the words for you, David. These
are too long, too many; and not enough.[/highlight][/i]


Aberfan is a village in Wales. On 21 October 1966 after some days of continuous rain a huge tip of coal waste collapsed and slid down the hillside onto a school. 116 children and 28 adults died. This  poem was written for one of the teachers whose buried body was found protecting his students. It is a moving and powerful poem.

It is now six months since the tragic earthquake and tsunami in Tohoku on 11 March 2011. Some of the stories of Aberfan sound familiar in Japan. Warnings were ignored, perhaps for years. And after the tragedy the authorities became defensive. 

This week in western Japan heavy rains caused landslides. More than 100 people are dead or missing. One of the most severely hit areas was Wakayama. Wakayama is in Kansai, the area of western Japan around Osaka and Kobe and Kyoto. People from Kansai speak a strong dialect. 

Morihei Ueshiba - O Sensei - the founder of aikido was born in Tanabe City in Wakayama. O Sensei's wife Hatsu was also from Wakayama and I have been told she spoke in a noticeable Kansai dialect. She died in 1969 just two months after O Sensei. 

Niall


[i]I.C. Rapoport very kindly gave me permission to use this stark shot of Aberfan. Please check out his cool photos [URL="http://www.rapo.com/icrgallery/gallerylobby.htm"]here[/URL]. There are some dynamic ones of krav maga which he does and some memorable ones of major figures in twentieth century history. I particularly liked the pictures of Samuel Beckett who did with words what I.C. Rapoport does with his lens. Thanks again to a great photographer and a brother martial artist.


profile of Leslie Norris (1921-2006)
[url]http://www.deseretnews.com/article/595056711/An-astonishing-life--Poet-Leslie-Norris.html[/url]


Aberfan disaster
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aberfan_disaster[/url]


I have an essay in a [URL="http://fortohoku.org/"]charity e-book[/URL] put together by some writers and photographers for Tohoku. A pdf version is available for $9.99. 100% goes to the Japanese Red Cross to help victims of the earthquake and tsunami. 


my columns on aikiweb: 
[url="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20047"]Improvised Weapons No.1: The Umbrella[/url]
[url="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19943"]Brothers[/url]
[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19821"]Unbalance - Feet of Clay[/URL]
[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19741"]Half a Tatami[/URL]
[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19617"]Zen in the Art of Aikido[/URL][/i]


© niall matthews 2011]]></body>
	<date>09-09-2011</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="4294">
	<title><![CDATA[crow]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[[indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][i][url="http://www.flickr.com/photos/h-k-d/4260712264/"]Tears of the Crow[/URL] by h koppdelaney used under creative commons licence[/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/i]


[i][highlight]Over the gulfs of dream
Flew a tremendous bird
Further and further away
Into a moonless black[/highlight]
Theodore Roethke, Night Crow

[highlight]Crow saw the herded mountains, steaming in the morning,
And he saw the sea
Dark-spined, with the whole earth in its coils.[/highlight]
Ted Hughes, Crow Alights

[highlight]But the Raven, sitting lonely on the placid bust, spoke only 
That one word, as if his soul in that one word he did outpour. 
Nothing farther then he uttered - not a feather then he fluttered -
Till I scarcely more than muttered "Other friends have flown before - 
On the morrow he will leave me, as my Hopes have flown before." 
Then the bird said "Nevermore."[/highlight]
Edgar Allan Poe, The Raven[/i]


Edogawa Ranpo was an influential Japanese mystery writer. His name was an hommage to Edgar Allan Poe. The names sound roughly the same. Detective Conan is a very popular manga and animé about a boy detective. The main character is called Conan Edogawa after Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Edogawa Ranpo. 

I mentioned crows in the blog post about the [URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/blogs/moon-in-the-water-19051/sounds-of-summer-4286/"]sounds of summer[/URL]. I have heard them pause their cawing for a beat when children mimicked them. The crows in Japan are big and menacing. Perhaps they are ravens. They seem to know when to expect the burnable garbage so it has to be covered with nets. Crow in Japanese is karasu.

Some restaurants in Tokyo display their meals outside the entrance. These are usually wax models from Kappabashi, the catering supplies centre in Tokyo. A famous one is a plate of pasta with a fork suspended in the air held up by strands of spaghetti. But for daily specials sometimes the restaurants put the real meal outside on a small table by the door. I was walking past one of those restaurants when a huge crow swooped in front of me, seized something off the plate and swiftly flew off, all in one motion. 

I don't know if any martial arts styles or techniques are named after the crow. There are many crane styles. One judo technique is called a swallow counter tsubame gaeshi. The attacker does a fast foot sweep and the defender instantly moves his leg and does a counter sweep. It's a cool name. It's just like a swallow diving at the ground and flying up again. 

In a blog post about [URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/blogs/moon-in-the-water-19051/the-blind-swordsman-4084/"]Zatoichi[/URL] I mentioned Brandon Lee's mysterious death on the set of The Crow. The crow is a mysterious and slightly sinister bird. The name for a group of crows is a murder.

Niall


[i]poems
Theodore Roethke, Night Crow
[url]http://donnafleischer.wordpress.com/2010/11/30/theodore-roethke-night-crow/[/url]

poems by Theodore Roethke
[url]http://www.poemhunter.com/theodore-roethke/poems/[/url]

Ted Hughes, Crow Alights
[url]http://literarytourist.com/2009/10/crow-alights-by-ted-hughes/[/url]

poems by Ted Hughes
[url]http://www.poemhunter.com/ted-hughes/poems/[/url]

Edgar Allan Poe, The Raven
[url]http://www.eapoe.org/works/poems/ravent.htm[/url]

e-book from project gutenberg: Edgar Allan Poe, Complete Poetical Works
[url]http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/10031[/url]

e-book from project gutenberg: Edgar Allan Poe, The Raven
[url]http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/17192[/url]


my columns on aikiweb: 
[url="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20047"]Improvised Weapons No.1: The Umbrella[/url]
[url="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19943"]Brothers[/url]
[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19821"]Unbalance - Feet of Clay[/URL]
[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19741"]Half a Tatami[/URL]
[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19617"]Zen in the Art of Aikido[/URL][/i]


© niall matthews 2011]]></body>
	<date>09-02-2011</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="4291">
	<title><![CDATA[tilt]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[[indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][i][url="http://www.flickr.com/photos/suzi54241/6760986257/"]For La Legra Negra[/URL] by Susan Murtaugh used under creative commons licence[/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/i]


[i][highlight]TILT (verb): STRIKE, THRUST, OR RUN AT, WITH A WEAPON, ESPECIALLY IN JOUSTING[/highlight]

[highlight]If you look into your own mind, which are you, Don Quixote or Sancho Panza? Almost certainly you are both. There is one part of you that wishes to be a hero or a saint, but another part of you is a fat little man who sees very clearly the advantages of staying alive with a whole skin. He is your unofficial self, the voice of the belly protesting against the soul, his tastes lie towards safety, soft beds, no work, pots of beer and women with "voluptuous" figures. [/highlight]
George Orwell

[highlight]Our greatest foes, and whom we must chiefly combat, are within. [/highlight]
Miguel De Cervantes, Don Quixote 

[highlight]If you're going to play with Quixote you really got to play with Quixote. And those were windmills that came along. Those were giants, they killed us once but we're going to come back. [/highlight]
Terry Gilliam, talking about making The Man Who Killed Don Quixote

[highlight]To fight the unbeatable foe
To bear with unbearable sorrow
To run where the brave dare not go[/highlight]
From Man of La Mancha, To Dream the Impossible Dream

[highlight]Don Quixote, Sancho Panza, Rosinante and oré[/highlight]
Uchoten Hotel/Suite Dreams (oré is Japanese for [/i]me[i] in casual men's language) 

[highlight]He is mad past recovery, but yet he has lucid intervals. [/highlight]
Miguel De Cervantes, Don Quixote[/i]


This week in Japan a popular television personality and presenter whose name I do not wish to recall(1) suddenly retired. He pulled out of all his current TV shows. He had been found to have links to Japanese organized crime, the yakuza. In Japan the yakuza like to think of themselves as slightly romantic figures bound by honour. And after the earthquake in Tohoku on 11 March 2011 yakuza were involved in some relief efforts. There are no robberies anywhere near a yakuza office. But when the movie director Juzo Itami made a satirical movie about the yakuza he was attacked by gangsters carrying swords and was seriously wounded. I once got on an elevator with two gangsters. They wore beautiful suit jackets and white shirts and expensive silk ties. But below the waist they were wearing basketball shorts. So they wouldn't crease their trousers while they were driving.

There is a TV series on in Japan now called Don Quixote. It's about a member of a yakuza gang who somehow changes bodies with a mild social worker. This kind of plot device was used in Freaky Friday, for example. It reminded me of the quote about tenkan in [URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/blogs/moon-in-the-water-19051/star-festival-sky-tenkan-4236/"]star festival sky tenkan[/URL] about seeing the other person's point of view. So they both have to pretend to be each other and they have to solve each other's problems. The gangster character's wife likes to dance the tango so the social worker has to learn to dance.  

Cervantes' Don Quixote firmly believes in chivalry. I'll talk about bushido and chivalry another time. And if you read the novel it's OK to skim or miss parts out. It's a great novel but it's long and Somerset Maugham said that the ordinary reader who reads Don Quixote for delight would lose nothing by not reading the dull parts.

In Japan Don Quixote is a discount store. 


[i](1)de cuyo nombre no quiero acordarme is a famous phrase in the opening sentence of Don Quixote[/i]


[i]Free e-book of Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes
[url]http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/996[/url]


music
[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ijzZ1GfsRI[/url]
cool and classy: The Impossible Dream by Xavier Naidoo from Mannheim - and from the Söhne Mannheims

[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xo4xY07O1Ww[/url]
Scene from Uchoten Hotel (Suite Dreams), Tengoku Umare

[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5euh2aiGp9Y[/url]
different version of Tengoku Umare by Hiroto Komoto of the Blue Hearts


articles
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_quixote[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yakuza[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Itami_Juzo[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minbo[/url]


my columns on aikiweb: 
[url="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20047"]Improvised Weapons No.1: The Umbrella[/url]
[url="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19943"]Brothers[/url]
[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19821"]Unbalance - Feet of Clay[/URL]
[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19741"]Half a Tatami[/URL]
[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19617"]Zen in the Art of Aikido[/URL][/i]


© niall matthews 2011]]></body>
	<date>08-26-2011</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="4286">
	<title><![CDATA[sounds of summer]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[[indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][i][url="http://www.flickr.com/photos/normanlowery/3703752598/"]cicada[/URL] by mondays child used under creative commons licence[/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/i]


[i][highlight]In many ways, baseball was perfectly suited to the Japanese. Before the Meiji Era, the very idea of recreational sport was nonexistent in Japan. The physical arts that were practiced were military in nature: swordsmanship, archery, horse riding, etc. Some say that these Japanese arts lacked a team element, and this new game fit well in a culture where group harmony is paramount. Maybe it helped that baseball has, at its heart, a powerful one-on-one confrontation between pitcher and batter, not unlike Kendo, Judo, Sumo and other martial arts. Perhaps it helped that the baseball bat could be handled much like the wooden swords used in Kendo. Many say that the complexity and strategy of baseball, and the time to consider strategy before and after each move, is what makes baseball so appealing to the Japanese. What is clear is that baseball has reached a place of prominence in Japan that nobody could have foreseen.[/highlight]
Kokoyakyu High School Baseball

[highlight]a cicada shell
it sang itself
utterly away [/highlight]
Matsuo Basho

[highlight]a cicada sends
its sawing song
high into the empty air
the world is
a glass overflowing
with water [/highlight]
Pablo Neruda, Ode to Enchanted Light

[highlight]Pigeon friend of mine,
Fly on, sing on. [/highlight]
Carl Sandburg, Pigeon

[highlight]&#34633;&#12364;&#40180;&#12365;[/highlight] semi ga naki
[highlight]&#29699;&#20816;&#12364;&#27875;&#12356;&#12383;[/highlight] kyuuji ga naita
[highlight]&#30002;&#23376;&#22290;[/highlight] koushien

[highlight]cicadas crying
and baseball players crying
their last koshien[/highlight][/i]


In Japan the peak heat of summer has passed. But every morning you can still hear the cicadas. And the pigeons and crows. The other day a car alarm went off and the cicadas seemed to reply.

One of the biggest Japanese sports events of the year is held in August. It's the National High School Baseball Championship, called Koshien for short. It is always held at the Hanshin Tigers Koshien baseball stadium between Osaka and Kobe. It's the essence of sport. Full of drama and excitement yet still pure and innocent. As the first epigraph quotation explains baseball distills down to a duel. An ultimate duel between pitcher and batter. High school baseball is a team sport. But in Japan it's also a martial art. 

On the last day after the final the siren sounds to end a game for the last time. Until next year. It's the sound of summer ending.

Niall


[i]articles by Bobby Valentine and other writers plus interviews and movie trailer
[url]http://www.projectilearts.org/kokoyakyu/journal.html[/url]
[url]http://blog.ctnews.com/valentine/2009/08/[/url] 
[url]http://www.pbs.org/pov/kokoyakyu/sfvideos_kuehnert.php[/url]
[url]http://www.pbs.org/pov/kokoyakyu/trailer.php[/url] 

texts of poems
[url]http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/a-cicada-shell/[/url]
[url]http://sweetcaroliners.blogspot.com/2010/07/ode-to-enchanted-light-by-pablo-neruda.html[/url]
[url]http://www.americanpoems.com/poets/carlsandburg/13010[/url]

origami cicada to make!
[url]http://www.flickr.com/photos/jacquedavis/3780693696/[/url]

haiku in Japanese and English by Niall Matthews

my columns on aikiweb: 
[url="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20047"]Improvised Weapons No.1: The Umbrella[/url]
[url="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19943"]Brothers[/url]
[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19821"]Unbalance - Feet of Clay[/URL]
[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19741"]Half a Tatami[/URL]
[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19617"]Zen in the Art of Aikido[/URL][/i]


© niall matthews 2011]]></body>
	<date>08-18-2011</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="4282">
	<title><![CDATA[great teacher, dancing and death]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[[indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][i][url="http://www.flickr.com/photos/chrissam42/1187253455/"]Nishimonai Bon Odori[/URL] by Stephanie Boegeman used under creative commons licence[/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/i]


[i][highlight]at night
far off
her face hidden by a straw hat[/highlight]
Japanese phrase describing a mysterious beautiful woman &#22812;&#30524;&#36960;&#30446;&#31520;&#20043;&#20869; yome tome kasa no uchi

[highlight]Samurai are forbidden to attend the public celebration. They may dance on their own premises but must keep the gates shut. No quarrels, arguments or other misbehaviour are allowed.[/highlight]
Edict of Tokushima han, 1671

[highlight]The dancers are fools
The watchers are fools
Both are fools alike so 
Why not dance[/highlight]
Awa odori song

[highlight]Remember me when I am dead
and simplify me when I'm dead

As the processes of earth
strip off the colour and the skin.
take the brown hair and blue eye

and leave me simpler than at birth,
when hairless I came howling in
as the moon entered the cold sky.[/highlight]
Keith Douglas

[highlight]And death shall have no dominion.
Dead men naked they shall be one
With the man in the wind and the west moon;
When their bones are picked clean and the clean bones gone,
They shall have stars at elbow and foot;
Though they go mad they shall be sane,
Though they sink through the sea they shall rise again;
Though lovers be lost love shall not;
Death shall have no dominion.[/highlight]
Dylan Thomas[/i]


This week is obon. Many people return to their home towns. They clean the family graves and remember their dead relatives. 

As an aside I was at a funeral recently. There are many subtle things going on at a Japanese funeral. For example men wear black suits and black ties to funerals. Women also wear black. Almost no jewellery is worn. Funerals are usually in two parts: a wake in the evening and the cremation the next day. And the subtle point is that if you wear a black suit to the wake it can look somehow too prepared. So the cool people who know what's really going on wear business suits and save their black suits for the next day. I'll talk about funerals another time.

So summer is a time for spirits. And ghost stories. That's one way to keep cool. A frisson in the dark. I talked about Lafcadio Hearn's famous ghost stories before in [URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/blogs/moon-in-the-water-19051/the-daimyo-morning-of-battle-4232/"]The Daimyo - morning of battle[/URL].  

Bon is also a time for dancing. Bon odori is a summer harvest dance and a way for the young men and women to meet as well as a dance for the spirits. There are different customs in different regions but women usually wear yukata cotton summer kimono often with straw hats. A famous dance is the Awa odori in Tokushima. 

And also at obon in Kyoto they light giant bonfires on the mountains over the city. This Gozan no Okuribi is to send the spirits back to the spirit world. Another name for it is Daimonji. Dai is the character for large or great. One of the bonfires is in the shape of a huge Dai. It is the same character used for O Sensei - great teacher. That is the name we use for the person who founded aikido, Morihei Ueshiba. There are many other possible words for the founder or the head of a style in Japanese culture, many of them very respectful. But he was called and still is called simply great teacher. He was a great man with a great vision of peace. And he was a great teacher. 

Niall


[i]articles
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obon[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Awa_Odori[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daimonji[/url]


poems
[url]http://wonderingminstrels.blogspot.com/2004/03/and-death-shall-have-no-dominion-dylan.html[/url]
Dylan Thomas, And Death Shall Have No Dominion
[url]http://poems.com/poem.php?date=14873[/url]
Keith Douglas, Simplify Me When I'm Dead


you can download free e-books by Lafcadio Hearn from project gutenberg
[url]www.gutenberg.org[/url]


my columns on aikiweb: 
[url="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20047"]Improvised Weapons No.1: The Umbrella[/url]
[url="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19943"]Brothers[/url]
[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19821"]Unbalance - Feet of Clay[/URL]
[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19741"]Half a Tatami[/URL]
[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19617"]Zen in the Art of Aikido[/URL][/i]


© niall matthews 2011]]></body>
	<date>08-12-2011</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="4270">
	<title><![CDATA[fire works]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[[indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][i][url="http://www.flickr.com/photos/scion02b/4232938116/"]Tokyo Bay fireworks[/URL] by scion_cho used under creative commons licence[/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/i]


[i][highlight]to these
Hale dead and deathless do the women of the hill
Love for ever meridian through the courters' trees
And the daughters of darkness flame like Fawkes fires still[/highlight]
Dylan Thomas, In the white giant's thigh

[highlight]The only verdict is vengeance; a vendetta held as a votive, not in vain, for the value and veracity of such shall one day vindicate the vigilant and the virtuous. Verily, this vichyssoise of verbiage veers most verbose, so let me simply add that it's my very good honour to meet you and you may call me V.[/highlight]
V for Vendetta

[highlight]Bang! Bang! Bang!
Midsummer night[/highlight]
Exile, Fireworks

[highlight]boom boom boom
even brighter than the moon moon moon[/highlight]
Katy Perry, Firework[/i]


Fireworks is a strange word. Works is the same word as the works of a watch. The Japanese word is fire flowers. In Japan there are many large public fireworks displays in the summer. There are famous displays in Tokyo on the Sumida river and in Odaiba on the Tokyo Bay waterfront. Many displays are on water. People sit on riverbanks or shores or around lakes and watch the dramatic displays and reflections in the water. Many people wear yukata - casual summer cotton kimonos. I'm from England so I associate fireworks with crisp November nights and Guy Fawkes. 

The same families have sometimes been in the world of fireworks for generations in a kind of iemoto system similar to martial arts. Traditional fireworks are made in the form of balls. They are still measured in shaku, the same measuring system used for sword blades. 

I saw a very good Japanese movie called [I]Golden Slumber [/I]this week. The title comes from the Beatles song. I don't know if it's available with English or other subtitles yet. Some movies ([I]Aiki[/I] and [I]The Hidden Blade[/I], for example - both great movies - I'll talk about them in more detail another time) already include English subtitles on the original DVDs you can rent. [i]Golden Slumber[/i] is a conspiracy theory movie. A guy is told that he is going to be the Lee Harvey Oswald figure in an assassination and then he gets framed. Japanese fireworks come into the story. 

From the Aikikai hombu dojo in Shinjuku in Tokyo you can sometimes hear fireworks going off in the distance. When I was the uke for Sadateru Arikawa sensei - one of the great aikido teachers of the twentieth century - they would be going off in the dojo too. Boom. Boom boom. Boom. Boom boom boom. Boom.  


[i]Articles and internet sites about fireworks, Guy Fawkes and Golden Slumber. The final home pages about Japanese fireworks are very interesting. 
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fireworks[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iemoto[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guy_Fawkes[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gunpowder_Plot_in_popular_culture[/url]
[url]http://www.rhymes.org.uk/remember_remember_the_5th_november.htm[/url]
[url]http://akas.imdb.com/title/tt1413529/[/url]
[url]http://www.fireworks-japan.com/about_hokurikukakoh/about_hokurikukakoh.html[/url]
[url]http://www.fireworks-japan.com/[/url]


Dylan Thomas poem,  In the white giant's thigh
[url]http://www.poemdujour.com/thomasGiant.html[/url]


music
Exile, Fireworks
[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSEksNCHi30[/url]

Katy Perry, Firework
[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGJuMBdaqIw&ob[/url]

The Beatles, Golden Slumbers in an Abbey Road Medley
[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qP4Ye15J0Y [/url]
Abbey Road cover art tributes! Cool Tintin version
[url]http://abbeyroadrage.tumblr.com/[/url]

Def Leppard, Rock of Ages from - what else - Pyromania!
[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Ww60uHNYRE[/url][/i]


my columns on aikiweb: 

[i][url="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20047"]Improvised Weapons No.1: The Umbrella[/url]

[url="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19943"]Brothers[/url]

[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19821"]Unbalance - Feet of Clay[/URL]

[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19741"]Half a Tatami[/URL]

[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19617"]Zen in the Art of Aikido[/URL][/i]


© niall matthews 2011]]></body>
	<date>08-05-2011</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="4262">
	<title><![CDATA[north country]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[[indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][i][url="http://www.flickr.com/photos/snotch/4931937747/"]train wheel in Wakkanai[/URL] by Motohiro Sunouchi used under creative commons licence[/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/i]


[i][highlight]The Pasture

I'm going out to clean the pasture spring; 
I'll only stop to rake the leaves away 
(And wait to watch the water clear, I may): 
I shan't be gone long. - You come too. 

I'm going out to fetch the little calf 
That's standing by the mother. It's so young, 
It totters when she licks it with her tongue. 
I shan't be gone long. - You come too.[/highlight]
Robert Frost

[highlight]If you're traveling in the north country fair
Where the winds hit heavy on the borderline
Remember me to one who lives there[/highlight]
Bob Dylan, Girl from the North Country[/i]


Most of Japan is very, very hot in summer. Tokyo is hot. Kyoto is even hotter. But there is one place that is always cool and comfortable in summer. Hokkaido. Hokkaido is the northern island of Japan. It is a centre for agriculture, especially Hokkaido potatoes and all dairy products. Sapporo is the largest city in Hokkaido. Sapporo ramen is very popular.

Morihei Ueshiba the founder of aikido went to Hokkaido in 1912 when he was twenty-nine. It was there he met Sokaku Takeda and began his studies of Daito-ryu Jujutsu. 

Many Japanese schoolchildren know the English phrase: [i]Boys, be ambitious![/i] It was originally said by the American educator William Smith Clark. He established Sapporo Agricultural College which eventually became Hokkaido University. One of the early students at the college was Inazo Nitobe. He wrote [i]Bushido: the Soul of Japan[/i] in English to try to explain the Japanese spirit to his American wife. 

A number of martial artists were born in Hokkaido. The great sumo yokozuna Chiyonofuji and one of his rivals yokozuna Onokuni both came from Hokkaido. Mixed martial artist Yuki Nakai and many men and women judo champions came from Hokkaido. And aikido teacher Seiichi Sugano Sensei who died in 2010 also came from Hokkaido. He helped to spread aikido in many parts of the world.

Some of the signposts in Wakkanai in the far north of Hokkaido are in Russian. In one of the first acts of the cold war the Soviet Union opportunistically seized the Kuril Islands - Japan's northern territories - at the end of the Second World War as Japan was surrendering. Russia refused to return the islands and so there is still no peace treaty between Russia and Japan. 

And now it's time for a cold Sapporo beer. It's one of the best beers in the world.


[i]music
The Yoshida Brothers, Summer Day
[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCQNGd5xSNc[/url]
The Yoshida Brothers, Beyond the Deep Sea. 
[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fw2cV6AO0Sc[/url]

The Yoshida Brothers are from Hokkaido. They play modern and popular music on the traditional Japanese instrument the shamisen or tsugaru-jamisen.

Johnny Cash and Bob Dylan, Girl from the North Country
[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2aSLMEKl8E4[/url]


poetry
Robert Frost, The Pasture.
[url]http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-pasture/[/url] 
At the top of the page is a downloadable pdf file of 118 of Robert Frost's poems


free e-book from project gutenberg 
Inazo Nitobe, Bushido: the Soul of Japan
[url]http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/12096[/url]


and this is the very nice dairy blog where I found the Robert Frost poem
[url]http://www.cruzefarmgirl.com/[/url]


Articles
[url]http://www.domomusicgroup.com/yoshidabrothers/index.php[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoshida_Brothers[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuril_Islands_dispute[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_S._Clark[/url][/i]


my columns on aikiweb: 

[i][url="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20047"]Improvised Weapons No.1: The Umbrella[/url]

[url="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19943"]Brothers[/url]

[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19821"]Unbalance - Feet of Clay[/URL]

[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19741"]Half a Tatami[/URL]

[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19617"]Zen in the Art of Aikido[/URL][/i]


© niall matthews 2011]]></body>
	<date>07-29-2011</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="4257">
	<title><![CDATA[warrior women]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[[indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][i][url="http://www.flickr.com/photos/grouperkun/5454796967/"]Hot Pink Checkered Hanhaba Obi[/URL][/i] - with nadeshiko on the reverse - by Cherise Hawley used under creative commons licence[/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent]


[i][highlight]A daimi&#333;'s wife, as befitted the wife of a warrior and the daughter of long generations of brave men, never shrank from facing danger and death when necessary; and considered the taking of her own life an honorable and easy escape from being captured by her enemy.[/highlight]
Alice Mabel Bacon, Japanese Girls and Women

[highlight]losing my way
is part of the journey
poppy flower[/highlight]
from Far Beyond the Field: Haiku by Japanese Women[/i]


The Japanese women's soccer team just won the World Cup. It was an improbable win. Astonishing even. They beat several strong teams and won the final against the USA in a penalty shootout after the game ended in a tie. 

The team's nickname is Nadeshiko. Nadeshiko or [I]dianthus superbus[/I] is a wild pink flower. Yamato nadeshiko can also mean the archetype of a Japanese woman, beautiful and resilient like the flower. It might be said with a sense of nostalgia. 

Samurai women used the naginata, the long slashing spear or halberd or glaive, or a short tanto or kaiken dagger. This week in Japan there was news about one period drama starting and one period drama finishing. The new drama is on the public broadcasting network NHK. It's about Yae Niijima, a strong and determined woman samurai. The samurai drama that will end in December after more than forty years is Mito Komon. Kaoru Yumi is one of the regular members of the cast. Her ofuro - bath - scenes were famous. She trained in aikido. Years ago she did a special aikido performance at the All-Japan Aikido Demonstration with spotlights and drumrolls. 


[i]background articles
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Large_Pink[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yamato_Nadeshiko[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onna_bugeisha[/url]
[url]http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/columns/musings/T110718004091.htm[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mito_komon[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jidaigeki[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naginata[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tant%C5%8D[/url]
[url]http://earlywomenmasters.net/soundings/[/url]
[url]http://www.haikuworld.org/books/farbeyond.review.html[/url]


free e-book from project gutenberg of a book published in 1891
[url]http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/32449[/url]
Alice Mabel Bacon, Japanese Girls and Women[/i]


my columns on aikiweb: 

[i][url="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20047"]Improvised Weapons No.1: The Umbrella[/url]

[url="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19943"]Brothers[/url]

[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19821"]Unbalance - Feet of Clay[/URL]

[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19741"]Half a Tatami[/URL]

[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19617"]Zen in the Art of Aikido[/URL][/i]


© niall matthews 2011]]></body>
	<date>07-22-2011</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="4249">
	<title><![CDATA[the sea]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[[indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][i][url="http://www.flickr.com/photos/halfrain/5584891848/"]Orange Sky[/URL][/i] by halfrain used under creative commons licence[/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent]


[i][highlight]The sea has never been friendly to man. At most it has been the accomplice of human restlessness.[/highlight]
Joseph Conrad, The Mirror of the Sea

[highlight]timeless wind of the sea
sea wind of the night[/highlight]
Rainer Maria Rilke, Song of the Sea

[highlight]quiet sea
deep quiet rules the waters[/highlight]
Johann Wofgang von Goethe, Meeresstille

[highlight]Remembering legends of undersea, drowned cities.
What voyagers, oh what heroes, flamed like pyres
With helmets plumed have set forth from some island
And them the seas engulfed. Their eyes
Distorted to the cruel waves desires,
Glitter with coins through the tide scarcely scanned,
While, far above, that harp assumes their sighs.[/highlight]
Stephen Spender, Seascape

[highlight]In heaven the only thing they talk about is the sea.[/highlight]
Martin, Knockin' on Heaven's Door[/i]


This week there is a national holiday in Japan. Sea Day. It is nice to get away to the sea but Tokyo is a port and you can go to the sea even in Tokyo. Japan is an island nation so as for all island nations the sea has a special importance. By the way in French the sea is la mer and mother is la mère. The words sound the same and mer is part of mère so the sea is contained within mother. In Japanese the character for sea is &#28023; kai or umi. The lower right part is mother &#27597; bo or haha so mother is contained within sea. Perhaps this is all coincidence but anyway the sea is closely linked to the idea of fertility. Many people live from the sea. And the sea gives us fish and different kinds of seaweed and many other things. Since the Tohoku earthquake and the tsunami on 11 March 2011 some sea products like wakame seaweed have been scarce in Japan. 

Perhaps there are no very direct links between the sea and martial arts. But some karate stances apparently developed from ways of standing and moving on fishing boats. 

And some aikido throwing techniques can be done with idea of a wave reaching its highest point - the highest point of breaking the balance - and then reversing in the opposite direction. 

Or in nikyo and sankyo katame waza the final immobilization techniques on your partner's arm should also be done like a wave. You control the arm slowly and smoothly and without any hesitation. Keep your arms closed and turn your waist until uke signals maitta by tapping. Then return smoothly as you breathe like the wave receding. This way of doing the katame stretches the joints healthily and positively.    

When I was a boy and we went to the sea my father who was a very strong swimmer would swim powerfully off to the horizon and disappear. He returned perhaps hours later after swimming for miles. Years later I remember running along the beach at a summer camp. And doing mae ukemi forward rolls in the surf and under the surface.  
 
Many writers have been fascinated by the sea and have written powerfully about it. Some writers even went to sea. Herman Melville, James Fenimore Cooper, Jack London and Joseph Conrad were all seamen. Joseph Conrad was Polish. His second language was French and he didn't even speak English until he was in his twenties. But he wrote some of the greatest novels in English and he wrote some wonderful stories about the sea. 

My first aikido teacher Kinjo Asoh Sensei spoke perfect English and excellent German and often read books in the original English and German. His favourite authors were Joseph Conrad, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Rainer Maria Rilke. At funerals in Japan sometimes people leave letters or things that were important to the dead person in the coffin to be burned together with the body. When Asoh Sensei died I left a book by Joseph Conrad for him in his coffin. So he had something to read on his journey. 


[i]cool songs
The Waterboys, This is the Sea
[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hk469q3-EIc[/url] 

Echo and the Bunnymen, Ocean Rain
[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Naw4TQgl_Zs[/url]

Echo and the Bunnymen, Seven Seas
[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7ieSZ4W3zs[/url]

Selig, Knockin' on Heaven's Door
[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIoKwMXjNb4[/url]


cool poems
Rainer Maria Rilke, Lied vom Meer/Song of the Sea (auf Deutsch and in English)
[url]http://mitrilkedurchdasjahr.blogspot.com/2011/05/lied-vom-meer-von-rainer-maria-rilke.html[/url]
[url]http://www.villasanmichele.eu/de/rilke_on_capri[/url]
[url]http://rainer-maria-rilke.de/090052liedvommeer.html[/url]
[url]http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/song-of-the-sea/[/url]
[url]http://www.poemhunter.com/rainer-maria-rilke/poems/[/url]

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Meeresstille und Glückliche Fahrt/Quiet Sea and Fortunate Voyage (auf Deutsch and in English)
[url]http://harpers.org/archive/2009/02/hbc-90004293[/url]

Stephen Spender, Seascape
[url]http://www.nbu.bg/webs/amb/british/6/spender/seascape.htm[/url]

W B Yeats, Cuchulain's Fight with the Sea
[url]http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/cuchulain-s-fight-with-the-sea/[/url]
[url]http://www.poemhunter.com/william-butler-yeats/poems/[/url]

John Masefield, Sea Fever and Cargoes (Cargoes is one of the best poems ever written for reading aloud!)
[url]http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/sea-fever/[/url]
[url]http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/cargoes/[/url]
[url]http://www.poemhunter.com/john-masefield/[/url]

Adrienne Rich, Diving into the Wreck
[url]http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15228[/url]

Stevie Smith, Not Waving but Drowning
[url]http://www.artofeurope.com/smith/smi1.htm[/url]


free e-book and free audiobook from project gutenberg
Joseph Conrad, The Mirror of the Sea 
[url]http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1058[/url]
[url]http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/9353[/url]

there are other free e-books by Conrad on project gutenberg and some translations of Goethe into English and several works by Goethe and Rilke in German
[url]http://www.gutenberg.org/[/url][/i]


auf Deutsch
[i]Uraltes Wehn vom Meer,
Meerwind bei Nacht
Rainer Maria Rilke, Lied vom Meer

Meeresstille
Tiefe Stille herrscht im Wasser
Johann Wofgang von Goethe

Im Himmel, da reden die über nichts anderes, als über das Meer. Und darüber, wie wunder-wunderschön es ist. Sie reden über den Sonnenuntergang, den sie gesehen haben, sie reden darüber, wie die Sonne blutrot wurde, bevor sie ins Meer eintauchte und sie reden darüber, wie sie spüren konnten, wie die Sonne ihre Kraft verlor und die Kühle vom Meer heraufzog und das Feuer nur noch in ihrem Innern glühte. Und du? Du kannst nicht mitreden.
Martin, Knockin' on Heaven's Door[/i]


my columns on aikiweb: 

[i][url="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20047"]Improvised Weapons No.1: The Umbrella[/url]

[url="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19943"]Brothers[/url]

[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19821"]Unbalance - Feet of Clay[/URL]

[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19741"]Half a Tatami[/URL]

[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19617"]Zen in the Art of Aikido[/URL][/i]


© niall matthews 2011]]></body>
	<date>07-14-2011</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="4240">
	<title><![CDATA[summer haircut]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[[indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][i][url="http://www.flickr.com/photos/ionushi/2074686457/"]Let them get what they want[/URL][/i] by Aurelio Asiain used under creative commons licence[/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent]


[i][highlight]as hatracks into peachtrees grow
or hopes dance best on bald men's hair
and every finger is a toe
and any courage is a fear[/highlight]
e.e. cummings, as freedom is a breakfastfood 

[highlight]And indeed there will be time
To wonder, "Do I dare?" and, "Do I dare?"
Time to turn back and descend the stair,
With a bald spot in the middle of my hair -
(They will say: "How his hair is growing thin!")[/highlight]
T S Eliot, The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock

[highlight]Barber walked in, started saying grace, Oh Lord, for these haircuts
we are about to receive, may we be truly thankful. Dominus possum 
pax probiscus, post mortem, et tu brute, puella carborundum. He was 
sorta half-Baptist, half-Catholic - kind of a Cathtist. He started cuttin' 
my hair and preachin' at the same time. I mean he's a wild man, scissors 
and razors a'flyin' around my head, he's talkin' about the liquor and wild 
women and music and sex and the evils of dancing and the music business 
in general. Then he looked down at me and he said, What do you do for a 
living? Now, I'm not ashamed of what I do for a livin'. Workin' bars and casinos, 
around liquor and wild women, I just play my piano, sing my little songs. 
I looked him right in the eye and I said, I run this church for loggers.[/highlight]
Ray Stevens, The Haircut Song[/i]


It's time for summer haircuts. Young boys get a bozu haircut with electric hair clippers called barikan. It's almost like a bozu Buddhist priest except that zen priests shave their heads completely. Recently a Buddhist priest told me about his austere training. I was surprised to hear that seniors bullying juniors was common even at a famous zen centre. Bozu &#22346;&#20027;, &#12412;&#12358;&#12378;, can be used as slang for a young boy.

This bozu haircut is common for older boys in school sports clubs, especially baseball. I've even heard of students giving up baseball and joining the soccer club just so they could have longer hair. For adults a crewcut is called a sports cut. The superstar actor Ken Takakura has a sports cut. He starred in many yakuza movies and in Hollywood movies like Sydney Pollack's [I]The Yakuza [/I]with Robert Mitchum, [I]Black Rain[/I] with Michael Douglas, Andy Garcia and Yusaku Matsuda, and [I]Mr Baseball [/I]with Tom Selleck. And legendary baseball players like Shigeo Nagashima and Sadaharu Oh had sports cuts. By the way Sadaharu Oh's flamingo one-legged batting stance came about directly as a result of aikido. Oh's autobiography [I]Sadaharu Oh: A Zen Way of Baseball[/I] is very interesting. Even now a sports cut has a cool, masculine image. Many serious budoka have sports cuts.

I don't mind short hair or long hair but I don't much like going to get my hair cut. In [I][URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/blogs/moon-in-the-water-19051/behind-the-glass-4120/"]Behind the Glass[/URL][/I] I talked about a long-running misunderstanding about my name when I got my hair cut. Anyway sometimes I let my hair grow a little too long. I used to be the regular uke for Arikawa Sensei at the Aikikai hombu dojo in Tokyo. One day he decided to do something about my weak point. When I attacked him he took me down to the tatami fast and powerfully. Then he stood on my hair tight against my head so that I was immobilized. I got the point. I got my summer haircut immediately. 


[i]poems
[url]http://www.americanpoems.com/poets/eecummings/11881[/url]
e.e. cummings, as freedom is a breakfastfood... 
[url]http://www.americanpoems.com/poets/eecummings[/url]
poems by e e cummings

[url]http://www.americanpoems.com/poets/tseliot/11961[/url]
T S Eliot, The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock
[url]http://www.americanpoems.com/poets/tseliot[/url]
poems by T S Eliot 

music
[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNr1eZopzZ4[/url]
Ray Stevens, The Haircut Song

[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOCDoKsXjP0[/url]
George Thorogood and the Destroyers, Get a Haircut

[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_V4GLevv6w[/url] 
The Who, Cut My Hair


my columns on aikiweb: 

[url="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19943"]Brothers[/url]

[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19821"]Unbalance - Feet of Clay[/URL]

[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19741"]Half a Tatami[/URL]

[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19617"]Zen in the Art of Aikido[/URL][/i]


© niall matthews 2011]]></body>
	<date>07-08-2011</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="4236">
	<title><![CDATA[star festival sky tenkan]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[[indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][i][url="http://www.flickr.com/photos/vlumi/5562186230/"]Sendai Tanabata[/URL][/i] by Ville Misaki used under creative commons licence[/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent]


[i][highlight]In every landscape, the point of astonishment is the meeting of the sky and the earth, and that is seen from the first hillock as well as from the top of the Alleghanies. The stars at night stoop down over the brownest, homeliest common, with all the spiritual magnificence which they shed on the Campagna, or on the marble deserts of Egypt.[/highlight]
Ralph Waldo Emerson, Essays

[highlight]I remember meeting you in a dark dream
of April, you or some girl,
the necklace of wishes alive and breathing around your throat[/highlight]
John Ashbery, Hop o' My Thumb

[highlight]the bamboo leaves rustle[/highlight]
traditional Tanabata children's song

[highlight]Maybe I'm dreaming. My eyes are open, which means maybe I'm awake dreaming that I'm asleep. Or, or more likely, I'm asleep dreaming that I'm awake wondering if I'm dreaming.[/highlight]
Philippe in Ladyhawke[/i]


It is Tanabata in Japan this week. Or at least in some parts of Japan. Usually Tanabata is celebrated on 7 July, or in Sendai and some other parts of Japan on 7 August. The Sendai Tanabata is the largest festival. Tanabata is the star festival. It's the next day in the series 1/1, 3/3, 5/5. Children write wishes and hang them. 

The original story about the princess and the cowherd came from China. The separated lovers can meet only once a year. In western culture we have had this idea of lovers separated by a spell or a curse or the will of a god since the Greek myths. In films we have it too. In Ladyhawke Lady Isabeau is a hawk during the day and Captain Navarre is a wolf at night so they can never meet. 

The word tanabata &#19971;&#22805; in Japanese is interesting. It used to be read shichi seki seven + evening.

Meeting and joining once a year reminded me of tenkan, the meeting and turning movement in aikido. I wrote an explanation of tenkan here: [URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=18256"]Tenkan - advanced[/URL]. I should expand it into a more detailed article. Meanwhile I liked Diana Frese's memory of some advice from Tohei Sensei or Maruyama Sensei about the meaning of tenkan: see your attacker's point of view. If you move so that you are standing together and facing in the same direction the reasons for conflict are cut away.

The connection is precious. Like Tanabata. The one day of the year.


[i]articles
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tanabata[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qixi_Festival[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Jade_Emperor[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sekidera_Komachi[/url]
[url]http://akas.imdb.com/title/tt0089457/[/url] Ladyhawke  
[url]http://web-jpn.org/kidsweb/explore/calendar/july/tanabata.html[/url]


poem
John Ashbery, Hop o' My Thumb
[url]http://www.mtvu.com/shows/mtvu-poet-laureate/john-ashbery-hop-o-my-thumb/[/url]

other poems by John Ashbery
[url]http://poemhunter.com/john-ashbery/[/url]


free e-book from project gutenberg
Ralph Waldo Emerson, Essays: second series
[url]http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2945[/url]


my columns on aikiweb: 

[url="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19943"]Brothers[/url]

[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19821"]Unbalance - Feet of Clay[/URL]

[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19741"]Half a Tatami[/URL]

[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19617"]Zen in the Art of Aikido[/URL][/i]


© niall matthews 2011]]></body>
	<date>07-03-2011</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="4232">
	<title><![CDATA[The Daimyo - morning of battle]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[[indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][i][URL="http://www.flickr.com/photos/dbooster/4665003172/"]Samurai Helmet[/URL][/i] by David A LaSpina used under creative commons licence[/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent]


[highlight][i]Le Daïmio - matin de bataille[/i]
José-Maria de Heredia

Sous le noir fouet de guerre à quadruple pompon,
L'étalon belliqueux en hennissant se cabre
Et fait bruire, avec des cliquetis de sabre,
La cuirasse de bronze aux lames du jupon.

Le Chef vêtu d'airain, de laque et de crépon,
Ôtant le masque à poils de son visage glabre,
Regarde le volcan sur un ciel de cinabre
Dresser la neige où rit l'aurore du Nippon.

Mais il a vu, vers l'Est éclaboussé d'or, l'astre,
Glorieux d'éclairer ce matin de désastre,
Poindre, orbe éblouissant, au-dessus de la mer ;

Et, pour couvrir ses yeux dont pas un cil ne bouge,
Il ouvre d'un seul coup son éventail de fer
Où dans le satin blanc se lève un Soleil rouge.[/highlight]


[i]The Daimyo - morning of battle
José-Maria de Heredia
Translation by Lafcadio Hearn

Under the black war whip with its quadruple pompon the fierce stallion, whinnying, curvets, and makes the rider's bronze cuirass ring against the plates of his shirt of mail, with a sound like the clashing of sword blades. 

The Chief, clad in bronze and lacquer and silken crape, removing the bearded masque from his beardless face, turns his gaze to the great volcano, lifting its snows into the cinnabar sky where the dawn of Nippon begins to smile. 

Nay! he has already seen the gold-spattered day star, gloriously illuminating the morning of disaster, rise, a blinding disk, above the seas. And to shade his eyes, on both of which not even a single eyelash stirs, he opens with one quick movement his iron fan, wherein upon a field of white satin there rises a crimson sun.


The Daimyo - morning of battle
José-Maria de Heredia
a rough modern translation by Niall Matthews

The Daimyo uses his black war whip, 
braided with four silk balls, 
and his horse rears up fiercely, neighing.
His bronze breastplate clanks 
against the metal pieces of his armour  
like swords clashing. 

He is dressed in bronze and lacquer and black silk crape.
He takes off his war mask - with its moustache -
and reveals his own smooth hairless face.
He glances towards Mount Fuji.
The snow at the top of the mountain shows 
against the amber light of a Japanese dawn.

The sun bursts with gold,
shining with glory
on this morning of death.
To shield his eyes behind the unmoving eyelashes 
he flicks open his iron war fan showing
on the white silk
a red rising sun.[/i]


Today I'm only indirectly writing about budo. This is about Japanese history and culture as seen by French - or rather Cuban - eyes. In [URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/blogs/moon-in-the-water-19051/train-4220/"]train[/URL] I wrote about Shimane in Western Japan. The writer Lafcadio Hearn lived in Matsue in Shimane for several years. Lafcadio Hearn was half Irish and half Greek. He emigrated to the USA from Ireland when he was young. He became a writer and wrote about New Orleans. He went to Japan and lived the rest of his life there. He became naturalized as a Japanese citizen and changed his name to Yakumo Koizumi. He wrote several books about Japan - including Japanese ghost stories - and he is still very famous in Japan. Perhaps I'll write about him in more depth another time. He admired this evocative poem. One day I'll also write about the iron war fan - a tessen - that the daimyo flicks open.

Niall


essay: Some Foreign Poems On Japanese Subjects by Lafcadio Hearn
[url]http://www.readbookonline.net/readOnLine/44101/[/url]

the poem in French - source
[url]http://fr.wikisource.org/wiki/Le_Da%C3%AFmio[/url]

wikipedia articles on Lafcadio Hearn and José-Maria de Heredia
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lafcadio_Hearn[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kwaidan:_Stories_and_Studies_of_Strange_Things[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jos%C3%A9_Mar%C3%ADa_de_Heredia[/url]

several of Lafcadio Hearn's books are available as free e-books on [URL="http://www.gutenberg.org/"]project gutenberg[/URL]

e-book: José-Maria de Heredia, Les trophées (en français)
[url]http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/14805[/url]


my columns on aikiweb: [i]

[url="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19943"]Brothers[/url][/i]

[i][URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19821"]Unbalance - Feet of Clay[/URL]

[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19741"]Half a Tatami[/URL]

[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19617"]Zen in the Art of Aikido[/URL][/i]


© niall matthews 2011]]></body>
	<date>06-26-2011</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="4225">
	<title><![CDATA[testimonials]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[[indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][i][URL="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mamichan/2169806420/"]cameron diaz[/URL][/i] by masami used under creative commons licence[/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent]


[i][highlight]There are two kinds of artists left: those who endorse Pepsi and those who simply won't.[/highlight]
Annie Lennox 

[highlight]To be perfectly honest, what I'm really thinking about are dollar signs.[/highlight]
Tonya Harding

[highlight]Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted, and the trouble is I don't know which half.[/highlight]
John Wanamaker

[highlight]back when the names of things 
hadn't had time to stick[/highlight]
Rita Dove, Testimonial

[highlight]when I'm watchin' my tv 
and that man comes on to tell me 
how white my shirts can be[/highlight] 
Rolling Stones, Satisfaction[/i]


I was surprised - of course I shouldn't have been - to notice deliberate product placement in an anime animated cartoon. You don't even need to film or photograph a real product. You can just draw one. 

Japanese people don't seem to mind overt commercial sponsorship. Many of the professional baseball teams - like the Chunichi Dragons or the Seibu Lions - are known by their sponsor's name, not their city's name. Some commercials using Hollywood stars were so bad that they were not allowed to be shown outside Japan. 

Today I am going to give my own endorsements. But they are real. Not for the products - the quality of Japanese products is usually excellent. But for really great service. 

I have a pen that was owned by my first aikido teacher. His wife gave it to me with some personal things of his after he died. I use it every day. It's about thirty years old. It is a ballpoint pen with two colours, black and red, and it also has a mechanical pencil. It's called a Pilot 2+1. 

Recently the mechanical pencil part (called a sharp pen in Japanese - see my [URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/blogs/moon-in-the-water-19051/w-aikibunnies-4203/"]W + aikibunnies[/URL] blog article) wasn't working so I left it at a stationery store to see if it could be repaired. The store sent the pen off to Pilot. A week or two later I got a call that the pen was ready. I picked it up. The mechanical pencil had been repaired. The pen had been cleaned and polished and looked like new. They had also put in a new eraser. The store clerk said there was no charge. Thank you, Pilot. The next time I buy a pen it will be a Pilot pen. Of course at this rate that might not be for a very long time.

I've had similar experiences before in Japan. I have an old Seiko watch. It's a very good watch and it has always kept perfect time. Almost to the second. Then a while ago one of the numerals fell off the face and was moving freely around inside the glass. Seiko repaired the watch face and serviced it and cleaned it free of charge. Not only that they apologized to me for my trouble and told me that it wasn't supposed to happen on a Seiko watch. This is on a twenty year old watch. Thank you, Seiko. 

One more thing about the Pilot pen. Something about that pen is mysterious. If you look at the red mark and push the button the red ballpoint pen comes out. If you look at the black mark and push the button the black ballpoint pen comes out. And if you look at the pencil mark the mechanical pencil comes out. That's all cool. But how does the pen know which mark I am looking at?! 

Niall


music[i]

[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3a7cHPy04s8[/url]  
Rolling Stones, Satisfaction[/i]

the cameron diaz softbank commercials for japanese tv are also on youtube - some of them are funny.

poem - this poem is called testimonial - it's not really about testimonials - but it is a good poem[i]

[url]http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poem/29339[/url]
Rita Dove, Testimonial[/i]


my latest column on aikiweb: [i]

[url="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19943"]Brothers[/url][/i]

old columns

[i][URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19821"]Unbalance - Feet of Clay[/URL][/i]

[i][URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19741"]Half a Tatami[/URL]

[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19617"]Zen in the Art of Aikido[/URL][/i]


© niall matthews 2011]]></body>
	<date>06-19-2011</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="4220">
	<title><![CDATA[train]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[[indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][i][URL="http://www.flickr.com/photos/25259860/5144289370/"]RAILWAYS[/URL][/i] by digicacy used under creative commons licence[/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent]


[i][highlight]The song of her whistle screaming at curves, 
Of deafening tunnels, brakes, innumerable bolts[/highlight]
Stephen Spender, The Express

[highlight]When we climbed the slopes of the cutting
 We were eye-level with the white cups
 Of the telegraph poles and the sizzling wires.
 Like lovely freehand they curved for miles
 East and miles west beyond us, sagging
 Under their burden of swallows.[/highlight]
Seamus Heaney, The Railway Children 

[highlight]they talk about a life of brotherly love
show me someone who knows how to live it
there's a slow, slow train coming 
up around the bend[/highlight]
Bob Dylan, Slow Train

[highlight]I'm on the night train 
Never to return[/highlight]
Guns N' Roses, Night Train[/i]


I saw Railways last week, starring Kiichi Nakai. It's a good movie. It's about a forty-nine year old male senior business executive - in Japanese they say an elite salaryman. After his mother becomes ill he leaves his job and his life in Tokyo to return to his home town in Izumo in Shimane in western Japan to be near her. He gets a new job as a train driver. So the movie is about new starts. 

Railway journeys in Japan especially by express train are fast and efficient. But there are many local lines too. You can buy a special book of train tickets that only allows you to travel on local trains. So a trip that takes two or three hours by shinkansen bullet train can take a whole day. The ticket is called a Seishun 18 Kippu - youth 18 ticket - &#38738;&#26149;18&#12365;&#12387;&#12407;. You don't have to be eighteen. It's a great system if you're not in a hurry. Sometimes it's good to slow down.

In a recent forum thread on aikiweb called [URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19308"]Slow Japan[/URL] Peter Goldsbury wrote an interesting [URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showpost.php?p=285198&postcount=7"]comment[/URL] about railways in Japan and ekiben. Ekiben are the special bento boxed meals you can buy at railway stations everywhere in Japan. They often contain local dishes from a particular region. 

Of course train has more than one meaning in English. 

To find out more about Izumo in Shimane you will have to wait for another article.

And to find out more about seishun and blue in Japanese culture you will have to wait for next month's column on Aikiweb.

Niall


articles about seishun 18 kippu, ekiben, and the movie Railways

[i][url]http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2362.html[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ekiben[/url]
[url]http://www.railways-movie.jp/[/url] 
[url]http://akas.imdb.com/title/tt1292561/[/url][/i]


music[i]

[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1GrP6thz-k[/url]  
John Coltrane, Blue Train

[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRhAb5rWpgs[/url]
Johnny Cash, Come Along and Ride this Train

[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imeG3fb0pio[/url]
Bob Dylan, Slow Train

[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qyf8oRF6Trg[/url]
Guns N' Roses, Night Train

[/i]
Full text of poems[i]

The Railway Children

When we climbed the slopes of the cutting
We were eye-level with the white cups
Of the telegraph poles and the sizzling wires.

Like lovely freehand they curved for miles
East and miles west beyond us, sagging
Under their burden of swallows.

We were small and thought we knew nothing
Worth knowing. We thought words travelled the wires
In the shiny pouches of raindrops,

Each one seeded full with the light
Of the sky, the gleam of the lines, and ourselves
So infinitesimally scaled

We could stream through the eye of a needle.

Seamus Heaney


The Express

After the first powerful, plain manifesto 
The black statement of pistons, without more fuss 
But gliding like a queen, she leaves the station. 
Without bowing and with restrained unconcern 
She passes the houses which humbly crowd outside, 

The gasworks, and at last the heavy page 
Of death, printed by gravestones in the cemetery. 
Beyond the town, there lies the open country 
Where, gathering speed, she acquires mystery, 
The luminous self-possession of ships on ocean. 

It is now she begins to sing - at first quite low 
Then loud, and at last with a jazzy madness - 
The song of her whistle screaming at curves, 
Of deafening tunnels, brakes, innumerable bolts. 
And always light, aerial, underneath, 

Retreats the elate metre of her wheels. 
Streaming through metal landscapes on her lines, 
She plunges new eras of white happiness, 
Where speed throws up strange shapes, broad curves 
And parallels clean like trajectories from guns. 

At last, further than Edinburgh or Rome, 
Beyond the crest of the world, she reaches night 
Where only a low stream-line brightness 
Of phosphorus on the tossing hills is light. 
Ah, like a comet through flame, she moves entranced, 

Wrapt in her music no bird song, no, nor bough 
Breaking with honey buds, shall ever equal.

Stephen Spender[/i]


my latest column on aikiweb: [i]

[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19821"]Unbalance - Feet of Clay[/URL][/i]


old columns

[i][URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19741"]Half a Tatami[/URL]

[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19617"]Zen in the Art of Aikido[/URL][/i]


© niall matthews 2011]]></body>
	<date>06-12-2011</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="4213">
	<title><![CDATA[endless rain]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[[indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][i][URL="http://www.flickr.com/photos/jannem/3464472449/"]Sogo and Daimaru[/URL][/i] by Janne Moren used under creative commons licence[/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent]


[i][highlight]here comes the rain again
falling on my head like a memory[/highlight]
Eurythmics

[highlight]and I wonder still I wonder 
who'll stop the rain[/highlight]
Creedence Clearwater Revival

[highlight]the bottoms of my shoes
are wet
from walking in the rain[/highlight]
Haiku by Jack Kerouac

[highlight]it's rainin' all over the world[/highlight]
Brook Benton, Rainy Night in Georgia[/i]


The rainy season has officially started in Japan. In Japanese it is called &#26757;&#38632; tsuyu - plum rains. Japan is made up of four large islands plus Okinawa and some smaller islands. Weather fronts like cherry blossoms or the rainy season move north and east with the rotation of the earth from the southern island of Kyushu up through Shikoku and the main island Honshu to the northern island of Hokkaido. 

The rainy season is not pleasant. Sometimes it is humid and wet and sometimes it is cold and wet. Anyway it is wet. Leather shoes and bags and jackets and belts can get mouldy. Washing is slow to dry. Especially thick cotton gi - martial arts uniforms. 

I don't know if Japanese people use telepathy or if they just check their mobile phones. But you know they know something you don't when you get on a train and everyone has an umbrella but you. 


[i]music
X Japan, Endless Rain
[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aL2FjssXY9g[/url]

Eurythmics, Here Comes the Rain Again
[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cC9OhK2Ovw0[/url]

Creedence Clearwater Revival, Who'll Stop the Rain 
[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIPan-rEQJA[/url]

Brook Benton, Rainy Night in Georgia
[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGiceab-jqQ[/url]


e-book of short story Rain by Somerset Maugham
[url]http://www.ebooksread.com/authors-eng/w-somerset-maugham/rain--and-other-stories-ala.shtml[/url]

Haiku by Jack Kerouac
[url]http://users.rcn.com/jhudak.interport/Jack.html[/url]

wikipedia article about the rainy season
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Asian_rainy_season[/url]


my latest column on aikiweb: 
[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19821"]Unbalance - Feet of Clay[/URL]

old columns
[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19741"]Half a Tatami[/URL]

[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19617"]Zen in the Art of Aikido[/URL][/i]


© niall matthews 2011]]></body>
	<date>06-05-2011</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="4210">
	<title><![CDATA[insecurity]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[[indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][i]insecurity by niall[/i][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent]


[i][highlight]Perhaps life is just that - a dream and a fear[/highlight]
Joseph Conrad, Under Western Eyes

[highlight]The thing I fear most is fear[/highlight]
Michel de Montaigne, Les Essais

[highlight]"I think you're scared." He took hold of my hand. His was strong, hard, warm and slightly sticky. "I [/I]know [i]you're scared," he whispered.
"I'll get over it," I said. "One way or another."[/highlight]
Raymond Chandler, Farewell My Lovely[/i]


The irony of the photograph is that the guy is secure enough to wear a jacket with INSECURITY on it. Or maybe he just doesn't speak English. 

Courage in Japanese is yu &#21191; or yuki &#21191;&#27671;. Anxiety in Japanese is fuan &#19981;&#23433;. Fear in Japanese is kyofu &#24656;&#24598;. 

All humans have weaknesses - like selfishness and pride - and fears - like the fear of death or the fear of the unknown or the fear of failure. How do we face our weaknesses and fears and understand them and overcome them? That question - and the answer - will be left behind when we die. 

So what is written on your jacket?


[i]Language note 1
Words with long or double vowel sounds can be written in English with a macron bar diacritic in the Hepburn romanization system or with an extra letter. For example&#21191; can be written y&#363; or yuu which are more accurate and more helpful for readers than yu. But we write [highlight]judo and aikido in Tokyo[/highlight] not [highlight]j&#363;d&#333; and aikid&#333; in T&#333;ky&#333;[/highlight] or - even more clumsily - [highlight]juudou and aikidou in Toukyou[/highlight]. So for consistency as well as simplicity I normally use short forms. Please use a dictionary if you want to go into the language in more depth.  

Language note 2
At the bottom of the [URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19873"]Kisaburo Ohsawa thread[/URL] there is one of those interesting serendipitous links to a question about the use of the words [URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=16247"]shihan, sensei and sempai[/URL]. Peter Goldsbury wrote a very interesting, detailed and comprehensive exposition: [url]http://www.aikiweb.com/language/goldsbury1.html[/url]. Anyone interested in the Japanese language will learn a lot from it.[/i] 


[i]free ebooks
Joseph Conrad, Under Western Eyes
[url]http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2480[/url]

Michel de Montaigne, The Essays of Montaigne - Complete
[url]http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/3600[/url]

if you search for Raymond Chandler e-books on the internet you can find pdf versions

some benefits of insecurity 
[url]http://www.usatoday.com/money/companies/management/2007-01-31-insecure-ceos-usat_x.htm[/url]


my latest column on aikiweb: 
[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19821"]Unbalance - Feet of Clay[/URL]

old columns
[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19741"]Half a Tatami[/URL]
[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19617"]Zen in the Art of Aikido[/URL][/i]

© niall matthews 2011]]></body>
	<date>05-29-2011</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="4205">
	<title><![CDATA[time takes]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[[indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][i][URL="http://www.flickr.com/photos/sciencemuseum/3322442232/"]Dr Who[/URL][/i] by Science Museum London used under creative commons licence[/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent]


[i][highlight]Time takes a cigarette
Puts it in your mouth[/highlight]
David Bowie, Rock ‘n' Roll Suicide 

[highlight]Time is the substance I am made of. Time is a river that sweeps me along, but I am the river; it is a tiger that tears me apart, but I am the tiger; it is a fire that consumes me, but I am the fire.[/highlight]
Jorge Luis Borges, A New Refutation of Time 

[highlight]Did I ever make a Time Machine, or a model of a Time Machine? Or is it all only a dream? They say life is a dream, a precious poor dream at times - but I can't stand another that won't fit. It's madness. And where did the dream come from?[/highlight]
The Time Machine, written by H G Wells

[highlight]We all have our time machines, don't we. Those that take us back - are memories. And those that carry us forward - are dreams.[/highlight] 
The Time Machine, directed by Simon Wells

[highlight]My name is Sam Tyler. I had an accident and I woke up in 1973. Am I mad, in a coma, or back in time? Whatever's happened, it's like I've landed on a different planet. Now, maybe if I can work out the reason, I can get home.[/highlight]
Life on Mars[/i]

I saw Chonmage Pudding (in Japanese Chonmage Purin &#12385;&#12423;&#12435;&#12414;&#12370;&#12407;&#12426;&#12435;) a few days ago. It's a romantic comedy. But it's also a time travel movie - in Japan they say time slip. A samurai from the Edo period somehow travels forward in time to the present. 

Often a star from the music and entertainment world - so not primarily an actor - will be included in a Japanese movie or TV series to increase its popularity. Ryo Nishikido who stars as the samurai Yasube Kijima is a member of NEWS, an all-male idol pop group controlled by the powerful production company Johnny's Entertainment. Japanese acting generally is rather stylized and artificial and good natural actors like Ken Watanabe or Tadanobu Asano are rare. But Ryo Nishikido did a good job and Chonmage Pudding was clever and charming. 

The story revolves around Yasube's relationship with a single mother and her son. They take him into their home. Then he discovers he has a talent for baking cakes and starts working for a patisserie. The film light-heartedly explores how he uses his samurai values as a surrogate father for the boy and in his approach to his new profession. There is a bit of sword action with a cake knife...

Humans have always been fascinated by time travel. Is there a way to defeat the inexorable forward flow of time? 

In fact one of the earliest time travel stories was Japanese, the story of Taro Urashima. Only three days seem to have passed but when he returns home it is hundreds of years later. Washington Irving used a similar idea in Rip Van Winkle. 

The theme in Chonmage Pudding of going from the past to the future was also seen in movies like The Philadelphia Experiment starring Michael Paré, and Les Visiteurs and the English remake Just Visiting both starring Jean Reno. Adam Adamant Lives! brought someone from Victorian England to the present, but because he was cryogenically frozen, not by time travel.

Mark Twain's A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court takes someone from the nineteenth century back to England hundreds of years in the past. There was a nice movie version starring Bing Crosby. Going back in time was also the theme of the great BBC series Life on Mars. Or was it?

Kate and Leopold starring Hugh Jackman and Meg Ryan has people going in both directions, back in time and forward in time, through a portal on the Brooklyn Bridge…

The Back to the Future movies use H G Wells' idea of a time machine to voyage forward and backward in time. The movie uses a Delorean car. In the BBC series Dr Who the Doctor has a Tardis (Time And Relative Dimension In Space), a police telephone box time and space travel machine. 

Sometimes a time travel paradox becomes important in the story. In Zipang, the story of a modern Japanese warship going back in time to the Pacific Ocean during the Second World War, the crew tries deliberately not to do anything that could influence the future. Doraemon is a very, very popular comic manga and anime about a blue robot cat. Some of the stories use time travel and the time paradox is an element in the end of the series. Incidentally Kiteretsu Daihyakka by the same comic artists Fujiko Fujio is about a boy prodigy who can make amazing inventions and it occasionally has time travel themes.

At an aikido seminar with Sugano Sensei many years ago a guy asked me earnestly if everyone in Japan wore kimono. Er, no.

The director of The Time Machine, Simon Wells, is the great-grandson of the writer of The Time Machine, H G Wells. Wait! Unless. Could Simon Wells be...?

What did happen to the time traveller?! 

Nah. 


[i]music
Rock ‘n' Roll Suicide by David Bowie
[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jg4ekLG9Zo[/url]
Life on Mars by David Bowie
[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5E_AkTwk2Ks[/url]

free ebooks
The Time Machine by H G Wells
[url]http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/35[/url]
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain
[url]http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/86[/url]
The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon by Washington Irving (including the story of Rip Van Winkle)
[url]http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2048[/url]
Memoirs of the Twentieth Century by Samuel Madden 
available free from [url]books.google.com[/url]
The Clock that went Backward by Edward Page Mitchell
[url]http://www.horrormasters.com/Text/a2221.pdf[/url] (pdf file)

various wikipedia and other articles 
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zipang_(anime)[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zipang_(manga)[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doraemon[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiteretsu_Daihyakka[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_paradox[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_travel[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_travel_in_fiction[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TARDIS[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_on_Mars_(TV_series)[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam_Adamant[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rise_and_Fall_of_Ziggy_Stardust_and_the_Spiders_from_Mars[/url]
[url]http://asianmediawiki.com/Chonmage_Purin[/url]
[url]http://akas.imdb.com/title/tt1595354/[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philadelphia_Experiment_(film)[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urashima_Tar%C5%8D[/url]

tip for checking movies 
[url]www.imdb.com[/url] directs you to a page with the title in your language (for example Spirited Away in English) . 
[url]akas.imdb.com[/url] goes to a page with the title in the original language (for example Sen to Chihiro no kamikakushi)


my latest column on aikiweb: 
[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19821"]Unbalance - Feet of Clay[/URL]

old columns
[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19741"]Half a Tatami[/URL]
[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19617"]Zen in the Art of Aikido[/URL][/i]

© niall matthews 2011]]></body>
	<date>05-22-2011</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="4203">
	<title><![CDATA[W + aikibunnies]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[[indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][i]seeing double - is it a tiebar or is it a pencil?[/i] by keiko used with permission[/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent]


[i][highlight]Shock it 
Work it 
I am the magnificent, baby
Double-U oh oh oh oh[/highlight]
Phil and Ansel Collins, Double Barrel

[highlight]Comes over one an absolute necessity to move. And what is more, to move in some particular direction. A double necessity then: to get on the move, and to know whither.[/highlight]
D H Lawrence, Sea and Sardinia

[highlight]We are double-edged blades, and every time we whet our virtue the return stroke straps our vice. Where is the skilful swordsman who can give clean wounds, and not rip up his work with the other edge?[/highlight]
Henry David Thoreau, A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers[/i]


There are a lot of loan words in Japanese. Some are very interesting and clever. &#12469;&#12508;&#12427; - [I]saboru[/I] - is [I]sabotage[/I] with a Japanese verb ending. It means to cut class or work. &#12501;&#12521;&#12452;&#12531;&#12464; - [I]furaingu[/I] - comes from [I]flying[/I] start. It came from a false start in athletics but now it's used for anything that starts off too early. 

And W. W is the letter double-U of course. So W is used as a very neat shorthand for double. Two. Or two times. You often see it in advertising copy. So on packaging W means double volume or double thickness.

The photo above is a tiebar that doubles as a mechanical pencil. Normally you wouldn't be able to see the pencil tip because it would be completely retracted and also it would be clipped behind the shirt. A mechanical pencil in Japanese is always called a sharp pen or sharp pencil &#12471;&#12515;&#12540;&#12506;&#12531; or &#12471;&#12515;&#12540;&#12503;&#12506;&#12531;&#12471;&#12523; because one of Sharp's first products was the Ever-Ready Sharp mechanical pencil. 

There are some cute bunnies on the tie in the photo. I like the anthropomorphic one covering its eyes like a human. So what is an aikibunny? Nobody has ever met one. It's a kind of urban myth - an aikidoka who cares more about organic food than martial effectiveness. Well I'm vegetarian. And the only real rabbit I knew well was tough and fearless. In fiction Br'er Rabbit and Peter Rabbit were resourceful and intelligent. This is the year of the rabbit. So have a carrot. They are good for your teeth and good for your body. W. 

Niall


[i][B]background articles[/B] 
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gairaigo[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wasei-eigo[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Gairaigo_and_Wasei-eigo_terms[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Japanese_Latin_alphabetic_abbreviations[/url]
[url]http://www.vintagepens.com/Eversharp_history.htm[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carrot[/url]

[B]music[/B]
Double Barrel by Dave & Ansell Collins
[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_7Kx2FlFQY[/url]

[B]free e-books[/B] 
Sea and Sardinia by D H Lawrence
[url]http://openlibrary.org/books/OL7160906M/Sea_and_Sardinia[/url]
A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers by Henry David Thoreau
[url]http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/4232[/url]
Uncle Remus - His Songs and his Sayings by Joel Chandler Harris
[url]http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2306[/url]
The Tale of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter
[url]http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/14838[/url]


my latest column on aikiweb: [URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19741"]Half a Tatami[/URL][/i]

© niall matthews 2011]]></body>
	<date>05-13-2011</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="4199">
	<title><![CDATA[the master speed]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[[indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][URL="http://www.flickr.com/photos/8868801@N03/3399095714/"]Ayrton Senna[/URL] by Iwao used under creative commons licence[/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent]


[i][highlight]On a given day, a given circumstance, you think you have a limit. And you then go for this limit and you touch this limit, and you think, 'Okay, this is the limit.' As soon as you touch this limit, something happens and you suddenly can go a little bit further. With your mind power, your determination, your instinct, and the experience as well, you can fly very high.[/highlight]
Ayrton Senna

[highlight]I like smoke and lightning
Heavy metal thunder
Racing with the wind[/highlight]
Steppenwolf, Born to be Wild

[highlight]No speed of wind or water rushing by
But you have a speed far greater. You can climb
Back up a stream of radiance to the sky,
And back through history up the stream of time.
And you were given this swiftness, not for haste
Nor chiefly that you may go where you will.
But in the rush of everything to waste,
That you may have the power of standing still[/highlight]
Robert Frost, The Master Speed

[highlight]If everything seems under control, you're just not going fast enough.[/highlight]
Mario Andretti[/i]


I watched [I]Senna[/I] recently. It's a 2010 documentary movie about Ayrton Senna, the brilliant Brazilian Formula One racing driver. By chance it was just about the anniversary of his death. He died on 1 May 1994 aged 34. It's a moving film. There is a shot of three Japanese F1 announcers breaking down in tears as they gave the news of his death. 

Something about Ayrton Senna struck a chord in Japan. He was one of the most popular foreign athletes ever. He was talented and charismatic but it was deeper than that. He lived his racing - and his life - as a spiritual quest. Always to be a better driver. And always to be a better human. For many martial artists that will be familiar. 

Ayrton Senna, 1960-1994. Descanse em paz.


[i][url]http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2004/apr/24/formulaone.formulaone2004[/url] 
[url]http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/2011/mar/31/ayrton-senna-sports-documentary[/url]

[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayrton_Senna[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayrton_Senna_death[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Formula_One[/url]
[url]http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ayrton_Senna[/url]

The Master Speed by Robert Frost
[url]http://www.edenathletics.com/node/4738[/url]
other Robert Frost poems 
[url]http://www.famouspoetsandpoems.com/poets/robert_frost/apoems[/url]

Born to be Wild cover by Slade 
[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2Kmch2swn8[/url]
Born to be Wild by Steppenwolf from the soundtrack of Easy Rider
[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rMbATaj7Il8[/url]


my latest column on aikiweb: [URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19741"]Half a Tatami[/URL][/i]

© niall matthews 2011]]></body>
	<date>05-07-2011</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="4197">
	<title><![CDATA[green day/boy's day/golden daze]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[[indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][URL="http://www.flickr.com/photos/24443965@N08/2389238054/"]Going to School in Old Japan[/URL] by Okinawa Soba used under creative commons licence[/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent]


[i][highlight]"Well, I did jus' what the book said to do. Look at it. It says: Take an egg. Conceal it in the pocket. Well, I took an egg an' I concealed it in the pocket. Seems to me," he said bitterly, "seems to me this book isn't Things a Boy Can Do. It's Things a Boy Can't Do."[/highlight]
More William by Richmal Crompton 

[highlight]two hours later
you know where I was found
smokin' in the boys room[/highlight]
Brownsville Station

[highlight]stand on my head and say
I was just a boy
giving it all away[/highlight]
Roger Daltrey

[highlight]I beg to dream and differ from the hollow lies
this is the dawning of the rest of our lives
this is our lives on holiday[/highlight]
Green Day[/i]


Some martial artists don't like holidays. It's just less time to train. In Japan there are three long holidays. There is the bon holiday in August when Japanese people visit their family graves. There are holidays for the new year. And there is golden week. 

Golden Week is four public holidays at the end of April and the beginning of May. The name wasn't given by ordinary people happy about a "golden week" of holidays. It was a name given by a movie company executive happy about all the tickets sold. Anyway the name stuck. Japanese love abbreviations and it is often shortened to GW. 

Before golden week even starts the Aikikai hombu dojo in Tokyo cancels the last class on 26 April. It's the anniversary of the death of the founder of aikido, Morihei Ueshiba. Instead of aikido training old movies of O Sensei are shown instead. Now you can find videos of O Sensei on the internet but years ago the movies were rare and precious. I translated for Second Doshu Kisshomaru Ueshiba on that day. 

29 April is Showa Day for the Showa Emperor, Hirohito. After death an emperor is known by the name of the era. It's a strange system because the name of the era is rapidly chosen by politicians after the death of the previous emperor. When the name of the next era was announced in January 1989 people immediately rushed to register new companies with Heisei in the name. 29 April used to be Green Day (now 4 May is Green Day). In Japan the most famous martial arts event on this day is the All-Japan Judo Championship at the Nippon Budokan. But for aikidoka 29 April is the day of the Iwama Shrine Festival at the Aiki Shrine in Iwama in Ibaragi prefecture. I remember going there years ago with my teacher, Kinjo Asoh sensei. We caught a train from Ueno station in north-east Tokyo early in the morning. The manager of the dojo came to see us off and gave us bento boxed food and cans of beer for our breakfast. Really. This year the ceremony was cancelled because of the Tohoku earthquake. 

3 May is called Constitution Memorial Day. The post-war constitution drafted by General Douglas MacArthur and his staff after World War II came into law on 3 May 1947. The Potsdam Declaration had decreed that "the Japanese government shall remove all obstacles to the revival and strengthening of democratic tendencies among the Japanese people. Freedom of speech, of religion, and of thought, as well as respect for the fundamental human rights shall be established." I'm from the UK and we don't even have a written constitution. So I would like to say way to go Japan and I hope we catch up with you one day. A national holiday to commemorate it would be cool too.   

4 May is a bridge day between two holidays and it is now Green Day.

5 May is called Children's Day now but traditionally it is Boy's day. As I said in my blog article about [URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/blogs/moon-in-the-water-19051/doll-4151/"]Girl's day[/URL] (3/3) odd numbers are considered lucky in Japan and so boys day is 5/5. Oh yes. Boy's day is a national holiday and Girl's day is not. No surprises there. 


[i]wikipedia articles - the article about the Japanese constitution is especially interesting
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Week_(Japan)[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitution_of_Japan[/url]

e-book from project gutenberg of More William by Richmal Crompton
[url]http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/17125[/url]
When I was a young boy I was given a pile of second-hand William books tied with string. Perhaps they came from a local fête. They all had faded red hardcovers.

[URL="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVvMyvQ4ANI"]Smokin' in the Boys Room[/URL] by Brownsville Station

[URL="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gx6od_iVFiQ"]Giving it all away[/URL] by Roger Daltrey

[URL="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ijtPhz8RnPw"]Holiday[/URL] by Green Day[/i]


my latest column on aikiweb: [URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19741"]Half a Tatami[/URL]

© niall matthews 2011]]></body>
	<date>04-29-2011</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="4195">
	<title><![CDATA[manifesto]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[[indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][URL="http://www.flickr.com/photos/colm/2959383976/"]photo of an election poster in Kyoto[/URL] by colm mcmullan used under creative commons licence[/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent]


[i][highlight]In politics stupidity is not a handicap[/highlight]
Napoleon Bonaparte

[highlight]The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers[/highlight]
Dick the butcher's manifesto 
King Henry VI (Act IV, Scene II) by William Shakespeare[/i]


There are elections in Japan on Sunday. Again. The election trucks are out every day. They are small vans with speakers on the top. The campaign workers and the candidates wear white gloves and wave and smile. THEY LOUDLY AND POLITELY REPEAT THE NAME OF THE CANDIDATE. THEY LOUDLY AND POLITELY REPEAT THE NAME OF THE CANDIDATE. THEY LOUDLY AND POLITELY REPEAT THE NAME OF THE CANDIDATE. Really that's what it's like. All day long. One truck passes. Then another. From morning to evening. I don't get to vote.

We need altruistic, dynamic and capable leaders in sports politics as well as national politics. But we get people with their own agendas and scandals. Like João Havelange. Sepp Blatter. Juan Antonio Samaranch. Bernard Ecclestone. Max Mosley. 

Years ago I went to organization meetings. I don't remember any interesting discussions. I always wondered why we didn't just train together instead. It would have been more fun. And it would probably have been more useful. 


[i]free e-books
[URL="http://www.ebooksread.com/authors-eng/emperor-of-the-french-napoleon-i.shtml"]correspondence and diaries of Napoleon[/URL]
if you need a tool to unzip the files [URL="http://www.7-zip.org/"]7-zip[/URL] is free open source software

[URL="http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/100"]The complete works of William Shakespeare[/URL]


[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19617"]my column on aikiweb[/URL][/i]

© niall matthews 2011]]></body>
	<date>04-23-2011</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="4190">
	<title><![CDATA[cherry blossom and moon]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[[indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][URL="http://www.flickr.com/photos/stuckincustoms/5448498873/"]Kimono Under the Cherry Tree[/URL] by Trey Ratcliff used with permission[/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent]


[i][highlight]the trees blossom 
and then 
we look 
and then 
the petals scatter
and then…[/highlight]
Onitsura Uejima

[highlight]In my province this is called a cherry blossom moon[/highlight]
The Bitter Tea of General Yen directed by Frank Capra

[highlight]If in Act I you have a pistol hanging on the wall, then it must fire in the last act[/highlight]
Anton Chekhov[/i]


It's the middle of April now. There has been a pale moon in the sky over Tokyo in the afternoons this week. There was a little rain last weekend and some windy days and the cherry blossoms are disappearing fast. But weeping cherry trees - shidare zakura - often bloom late and the blossoms are still full and beautiful. 

The rhythm of nature and the seasons is very important in Japan. People set aside a time to look at the cherry blossoms. Cherry blossom viewing is called hanami. Hanami was mentioned in the eleventh century in the world's first modern novel, The Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu. Still today families and groups sit under the blanket of blossoms with lunchboxes and perhaps beer or sake. Hanami can be in the day or after dark. 

The cherry blossom represents the intensity and the impermanence of life. The blossoms are beautiful, and then they blow away in the wind. Nothing is left. Mujou - impermanence - has a sadder resonance this year in the aftermath of the Tohoku earthquake. Nobody knows what will happen tomorrow. 


[i]Wikipedia articles on sakura, hanami, the poignancy of things, impermanence, The Tale of Genji, The Cherry Orchard and Chekhov's gun
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cherry_blossom[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanami[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mono_no_aware[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mujou[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tale_of_Genji[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cherry_Orchard[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chekhov%27s_Gun[/url]


Onitsura Uejima: biography and haiku 
[url]http://thegreenleaf.co.uk/HP/onitsura/00onitsura.htm[/url]

online ebook of The Tale of Genji
[url]http://globusz.com/ebooks/Genji/00000010.htm[/url]
downloadable ebook of The Tale of Genji
[url]http://www.munseys.com/book/2222/Tale_of_Genji,_The[/url]

free Ebook from project gutenberg of The Cherry Orchard by Anton Chekhov
[url]http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/7986[/url]


Quakebook: an ebook of essays, stories and artwork about the Tohoku earthquake pulled together in just a few days using twitter. Contributors include William Gibson and Barry Eisler. It costs $9.99 and Amazon doesn't take anything - 100% goes to the Japanese Red Cross. Buy it if you can.
[url]http://www.quakebook.org/[/url]


[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19617"]my column on aikiweb[/URL][/i]

© niall matthews 2011]]></body>
	<date>04-15-2011</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="4185">
	<title><![CDATA[new start, again]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[[indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][URL="http://www.flickr.com/photos/smashcut/3455207108/"]The New Recruits[/URL] by Michael Pick used with permission[/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent]


[i][highlight]April is the cruellest month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain.[/highlight]
T S Eliot, The Wasteland[/i]


In the middle of all the uncertainty about Fukushima and nuclear dangers and radioactive food and water life goes on. Every April in Japan new students start schools and colleges and new employees put on dark suits and start their new jobs. Entrance ceremonies will be subdued this year. Some industries will be severely affected. But reconstruction and rebuilding will continue for years providing jobs and economic stimulus.

In budo we talk about beginner's mind, shoshin or shoshin no shin, &#21021;&#24515; or &#21021;&#24515;&#12398;&#24515;. Beginner's heart is a good translation. It means always to keep the feeling of when we started. We didn't think we could do things then. And we didn't do things routinely. 

A beginner is full of energy and enthusiasm. Those first months were thrilling. That excitement is a feeling we should try to keep for ever.   


[i]The Wasteland by T S Eliot (I've given this link before)
[url]http://www.bartleby.com/201/1.html[/url]


free music downloads - donate to Civic Force to help Japan's earthquake victims if you want to
[url]http://soulaid.org/[/url]

[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19617"]my column on aikiweb[/URL][/i]

© niall matthews 2011]]></body>
	<date>04-07-2011</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="4182">
	<title><![CDATA[hakama gradation/graduation]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[[indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][URL="http://www.flickr.com/photos/kenleewrites/3384252653/"]Graduations Spring 2009 20[/URL] by Ken Lee used with permission[/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent]  


March is the traditional time for graduation ceremonies in Japan. But in 2011 after the devastation of the Tohoku earthquake many ceremonies were cancelled to save electricity.
 
At university graduation ceremonies in Japan men normally wear suits. Women can wear suits but kimono and hakama are traditional. The hakama are not split like a martial arts hakama. The length of the kimono is adjusted by a fold at the waist. Long trailing furisode sleeves are worn by unmarried women. Women normally wear white tabi split-toe socks and formal zori sandals with kimono. But for a few years many young women have been wearing ankle boots together with hakama. That gives a nostalgic feeling of the Taisho era (1912-1926) and period novels and movies like Botchan or Sorekara by Soseki Natsume. 

2011's women graduates will never get to wear hakama. 


[i]free e-book of Botchan by Soseki Natsume from project gutenberg
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natsume_S%C5%8Dseki[/url]

wikipedia article describing the different types of hakama
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hakama[/url]


[URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19617"]my column on aikiweb[/URL][/i]

© niall matthews 2011]]></body>
	<date>04-02-2011</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="4175">
	<title><![CDATA[Earthquake 11: prints, yakuza...]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[[indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][URL="http://www.flickr.com/photos/jasohill/118616905/"]Rainbow of Peace[/URL] by Jason Hill used under creative commons licence[/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent]  


Some of the latest stories and information from Japan and one more way you can help. You can buy a print from flickr. You bid on it and when you win you make the donation to charity and the photographer sends you the print.

[i] charity prints for japan
[url]http://www.flickr.com/groups/charityprintauctions/[/url]

latest information
[url]http://www.google.com/intl/en/crisisresponse/japanquake2011.html[/url]

hospital story
[url]http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/T110327002681.htm[/url]

coping 
[url]http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110329/ap_on_re_as/as_japan_earthquake_isolated_island[/url]

an aid worker's story
[url]http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2014624400_japanqampa29.html[/url]

TEPCO executives being investigated by police for professional negligence (and check out the information on the yakuza on the rest of the site)
[url]http://www.japansubculture.com/2011/03/tepco-executives-quietly-under-investigation-for-charges-of-professional-negligence-resulting-in-death-or-injury-%EF%BC%88%E6%A5%AD%E5%8B%99%E4%B8%8A%E9%81%8E%E5%A4%B1%E8%87%B4%E6%AD%BB%E5%82%B7/[/url]

to rebuild or not 
[url]http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2014610574_apasjapanearthquakedyingcoast.html[/url]

self-restraint
[url]http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/28/world/asia/28tokyo.html[/url]

godzilla again
[url]http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-et-japan-apocalypse-20110328,0,5704065.story[/url]

the yakuza (in french)
[url]http://www.lemonde.fr/planete/article/2011/03/25/la-reconstruction-apres-le-seisme-un-enjeu-pour-la-mafia-japonaise_1498556_3244.html[/url][/I]


© niall matthews 2011]]></body>
	<date>03-29-2011</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="4174">
	<title><![CDATA[Earthquake 10: Songs (+ fonts) for Japan]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[[indent][indent][indent][indent][URL="http://www.flickr.com/photos/typoatelier/5560230200/"]The Chrysanthemum[/URL] by arnoKath  for [URL="http://www.typesociety.org/fontaid/"]Font Aid V: Made for Japan[/URL] charity typeface project, also to help Japan, is used with very kind permission[/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent]  


Here is another great way to help the victims of the earthquake. You can get Songs for Japan for $9.99. All the money goes to the Japanese Red Cross. 38 tracks by Bon Jovi, Dylan, Eminem, Pink, Sade, Springsteen, Sting… Yoko Ono donated Imagine by John Lennon. I have always liked Yoko Ono since a friend of mine told me about writing to her when he was a boy. It was just to say he was so sorry about John's death. Yoko Ono wrote back personally. So check out her site for the details or just go to itunes. And here are more background links. 


[i]Songs for Japan
[url]http://imaginepeace.com/archives/14279[/url]

video of tsunami destroying a town - un be lievable
[url]http://storyful.com/stories/gjdihk[/url]

what life is like in an evacuation centre
[url]http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/26/world/asia/26refugees.html[/url]

some personal stories
[url]http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fl20110327x1.html[/url]

more aftermath stories 
[url]http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/d7fac1ca-55b9-11e0-a00c-00144feab49a.html#axzz1HhOjWUtb[/url]

powerful photos
[url]http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2011/03/japan-earthquake-two-weeks-later/100034/[/url]

a psychiatrist says take a break from bad news
[url]http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/national/news/20110327p2a00m0na002000c.html[/url]

personal opinion of a nuclear safety professional
[url]http://travel-for-love.com/2011/03/18/nuclear-reactors-in-japan-my-perspective/[/url]

explanations with graphics 
[url]http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/special/world/japan-nuclear-reactors-and-seismic-activity/[/url]

what farmers think
[url]http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5hS2vcOuDBJlV1j5TSx2i2ilifldA[/url]

medical advice from the uk's chief medical advisor
[url]http://ukinjapan.fco.gov.uk/en/news/?view=News&id=572797982[/url]

nuclear designs were based on haphazard safety rules
[url]http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/27/world/asia/27nuke.html[/url]

who the hell's in charge
[url]http://www.economist.com/node/18441143?story_id=18441143&fsrc=scn/tw/te/rss/pe[/url]

many of the earthquake and tsunami victims were older people
[url]http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/T110325004416.htm[/url]

godzilla and akira and disaster
[url]http://www.newsweek.com/2011/03/20/tokyo-disaster-fantasies.html[/url]

deep-seated problems in Japan's government
[url]http://www.economist.com/node/18441143?story_id=18441143[/url][/i]


© niall matthews 2011]]></body>
	<date>03-27-2011</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="4173">
	<title><![CDATA[Earthquake 9: Art (really)]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[[indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][i]Japan's heroes to the rescue from [url]http://twitpic.com/4bzslz[/url][/i][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent]


In one of my earthquake posts I wrote [I]recent articles[/I] in the title and at the side of the screen it was shortened to [I]recent art[/I]. So for anyone who was hoping to see earthquake art and who was disappointed this is a great picture of Japanese superheroes helping out in the earthquake. If you recognize any of them please put their names in the comments! Check out the other cool pictures at that link too. We humans need all the help we can get. 


[I]photo essay
[url]http://the-diplomat.com/photo-essay/2011/03/24/japan-quake-the-world-reacts/[/url]

social networking sites after the disaster
[url]http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/T110324004117.htm[/url]

japan's energy policy
[url]http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-japan-energy-20110325,0,1865003.story[/url]

tokyo time out information blog plus home page 
[url]http://www.timeout.jp/en/tokyo/feature/2679/Tokyo-radiation-water-and-aftershocks-information[/url]
[url]http://www.timeout.jp/en/tokyo[/url]

when you inspect a nuclear facility to see if can be used for another 10 years take it seriously
[url]http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/22/world/asia/22nuclear.html[/url]

time lapse map of seismic activity before and after the quake plus link to the same for NZ
[url]http://www.japanquakemap.com/[/url]

interesting blog about life in Tohoku
[url]http://gregharbin.posterous.com/a-shortage-of-food-an-abundance-of-patience[/url]

heroes by david bowie 
[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tgcc5V9Hu3g[/url][/i]


© niall matthews 2011]]></body>
	<date>03-25-2011</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="4170">
	<title><![CDATA[Earthquake 8: socks and riceballs]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[[indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][I]photo: [URL="http://www.flickr.com/photos/36105640@N02/4845284581/"]Date Masamune (Sengoku Basara)[/URL] by animepapertoys used under creative commons licence[/I][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent]


We are all only human and maybe there is only so much earthquake news our brains can take in. But Japan is still in emergency mode and I don't feel comfortable yet doing a normal blog article about budo. So for a little longer here is some of the news from Japan. Sendai is the town of [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masamune_Date"]Masamune Date[/URL]. He had an eyepatch and a cool helmet with a big crescent moon. So if you need a change from the sadness and tragedy of the news maybe you or someone you know might want to make a model of him (you need both pages I think).  But don't forget the prayers. 


[i]giving away the socks 
[url]http://jasonkelly.com/2011/03/into-ibaraki/[/url]

how to make a riceball
[url]http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fg20110324f1.html[/url]

on the road for Reuters 
[url]http://changrankim.posterous.com/a-week-in-the-tsunamis-path-a-personal-accoun[/url]

the zen priest and the spring equinox
[url]http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2011/03/japan-ohigan-marie-mutsuki-mockett.html[/url]

a man gave up his life to protect the emergency phone
[url]http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/T110323004438.htm[/url]

how to live without running water
[url]http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/T110323004953.htm[/url]

the earthquake seen by an architect
[url]http://www.timeout.jp/en/tokyo/feature/2677/The-earthquake-from-an-architects-perspective[/url]

rock and pop stars and maybe Japan's next prime minister…
[url]http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-03-24/lady-gaga-shaming-those-spending-309-billion-commentary-by-william-pesek.html[/url]

cleanup
[url]http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110324/ap_on_re_as/as_japan_earthquake_endless_debris_2[/url]

radiation
[url]http://www.thetokyopost.com/news-opinion/another-look-at-radiation-levels/[/url]

radiation in German
[url]http://www.zamg.ac.at/aktuell/index.php?seite=1&artikel=ZAMG_2011-03-23GMT10%3A57[/url]

masamune date and anime paper models 
[url]http://animepapertoys.blogspot.com/search/label/SENGOKU%20BASARA[/url][/i]


© niall matthews 2011]]></body>
	<date>03-24-2011</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="4169">
	<title><![CDATA[Earthquake 7: no title]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[[indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][I]photo: [URL="http://www.flickr.com/photos/coolkalun/3006974531/"]Matsushima - Three Views of Japan[/URL] by Kal.LKL used with very kind permission[/I][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent]


There's no real news today. But there have been warnings that children and pregnant women should not drink tap water. Anyway some more interesting articles. Please keep praying and please keep doing whatever you can.


[i]cool story about a real hero - don't read it if you are offended by profanity - or read it anyway if you think John McClane was tough in Die Hard
[url]http://badassoftheweek.com/akaiwa.html[/url]

prescient warning about earthquakes and nuclear facilities from 2004
[url]http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fl20040523x2.html[/url]

graduation 
[url]http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/23/world/asia/23graduate.html[/url]

Tohoku regional shops in Tokyo
[url]http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/23/world/asia/23shops.html[/url]

anonymous tiger mask donations! (see my [URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/blogs/moon-in-the-water-19051/mask-4108/"]mask[/URL] blog post)
[url]http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/T110322002426.htm[/url] 

84-year-old geisha
[url]http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/national/news/20110322p2a00m0na016000c.html[/url]

tweeting from Fukushima
[url]http://globalvoicesonline.org/2011/03/19/japan-tweeting-from-fukushima/[/url]

scientific analysis and photo essays
[url]http://blog.slideshare.net/2011/03/22/news-scientific-analysis-and-photo-essays-of-japanese-disaster/[/url]

quake data in visuals
[url]http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nc20110323a1.html[/url]

a list of the costliest natural disasters
[url]http://www.economist.com/blogs/dailychart/2011/03/natural_disasters[/url]

how social media like facebook and twitter are being used in times of crisis
[url]http://boomertechtalk.com/social-media-in-times-of-crisis-japan-earthquake-tsunami/[/url]

US recommendations are overreaction
[url]http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20110323a6.html[/url][/i]


© niall matthews 2011]]></body>
	<date>03-23-2011</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="4168">
	<title><![CDATA[Earthquake 6: latest articles]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[[indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][i]thank you to Rei for the Miyagi aftermath photo[/i][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent]


It was raining lightly again today. Some good recent articles and photos.


[I]updated article on how you can help (or check out my previous earthquake posts)
[url]http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fl20110322a1.html[/url]

blog by a volunteer organization in Japan
[url]http://2hjdrbloge.blogspot.com/[/url]

a town waits
[url]http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/22/world/asia/22missing.html[/url]

two people found alive after nine days
[url]http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/T110321004084.htm[/url]

older people affected especially hard
[url]http://www.latimes.com/news/la-fg-japan-aging-20110322,0,6034772.story[/url]

the truth about the nuclear samurai
[url]http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/mar/21/nuclear-samurai-fukushima-japan-reactor[/url]

graphs of earthquake and radiation data in Japan
[url]http://fleep.com/earthquake/[/url]

the argument for nuclear power is even stronger now? well make up your own mind
[url]http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/mar/21/pro-nuclear-japan-fukushima[/url]

great photos
[url]http://maxhodges.com/[/url][/I]


© niall matthews 2011]]></body>
	<date>03-22-2011</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="4165">
	<title><![CDATA[Earthquake 5: Black Rain]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[[indent][indent][indent][indent][i]photo: Walk in the Rain | Yurakucho Tokyo [URL]http://www.flickr.com/photos/jamesjustin/4347672891/[/URL] by Justin C used under creative commons licence[/i][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent]


[highlight][i]il pleure dans mon coeur
comme il pleut sur la ville[/highlight]
it's raining in my heart
like the rain falling on the city
Paul Verlaine[/i]


It was raining today.  

Black Rain has a meaning in Japanese - the fallout from a nuclear bomb. &#40658;&#12356;&#38632; Kuroi Ame was a 1965 novel by Masuji Ibuse about the aftermath of the atomic bomb in Hiroshima. It was made into a movie with the same title directed by Shohei Imamura. The film was very well-received critically. The wikipedia entry about it says, 

[I]The film has a strong theme of the Buddhist beliefs on the suffering in life, that things are transient and the uncertainty of the time of one's death. [/I]

Then Hollywood used the same title for an action thriller directed by Ridley Scott. Black Rain is a cool title but in Japanese it's inextricably associated with the novel and with Hiroshima. The Japanese movie [I]Kuroi Ame[/I] came out in May 1989 and the Hollywood movie [I]Black Rain[/I] came out in September 1989. The American movie starred Michael Douglas, Andy Garcia, Yusaku Matsuda and Ken Takakura. It's not a great film but it is enjoyable and it's also memorable as the last performance of the cool and charismatic Japanese actor Yusaku Masuda. He had cancer and he died on 6 November 1989 soon after the movie's premiere aged thirty-nine. 


[i]Il pleure dans mon coeur by Paul Verlaine
[url]http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/il-pleure-dans-mon-coeur/[/url]

articles about the novel and the movies and Yusaku Matsuda
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Rain_(novel)[/url]
[url]http://www.answers.com/topic/black-rain-film[/url]
[url]http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/ibuse.htm[/url]
[url]http://www.nytimes.com/1989/11/09/obituaries/yusaku-matsuda-39-japanese-movie-actor.html[/url]

trailer for the thriller Black Rain with cool music by Hans Zimmer
[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hz-VbyU9DUM[/url]

No special news about the earthquake today. Please see my earlier [URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/blogs/moon-in-the-water-19051/earthquake-4-whats-really-going-on-4164/"]posts[/URL] for links to information sources and how to donate. [/i]


© niall matthews 2011]]></body>
	<date>03-21-2011</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="4164">
	<title><![CDATA[Earthquake 4: what's really going on]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[[indent][indent][indent][i]photo: 1000 origami cranes by lukinosity [url]http://www.flickr.com/photos/lukinosity/5537327161/[/url] with instructions on how to make your own! used with kind permission[/i][/indent][/indent][/indent]


It's over a week since the earthquake hit and we are beginning to get some perspective on what happened. For now some good links to real information.

[I]get some cool music and help Japan[/I]
[url]http://www.timeout.jp/en/tokyo/feature/2616/Quake-relief-the-soundtrack[/url]

[I]what is a tsunami - very cool and clear computer model of what happened[/I]
[url]http://silverstar22b.tumblr.com/post/3970957204/japan-9-0-quake-tsunami-wave-modeling-via-nhk[/url]

[I]unbelievable footage of the tsunami as it happened taken on a mobile phone[/I]
[url]http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid69900095001?bckey=AQ~~,AAAAAEabvr4~,Wtd2HT-p_VhJQ6tgdykx3j23oh1YN-2U&bctid=833933309001[/url]

[I]clear map of Japan radiation levels[/I]
[url]http://www.cbryanjones.com/journal/2011/3/19/japan-radiation-levels-in-english.html[/url]

[I]cool radiation dose chart[/I]
[url]http://xkcd.com/radiation/[/url]

[I]why I am not worried and why the French advice is not based on science, quoi[/I]
[url]https://www.bccjapan.com/asp/general.asp?contentid=108[/url]

[i]the people who have lost absolutely everything are coping far better than the people who have lost absolutely nothing[/i]
[url]http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/japan/8393056/Japan-earthquake-Iwate-is-in-a-state-of-misery-and-mayhem.html[/url]

[I]things are stable despite the hysterical press coverage [/I]
[url]http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/03/18/fukushima_friday/[/url]

[I]foreign governments frustrated with Japan[/I]
[url]http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/T110319003204.htm[/url]

[I]TEPCO's BP moment[/I]
[url]http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/mar/20/tepco-japan-nuclear-disaster-bp[/url]

[I]interesting story about the yakuza helping with relief efforts[/I]
[url]http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2011-03-18/japanese-yakuza-aid-earthquake-relief-efforts/#[/url]

[I]six of the men and women keeping us informed on twitter[/I]
[url]http://www.timeout.jp/en/tokyo/feature/2594/6-Tokyo-Tweeters-who-kept-the-city-informed[/url]

[i]Second Harvest Japan (2hj) is collecting donations of food and supplies and blankets and volunteers are taking them to Tohoku by truck[/i]
[url]http://www.2hj.org/index.php/eng_home[/url]

[i]these are the same donate links from my [URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/blogs/moon-in-the-water-19051/earthquake-3-random-fragments-4160/"]last blog post[/URL]

[url]http://storify.com/1rick/japan-quake-how-can-i-help[/url]
[url]http://www.timeout.jp/en/tokyo/feature/2532/japan-earthquake-how-you-can-help[/url]
[url]http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/2011/mar/14/donate-help-japan-after-tsunami-earthquake[/url]
[url]http://couponcravings.com/2011/03/10-simple-ways-support-japan-disaster-relief-efforts.html[/url] you can donate $1 just by clicking like Voskos yogurt on facebook

charity buys
[url]http://www.timeout.jp/en/tokyo/feature/2559/Disaster-relief-10-charity-buys[/url]

or send some socks!
[url]http://jasonkelly.com/helpjapan/[/url]

and don't forget the music links at the top of this post!

one of the Smile pictures that famous manga artist Takehiko Inoue has been drawing since the earthquake (see my last blog post)
[url]http://twitpic.com/4bcqgq[/url][/i]


© niall matthews 2011]]></body>
	<date>03-20-2011</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="4160">
	<title><![CDATA[Earthquake 3: random fragments]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[[I]This is another post about the serious situation in Japan. It is not about budo. Some random fragments from twitter and other places.[/I]

[I]Great advice any time[/I]
"Please prepare for aftershock, control your activity and be careful not to put yourself into confusion."
[I]From the Kodokan (world judo headquarters) home page[/I]

[I]Rip-off[/I]
British Airways. Return fare to the UK quoted to a guy before the quake: 55,000 yen (say $700) per person. 
Return fare to the UK quoted to him after the quake (same flight, same day): 600,000 yen (say $7,500) per person.  

[I]Tears[/I]
Read on BBC. A nine-year-old boy who lost his family in the tsunami is searching for them. Of course he didn't have any photos. So he drew pictures.

[I]Surprise[/I]
An Italian rescue group arrived in Japan to find that the level of radiation in Tokyo was lower than in Rome.

[I]Double punch[/I]
When all this is over who is going to want to buy rice or fruit or vegetables from Fukushima? 

[I]Crisis (mis)management parallel[/I]
"A potentially catastrophic technological problem, an incomplete crisis response plan, misleading early information, divided private and public authority, ineffective initial actions."
[I]This is about the BP oilspill not Fukushima[/I]

[I]Not confidence-inspiring[/I]
TEPCO (Tokyo Electric Power Company) and METI (the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry) have a history of covering up nuclear incidents. 

[I]When experts warn you, listen[/I]
"Japan was warned more than two years ago by the international nuclear watchdog that its nuclear power plants were not capable of withstanding powerful earthquakes, leaked diplomatic cables reveal."

[I]Cool[/I]
Takehiko Inoue, the artist and creator of the hugely popular [I]Slam Dunk[/I] and [I]Vagabond[/I] comics, has been drawing a series of pictures called [I]Smile[/I] to pray for the people affected by the earthquake and tsunami. Other artists did similar things. 

[I]Very cool[/I]
Sandra Bullock donated one million dollars to the Japan relief effort. 

[I]Help[/I]
Donate if you can. Buy a T-shirt or something else if you need to. But please help.

[i]Donate 
See the links in my previous [URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/blogs/moon-in-the-water-19051/earthquake-4157/"]Earthquake[/URL] and [URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/blogs/moon-in-the-water-19051/earthquake-2-update-information-4158/"]Earthquake 2[/URL] posts.
[url]http://storify.com/1rick/japan-quake-how-can-i-help[/url]
[url]http://www.timeout.jp/en/tokyo/feature/2532/japan-earthquake-how-you-can-help[/url]
[url]http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/2011/mar/14/donate-help-japan-after-tsunami-earthquake[/url]
[url]http://couponcravings.com/2011/03/10-simple-ways-support-japan-disaster-relief-efforts.html[/url] you can donate $1 just by clicking like Voskos yogurt on facebook

Charity buys
[url]http://www.timeout.jp/en/tokyo/feature/2559/Disaster-relief-10-charity-buys[/url]

or send some socks!
[url]http://jasonkelly.com/helpjapan/[/url]

links
overview [url]http://www.economist.com/node/18398748/[/url]
Ryu Murakami on not leaving (I put this in the comments section of my last post) [url]http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/17/opinion/17Murakami.html[/url]
Nuclear industry cover-ups in Japan [url]http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Bungling-coverups-define-apf-3885431440.html[/url]
Crisis management failures [url]http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2011/03/crisis_management_failures_jap.html[/url] 
Japanese government warned of dangers [url]http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/wikileaks/8384059/Japan-earthquake-Japan-warned-over-nuclear-plants-WikiLeaks-cables-show.html[/url]
cool bilingual tripletwitter Earthquake news feed [url]http://dl.dropbox.com/u/103709/permanent/quake/jishin.html[/url]

cool art Good Luck Japan (Gambare!) by Basil Lim [url]http://www.flickr.com/photos/firewatersun/5534793891/[/url] photostream [url]http://www.flickr.com/photos/firewatersun/with/5534793891/[/url] used under creative commons licence[/I]



© niall matthews 2011]]></body>
	<date>03-18-2011</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="4158">
	<title><![CDATA[Earthquake 2: update + information]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[[i]This is a follow-up post about the serious situation in Japan. It is not about budo.[/i] 

Since the earthquake on Friday 11 March and the devastation of the tsunami in the north of Japan things around Tokyo have been very still. There are still shortages of basic foods. Trains are still running very reduced services. There are still frequent aftershocks. The Japanese government is still very economical with information. The US Embassy and the British Embassy still tell people not to worry. 

Now the French government has informed French people in Japan that they should leave Japan or go to the south of the country far from the affected areas. Extra flights are scheduled for evacuation of French nationals. 

So that's the situation. No rice. No bread. Geiger counters. And the French government telling its citizens to get out of Dodge. 

A British rescue team from International Rescue Corps came to Japan on Monday. They had helped in 32 countries before this and only ever had problems with the governments in China and Afghanistan. Here they couldn't get the right paperwork from the [I]British[/I] Embassy. So they went back home on Wednesday. Disappointed probably wouldn't describe their feelings adequately. 

We pray that everyone in Fukushima prefecture and Miyagi prefecture who doesn't have a home now has managed to find some shelter and warmth and food and water. Relief trucks don't have enough fuel. And tonight it is snowing with temperatures below zero Celsius/in the twenties Fahrenheit. 

[I][highlight]How to help[/highlight]

I gave some links in my first earthquake post. This page of links includes information about helping through the Japanese Red Cross and itunes and paypal
[url]http://storify.com/1rick/japan-quake-how-can-i-help[/url]

Japanese Red Cross
[url]http://www.jrc.or.jp/english/index.html[/url]


[highlight]Information[/highlight]

There are some live news blogging/information sites which are quite helpful like the Guardian, the BBC and CNN but by far the fastest, most comprehensive and best information is on the twitter links below.


[highlight]great twitter sites[/highlight]

Great real-time information - thank you, thank you to all these guys for giving us real information as it happens

[url]http://twitter.com/#!/TimeOutTokyo[/url]

[url]http://twitter.com/#!/Matt_Alt[/url]

[url]http://twitter.com/#!/1rick Rick Martin[/url]

[url]http://twitter.com/#!/HirokoTabuchi[/url]

[url]http://twitter.com/#!/W7VOA[/url] Steve Herman
and this is a link to his photos 
[url]http://plixi.com/p/84371447/[/url]

[url]http://twitter.com/#!/dicklp[/url] Richard Lloyd Parry (who wrote a book about the Lucie Blackman murder - you can see details on his twitter page)

[url]http://twitter.com/#!/martyn_williams[/url]

[url]http://twitter.com/#!/justinmccurry[/url]

Metropolis magazine
[url]http://twitter.com/#!/MetropolisTokyo[/url]


[highlight]related articles[/highlight]

very helpful information from the MIT Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering
[url]http://mitnse.com/[/url]

Economist story on the Great Kanto earthquake of 1923
[url]http://www.economist.com/blogs/banyan/2011/03/archive?fsrc=scn/tw/te/bl/greatkantoearthquake[/url]

Remembering Miyagi as it once was by Tom Baker
[url]http://tokyotombaker.wordpress.com/2011/03/14/remembering-miyagi-as-it-once-was/[/url]

Inside a town forgotten by tsunami rescue workers by Rick Wallace
[url]http://www.theaustralian.com.au/inside-a-town-forgotten-by-tsunami-rescue-workers/story-fn84naht-1226021382269[/url]

Should I stay or should I go by Matt Alt
[url]http://altjapan.typepad.com/my_weblog/2011/03/should-i-stay-or-should-i-go.html[/url]

It's scary… but nothing like a nuclear bomb by Brian Cox
[url]http://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/scotsol/homepage/news/3468502/Its-scarybut-nothing-like-a-nuclear-bomb.html[/url]

British rescue team story
[url]http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-12756366[/url]

Information from the British Embassy
[url]http://www.facebook.com/notes/paul-atkinson/japan-nuclear-update-british-embassy/10150111611771235[/url]


[highlight]good blogs[/highlight]

[url]http://www.wordpress.tokyotimes.org/[/url]

[url]http://storify.com/1rick/jpquake[/url]


"Get the hell out of Dodge" was what the heroes said to the villains in Gunsmoke. Wikipedia article on a Get out of Dodge (GOOD) bag
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Get_Out_of_Dodge_Kit[/url]


powerful poster Help Japan by Miguel Michán Lost in Japan Perdido en Japón [url]http://www.flickr.com/photos/miguelmichan/5519889281/[/url] photostream [url]http://www.flickr.com/photos/miguelmichan/with/5519889281/[/url] used under creative commons licence[/I]


© niall matthews 2011]]></body>
	<date>03-16-2011</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="4157">
	<title><![CDATA[Earthquake]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[[I]I live just outside Tokyo, several hundred kilometers from the epicenter of the earthquake in Miyagi. We are far from the devastation and the tragedy. The photo (see details below) is a train forlornly stopped at an empty station. So this post is only about my personal experience and earthquakes in Japan, not about the terrible events still happening in the north of the country. These are the Yahoo and CNN links with information for people who want to help:

[url]http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_newsroom/20110311/wl_yblog_newsroom/japan-earthquake-and-tsunami-how-to-help[/url] 

[url]http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2011/03/13/tsunami-aid-and-relief-how-you-can-help/[/url]

Please do what you can to help. In [URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?p=279091"]this[/URL] thread and [URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?p=279080"]this[/URL] thread Francis Takahashi Sensei and others are trying to find ways that the aikido community can help.[/I]



Everyone in Japan knows what to do in an earthquake. There is an earthquake day - disaster prevention day - on 1 September, the anniversary of the Great Kanto earthquake of 1923. Schools and businesses have regular earthquake drills.  

You learn the basic rules:

1.Turn off the gas and any appliances which could cause a fire to start. 
2.Immediately secure an exit. Walls can buckle with the movement of the earth and you might not be able to open a door.
3.Stay away from the danger of falling objects - if necessary get under a table. If you have a helmet put it on. 
4.Then after a really serious earthquake stay away from buildings - because of the danger of falling glass or debris - and get to a designated safe open space. 

Japan is a country of earthquakes. There were two especially devastating earthquakes in the last century. In 1923 there was the Great Kanto earthquake. It happened at midday when people were preparing lunch and so many fires started. More than 100,000 people died. Then in 1995 there was the Kobe earthquake. More than 6,000 people died.

So Japanese building standards are very strict. From the wikipedia article about the Kobe earthquake: [I]High rise buildings that were built after the modern 1981 building code suffered little, however those that were not constructed to these standards suffered serious structural damage.[/I]    

Many homes and workplaces have earthquake kits. An earthquake kit is a backpack with essential supplies like dried food, a torch, a radio, bottled water and maybe a helmet and a foil blanket. 

There was an earthquake in Japan on Wednesday 9 March. Sometimes an earthquake is a sign of a bigger one coming. That's what it was. A foreshock. Then at 2.46 pm on Friday 11 March the big earthquake struck. I was on the ground floor. The floor started swaying and there was a continuous loud noise from outside like a storm wind blowing fiercely. Usually earthquakes are over in a few seconds but this one went on and on. We all knew this was a big one. I went over to the door and opened it so that we had an exit. Everyone was very, very concerned. Finally, finally, minutes later, the tremors stopped. We all got out. Everyone was talking excitedly. We tried to telephone our family members. But cellular networks were already down. They stayed down for many hours. 

All transport in an out of Tokyo stopped. A friend who was in his car took many hours to drive 4 or 5 kilometers. All my family members finally, finally managed to get home at 2.30 pm on Saturday 13 March. Twenty-four hours later. And at last we heard from a friend who had been visiting her family in Sendai. She and her family and her home were safe. We haven't been able to speak to her yet. We had almost no damage - but one friend who lives on the third floor had considerable damage inside his apartment. Aftershocks have continued through the night of Saturday 12 and today Sunday 13.

There is no point in me talking about the disaster that is still unfolding. News is changing hour by hour. But a worry for everyone is the safety of the nuclear power plants in Fukushima. Unbelievably as the seriousness of the situation became clearer Yahoo Japan was repeatedly playing a cute cartoon commercial about the benefits of nuclear energy.

Our prayers go out to everyone affected, expecially those still waiting for help to arrive. 

[I]wikipedia articles about earthquakes and Japan
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kobe_earthquake[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1923_Great_Kant%C5%8D_earthquake[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earthquake_construction[/url]

Japan's preparedness for earthquakes
[url]http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_sci_japan_earthquake_science[/url]

article from the LA Times: Japan's massive earthquake has little effect on culture's impeccable manners
[url]http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-japan-quake-polite-20110313,0,4238012.story[/url]

Johnny Cash Hurt a poignant song about pain and loss
[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o22eIJDtKho[/url]


photo by Hideya Hamano: train stopped at Ochanomizu station (9.0 magnitude quake in Japan) [url]http://www.flickr.com/photos/mawari/5517686930/[/url] photostream [url]http://www.flickr.com/photos/mawari/with/5517686930/[/url] used under creative commons licence[/I]

© niall matthews 2011]]></body>
	<date>03-13-2011</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="4155">
	<title><![CDATA[teeth]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[[i][highlight]When Lil's husband got demobbed, I said -
I didn't mince my words, I said to her myself,                          
HURRY UP PLEASE ITS TIME
Now Albert's coming back, make yourself a bit smart.
He'll want to know what you done with that money he gave you
To get yourself some teeth. He did, I was there.
You have them all out, Lil, and get a nice set[/highlight]
The Waste Land by T S Eliot (from The Game of Chess)

[highlight]Oh, the shark, babe, has such teeth, dear
And it shows them pearly white[/highlight]
Mack the Knife

[highlight]Sometimes you lose
Sometimes you win
Kicked in the teeth again[/highlight]
AC/DC 

[highlight]Are those your own teeth?
Yes. 
Do you like them?
Yes.
Do you want to keep them?
Yes.
Well brush and floss every day. And never tell me I'm wrong in front of my officers again.[/highlight]
Cracker - DCI Charlie Wise gives Fitz some friendly dental advice[/i] 

14 March is White Day in Japan. Valentine's Day on 14 February is mostly one-way in Japan. Women and girls give men and boys presents, usually chocolates. And so on White Day the men and boys reciprocate, also usually with chocolates. In South Korea they even have a Black Day on 14 April so that people who didn't get anything on Valentine's Day or White Day can commiserate with each other.

In Japanese a gumshield is called a mouthpiece &#12510;&#12454;&#12473;&#12500;&#12540;&#12473;. That's slang for a lawyer in English. Dentists recommend wearing a gumshield to protect your teeth for all dynamic contact sports. That means most martial arts including karate and judo and aikido. But gumshields are still not very common in martial arts practice in Japan. 
 
In the Code of Aikido Training Practice at the Aikikai Hombu Dojo in Tokyo one of the training rules is,

[i]Practice at all times with a feeling of joy.[/i] 

But that doesn't mean it's OK to joke and fool around. Budo is a serious thing. It can be a matter of life and death. So in Japanese they say don't show your teeth in the dojo.

The Japanese word for serious is shinken &#30495;&#21091;. That means real blade. Practice as if you are being attacked by a real blade. And attack as if you are using a real blade. Live your life as if you are using a real blade. 

I looked for Bobby Darin singing Mack the Knife for this article because of the cool shark line in the song. The lyrics were originally written in German by Bertolt Brecht and the music was composed by Kurt Weill for The Threepenny Opera. It turned out that Bobby Darin died of heart problems after getting blood poisoning from a visit to the dentist… 

So look after those teeth. 





[i]e-book of The Waste Land by T S Eliot
[url]http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1321[/url]

Interesting background on The Beggar's Opera and The Threepenny Opera
[url]http://mobydicks.com/lecture/Brechthall/messages/70.html[/url]

wikipedia articles 
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_day[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mack_the_Knife[/url]

If you like your music cool and classy, Mack the Knife by Bobby Darin 
[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEllHMWkXEU[/url]

And for those about to rock, Kicked in the Teeth by AC/DC
[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jUT99a6UR0A[/url]

photo: dentist next door to a chocolate shop in Tokyo by Niall Matthews[/i]


© niall matthews 2011]]></body>
	<date>03-10-2011</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="4151">
	<title><![CDATA[Doll]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[[i][highlight]It's a secret, religious, weird, ceremonial rite of passage for girls that women know. Hopscotch. It was bizarre for boys, because they never played it, and as a boy, I was behind walls, going, ‘What - what happened? What did they do? What do they do here?' And they had a track laid out with numbers, mystic numbers, 1, 5, 7, 8, you know. A bit of a broken doll there, some girl keeping lookout with a skipping rope...
British-European comedian Eddie Izzard [/highlight]

[highlight]The sound of a door shutting is heard from below.[/highlight]
The last line of A Doll's House, by Henrik Ibsen. Nora has gone, leaving behind her wedding ring and keys - and husband and family. She leaves for independence and freedom. Does she slam the door? Or does she close it quietly and firmly. Or gently. You decide.[/i]

3 March is Hina Matsuri - miniature festival or Doll Day - in Japan. It's Girl's day, 3/3. Boy's day is 5/5. Odd numbers in Japan are lucky. The real name of Hina Matsuri is momo no sekku - peach blossom seasonal festival. The name has an elegant feel. Girls used to dress up in special kimono with subtle make-up. 

Originally small dolls representing girls were set afloat on a river. As they floated away they were supposed to take evil and danger away with them, leaving the real daughters of the house safe. Nowadays dolls dressed in Heian period style kimono are still displayed formally on tiers. Special food is eaten that day - chirashizushi - vinegared rice with assorted fish scattered on it. 

In Japan dolls are used in a mainstream performing art, bunraku puppet theatre. The puppets are manipulated by puppeteers called ningyotsukai and multiple handlers dressed all in black called kuroko. Once a performance starts you don't notice them. Takeshi Kitano directed a 2002 movie called Dolls with an underlying theme of bunraku. All those people working with the puppets are men. Noh performers are men. Kabuki performers are men.

I know a few women martial arts teachers in Japan. But only a few. 




[i]wikipedia articles
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hina_Matsuri[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bunraku[/url] 
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuroko[/url]

Interview with Takeshi Kitano about Dolls
[url]http://www.japan-101.com/entertainment/dolls_interview.htm[/url]

And here is an introduction to Japanese rock: Dolls by Janne Da Arc
[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kf7DjfN5uIo[/url]
lyrics
[url]http://www.lyricsmode.com/lyrics/j/janne_da_arc/dolls.html[/url]

e-book of A Doll's House by Henrik Ibsen
[url]http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2542[/url]


Interesting and atmospheric photo: What a Doll! by Jackson Boyle 
[url]http://www.flickr.com/photos/jacksonboyle/2307821586/[/url] photostream [url]http://www.flickr.com/photos/jacksonboyle/with/2307821586/[/url] used under creative commons licence[/i]

© niall matthews 2011]]></body>
	<date>03-04-2011</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="4144">
	<title><![CDATA[Wild is the Wind]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[[i][highlight]we're like creatures of the wind
and wild is the wind[/highlight] 
Ned Washington and Dimitri Tiomkin, Wild is the Wind

[highlight]I have forgot much, Cynara! 
Gone with the wind[/highlight] 
Ernest Dowson, Non sum qualis eram bonae sub regno Cynarae

[highlight]the wind of change blows straight 
into the face of time[/highlight] 
Scorpions, Wind of Change[/i]




A stormy wind signals the arrival of spring in Japan. It's called [I]haru ichiban[/I] &#26149;&#19968;&#30058; - spring number one - the first wind of spring. It's strong and it blows bicycles and plants and signboards over. And then the warm weather arrives. 

It's easy to get stuck in old ways of doing and thinking. Sometimes it's good to have a strong wind. Unnecessary things are blown away. Everything becomes fresh and new. 

In Japan Fujin is the Shinto god of the wind. He glares ferociously and carries a bag of winds. He is rather like Boreas, the god of the wind in Greek mythology. 

I talked about the wind before in [URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/blogs/moon-in-the-water-19051/wind-forest-fire-mountain-3961/"]wind forest fire mountain[/URL] &#39080;&#26519;&#28779;&#23665; [I]furinkazan[/I], the motto of Takeda Shingen. In martial arts we have to be like the wind. To move like the wind. And to be free like the wind. 

The title to the movie [I]Gone with the Wind[/I] was taken from a poem by Ernest Dowson. I used to think gone with the wind meant that something was lost in the wind - youth, or the old order, or the past, say. But it really meant that he let himself be blown and tossed by the wind - and circumstances, and fate - trying to forget his lost love. 

That makes a nice parallel for ukemi - receiving the technique in aikido. You make a true attack, but once your balance is broken you keep the connection like the wind and flow like the wind. And if your movements are like the wind you can never be injured.



wikipedia articles about the Wind of Change song and the Japanese and Greek gods of the wind
[i][url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_of_Change_(song)[/url]
[url] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F%C5%ABjin[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anemoi[/url]

The wonderful poem by Ernest Dowson [I]Non sum qualis eram bonae sub regno Cynarae[/I] [url]http://www.theotherpages.org/poems/dowson01.html[/url]

Scorpions, Wind of Change [url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4RjJKxsamQ[/url]

great cover of Wild is the Wind by Cat Power. Also check out the cool versions by Nina Simone and David Bowie [url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AICtij-Vtng[/url]

cool photo Rough Sea by Daniele Sartori [url]http://www.flickr.com/photos/daniele_sartori/3968339425/[/url] photostream [url]http://www.flickr.com/photos/daniele_sartori/with/3968339425/[/url] used under creative commons licence[/i]

© niall matthews 2011]]></body>
	<date>02-24-2011</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="4136">
	<title><![CDATA[cold/hot]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[[highlight][INDENT][INDENT]
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&#32005;&#26757;&#12398;
&#26149;&#12434;&#25233;&#12360;&#12427;
&#26525;&#12398;&#38634;

[i]koubai no 
haru wo osaeru
eda no yuki

snow again
holding back the spring
but on a branch 
plum blossom[/INDENT][/INDENT]
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The train came out of the long tunnel into the snow country.[/highlight]
Snow Country by Yasunari Kawabata (the great first line of the novel)

[highlight]Keep the heart hot and the head cool in the Plaza de Toros - that is the whole secret.[/highlight]
Ballerina (Theme for Ballet) by Vicki Baum (the Plaza de Toros is the place of the bullfight)[/i] 


In Japanese there is a saying, [I]san kan shi on[/I] &#19977;&#23506;&#22235;&#28201;. Three cold, four warm. It can mean that three days of cold weather will be followed by four days of warm weather. But there's another meaning. Just when the weather is starting to get warm and you think the spring might finally be coming, the cold weather comes back again. Last week was warm in Japan and we thought spring was coming. Then there was a sudden snowfall. So the spring is not here yet.

In Japanese there are two basic characters for cold. The first is cold as in temperature: [I]kan[/I] or [I]samui[/I] &#23506; (Japanese characters often have several pronunciations or readings). We use this word in the martial arts in [I]kangeiko[/I] &#23506;&#31293;&#21476; - training at the coldest time of year. The second is cold to the touch: [I]rei[/I] or [I]tsumetai[/I] or [I]hieru[/I] or [I]sameru[/I] &#20919;. 

There are two main characters for hot too. The first is hot as in heat: [I]sho[/I] or [I]atsui[/I] &#26257;. We use this word in budo in [I]shochugeiko[/I] &#26257;&#20013;&#31293;&#21476;- special summer training in the hottest weather. 

And the second character is hot to the touch: [I]netsu[/I] or [I]atsui[/I] &#29105;. [I]Netsu[/I] is used in the phrase [I]nesshin[/I] &#29105;&#24515; - hot heart. We use that in budo too. It means to do something eagerly and full of energy and passion. However experienced we become we should never forget that passion.

So keep your heart hot and your head cool in your own Plaza de Toros. 
   



[i]Yasunari Kawabata won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1968. 
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kawabata[/url]

Vicki Baum was a very popular Austrian writer. She emigrated to the USA and wrote her later novels in English.
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vicki_Baum[/url]

kangeiko &#23506;&#31293;&#21476; (cold keiko): Special winter training conducted early in the morning during the coldest days of winter to build stamina and strengthen the spirit, a Kodokan tradition since 1884.
Kodokan New Japanese-English Dictionary of Judo

wikipedia article about Japanese kanji. Pronunciations of Japanese characters can be on yomi, the sound reading from Chinese, or kun yomi, the meaning reading from Japanese.
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanji[/url]

wikipedia article about haiku
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haiku[/url] 


great photo of snow and plum blossom by Keiko used with her very kind permission 

haiku by Niall Matthews[/i]  


© niall matthews 2011]]></body>
	<date>02-17-2011</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="4128">
	<title><![CDATA[Swords and Guns]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[[i][highlight]Tell me why
I don't like Mondays
I wanna shoo-oo-oo-oo-oo-oot the whole day down[/highlight]
The Boomtown Rats

[highlight]…so if you are ready, we shall call a cab and drive to Waterloo. I should be very much obliged if you would slip your revolver into your pocket. An Eley's No. 2 is an excellent argument with gentlemen who can twist steel pokers into knots. That and a tooth-brush are, I think all that we need.[/highlight]
Sherlock Holmes speaking to Dr Watson in The Adventure of the Speckled Band by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

[highlight]Mr. Bond, bullets do not kill, it is the finger that pulls the trigger.[/highlight]
The Man with the Golden Gun

[highlight]…a 19-year-old in America can very easily get a pistol. That's very hard to do in Australia. So when there's a bar fight in Australia, somebody gets punched out or hit with a beer bottle. Here, they get shot.[/highlight] 
Harvard Magazine

[highlight]While I write this letter, I have a pistol in one hand and a sword in the other.[/highlight]
Sir Boyle Roche (1736-1807), Irish politician[/i] 



A few days ago the Akihabara district of Tokyo reopened for pedestrians on Sundays. Akihabara - 'electric town' - is a centre for all kinds of otaku - obsessed fans. There are stores for electronics, computer parts, stereo parts, manga - comics, anime - cartoons, plastic figures… Maid cafés too. On Sundays it had been a quiet traffic-free zone for many years but in 2008 a man went on a killing rampage. He rented a truck and drove it into people walking in the traffic-free zone - killing three. Then he jumped out and began randomly stabbing, killing four more people before he was subdued. Incidentally in Japanese police boxes there is a special tool called a sasumata that can control someone at a safe distance. It's a pole a couple of meters (over six feet) long with an open U-shape at one end to pin the attacker. 

Gun crime in Japan is very, very rare. There are only a handful of murders with guns every year. There has never been a gun massacre in Japan like the one in Tucson, Arizona in January 2011. Random massacres are done with knives. So knife laws are also extremely strict. 

I found this out the hard way. Someone who knew I taught martial arts sent me an old katana from the USA. It was an old Japanese sword that had been lying around the house for decades. I had to go to the post customs office. I was told that the only way I would be able to keep the sword would be if it was a hand-forged katana. Then it would have artistic value and I would be able to get a licence for it. If it was machine-made or partly hand-forged I wouldn't. There was a committee meeting of expert appraisers the next month and finally I was informed that it was not acceptable. I was told that I could keep it if I cut it into ten centimeter (four inch) pieces in front of the customs official. So they confiscated it. What a waste.  

Even though the UK has strict gun laws I can remember three terrible shooting massacres: Hungerford in 1987, Dunblane in 1996 and Cumbria in 2010. Dunblane was in the news recently when the tennis player Andy Murray played in the final of the Australian Open. He's from Dunblane and he was at Dunblane Primary School on the day of the killings. I don't have much to say about gun control in the USA. I don't have a dog in that fight. 

And even martial artists might not be able to handle a random knife attack safely. In 2003 a man on a motor scooter stabbed several people in Tokyo. One of his victims was Genki Sudo, a popular and successful MMA (mixed martial arts) fighter. The injury wasn't serious but it was probably a little embarrassing. A famous case was Rikidozan. He was a sumo wrestler who became a very popular professional wrestler - one of the first superstars. He was fatally stabbed in a Tokyo nightclub in 1963. 




[i]I don't like Mondays by the Boomtown Rats on youtube: 
[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2I84-A9duY[/url]
Bob Geldof wrote this song after a mass shooting by a sixteen year old girl at an elementary school in San Diego in 1979. When she was asked why she did it the girl said, "I don't like Mondays…"  When she is next eligible for parole in 2019 she will have been incarcerated for forty years - since she was sixteen. 
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Don't_Like_Mondays[/url] 
The Boomtown Rats have a great album title: Ratrospective

Akihabara
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akihabara[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otaku[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maid_cafe[/url]

Washington Post article about otaku
[url]http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/06/AR2005060601767.html[/url]
Japanese Police home page
[url]http://www.npa.go.jp/english/index.htm[/url]
sasumata mancatcher 
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sasumata[/url]

Akihabara massacre
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akihabara_massacre[/url]
[url]http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20110122a9.html[/url]

Genki Sudo was one of five people stabbed in July 2003. This is an article about it and his home page and the wikipedia article about Rikidozan
[url]http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20030726a2.html[/url]
[url]http://crnavi.jp/sudogenki/blog/profile_e.html[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rikidozan[/url]

wikipedia biographies of Boyle Roche and just for interest his brother Tiger - another wild character 
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boyle_Roche[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiger_Roche[/url]


cool black and white photogram by greg4all [url]http://www.flickr.com/photos/greg4all2/3030266503/[/url] photostream [url]http://www.flickr.com/photos/greg4all2/with/3030266503/[/url] used under creative commons licence[/I]

© niall matthews 2011]]></body>
	<date>02-11-2011</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="4120">
	<title><![CDATA[Behind the Glass]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[[i][highlight]Once too meeting by the Seine
The waters a moving floor of stars,
He had vanished when I reached the door,
But there on the pavement burning
Lay one of his familiar black cigars.[/highlight]
from Je es un autre, by Lawrence Durrell[/i]

I keep coming back to the idea of mask and truth. Someone makes a thoughtful comment and the train goes on to yet another station. 

I started the first [URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/blogs/moon-in-the-water-19051/mask-4108/"]mask[/URL] article by talking about the Tiger Mask manga. That was a comic about a sports hero. There is another kind of manga called shojo manga ostensibly aimed at younger women. The story is usually much more sophisticated than a simple sports story. There is one famous manga called The Glass Mask (Garasu no Kamen). It's about a young woman who wants to become an actress.  With the help of a mentor she develops her own method acting and gradually becomes an accomplished actress. The glass mask is the fragile mask of an actor. If it breaks it reveals the actor's real face and real feelings.     

As well as your face another part of your identity is your name. I used to get my hair cut by a Japanese guy who had lived in London. He liked speaking English. When I first called up I gave my full name but somehow it got mixed up and when I arrived the stylist called me Matthew. I corrected him but it happened the next time too. So after a couple of times I gave up correcting him and just accepted it. And so once every few weeks I became Matthew. It felt very freeing! In Japan in the past it was not uncommon to change your name - sometimes just slightly - at different phases of your life. There are also pen names and stage names and professional names. My first aikido teacher used different variations of his name and so did Morihei Ueshiba the founder of aikido. In martial arts the head of a school often has a special name. O Sensei, or great teacher, might sound like hyperbole to people who don't do aikido.

In Japan 3rd February is the last day of winter. It used to be the last day of the year. It's called setsubun. People throw beans and shout a traditional shout. Sometimes someone even wears a devil's mask. So we come full circle. Back to the mask. 

[I][highlight]Devils out! Happiness in![/highlight][/I]



[i]wikipedia articles
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glass_mask[/url]

[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Setsubun[/url]

[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oni_(Japanese_folklore)[/url]

[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_name[/url]

link to the poem by Lawrence Durrell
[url]http://wordsmith.org/board/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=163906&page=all[/url][/i]

[I]cool photo of broken glass: radiate by Sally/My aim is true [url] http://www.flickr.com/photos/sallypics/89905757/[/url] photostream [url] http://www.flickr.com/photos/sallypics/with/89905757/[/url] used under creative commons licence[/I]

© niall matthews 2011]]></body>
	<date>02-04-2011</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="4114">
	<title><![CDATA[Truth and tatemae]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[[i][highlight]I'll play the hand I drew.[/highlight]
Robert Taylor in Waterloo Bridge

[highlight]You can't handle the truth![/highlight]
Jack Nicholson in A Few Good Men[/i]

In Japanese culture there are many dualities. Omote and ura, front and back. Uchi and soto, inside and outside. Honne and tatemae, real and façade. 

When I first came to Japan I was not very impressed by this concept of honne and tatemae. Honne means true sound. So in human interaction it means the real intention or motive. Tatemae means before building and it is usually taken to mean a façade. So this duality seemed to mean hiding your true feelings. And seemed sometimes to be dangerously close to deception. 

Over the years as I came to understand Japan and Japanese culture - and Japanese martial arts - better I began to realize that tatemae did not have just the negative sense I had thought. Certainly it is sometimes negative and even many Japanese people only take the superficial meaning: the façade meaning of façade! Tatemae can mean the face of the building but it can also mean before building in the sense of time: the foundation. 

The positive nuance of tatemae is not connected with romantic love - it is much more in the context of an overall view of society or community in Japan. But an easy way to explain it is with a romantic movie. For example in An Affair to Remember Terry McKay played by Deborah Kerr and Nicky Ferrante played by Cary Grant agree to meet at the top of the Empire State building. But on her way there Deborah Kerr has a serious accident which leaves her unable to walk. When they do meet again some time later she sits in a way that conceals the fact that she can't walk. She tries to spare Cary Grant from any feeling of regret or sympathy or responsibility. It's a lie and it would be tatemae in Japanese - an untrue façade - but it is an altruistic tatemae. That's the omote and ura - the surface and the reverse side - of tatemae.

Talking about movies and truth I saw a good movie about truth and reconciliation recently: Five Minutes of Heaven with Liam Neeson and James Nesbitt. Truth and reconciliation is a way of trying to overcome past conflicts. It has been used in South Africa for example. This movie is set against the background of the conflict in Northern Ireland. The brother of a murdered man is persuaded - many years later - to meet the man convicted of the murder. He still has powerful feelings of hate and revenge but the murderer tries to show him that those feelings of hate only hurt himself. So truth and reconciliation doesn't necessarily have to be about forgiveness although forgiveness is its highest expresson. I remember the moving compassion of the Amish community welcoming and comforting the family of the man who murdered the Amish girls in 2006 in Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania. 

Sometimes it's good to see martial arts in a wider context. Budo isn't just about techniques in a dojo. This is a link to an interview with Paul Linden in one of Ross Robertson's recent columns. It talks about aikido and peace and there is a link to Aiki Extensions which does some work with groups in conflict. [url]http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=18680[/url]

[i]wikipedia articles:
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tatemae[/url]
 
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_Affair_to_Remember[/url]

[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waterloo_Bridge_(1940_film)[/url]

[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_Minutes_of_Heaven[/url]

cool photo of empty façades: Rectangles and Squares by Tom Haymes [url]http://www.flickr.com/photos/tomhaymes/339856868/[/url] photostream [url]http://www.flickr.com/photos/tomhaymes/with/339856868/[/url] used under creative commons licence[/I]

© niall matthews 2011]]></body>
	<date>01-28-2011</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="4108">
	<title><![CDATA[Mask]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[[i][highlight]The typical noh mask is smaller than the face. They are usually shallow in construction and carved from hinoki wood. The masks are carved in such a manner that the expression of the face changes as the shadow and light change with the slightest movement of the head. [/highlight]
The Masks of Japan 

[highlight]Masks beneath masks until suddenly the bare bloodless skull. [/highlight]
Salman Rushdie

[highlight]We wear the mask that grins and lies[/highlight]
Paul Laurence Dunbar[/i]

There has been a strange thing happening in Japan in the last few weeks. It started on Christmas Day when ten new school backpacks were left at a children's home with a message that they were from Naoto Date. Naoto Date was a character in a popular manga called Tiger Mask. It was about a boy who becomes a professional wrestler who wears a tiger mask. He helps the children's home where he was brought up with anonymous presents from his fight prize money. 

The anonymity of giving without wanting to be recognized or thanked struck a chord in Japan. Soon there were gifts being left all over the country with a message that they were from Tiger Mask or inspired by him. One man who was seen leaving a gift was even wearing a wrestler's tiger mask. People want to make a difference. Sometimes they just have to be given a hint. 

In Japan it's the season for colds and flu and many people wear paper masks on the trains. There is even a new phenomenon of young people wearing masks all the time to help them feel more secure. A mask can hide identity or even give identity. There is a cool novel by John Collee called Paper Mask about a hospital porter who assumes the identity of a doctor. It was made into a great movie too starring Paul McGann. 

Masks are used in Japanese drama in noh. Noh really deserves a separate article, but there is one clear parallel with martial arts. The body movement in noh all comes from the hips - koshi. The feet slide on the ground - suri ashi - in small precise steps. The energy is very concentrated and the movements are like the foot movements in the Japanese sword - kenjutsu. 

Humans have always been fascinated by masks: The Man in the Iron Mask, The Phantom of the Opera, Zorro, Batman... Masks can hide. They can protect. They can suggest something new. Sincere training in budo will help you to see through all the masks. But don't forget about seeing through the last one. Your own.
   

[i]The Masks of Japan by Centaur Art Galleries
[url]http://www.centaurgalleries.com/Japanese2005/Masks.cfm[/url]

Paper Mask on the internet movie database:
[url]http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0100330/[/url]

reviews of Paper Mask on the internet movie database (all great!):
[url]http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0100330/usercomments[/url]

wikipedia article on Tiger Mask: 
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiger_Mask[/url]

We Wear the Mask by Paul Laurence Dunbar, an African-American poet: 
[url]http://www.famouspoetsandpoems.com/poets/paul_laurence_dunbar/poems/14864[/url][/i]

[I]cool photo: Noh Mask, National Museum by kristi-san [url] http://www.flickr.com/photos/kristi-san/165433681/[/url] photostream [url] http://www.flickr.com/photos/kristi-san/with/165433681/[/url] used under creative commons licence[/I]

© niall matthews 2011]]></body>
	<date>01-21-2011</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="4106">
	<title><![CDATA[Competition in Aikido and Budo]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[[i][highlight]You can map out a fight plan or a life plan, but when the action starts, it may not go the way you planned, and you're down to your reflexes - that means your preparation. That's where your roadwork shows. If you cheated on that in the dark of the morning, well, you're going to get found out now, under the bright lights.[/highlight]
Joe Frazier

[highlight]I have nothing against sports; they train the body and develop stamina and endurance. But the spirit of competition and power that presides over them is not good. It reflects a distorted vision of life.[/highlight]
Taisen Deshimaru, The Zen Way to the Martial Arts

[highlight]To fight yourself is the toughest fight. To overcome yourself is the greatest victory.[/highlight]
Hans-Heinrich Isenbart 

[highlight]I never met anybody who wanted to win as badly as I did. I'd do anything I had to do to increase my advantage. Anybody who tried to block the pursuit of that advantage, I'd just push 'em out of the way. Didn't matter who they were, or what they were doing.[/highlight]
from Hoosiers

[highlight]A gold medal is a wonderful thing. But if you're not enough without one, you'll never be enough with one.[/highlight]
from Cool Runnings[/i]


This week Yuki Saito, the number one draft pick in Japanese professional baseball, started his first training camp. There were 200 reporters there. He's a very talented and promising young pitcher. He became famous at Koshien - the high school summer baseball tournament - in 2006 when he kept wiping his face with a blue handkerchief. He was given the nickname the handkerchief prince.

Teenage players can't play with the same speed and power as professional players and can't make the same kind of breathtaking plays. But they have something else - an innocence and a purity. So people who would never watch professional baseball watch Koshien. After the games the teams bow and shake hands and the losing players collect souvenir earth from the infield. 

Sports can be wonderful. They can be a mirror of life with all its drama, nobility, humanity and sadness. Recreation means to create again. To become fresh by making again. 

But Japanese martial arts - budo and bujutsu - are completely different. For hundreds of years people have studied budo and bujutsu without matches and competition. They are learned by studying basic movements and kata - stylized forms. 

Some modern Japanese martial arts - gendai budo - like kendo and judo and karate do have a competition and sporting dimension. O Sensei Morihei Ueshiba the founder of aikido deliberately kept it free of contests and competition. He used a phrase, Masakatsu agatsu &#27491;&#21213;&#21566;&#21213; winning over yourself, to emphasize this. There is another phrase in Japanese martial arts, kokkishin &#20811;&#24049;&#24515;, that also means winning over yourself. The most difficult opponent is yourself. You have to overcome your own weak points, to cut them away until what is left is pure and real. 

So in aikido we keep to that traditional way. Occasionally there has been external pressure to make aikido more competitive - for example from the Japanese education ministry - but the second Doshu Kisshomaru Ueshiba Sensei said he wanted to keep aikido pure. 

There is one minor style of aikido developed by Kenji Tomiki Sensei that includes some judo concepts. Tomiki Sensei was a judoka and his perception of aikido was always through the eyes of a judoka. In his book Judo and Aikido he even used the word judo to include aikido techniques. So he included things like judo matches and judo kata in his aikido. His logic was that everyone needed to test themselves against other people and the best way was through what he knew - judo-style competition. It is a rather minority viewpoint in aikido. Most aikido practitioners have a more traditional and purist vision of aikido.

Tomiki Sensei was right in one way. Competition does allow you to compare your level and it does show you your weaknesses. And participating in matches and competitions allows you to experience the adrenalin and tension of competition when it is not a matter of life or death. But in the end shiai - matches - are just artificial games.

The rejection of competition is one of aikido's strongest points. But it's a weak point too. It's a strong point only if you are strong enough yourself to train sincerely. Nobody will tell you if you are not training hard enough. You have to do it yourself. 


[I]articles about Koshien
[url]http://www.pbs.org/pov/kokoyakyu/sfvideos_kuehnert.php[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_High_School_Baseball_Championship[/url] 

articles about Yuki Saito, the handkerchief prince
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuki_Sait%C5%8D_(baseball)[/url] 
[url]http://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/Yuki_Saito[/url][/I]

[I]great photo: judo by marsex [url]http://sexinthelevator.deviantart.com/art/Judo-100029413[/url] works on deviantart [url]http://sexinthelevator.deviantart.com/[/url] used by very kind permission[/I]

© niall matthews 2011]]></body>
	<date>01-15-2011</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="4098">
	<title><![CDATA[Judo and Aikido]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[[I][highlight]Aikido moves towards the perfection of the world, the perfection of mankind and the perfection of all on behalf of world peace becoming one life. In other words, Aikido is training in attracting all to you. Instead of having enemies you absorb and harmonize them into your self.[/highlight]
O Sensei Morihei Ueshiba the founder of aikido

[highlight]I believe that world peace and the welfare of humankind must be realized through the spirit that judo brings about.
When you practice judo, you must perfect yourself and contribute to society through this practice and you must emphasize the importance of this during your teaching to others.
Judo is not merely a martial art but rather the basic principle of human behaviour.[/highlight]
Jigoro Kano the founder of judo[/I] 

Sometimes people ask if crosstraining will help their training. It is a personal choice and crosstraining is certainly not necessary. In Japanese there is a saying: nito o oumono wa itto o moezu &#20108;&#20814;&#12434;&#36861;&#12358;&#32773;&#12399;&#19968;&#20814;&#12434;&#12418;&#24471;&#12378;. If you chase two rabbits you might end up not catching even one. There is a danger in being a dilettante dan collector. On the other hand crosstraining can help you understand aikido more deeply and can even make your aikido better. 

In a judo forum there was a thread about what judo could learn from aikido. It was meant mostly in an organizational sense. But I think it is a good question from any point of view. And it's a good question to ask in both directions. This is a personal and certainly not exhaustive list of what judoka can learn from aikido and what aikidoka can learn from judo. Sometimes these are complementary and corollary. For example the approach to ma ai in judo and aikido is different but an understanding of both might help in an overall understanding of budo. I hope I have been objective and non-judgemental. Aikido and judo are both wonderful martial arts.

[highlight]What judoka can learn from aikido[/highlight]

[I]Irimi. [/I]How to enter towards an attacker. 
[I]Tenkan.[/I] How to turn away from an attack.
[I]Musubi. [/I]How to blend with an attack. How to use the connection to the attacker.
[I]Kuzushi.[/I] The aikido concept of kuzushi - breaking the balance.
[I]Weapons.[/I] How to use weapons. How weapons relate to taijutsu - unarmed techniques.
[I]Atemi.[/I] How to use atemi - striking techniques - and how not to get hit by atemi. 
[I]Kansetsu waza.[/I] Learn some joint techniques with a slightly different emphasis.
[I]Mushin.[/I] Empty mind. Learn to do techniques naturally with the body, not by planning a strategy.
[I]Suwari waza (kneeling techniques) and hanmi handachi waza (kneeling techniques against a standing attack).[/I] Learning techniques in three dimensions.
[I]Taninzu gake.[/I] Learn to deal with multiple attackers and the concept that there can always be multiple attackers. 
[I]Kokyu.[/I] Learn breathing as part of the technique.
[I]Ma ai.[/I] The critical distance. How to deal with attacks at a greater distance. 
[I]Omote and ura.[/I] The concept of a technique having two versions or two faces (obverse/forward and reverse).
[I]Realistic self-defence.[/I] For example face-down katame waza/osaekomi - immobilization techniques/holddowns.
[I]Spiritual dimension.[/I] Aikido probably has a more developed spiritual philosophy. 
[I]Universality.[/I] Men and women train together naturally
[I]Ageless.[/I] Aikido can be practised comfortably by people in their seventies or eighties.

[highlight]What aikidoka can learn from judo[/highlight]

[I]Ne waza.[/I] Ground techniques. What to do if an attack ends up on the ground. This is also training in three dimensions.
[I]Koshi waza. [/I]Judoka generally have excellent koshi waza - hip techniques. [URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/blogs/moon-in-the-water-19051/koshinage-koshi-waza-hip-throw-4075/"] koshi waza for aikidoka post[/URL]
[I]Ashi waza.[/I] Ashi waza - leg and foot techniques - are usually completely ignored in aikido. [URL="http://www.aikiweb.com/blogs/moon-in-the-water-19051/ashiwaza-and-aikido-in-the-same-sentence-3937/"]ashi waza for aikidoka post[/URL] 
[I]Kuzushi.[/I] The judo concept of kuzushi: kuzushi, tsukuri and kake phases - breaking the balance, preparation and execution.
[I]Ma ai.[/I] How to deal with attacks at a very close grappling distance. 
[I]Randori.[/I] Free practice with both partners trying to execute techniques. Randori does exist in aikido in the judo sense in the style established by Kenji Tomiki who saw aikido through the eyes of a judoka. How to deal with an actively resisting uncooperative attacker who is trying to throw you.
[I]Kata[/I]. Although aikido is kata based it is in rather a free way. It is good sometimes to study the precision and the rigorousness of formal kata - stylized forms.
[I]Shiai.[/I] I don't believe the sport aspect of shiai - contests - should be incorporated into aikido. But shiai in judo have positive aspects.
[I]Shime waza.[/I] Learn effective choking/strangling techniques.
[I]Kansetsu waza.[/I] Learn some joint techniques with a slightly different emphasis.
[I]Sutemi waza[/I]. How to do sacrifice techniques (which are not much used in aikido).
[I]Educational value.[/I] Jigoro Kano specifically designed judo to have an educational dimension.  
[I]Seiryoku zenyo.[/I] The principle of achieving the maximum effect with the minimum effort.
[I]Jita kyoei.[/I] Mutual welfare and benefit is a basic social principle of judo. 
[I]Jika no kansei.[/I] Striving for perfection as a complete person.
[I]The Kodokan, National Federations and the IJF.[/I] Single organizations! From the fractured world of aikido it seems an enviable and utopian system.    

[I]Seiryoku Zenyo and Jita Kyoei
[url]http://www.judoinfo.com/seiryoku2.htm[/url]
Lecture by Jigoro Kano
[url]http://ejmas.com/jcs/jcsart_kano_0201.htm[/url]
aikido quote reference
[url]http://www.aikidojournal.com/article?articleID=585[/url]
judo quote reference
[url]http://www.menneskerettighetsakademiet.no/images/2009/INVITATION-JFP%20Burundi%20October%2009.pdf[/url][/I]

[I]cool photo: Aikido at the beach by Dimitris Agelakis [url]http://www.flickr.com/photos/agelakis/810767359/[/url] photostream [url]http://www.flickr.com/photos/agelakis/with/810767359/[/url] used under creative commons licence[/I]

© niall matthews 2011]]></body>
	<date>01-07-2011</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="4095">
	<title><![CDATA[Sliding]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[[I][highlight]Slip sliding away, slip sliding away 
You know the nearer your destination, the more you slip sliding away[/highlight]
Simon and Garfunkel[/I]

[I][highlight]Helen (Gwyneth Paltrow): "I - I'm not - I'm not very good at - at, you know..." 
James (John Hannah): "Constructing sentences?"[/highlight] 
Sliding Doors[/I]

In Germany they say "Guten Rutsch!" or "Einen guten Rutsch ins neue Jahr!" - have a good slide into the new year. I like this image of sliding into something new.

In budo we use suri ashi - sliding our feet on the ground. The movement should always be free. 

My first aikido teacher Kinjo Asoh Sensei did judo and some boxing when he was young. But maybe it was in speed ice skating that he first really learned to move his hips freely and how to use the power of his back pushing leg. One of the most important lessons for budo from ice skating was that if you turn your face in the direction you want to move your body will follow naturally. 

At the end of the year in Japan it's time for osoji - the big, special cleaning. Then you can start the new year with a clean place and a fresh spirit and the year will bring luck. In Scotland they have the same custom. Many dojos do this end of year cleaning. 

There are different ways to clean the dojo. A traditional way in Japan is to sweep the dojo with a broom and then wipe the floor with wet cloths. I was taught to clean two tatami mats together - moving my hand in a big arc by swinging my hips and then to change hands for each new set of two mats. In some places you clean the dojo in lines - pushing the cloth the length of the dojo. There are lots of ways to do it but one secret is not to let the cloth get too dry (or you fall over - to everyone's amusement) so keep rinsing it out. And you can also hold the cloth in a very slight crescent shape with the points leading. And slide it over the tatami.

I'm going to have toshikoshi soba tonight. That's buckwheat noodles to go from the old year into the new. They are supposed to bring you luck and happiness. Because they are long you will have a long life too. But in my mind I'm sliding into the new year like the slippery noodles - and with a clean house…
 
[I]Article about toshikoshi soba from the Japan Times: [url]http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fg20101224f1.html[/url]

Wikipedia article about soba: [url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soba[/url]

Vegetable soba recipe from Tales from a Tokyo Kitchen food blog: [url]http://tokyokitchentales.wordpress.com/2010/12/22/toshikoshi-soba-for-vegetable-fans/[/url][/I]

[I]stunning photo of speed skaters: Olympique de Vancouver 2 by Fotophilius [url]http://www.flickr.com/photos/30254220@N04/4360457194/[/url] photostream [url]http://www.flickr.com/photos/30254220@N04/[/url] used under creative commons licence

I appreciate all the great photos and illustrations I use in my blog and I'm grateful to all the kind and generous artists. Fotophilius's photos are amazing.[/I]

© niall matthews 2010]]></body>
	<date>12-31-2010</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="4092">
	<title><![CDATA[Ever green]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[[I][highlight]The pine tree lives for a thousand years
The morning-glory for but a single day
Yet both have fulfilled their destiny[/highlight]
quoted in D T Suzuki, Zen and Japanese Culture[/I]

[I][highlight]Change your Christmas trees into Kadomatsu!
When I heard my doorbell and opened my door
There stood Santa
With a pistol in his hand[/highlight]
Kurisumasu Tsurii O Kiritaose![/I]

Kadomatsu means gate pine. In Japan kadomatsu arrangements of pine and bamboo and plum are placed in front of doors for the new year. Pine means long life and good luck, bamboo means prosperity and plum means strength or courage. There are different layers of meaning too. Pine can also mean youth or happiness. Bamboo can mean resilience. Or honesty - when bamboo is cut it is hollow and hides nothing. The plum in Asian culture symbolizes winter but also that the spring will come. There was a discussion about some of the meanings after they appeared in one of the poems of O Sensei, the founder of aikido: [url]http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19040[/url].

The kadomatsu in the snow is almost like a Christmas tree. The evergreen pine tree is a universal symbol of renewal. It's a good thing to remember. To be ever green. Always fresh. Always young. 

I wish you happiness for the season and for the year ahead. And may you stay forever young. 

[I]Great version of Bob Dylan's song Forever Young by Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam: 
[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-eyS6FFF_M[/url]

Kadomatsu on wikipedia: [url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kadomatsu[/url][/I]

[I]cool winter photo: Kadomatsu in Snow by Timothy Takemoto [url]http://www.flickr.com/photos/nihonbunka/4229777880/[/url] photostream [url]http://www.flickr.com/photos/nihonbunka/with/4229777880/[/url] used under creative commons licence and with his very kind permission[/I]

© niall matthews 2010]]></body>
	<date>12-24-2010</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="4089">
	<title><![CDATA[The way of the samurai is found in death]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[[I][highlight]The way of the samurai is found in death[/highlight]
Tsunetomo Yamamoto, The Hagakure (Hidden by the Leaves)

[highlight]To die when it is right to die, to strike when to strike is right[/highlight]
Inazo Nitobe, Bushido: the soul of Japan

[highlight]Tranquillity is courage in repose[/highlight]
Inazo Nitobe, Bushido: the soul of Japan[/I]

14 December is the anniversary of the revenge of the [url= http://mercury.lcs.mit.edu/~jnc//prints/47ronin.html]47 Ronin[/url] (the Chushingura). Death is natural, a part of life. The samurai prepared to face death with equanimity. Thinking about death I looked back on the deaths that have affected so many of us. Some great aikido teachers died in 2010.

Nobuyoshi Tamura Sensei died in July 2010.

Seiichi Sugano Sensei died in August 2010.

Kanshu Sunadomari Sensei died in November 2010.

Robert Aoyagi Sensei also died in November 2010. 

I trained with all of them. All these teachers were great budoka and they were gentle and kind. In my memory they are all smiling. 

[I]Bushido: the soul of Japan: [url]http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/12096[/url]

Check out the ‘Readers also downloaded' link at the bottom of the page too for other books related to Japan or to military strategy. On that page I noticed The Religion of the Samurai by Kaiten Nukariya and the Art of War by Sunzi (Sun Tsu). All books on Project Gutenberg are no longer covered by copyright and are in the public domain and can be downloaded free.

Background on the Hakagure [url]http://www.hyoho.com/Hagakure1.html[/url]

Account of the revenge of the 47 Ronin (link in the first paragraph) by J. Noel Chiappa. I couldn't help feeling that Oishi's wife had a valid point... 

[url]http://www.thetokyootaku.com/2009/09/sengakuji-temple/[/url] the tokyootaku blog post about the Chushingura and Sengakuji[/I]

[I]powerful photo of Samurai helmet - face mask by Marshall Astor [url]http://www.flickr.com/photos/lifeontheedge/246608863/[/url] photostream [url]http://www.flickr.com/photos/lifeontheedge/with/246608863/[/url] used under creative commons licence[/I]

© niall matthews 2010]]></body>
	<date>12-17-2010</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="4084">
	<title><![CDATA[The blind swordsman]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[[I][highlight]Darkness is my advantage[/highlight]
(the blind swordsman) Zatoichi

[highlight]I'll just watch for now[/highlight]
(the blind swordsman) Zatoichi[/I]

I saw one of the old Zatoichi movies last week. It was a great movie. Zatoichi is a blind man who travels around Edo period Japan. He makes a living by giving massages and gambling. Only samurai were allowed to wear swords and Zatoichi carries an innocent-looking pilgrim's stick. It is actually a shikomi zue - a cane sword. He always protects children and women and people who need help against injustice. 

For a budoka the swordfight scenes are very interesting. Sometimes he waits full of intense concentration listening for a whisper of an attack. Then in an instant he spins and slashes - nearly always drawing and holding his blade in a reverse grip (an icepick grip with the blade facing out). Spinning through a group of attackers he looks something like some old movies of O Sensei. Gozo Shioda Sensei gives a similar impression of ceaselessly spinning in old videos when he is attacked by several people at once. So maybe there is a lesson there for us against multiple attackers. Always be in motion - turning and entering, entering and turning.

There are other interesting concepts in Zatoichi. [I]Ninkyo[/I] is the concept of chivalry promoted by the forerunners of the yakuza gangs - with the idea of caring for the poor and the weak. [I]Bushi no nasake[/I] is the idea of a samurai's compassion - especially looking after the weaker members of society. But in the Zatoichi movies the yakuza are often the exploiters and the samurai are mostly incidental or even allied with the evil side. So it is left to the anma - the blind masseur - to help when someone is in trouble. 

Takeshi Kitano's [I]hommage[/I] movie Zatoichi was released in 2003. I liked it but it wasn't in the same class as the original Zatoichi movies. In the original movies Zatoichi was played by Shintaro Katsu. He had great charisma as an actor. He also had his own production company and wrote and directed movies. He had some troubles with the law and the establishment in Japan because of drugs. There was also an unbelievable accident during the filming of the last Zatoichi movie. A stuntman was killed in a fight scene because one of the prop swords turned out to be a real katana. A few years later a similar freak accident killed Brandon Lee during the filming of The Crow when a blank cartridge apparently fired a real bullet.  

There was a nice Hollywood version of Zatoichi called Blind Fury starring Rutger Hauer. 

The Kitano and the Hollywood versions are watchable and enjoyable. But the Shintaro Katsu versions are unforgettable.  



[I]At the end of the Zatoichi movies this is the final song played over the credits. The song is a kind of lullaby in enka (Japanese modern popular ballad) style. The singer is Shintaro Katsu himself. He was an accomplished musician and singer. 
[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJhpESRxY_k[/url]

Trailer/preview of a Zatoichi movie
[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=no7ZFU4sCUw&feature=related[/url]

Article about Zatoichi, including his possible influence on Columbo and Kung Fu. 
[url]http://www.hackwriters.com/zatoichi2.htm[/url]

wikipedia articles:
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shintaro_Katsu[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zatoichi[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blind_Fury[/url]

[I]great illustration: zatoichi by Kenji Takabayashi [url]http://www.flickr.com/photos/kenjibaseball/2060848714/[/url] photostream [url]http://www.flickr.com/photos/kenjibaseball/with/2060848714/[/url] used with his very kind permission[/I][/I]

© niall matthews 2010]]></body>
	<date>12-10-2010</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="4075">
	<title><![CDATA[koshinage koshi waza hip throw]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[[I][highlight]There is no point in destroying your uke because then you will no longer have a training partner.[/highlight]
How to Do a Hip Throw (o-goshi) by eHow.com[/I]

[highlight]"So I said can you show us some hip throws?
And he said no, but I can show you some  cool pins..."[/highlight]

Koshinage is the name used for all hip throws in aikido. In judo hip throws - koshi waza - are a category of throws. 

In aikido there are two basic types of koshinage. 

[I][B]old-style koshinage[/B][/I]
In the first type of koshinage at the instant of the throw the uke is at ninety degrees to tori. There is not really a comparable throw in modern judo but the equivalent right-angle body position appears in kataguruma (uke is loaded onto tori's shoulders rather than the waist). 

Tori breaks uke's balance and then rolls uke approximately over the line of the belt off to the side. The hip movement in this throw is much less pronounced. This throw is the traditional aikido koshinage and O Sensei can be seen doing it in old photos and film. The older generation of Aikikai teachers sometimes used this technique. For example Sadateru Arikawa Sensei did this version.

[I]O Sensei doing koshinage (from the aikiweb forum discussion below): [url] http://img248.imageshack.us/i/koshiuz9.jpg[/url][/I]

If you look at the animation of kataguruma you can see the similarities with traditional aikido koshinage.
[I][url]http://judoinfo.com/images/animations/blue/kataguruma.htm[/url][/I]

[I][B]judo-style koshinage[/B][/I]
In the second type of koshinage uke is behind tori at the moment of the throw. Tori breaks uke's balance and with a sharp twisting hip movement - almost a flick - throws uke directly to the front. 

Animation of ogoshi [url]http://judoinfo.com/images/animations/blue/ogoshi.htm[/url]

[I][B]history of koshinage[/B][/I]
This second judo-style koshinage has some disadvantages for real self-defence because for an instant you turn your back on uke. So the technique has to be perfect with no weak points - accurately breaking uke's balance. That is probably why this style was not incorporated into aikido originally.

I was at a seminar in Tokyo some years ago with Shoji Nishio Sensei. He said clearly that because of his background in judo he had [I]personally[/I] introduced most of the koshinage into aikido. So he was talking about the second judo-style koshinage. 

It's true that teachers who have some experience in judo have very powerful koshinage. For example I remember Seiichi Sugano Sensei had a great koshinage. Also Kenji Shimizu Sensei of Tendoryu Aikido has a very dynamic koshinage.

[B][I]koshinage in aikido today[/I][/B]
Some dojos teach koshinage as a normal aikido technique. But it's also true that in many dojos in Japan koshinage is not really thought of as aikido and so it is not included in training at all. At the Aikikai hombu dojo there are only a few teachers who teach it regularly.

So the result of all this is that for a lot of people koshinage has become a little bit intimidating. 

On the other side people who have done judo wonder what all the fuss is about. Ogoshi - a simple hip throw with tori's arm wrapped around uke's waist is one of the very first techniques taught in judo. In the Kodokan in Tokyo it is taught to beginners after about one month of learning ukemi and the basics of judo. 

So if a white belt can do a hip throw after one month why are even some experienced aikidoka intimidated by koshinage? 

[I][B]ukemi[/B][/I]
One big reason is the ukemi.
In judo ukemi are - mostly - in a down direction. 
In aikido mae ukemi are - mostly - in a forward direction. That's what mae means. That's why most aikido dojos teach a mae ukemi with the leg bent. That allows you to get into an attacking position facing any direction. In judo both legs are kept fairly straight in mae mawari ukemi and some of the impact is absorbed by striking the tatami with your feet. So a judo ukemi is kinder on the body for hard throws, especially for beginners. 

Related to that is that in a traditional judo dojo the tatami is sprung. One person walking across a dojo can create vibrations at the other side of the dojo. The sprung tatami mats are excellent for absorbing judo throws which are often uke plus tori hitting the ground together. Aikido dojo mats are traditionally much harder. Hard mats are safer because it's not so easy to twist your ankle. They are much better for rolls too. In aikido the uke rolls away from danger and is ready to attack again immediately. In judo the throw is the end of the technique. 

In the end it's not rocket science. If you do the ukemi from koshi nage after every training it's going to feel comfortable in a few months. If you do the ukemi from koshi nage every few months it's going to take a long, long time to improve. Crash mats can help beginners to overcome the fear but in the end like most things in aikido it comes down to practice. Then more practice. And then more practice.

[I][B]the throw[/B][/I]
Keep your feet, knees and legs parallel. Your feet should be like the number eleven. Your legs should look like a downhill skier's. It's very dangerous to let your knees splay out - uke might hit one on the way down. 

Break uke's balance! Lower your hips well below uke's hips. Get good tight contact with uke. All basic points. As you twist uke over your hips raise them sharply by partly straightening your legs to get a dynamic throw.

There are a few things in aikido which are open to criticism from other budo. For example I'll talk about sword work another time. But koshinage is one. If your dojo doesn't do koshinage that's fine - it's not absolutely necessary in aikido. But if you do it don't do it half-heartedly. I don't want to accept that a judo white belt can do a more effective hip throw than an aikido yudansha. Neither should you. 



[I]List of judo techniques [url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_judo_techniques[/url]

Ogoshi [url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O_Goshi[/url]

How to Do a Hip Throw (o-goshi) by eHow.com [url]http://www.ehow.com/how_4716702_hip-throw-ogoshi.html[/url]

Aikiweb forum thread discussion about koshinage (which I found while I was looking for an illustration of koshinage on the internet!) [url]http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2165[/url][/I]

[I]great action shot: O Goshi by Jonathan Beck [url]http://www.flickr.com/photos/majorconfusion/3495097925/[/url] photostream [url]http://www.flickr.com/photos/majorconfusion/with/3495097925/[/url] used with his very kind permission[/I]

[I]By chance this same shot was captured on video here:
[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZNzQpinzbY[/url]
Check it out - keeping in mind that Joe's opponent is doing his best not to be thrown while doing his best to throw him. Joe gets it done though! So in aikido keiko without the resistance and blocking from the uke this should be a piece of cake. Right? So koshinage is not a big deal.[/I]

© niall matthews 2010]]></body>
	<date>12-03-2010</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="4072">
	<title><![CDATA[martial arts tests 2: how to take them]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[[I]Daniel: [highlight]Hey, what kind of belt do you have?[/highlight]
Mr Miyagi: [highlight]Canvas. JC Penney, $3.98. You like?[/highlight]
The Karate Kid[/I]

[I]before the test[/I]
Prepare seriously. Make sure you know the curriculum. Practise often. Especially for your first test try to remember the names of the techniques.

[I]the day of the test[/I]
Try to stay as calm and quiet as your life lets you. If you can, leave a clear buffer of time before the test. Go for a walk or sit down and have a hot drink. Try to avoid distractions. 

Go to the dojo as early as you can. If you clean the mats before training in your dojo try to get there in time to do that - if you get there very early do it on your own.

Change into your gi slowly and deliberately. Many professional sports players have rituals they try not to vary. It's like preparing for battle. 

When you enter the dojo bow slowly and formally with a feeling of gratitude. Look at the dojo. This place is where you are going to do a great test. This is your space.

Warm up thoroughly. Do some ukemi. Get your blood flowing and get rid of any stiffness or lethargy. Now you're ready to do a great test.

If you have to wait while other people are testing occasionally move your legs and ankles and feet and toes. It's not cool to fall over when you stand up.

Use the adrenalin as a help to peak at the right moment. 

[I]the  test [/I]
Be confident.

Be sharp. Now is not the time to be slow and thoughtful.

Finish all your techniques clearly and decisively with zanshin - remaining mind. 

If you make a mistake in a technique don't panic. It's probably best to continue to the end and then do it again correctly. Most teachers are not looking for an excuse to fail you. They are looking at your overall attitude and approach and all of your training.

Listen carefully to the instructions. If you don't understand something ask.

Breathe! Try to control your breathing and keep it as slow as you can.

[I]after the test[/I]
If you have a chance after the test ask for some feedback while your teacher's memory is fresh and so is yours. That gives you something specific to work on for the future. 

Work on it.

I was going to add good luck but In Japan there isn't the same concept of luck or chance for a test. You do it all with your own effort. You don't need luck. So fight. Gambatte kudasai.

[I]nice photo of test judges: black belt test by bob reid [url]http://www.flickr.com/photos/paladinsf/5069624463/in/photostream/[/url] photostream [url]http://www.flickr.com/photos/paladinsf/with/5069624463/[/url] used under creative commons licence and with his very kind permission[/I]

© niall matthews 2010]]></body>
	<date>11-26-2010</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="4066">
	<title><![CDATA[Aikido Tests]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[[I][highlight]I was thrown out of college for cheating on the metaphysics exam; I looked into the soul of the boy sitting next to me.[/highlight]
Woody Allen[/I]

Last week I was asked about promotion tests. If your teacher asks you to test do you have to test? 

[U]Not to test[/U]
I think once you have shodan and a black belt it's OK not to test if you are really not interested in grades. But if you have trained for a long time and you still have a white belt there is maybe a danger of becoming a Q-car. A Q-car (in the US a sleeper car) is a modest-looking car with a hidden powerful engine. Like a VW Beetle with a Porsche engine. Hello. Surprise! The name came from the Q-ships. They were originally warships disguised as innocent merchant ships to invite attacks from submarines. When the submarines surfaced to attack the Q-ship revealed its guns. It sounds like advice from The Art of War by Sun Tzu ("all warfare is based on deception") or The Book of Five Rings by Miyamoto Musashi. Or Captain Morgan the pirate. 

I knew one man with a white belt who had a solid background in several martial arts and quite a few years of aikido training who surprised a few shihan with his powerful grip and attacks. So if you have a white belt and your teacher asks you to take a test it's probably a good idea to do it.

If a test is too expensive to fit in your financial priorities of course just decide not to test. But talk it over with your teacher.

[U]To test[/U]
In Japan the traditional way is very easy. You don't have to think about it. Your teacher will come up to you one day and tell you that it's about time for you to take a test. Asking you is also letting you know that your teacher thinks you are ready. As long as you prepare thoroughly the test itself should be OK. 

Another kind of test is the surprise test. The bad point about it is that you don't have time to prepare. But the good point about it is that you don't have time to prepare.

These tests are almost ceremonial. If you weren't good enough you probably wouldn't have been asked. 

A common approach to tests in modern budo is that you put yourself forward when you have fulfilled the requirements of time and training. Because it's easy to apply there is a much higher failure rate. 

Finally to test or not to test comes down to trust. If you trust your teacher follow his or her advice. Your teacher knows and you might suspect that a promotion (apart from preparing for and taking the test which concentrates your thinking and is good in itself) will affect your aikido in a very positive way. 

Before the test you feel that you're not ready for it. Then afterwards a strange thing happens. You grow into it - it pulls you upwards. People look at you differently and you have a responsibility - to yourself, as well as to the new grade and of course to your teacher - to be a good representative of the new grade. The very best representative of the new grade. 
 
How to prepare for a test, how to do a test, and promotions by recommendation - suisen - without a test will have to wait for another day and another blog post...

[I]wikipedia links:
Q-ships [url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Q-ship[/url]
The Art of War [url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Art_of_War[/url]
The Book of Five Rings [url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_rings[/url]
Captain Morgan [url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Morgan[/url][/I]

[I]Very cool photo of a VW Beetle: Stereo-winds / Estereo-gases, Poblet, Tarragona (Spain) by santi [url]http://www.flickr.com/photos/smb_flickr/3178362166/[/url] photostream [url]http://www.flickr.com/photos/smb_flickr/[/url] used under creative commons licence and with his very kind permission[/I]

© niall matthews 2010]]></body>
	<date>11-20-2010</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="4060">
	<title><![CDATA[elbow in tight...]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[[I][highlight]He'll always tell you he was a basketball player in a football player's body. He was my toughest competition. Taught me how to shoot, the whole form thing about keeping your elbow in, all the basics. He helped, and I pretty much give all the credit to him.[/highlight]
Alison Bales, WNBA Atlanta Dream[/I]

In many, many sports - like tennis, golf, weightlifting, kayaking, baseball and basketball, say, just to take a few at random - from the beginning players are often told to keep their elbows close to their bodies. It's a simple concept. Your body is strong like a tree trunk - but your arms are weak like the branches. So the tighter you keep your elbows in to your central core the stronger your posture.

But it's a little more subtle - and interesting - than that in the martial arts. Of course a block in karate is solid when your arm is close to your body. But in kendo or kenjutsu if your elbows are in too tight when you raise the sword you can block your own vision. And in judo if your elbows are in too tight some techniques can be weak and ineffective. 

Your elbow has to be close to your body. But not too close. In tight. But free.

So in aikido keep your elbow in tight and move your arm by first moving your waist. And try extending your hand by extending your elbow, not the hand itself. 

[I]basketball photo: Hang time.....basketball begins! by Jeffrey K Edwards [url]http://www.flickr.com/photos/c6cowboy/4255604201/[/url] photostream [url]http://www.flickr.com/photos/c6cowboy/with/4255604201/[/url] used under creative commons licence and with his very kind permission[/I]

© niall matthews 2010]]></body>
	<date>11-12-2010</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="4053">
	<title><![CDATA[MAD music/aikido/dance]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[[highlight][I]Don't, more music, don't stop the dance[/highlight]
Bryan Ferry[/I]

Some teachers teach aikido like dance - in a way that's not at all martial. I have seen synchronized demonstrations where everyone is doing the same technique in the same way at the same time like synchronized swimming. Hapkido is a Korean martial art derived from Daito Ryu aikijujutsu. It is written &#21512;&#27671;&#36947; the same as aikido. In hapkido they use music as a background for training. 

At the bottom of a forum thread about dancing [url]http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=18894[/url] there was a serendipitous link to a very interesting article, [I]Deep Within Or Dancing Around[/I] by Paul Schweer [url]http://www.aikiweb.com/columns/pschweer/2006_12.html[/url]. 

His guitar teacher told him to [I]play the chord like it wants to be played[/I]. That's the way to do aikido too. 

There are some clear parallels between budo and music and dancing that go beyond body movement. Timing and rhythm and flow, for example. And ma ai - the critical distance (the ma ai in music is in rests and breaks). And balance. And connection. 

If we look more closely at what O Sensei was doing at the end of his life perhaps it's not a parallel at all. Maybe that's what O Sensei was really doing. Maybe he was dancing. I don't mean in that diluted way of some budo training. I mean real dancing. Dancing from his soul. Dancing for the gods.

[I]picture of Matisse's Dance (La Danse) from Wikipedia used under creative commons licence[/I]

© niall matthews 2010]]></body>
	<date>11-05-2010</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="4049">
	<title><![CDATA[Naming of Aikido]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[[highlight][I]Yesterday,
We had daily cleaning. And to-morrow morning,
We shall have what to do after firing. But to-day,
To-day we have naming of parts.[/highlight]
Naming of Parts by Henry Reed[/I]

I heard on the BBC that the most advanced nuclear submarine in the world, HMS Astute, ran aground off the coast of Scotland&#1567; Way to go with the naming. By the way that's the first time I've used an irony mark (check out the thread about Omotokyo [url]http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=18832[/url]). 

So I was thinking about naming. Judo is a great name. It's short and powerful and it contains the essence of the art itself: the way of softness. Of course a lot of people who do judo forget that. Kendo is a simple clear name: the way of the sword. Karate on its own - empty hand - is a cool and succinct name but when -do - the way - is added it seems like an afterthought: karatedo. In kobudo - old martial arts - a name I always liked is kage-ryu kenjutsu - shadow style of the sword. It became shinkage-ryu - new shadow style - in the sixteenth century but that doesn't have quite the same ring.

The naming of aikido is a little vague. I don't think I've ever seen a good translation of it. Blending + Energy + Way. In Wikipedia it says: [I]Aikido is often translated as "the Way of unifying (with) life energy" or as "the Way of harmonious spirit."[/I] Well, not often. I've never heard them. It is sometimes called the way of harmony but that doesn't mention the ki part. I have seen the way of harmonizing energy.

Then there are a few names which try to capture the spirit of aikido rather than translate the words. The way of peace. The way of love. The way of the universe. They sound a little trite maybe? So if you have a suggestion please write a comment. 

So perhaps we're back to the way of harmony. But I think I'll go with the way of truth. That's what it is for me.

[I]This is the very cool and powerful poem by Henry Reed, Naming of Parts [url]http://www.solearabiantree.net/namingofparts/namingofparts.html[/url][/I]

[I]News report on Her Majesty's Submarine Astute: [url] http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/defence/8079960/HMS-Astute-worlds-most-advanced-nuclear-submarine-runs-aground.html[/url][/I]

[I]cool motorbike photo Bikekido by Chris Patterson [url]http://www.flickr.com/photos/dimmerswitch/3769587250/[/url] photostream [url]http://www.flickr.com/photos/dimmerswitch/with/3769587250/[/url] used under creative commons licence and with his very kind permission[/I]

© niall matthews 2010]]></body>
	<date>10-29-2010</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="4044">
	<title><![CDATA[best type for aikido?]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[I'm from the southeast of England. We talk faster there and rush around more than the rest of the UK (although they would probably say aimlessly). Then my family moved to Yorkshire - in the north. I go there when I go back to the UK. I was there in the summer of 2010 (I gave a seminar at the Asoryu Aikido Club in Huddersfield). 

There are regional stereotypes about people everywhere. Yorkshire people have the reputation of being direct, down-to-earth, stubborn and very warm and open once you get to know them. I started wondering if the Yorkshire personality was the ideal personality for aikido. Hmm. Direct is good. That's irimi: entering and closing the distance. Down-to-earth? Good too. It has to be real - any pretence or pretentiousness would be the end. Stubborn? Good too! If you're not stubborn and determined you're not going to get very far in any martial art. But there's another side to that. Stubbornness can be a negative thing too - it must never be just hardheaded and obstinate (just read some of the forums…). Warm and open? That's good too - in aikido you have the feeling of welcoming the attacker with a warm "Irasshaimase!" (what they say in Japan when you go into a restaurant). So this is starting to sound like a theory.

Let's try it for different places. A study in the Wall Street Journal had the starting point: "Why were his neighbors in Texas so relaxed, so courteous, so obsessed with sports? Why did New Yorkers seem so tense and inward-focused, often brusque to the point of rudeness?" Relaxed is good! Courteous is great - all that reigi (bowing and etiquette)! Obsessed with sports? Good physical awareness! Tense? Well let's say aware and alert so that's a good thing, right! Inward-focused? Great concentration!  Brusque? No wasted time! 

So actually this is all a game. There isn't an aikido type. That's the point. Anyone can do it. Well, any human. If you're a Vulcan maybe you should try something else. Aikidoka don't analyze - they do.

[I]Cool Wall Street Journal article on traits by state in the USA with an interactive personality map: [url]http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122211987961064719.html[/url][/I]

[I]very cool and dramatic photo: huddersfield station by Roger Saunders [url]http://www.flickr.com/photos/39247027@N00/1142176496/[/url] photostream [url]http://www.flickr.com/photos/39247027@N00/with/1142176496/[/url] used under creative commons licence with his very kind permission[/I]

© niall matthews 2010]]></body>
	<date>10-21-2010</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="4039">
	<title><![CDATA[shiho nage: the acid test]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[[I]When posture (shi sei, form and force) is perfect, the movement that follows is perfect as well.
Taisen Deshimaru, The Zen Way to the Martial Arts[/I]

You can do this acid test for almost any technique but it's particularly clear for shiho nage because of the distinct point - the turn - in the middle of the technique. You can do the check on your own first if you want and then with a partner. Of course you can dissect any technique into many parts and in many ways but for this broad-brush approach I just want to break shiho nage down into three phases. Katatedori is the simplest to analyze but it's the same for all variations.

1. before the technique
2. the technique (and especially the turn)
3. after the technique

Step 1 is really easy because you are in complete control of your body before the technique begins and before the uke takes a grip. So all you have to do is keep a good posture with your shoulders relaxed and your chest open. Easy, right. Anyone can do it. It's your body and no-one is gripping it so you can be perfectly relaxed.

Step 2 is the technique itself. Do it normally but as you turn, and immediately after the turn, check the position of your chest and shoulders. Inevitably you're going to notice that your chest has closed and your shoulders have lifted automatically. Complete the throw as normal keeping zanshin at the finish which leads into step 3.

Step 3 is also easy because you are in complete control of your body again after the uke has been thrown and the technique has finished. So again consciously keep a great posture, full of zanshin and with your shoulders relaxed and your chest open.

So the second step is the acid test. That's going to tell you everything you need to know. If your shoulders are up and your chest is closed after that turn you're not doing it right yet. It will take many, many years of sincere training to get it right.   

By the time you can do that turn naturally - with your chest open and without lifting your shoulders - you'll probably be a shihan. But in the meantime you have complete control over your body for step one and step three. And two out of three ain't bad.

[I]
cool photo: Signpost: Bramhope Cross by Tim Green aka atoach [url]http://www.flickr.com/photos/atoach/3912988890/[/url], photostream: [url] http://www.flickr.com/photos/atoach/[/url] used under creative commons licence. Shiho nage is the four directions throw. Two out of three ain't bad by Meatloaf: [url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8JA9Qs2Mho[/url][/I]

© niall matthews 2010]]></body>
	<date>10-15-2010</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="4038">
	<title><![CDATA[outside the dojo? yep. spiritual? yep.]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[Check out the forum thread [I]Real aikido is not just for the dojo[/I]. 

[url]http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=18803[/url]

I didn't like the way some people aggressively and superciliously jumped on a new member. 

From here these are all quotes showing that many teachers believe that there is a spiritual dimension to aikido and that aikido practice extends beyond the dojo.

If you have a comment about the thread itself could you maybe put it in the thread please so the discussion doesn't get splintered? Other comments are fine here. Thanks!

[I]It is important to know that aikido includes a philosophy and ideas that go beyond budo. Budo is a subset of aikido, but aikido is not a subset of budo. Therefore, developing aikido technique as a complete form includes, in addition to the principles of combat that will be discussed here, other elements such as ki (and its constituent elements), kokyu ryoku (breath power), and spiritual functions. 

Mitsunari Kanai Sensei 8 dan Aikikai
[url]http://www.aikidoonline.com/articles/shihankai_articles/kanai/Kanai_Tech_Aikido_Ch2.php[/url]

Training has physical and spiritual aspects. 

The body has its limits but the mind has no limit. The mind is free and unrestrained. Even though you can tie the body up with a rope (matter) you cannot tie up the mind. Those things which tie the mind are faith and illusion. The mind moves the body and the body can enrich or impoverish the mind.

Let us reflect on the meaning of training. It seems that training is for cultivating proper technique through repetition, but this is only the outer appearance.

By learning techniques you gain mental confidence and composure but unless you can apply these qualities correctly in daily life, they are meaningless. What is necessary and acceptable at the present time is not great physical strength or technique (which is expressed by the body) but rather a gentle spirit.

It is important to see through to the truth. To achieve this you need the means (technique). However, you should not be shackled by techniques but rather should understand their meaning. It is important not to be shackled by techniques. This is possible through a knowledge of their limitations. Those who are shackled by technique should understand that this is an illusion. The danger of such people mistaking this illusion for the truth very often exists. 

The spirit reveals correct meaning. This cannot be achieved in one day. Over a long period of time, unconsciously you will become aware of it. Since this is not a thing which can be expressed directly in words mere thinking is not enough. We should realize that it is here that the origin of vanity and illusion lies. We should always reflect upon and discover the importance of training humbly.

Yoshio Kuroiwa Sensei 6 dan Aikikai
[url]http://www.aikidojournal.com/article?articleID=558[/url]

The Japanese martial arts were inspired originally by the goal of victory on the battlefield. In their original form they are out of place in the modern world. The founder of Aikido dedicated himself to establishing a martial art that would meet the needs of a contemporary people but not be an anachronism.

That Aikido is a modern budo does not simply mean that it has taken on contemporary features found in modernized forms such as judo, kendo and karate. While it has inherited the spiritual aspects of the martial arts and emphasizes the training of mind and body, the others have emphasized competition, stressed their athletic nature and placed priority on winning.

In contrast, Aikido is unique in its refusal to become a competitive sport. Contests which fuel egotism, self-concern and disregard for others are detrimental to budo whose ultimate aim is to become free of the self, to attain "no-self," thus realizing what is truly human.

In our world of machines, war and disintegrating values, the realization of the perfection of humanity through Aikido is the way toward attainment of world peace and harmony.

Parallelling this spiritual uniqueness is the physical embodiment of these ideals. The single most outstanding characteristic that distinguishes Aikido as a budo form is that we evade or parry, we enter into the attack, and we handle the situation by inviting the attacker into the circle that we create.

2nd Doshu Kisshomaru Ueshiba Sensei
[url]http://www.aikidoonline.com/articles/second_doshu/K_Ueshiba_Essense_Aikido.php[/url]

It's very difficult to separate the technique from the spirit or the spiritual principles of Aikido. It is through practice that you have to combine them and bring them together.

In the Japanese tradition, by practicing you train your body, mind and soul at the same time. Also, the Founder promoted the spirit of protecting everything - all of the things surrounding you. It is something that comes out of a very keen training of body and mind together. So you have to combine the two.

In brief, to make it very simple, Aikido's training is already designed to do that, so it is not only one-sided training, either the physical side or the spiritual side. The Aikido training itself already combines the two.

3rd Doshu Moriteru Ueshiba Sensei
[url]http://www.aikidoonline.com/articles/third_doshu/Moriteru_Ueshiba_Interview_Part_2.php[/url]

Aikido is Budo. It is a special kind of martial art that stresses spiritual development.

While sports focus entirely on competition, the primary purpose of Aikido is spiritual development of the entire human being. In Aikido, we never resort to trickery, deception, or excessive force to overcome an opponent. This is how Aikido differs from sports.

In conclusion, we must state again that the primary purpose of Aikido is spiritual development. It is Budo, and the art emerged from a milieu in which the matter of life and death was decided in an instant. Aikido looks at the entire human being, on the deepest level , something that sports cannot do. Aikido employs the training methods of the traditional martial arts within the context of modern society.

3rd Doshu Moriteru Ueshiba Sensei
[url]http://www.aikidoonline.com/articles/third_doshu/Moriteru_Ueshiba_Q_A_1.php[/url]

One must, for example, maintain good Aikido posture and movement throughout the day. More important, however, is to maintain a modest attitude, and harmonize mind and body. In the realm of human relationships, one must avoid conflict and resolve problems in a harmonious Aikido fashion. In order to do this well, one must above all be modest and humble.

3rd Doshu Moriteru Ueshiba Sensei
[url]http://www.aikidoonline.com/articles/third_doshu/Moriteru_Ueshiba_Q_A_2.php[/url]

Aikido expresses with the body the order of the universe. If the order of the universe is applied correctly to the body, technique and health naturally blossom. If the order of the universe is applied correctly to daily life, education, work and personality naturally blossom. If the order of the universe is applied to society, social harmony and relations between oneself and others naturally blossoms. 

Nobuyoshi Tamura Sensei 8 dan Aikikai
[url]http://www.aikidoonline.com/articles/shihankai_articles/tamura/Tamura_Aikido_Etiquette_Transmission.php[/url]

Well, you'd better not try to separate between spiritual discipline and physical discipline. You cannot separate them. Like any individual human substance, the substantial nature cannot be divided into aspects, body and spirit. They are one. So you take Aikido's form, we train, there's spirit already there. Without spirit there is no form. Through the form, spirit is manifested; it's already there.

Kasunari Chiba Sensei 8 dan Aikikai
[url]http://www.aikidoonline.com/articles/shihankai_articles/chiba/Chiba_Interview_Part3.php[/url]

We say that Aikido is the art of love and peace, but love is not something easily attained. Although we can say with words that we are friends, to really mean it is another thing. For me, budo inspires us to open our hearts and teaches us how to do it. It takes time, but when the heart finds this opening it can communicate with other kindred spirits. But this is not something that comes easily.

Takafumi Takeno Sensei 8 dan Yoshinkan
[url]http://www.yoshinkan-aikido.com/takenosensei.htm[/url]

I definitely keep my one point at all times. If you do it only in the dojo, you cannot develop your ki because the training you receive in the dojo is too short. Only an hour or two a day is not enough. You must do it until it becomes a part of you and you do it naturally - unconsciously like breathing.

Koichi Tohei Sensei 10 dan Aikikai, Founder of Ki Society and Shin Shin Toitsu Aikido
[url]http://books.google.com/books?id=AtoDAAAAMBAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false[/url][/I]

[I]
cool calligraphy: Freedom - Libertad by &#1085;&#963;&#1074;&#963; / Pierangelo Rosati [url]http://www.flickr.com/photos/hobo_pd/87750279/[/url], photostream: [url]http://www.flickr.com/photos/hobo_pd/[/url] used under creative commons licence. Freedom includes the freedom to voice our opinions.[/I]

© niall matthews 2010]]></body>
	<date>10-13-2010</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="4031">
	<title><![CDATA[go no sen butterfly]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[One night last week on the train going home I suddenly noticed a butterfly motionless inside the carriage. Perhaps it was overwhelmed by the electric lights and all the people and the noise. I imagined it patiently trying to analyze the situation. That's anthropomorphism - attributing human reactions to animals (well, and insects). 

So I thought finally when it had worked out the time between stations and how long the doors opened for it might make its move and fly away to freedom. But of course it didn't. It stayed there motionless. Bewildered or frightened. Or still waiting for the right moment.

A moth doesn't do that. It doesn't wait patiently to think about anything. It just gets on with trying to escape. It flies off in a direction at random and if that doesn't work it changes direction and starts again in a different direction and keeps moving tirelessly careless of hitting obstacles until finally it finds an opening and escapes.

So you are probably thinking he's going to say we have to be patient like the butterfly. Serene too, maybe. No. I'm not. We have to act. Like the moth. But the problem is not to go off in the wrong direction. How to know the right direction? Well that might take years of training.

There is a terrible danger in waiting. In being a butterfly. In inertia. Waiting until the right moment. The right moment might never come. You have to act. Saki no saki. I remember at an instuctors' seminar listening to a long explanation from Shigenobu Okumura Sensei (9 dan) about aikido being a go no sen no budo - not a sen no sen no budo. He meant that aikido is for self-defence, not attack. But then I asked him about saki no saki. Attacking the attacker before the attack has taken shape. But after (or as) it has been decided in the mind of the attacker. And he agreed (maybe reluctantly - it was against the theme of the seminar!) that saki no saki was the ultimate budo. They are the same kanji: sen no sen and saki no saki. So aikido is not sen no sen, but it is saki no saki. Go figure.

But don't be a butterfly.
[I]
cool photo: Butterfly in a train [url]http://www.flickr.com/photos/xtyler/3448454492/[/url] used by kind permission of Alex No Logo aka blackheartking.com (xtyler). photostream: [url]http://www.flickr.com/photos/xtyler/[/url] under creative commons licence[/I]

© niall matthews 2010]]></body>
	<date>10-08-2010</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="4024">
	<title><![CDATA[Good teachers. Great teachers.]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[My first teacher Kinjo Asoh Sensei (7 dan) was maybe a little unusual when he started aikido in the 1950s. He was 53 years old. The younger students were in awe of this older guy who trained even harder than they did (I know because some of them told me). They called it eight days a week then. Every day once plus one extra training.

There are celebrations next year for the fiftieth anniversary of O Sensei's trip to Hawaii. So he went in 1961. Asoh Sensei went to see him off. O Sensei called him aside and told him he had to do everything he could to catch kokyu ryoku. "Kokyu ryoku is everything," he told him.  

O Sensei told him that several times over the years but Asoh Sensei remembered that time especially. He told me the same thing. I have to get kokyu ryoku. Kokyu ryoku is everything and without it aikido is nothing. My second teacher Sadateru Arikawa Sensei (9 dan) told me almost the exact same thing.

So what is it? Kokyu ryoku. Breath power. O Sensei said it was everything. If you can catch it aikido becomes so easy and so simple. 

To get it you have to lose power. All power. If you try to do a technique with even a little power still remaining you will block yourself and block your own progress. 

A jujutsu/judo teacher showed me a technique from a kata recently. The technique was completely effective. There was no weak point (suki) anywhere. But it hurt. I have noticed this before with senior koryu people. You can't reverse the technique. Everything is accurate. But taking the ukemi hurts. It's not their fault. If that's all they've ever seen or ever felt that's the way they are going to do the technique. 

But one day you will feel real aikido. Real breath power. It won't hurt. Anywhere. You don't know what's happening. You follow the technique because you don't have any choice. Not because someone is making you do something but because that's what you want to do. The technique feels good. Wonderful even. The difference between uke and tori becomes blurred. You're the uke but you're part of the technique. You're doing the technique together. Time stops. It's a kind of magic.

So that's how you can tell the difference between a good teacher and a great one.

And how to lose power? Well that's your problem.

[I]Very, very cool ink work: 'Irimi, the union' used by kind permission of BudoK chan 0_o.... [url]http://www.flickr.com/photos/mononokenjoy/4718719681/[/url], photostream [url]http://www.flickr.com/photos/mononokenjoy/[/url]. Thanks![/I]

© niall matthews 2010]]></body>
	<date>10-01-2010</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="4021">
	<title><![CDATA[sword cut]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[I trained in kenjutsu and battojutsu (iaido) years ago. It really helped me with my aikido. 

For example:
1. Ma ai - the critical distance. And if you are close enough to strike you are close enough to be struck.
2. Aikido strikes when you take ukemi. How to cut straight in shomenuchi and yokomenuchi.
3. How to use a sword. How to hold and handle a sword. Sword etiquette - like how to hand a sword to another person.
4. Of course tachidori as uke and tori.

In battojutsu I made a mysterious discovery. 

When you draw a sword often you open your left hip by moving it backwards away from your drawing hand. That gives you more space to draw the sword. 

Then my aikido teacher told me to try doing the opposite and see what happened. He told me to draw the sword by throwing my left hip forward - towards the drawing hand. It was amazing. It was just as effective - maybe even a fraction faster. You can try it with a bokken in your belt.

So to get a certain result (finishing up with a blade in your hands ready to use) you could do two exactly opposite body movements. Away from the sword and towards the sword.

I never forgot that. Sometimes white is black. Sometimes black is red. Sometimes there is another answer. And sometimes you have to do the opposite of what you think you should do.

[I]Very cool picture: samurai sword used by kind permission of daliborlev [url]http://www.flickr.com/photos/mr_gonzales/3664052677/[/url], photostream [url]http://www.flickr.com/photos/mr_gonzales/[/url]. Thanks![/I]

© niall matthews 2010]]></body>
	<date>09-25-2010</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="4017">
	<title><![CDATA[Very 'eavy Very 'umble]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[[I]Be not ashamed, my brothers, to stand before the proud and the powerful
With your white robe of simpleness.
Let your crown be of humility, your freedom the freedom of the soul[/I]
The Sunset of the Century by the great Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore

[I]"If I may ‘umbly make the remark," said Uriah Heep, with a writhe…[/I]
David Copperfield by Charles Dickens

[I]…a sunao mind is an untrapped mind, free to adapt itself effectively to new circum¬stances. A person with this mind looks at things as they are at that moment and colours them with no special bias, emotionalism, or preconception.[/I]
My Management Philosophy by Konosuke Matsushita

Rachel Lapp (Kelly McGillis): [I]I should tell you this kind of coat doesn't have buttons. See? Hooks and eyes. [/I]
John Book (Harrison Ford): [I]Something wrong with buttons?[/I] 
Rachel Lapp: [I]Buttons are proud and vain, not plain.[/I] 

John Book:[I] How do I look - I mean, do I look Amish?[/I] 
Rachel Lapp: [nods] [I]You look plain.[/I]
Witness, directed by Peter Weir

[I]"…I had seen a good deal of him, liking him for his physical energy combined with a certain simplicity and modesty, though, indeed, he had nothing to be conceited about"[/I]
The Riddle of the Sands by Erskine Childers

Since Charles Dickens wrote about Uriah Heep in David Copperfield in 1850 humility hasn't had a great press. Although the British hard rock band Uriah Heep tried to rehabilitate his name starting with the album Very 'eavy Very 'umble.
 
But if we want to be real budoka we always have to be modest. If we become proud our progress is blocked. Sometimes - maybe even often - for ever. In Japanese modest is sunao. Sunao comes from the Japanese characters su &#32032; simple or pristine; and nao &#30452; straight or honest. So sunao means modest, honest and frank. It's linked to the zen concept of cutting away the ego. One unlucky thing about it is that we can't let our guard down. Ever. Every day we have consciously to keep that open, free, sincere and modest beginner's mind.

The late Kisaburo Osawa Sensei, one of the great aikido teachers, was asked once in an interview what single piece of advice he would give to senior aikidoka. He said, "I can only say don't become conceited."

[url]http://indianbydesign.wordpress.com/2010/06/03/150th-anniversary-rabindranath-tagore/[/url] very cool blog about Indian design
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rabindranath_Tagore[/url] wikipedia biography

[I]photo: let your crown be humility by Shira Golding [url]http://www.flickr.com/photos/boojee/312296517/[/url] used by very kind permission under creative commons licence[/I]

© niall matthews 2010]]></body>
	<date>09-17-2010</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="4013">
	<title><![CDATA[Bob Dylan/O Sensei]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[[I]"Does it really matter precisely when the young Robert Zimmerman first heard Pete Seeger sing?"[/I] 
Bruce Handy, reviewing [I]Bob Dylan in America[/I] by Sean Wilentz in the International Herald Tribune, September 2010

Wow yes. That's a great question. That gets right to the essence. Knowing when and where Dylan first heard Pete Seeger sing might help you with a music history test but it won't make you a better musician.  

And so does it really matter precisely when O Sensei first met Takeda Sokaku? Will knowing it make your aikido better? Even a little? One percent of one percent? Nah. 

If we look forward we can have a vision of the future. We can even change the future. But if we look back the past is already fixed. 

Voltaire said, [I]"Judge a person by their questions, rather than their answers."[/I] 

So choose your questions wisely. 

And I'll let Dylan have the final word.

[I]the present now
will later be past[/I]
[I](The times they are a-changin')[/I]

[I]poster by ROOTS UP on flickr [url]http://www.flickr.com/photos/pazwaz/3471259412/[/url] used under creative commons licence by very kind permission[/I]

© niall matthews 2010]]></body>
	<date>09-11-2010</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="4007">
	<title><![CDATA[Budo/DNA double helix]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[If one of your parents - or grandparents - does budo you can take one of about four possible deliberate approaches. 

1.You can do something completely different
2.You can do a different budo 
3.You can do the same budo casually
4.You can do the same budo seriously and follow in his or her footsteps, perhaps becoming a teacher of the next generation

But what if you don't even know?

My first experience with fighting arts (well if I don't count soccer or rugby - probably I should) was some boxing when I was a teenager. I also played chess - boxing just seemed to me to be like playing chess using your body (chessboxing when it appeared a few years ago was an unlikely but obvious development in sport for me!). I remember a match against a boy who had no time for an intellectual approach. He immediately hit me hard on the chin. A few years later he went to prison for doing the same thing to a police officer. Anyway many years later to my surprise I found out that one of my uncles had boxed professionally. 

I was interested in Japan and Japanese culture and I went to Japan when I was in my twenties. I studied and practiced aikido and some other martial arts seriously and hard with the best teachers in the world. Now nearly thirty years later I teach aikido and aikibudo and self-defence. 

When I was in England in August 2010 I spent some time with an uncle I hadn't seen for many years. I knew he had done a little judo as an adult but I had the impression he had started judo some time after I had started martial arts myself. We talked about budo a little. He was particularly interested in the philosophical aspects of budo. In the middle of our interesting conversation my uncle casually mentioned learning a couple of judo techniques when he was a boy. A few times they were useful and as a result he was never bullied. Then to my incredulity my uncle told me that my grandfather had taught them to him and that my grandfather had studied jujutsu. Neither my grandfather nor my parents had ever spoken of it to me. So I was getting kakutougi (fighting arts) DNA from both sides of my family, boxing from one side and Japanese budo from the other. And I had been completely unaware of both of them .  

So was my decision to go to Japan and were all my years of hard budo training already all hard-wired into me from birth?! Did I perhaps not have any choice?! Wow! The DNA double helix. My own little iemoto I didn't even know about. 

One final question. In David Van Elslande's great photo is the double helix DNA staircase going up or going down? 





[I]photo:[/I] Homemade DNA [I]by David Van Elslande [url]http://eurekastreet.deviantart.com/gallery/[/url][/I]






© niall matthews 2010]]></body>
	<date>09-03-2010</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="4000">
	<title><![CDATA[C/ENTER + SCISSORS]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[I taught a seminar at Asoryu Aikido Club in Huddersfield in the UK on 21 August 2010. This is an extra blog post about some of the things we covered.

Anyone who has any questions about the things we covered is welcome to write a comment below or to send me a message any time (whether you were at the seminar or not!). 

It was a beautiful sunny day and from the dojo there was a great view over the rolling English countryside. Everyone was keen and sincere. I enjoyed it a lot.

[I]Centre[/I]
The main theme of the seminar was CENTER. We covered basic points about centre:
 - Always keep your own centre. So your posture should be solid and strong and straight and your hips should be low. 
 - Break the attacker's centre in every technique. 
 - Techniques should be done in front of your centre line. 
 - Throw down your centre line.
 - For many techniques your centre should be as close as possible to uke's centre (for example irimi nage after you have entered behind the uke, or shiho nage before you turn)
 - Shomenuchi cuts should be made down your centre line like a sword cut. 
 - Yokomenuchi cuts start from your centre and finish in your centre.
 - When you are taking ukemi attack the tori with your centre.

[I]Irimi[/I]
I spelt C/ENTER like that because the second theme of the seminar was ENTER = IRIMI.
We did some irimi nage variations (omote and ura) from different attacks and with some different timings (early entry and late entry) and even some different finishes (omote and ura). Irimi nage can also finish with an immobilization on the ground or can finish with a standing choking technique.

As well as shomen uchi irimi nage we practised irimi from yokomen uchi. For the direct entry variation enter first towards the attacker's centre and only then move your block slightly outside into the striking arm. For the tai sabaki variation use your opposite hand to strike/cut down uke's face and centre. 

[I]Scissors[/I]
A third theme of the seminar was SCISSORS! This was an extra point we noticed during the techniques. 
- In irimi nage your arm in the throw coming down your centre is like scissors closing. 
 - The second scissors movement was a two-arm chest-high scissors cut also in front of your centre line. 
 - Then the third scissors movement was in tenchi nage when your hands are like scissors up and down your centre line. 

[I]Tenkan[/I]
We practised the four tenkan variations I mentioned in a forum thread. [url]http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=18256[/url].

[I]Ma ai[/I]
Doing atemi is helpful in developing the most effective ma ai - the critical distancing between tori and uke.

[I]Zanshin[/I]
Finish techniques with no weak points (suki). Your weight transfers to your front leg and the back leg is extended. Your centre controls uke.

There were some searching and interesting questions from the students.

[I]Breathing[/I]
We talked about breathing. In budo breathing in should usually be through the nose and should be short because that moment is when you are most vulnerable. Breathing out should be through the mouth and should be smooth and long. If possible you try to do one technique with one single breath. 

[I]Suikomi[/I]
One question was about breathing in as the uke attacks to draw or suck in the energy of the attack. This is called suikomi in Japanese. Related to that was that in aikido we don't usually set up uke for a throw quite so deliberately as they do in judo. Aikido is much freer but there is an element of suikomi in many techniques - one we practised was tenchi nage ura. 

[I]How to stop the uke twisting out of shiho nage[/I]
It's possible to do a very tight self-defence based technique to prevent this but this can be unpleasant and even painful so the best way is to make sure that you always take the uke's balance completely. From the beginning to the end of the technique there should be no possiblity of a counter. 

[I]Ushiro ryote dori[/I]
We did a basic ushiro ryote dori practice from a static attack to feel the real effectiveness of the technique - again using the centre line of the body.

We also practised ushiro ryote dori when uke grips your hands very strongly and close together behind your back. Swing your hips in one direction and then the other. A feint is often helpful here, either to manoeuvre uke's hands in front of you or to take them from behind for kote gaeshi.

[I]Walking[/I]
We talked about walking keeping contact with the tatami. This is called suri ashi. Keep a paper-thin gap between your feet and the tatami so you can move freely. Toes should be up when you move to keep fluid movements but at the finish of techniques toes grip the ground.

[I]Hanmi handachi katatedori shiho nage[/I]
Finally we also discussed breaking the uke's balance totally in hanmi handachi katatedori shiho nage.

[I]Thanks to Billy McAuley and Susan and their family for their warm welcome and to everyone who attended. Special thanks to Chris and Dave and Adam. Chris is the uke in the photo and you can read his always thoughtful blog on aikiweb too: [url]http://www.aikiweb.com/blogs/chris-wrights-blog-2960/[/url][/I]

© niall matthews 2010]]></body>
	<date>08-22-2010</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="3995">
	<title><![CDATA[Ghost and ki]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[Patrick Swayze died in September 2009 of pancreatic cancer. He was in a few popular movies, for example Road House and Dirty Dancing. I liked him very much in Point Break (which was directed by Kathryn Bigelow, who won the Oscar this year for The Hurt Locker). He was Bodhi, one of a gang of bankrobbers who wore Presidents of America masks. Keanu Reaves was Johnny Utah, the FBI agent who went undercover and became a surfer to try to catch them. There is a great quote in that movie. A tough old FBI hand looks at Johnny Utah and says "Guess we must just have ourselves an asshole shortage, huh?" He just says, "Not so far." It's a very cool movie. 

But I want to talk about Ghost. I think it was Patrick Swayze's most popular movie. He plays Sam Wheat, a young banker who moves in to a renovated loft apartment with his cool ceramic artist girlfriend (Demi Moore looking boyish). It's partly a romantic movie and there is a famous potter's wheel love scene with Unchained Melody by the Righteous Brothers on the soundtrack. 

When I saw Ghost in 1990 I remember thinking, "Hey, this is about ki!" (movie spoilers below…)

Suddenly Sam is shockingly killed in a mugging that goes wrong. But after his death his ghost stays on earth to try to protect his girlfriend from danger. 

Sam, now a ghost, has to learn from other ghosts (ghost sempai!) how to pass through doors effortlessly and then how to touch and move physical things when he doesn't have a body. These lessons are like aikido.

First the ghost of an old man in the hospital where he was taken tells him,

[I]Hey relax. It ain't like before, you know. It's a whole new ball of wax. Come here, I'll tell you a secret. Doors ain't as bad as you think. Zip zap, it ain't nothing at all…[/I] 

Then when he realizes that his girlfriend is in danger he persuades a disturbed ghost from a subway train to teach him how to move things. That ghost tells him,

[I]What are you doing? What the hell are you doing? You're trying to move it with your finger. You can't push it with your finger, you're dead! It's all in your mind. The problem with you is you still think you're real. You think you're wearing those clothes. You think you're crouched on that floor. Bullshit! You ain't got a body no more, son. It's all up here now. You want to move something you got to move it with your mind. You've got to focus. You hear what I'm saying. [/I]

So Sam asks him how he can focus. 

[I]I don't know how you focus. You just focus. You got to take all your emotions, all your anger, all your love, all your hate and push it way down here into the pit of your stomach, and then let it explode like a reactor. From your gut like I told you. Give it time. What else have you got.[/I]

Yes. Sounds like ki to me. You have to relax. Then when you catch it, it feels like you're doing nothing at all. And to get to that you have to learn to focus your energy. And it comes from the pit of your stomach. And it takes time. But what else have we got?

Whoopi Goldberg is in Ghost too. She is very funny as a kind of scam artist fake medium who pretends to contact departed loved ones in return for money. Despite herself she has inherited some psychic powers from her mother and she is the only one who can hear Sam's ghost voice. She was so good she won an Oscar. I found out that Patrick Swayze fought for Whoopi Goldberg to get that part. He was kind and cool. Any death is sad but when a good person dies an emptiness is left behind on the earth. Rest in peace, Patrick. 

Ghost: [url]http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0099653/[/url]
Point Break: [url]http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0102685/[/url]

[I]photo: RIP Patrick Swayze used by kind permission of Duncan ([url]http://www.flickr.com/photos/duncan/4139186023/[/url]) under creative commons licence[/I]

© niall matthews 2010]]></body>
	<date>08-20-2010</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="3991">
	<title><![CDATA[some summer camps]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[A training camp is called a gasshuku in Japanese. I remember one summer camp that was like an intense high school sports club summer camp. The training was outside on the grass (and the grass and earth stains were impossible to get out of our keikogi later). We had to clear all the pebbles from the grass before we started. Then after the training the black belts threw the white belts a hundred times. It was in the middle of the hot and humid Japanese summer. On the first day when we had a break in the middle of training a woman brought out a tray of cloudy white drinks. It was Calpis, a sweet fermented milk drink you dilute with water. It was the first time I had tasted it. On that hot day it tasted wonderful - like liquid silver. Ever since that day every time I drink it I remember that summer.

At one summer camp there were some university aikido clubs training at the same place. Some of the students knew me from Arikawa Sensei's class at the hombu dojo and they all came over and bowed politely to me. They trained very hard all day and they partied hard late into the night. On the way home from that camp all the trains were stopped because of a typhoon. We were lucky - it was only for a few hours. A week earlier they had stopped for two days.

The largest summer camp I've been to was at La Colle-sur-Loup in the south of France - not far from Nice. The teachers were Tamura Sensei and Yamada Sensei. It was in 1986. I know that because Tamura Sensei signed and dated his newly-published book in Japanese for me. It was just called Aikido. It's a magnificent heavy book. It's in French. It has some interesting historical information and photos but its best point is that it is full of photographs from cover to cover of clear, detailed sequences of techniques. I think it was published privately by some of Tamura Sensei's senior students. It is easily the best technical book ever published about aikido. Unfortunately it is out of print and almost impossible to find. I have seen copies on the internet for hundreds of dollars. 

Tamura Sensei and Yamada Sensei knew my teacher Kinjo Asoh Sensei and they were very kind to me. That summer I was the only aikidoka who came to the camp from Japan and also the only British aikidoka so they asked me to teach a class. I was so sorry to hear of Tamura Sensei's death. His aikido was extremely impressive and he was a pivotal figure in the development of aikido in Europe.

[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calpis[/url]

[I]photo by fyda [url]http://www.flickr.com/photos/fyda/4819781334/[/url] used under creative commons licence[/I]

© niall matthews 2010]]></body>
	<date>08-13-2010</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="3979">
	<title><![CDATA[The first MMA]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[[I]"I have some knowledge, however, of baritsu, or the Japanese system of wrestling, which has more than once been very useful to me." Sherlock Holmes[/I]

I'm going to Baker Street next week. So I was thinking about Sherlock Holmes (who lived there at 221B). I haven't seen the Robert Downey and Jude Law movie yet - somehow Jeremy Brett is the quintessential Sherlock Holmes. Anyway I found the quote above. Actually he probably meant bartitsu. Or perhaps the printer made a mistake. A man called Edward William Barton-Wright developed his own eclectic MMA - mixed martial art - at the end of the nineteenth century. Maybe he had been bullied at school for having too many names. Anyway Barton-Wright worked in Japan for some years and apparently trained in Shinden Fudo Ryu Taijutsu in Kobe and also judo at the Kodokan in Tokyo. Then he made his martial art by including four styles of fighting each with its own ma ai or optimum fighting distance. 

The first was stick-fighting using a walking stick to keep an assailant at a safe distance. This was developed from la canne, a French martial art.

The second was kicking techniques as used in savate - also a French martial art - as the distance became a little closer.

The third was boxing as the attacker came within striking range.

And the fourth was jujutsu - grappling with the attacker and throwing him as he came close enough to grip.    

So Barton-Wright had a very comprehensive approach to ma ai. He said:

[I]"Under Bartitsu is included boxing, or the use of the fist as a hitting medium, the use of the feet both in an offensive and defensive sense, the use of the walking stick as a means of self-defence. Judo and jujitsu, which were secret styles of Japanese wrestling, he would call close play as applied to self-defence.
In order to ensure as far as it was possible immunity against injury in cowardly attacks or quarrels, they must understand boxing in order to thoroughly appreciate the danger and rapidity of a well-directed blow, and the particular parts of the body which were scientifically attacked. The same, of course, applied to the use of the foot or the stick.
Judo and jujitsu were not designed as primary means of attack and defence against a boxer or a man who kicks you, but were only to be used after coming to close quarters, and in order to get to close quarters it was absolutely necessary to understand boxing and the use of the foot."[/I]

Apparently now there are two strands of bartitsu. One is an historically accurate bartitsu as practised by Sherlock Holmes, and the second is a neo-bartitsu which is a modernized version for real self-defence. Some of those cane techniques look very cool!

And I said MMA earlier for a reason. Barton-Wright was probably the first person to stage mixed martial arts tournaments.
                        
And you never know when a little bartitsu can come in handy. For example if ever you are engaged in a life or death struggle over the Reichenbach Falls.


[I]And here are some links:
This is the original Sherlock Holmes story by Arthur Conan Doyle: [url]http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Adventure_of_the_Empty_House[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bartitsu[/url] 
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shinden_Fudo_Ryu[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_William_Barton-Wright[/url]  
[url]http://www.bartitsu.org/index.php/bartitsu-today/modern-bartitsu-clubs-and-training/[/url]
[url]http://www.bartitsu.org/index.php/category/training/[/url]
[url]http://www.bartitsu.org/index.php/the-bartitsu-legacy/the-fighting-arts-of-sherlock-holmes-part-1/[/url]
[url]http://www.bartitsu.org/index.php/the-bartitsu-legacy/the-fighting-arts-of-sherlock-holmes-part-2/[/url]

[I]photo: holmeswindow used by kind permission of bfistermn ([url]http://www.flickr.com/photos/41507974@N00/4611420529/[/url])  under creative commons licence [/I][/I]

© niall matthews 2010]]></body>
	<date>08-06-2010</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="3973">
	<title><![CDATA[Iwata]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[I went to Iwata budo supply store recently. The real name is Iwata Shokai. 

In aikido we usually call the uniform a keikogi. In judo they call it a judogi - I suppose because they use the gi for other things (shiai and kata) as well as for normal keiko.

I used to buy my keikogis near Suidobashi station. Years ago there were many budo supply stores around there. The Kodokan (the world headquarters of judo) is close by. Most of those stores have closed down now. 

My first keikogi from around there had a crazy-looking Daruma on the label but after that I usually went to Iwata. And I got my first hakama from there too. At that time they had a little shop right on the corner of the main crossing in Suidobashi. 

That shop was knocked down many years ago. Now you have to go to Shin-Okubo, the next station to Shinjuku in Tokyo. It's a very cosmopolitan area. There are many ethnic shops and restaurants. You can buy photos of Korean pop stars there, or get dubious-looking phone cards cheap. 

To get to Iwata you turn right out of the station and cross the street, then turn left down a narrow road towards the Lotte chewing gum factory.

Iwata is a small building on the left just before the factory. You slide open the door and step inside. It's very small - there's only room for three or four customers at a time. There is a rack of wooden weapons on the left and shelves upon shelves of keikogis and hakamas. There is the distinctive smell of new cotton keikogis. 

The staff in Iwata have always been very, very kind. Years ago whenever I went there to order something they always chatted to me about Asoh Sensei or Arikawa Sensei. They knew lots of stories about the old days.

I still like Iwata white or black label keikogis very much for aikido. And Iwata hakamas are superb quality. I only wear Iwata hakamas now.

In Japan the relationship between a customer and a shop or company can have surprising depth. It isn't purely commercial. I remember a company president once explaining that in a severe economic downturn his employees worked for almost nothing so that they could keep giving a little business to small sub-contractors. Then when the economy improved those sub-contractors were still in business and the company could prosper with their help. So my relationship with Iwata, although it started out with me as an ordinary (and clueless) customer, has perhaps changed over the years into something a little more. I feel like a valued customer.  

So thank you, Iwata, for my keikogis and my hakamas and your kindness and your smiles of welcome over nearly thirty years.&#12288;   &#12288;&#12288;    &#12288;&#12288;&#12288;&#12288;       
Doumo arigatou gozaimashita. &#12393;&#12358;&#12418;&#12354;&#12426;&#12364;&#12392;&#12358;&#12372;&#12374;&#12356;&#12414;&#12375;&#12383;. Korekara mo yoroshiku onegaishimasu. &#12371;&#12428;&#12363;&#12425;&#12418;&#12424;&#12429;&#12375;&#12367;&#12362;&#39000;&#12356;&#12375;&#12414;&#12377;. Thank you very much. I hope we can continue our good relationship in the future. 

This is the link to the Iwata home page in English: 

[url]http://www.alpha-net.ne.jp/users2/iwataco/iwatatop.html[/url]

They accept PayPal now for orders from overseas. I recommend their aikido keikogis and especially their hakamas unreservedly. 

By the way I never wash my keikogis or hakamas in hot water and I never use a dryer. And maybe I'm going to try this vinegar tip... [url]http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?p=261909&highlight=vinegar#post261909[/url]

[I]photo: Iwata by lunasea1 ([url]http://www.flickr.com/photos/27963866@N07/4841513700/[/url]) used under creative commons licence[/I]

© niall matthews 2010]]></body>
	<date>07-30-2010</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="3968">
	<title><![CDATA[midsummer training]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[[I][highlight]Shochugeiko: Training conducted during the hottest months of the summer in order to cultivate physical and mental strength, a Kodokan tradition since 1896.[/highlight]
Kodokan New Japanese-English Dictionary of Judo[/I]

It's 35 degrees Celsius today in Tokyo - 95 degrees Fahrenheit. Yesterday it was 38 - over 100 degrees Fahrenheit. The humidity is high. There is what's called the urban heat island effect. It is hot. Everyone starts to feel lethargic and low in energy - natsu bate (&#22799;&#12496;&#12486;) in Japanese. But the solution - air conditioning - is even worse. Trains and shops and restaurants are all cold. Humans are gradually being shepherded away from nature.

Japanese people have always had a close relationship with nature. The passing of a year has very clear phases and the rhythm of the seasons is marked with traditional events and customs: like cherry blossom viewing in spring and moon viewing in the autumn.

So the Japanese people have developed traditional ways to fight the heavy summer heat. Many houses have wind-chimes (furin - &#39080;&#37428;). Even a tiny sound gives the impression - real or imagined - of a slight breeze. Then there is a custom of exchanging summer greetings cards. Some people draw their own cards in watercolours or ink and wash (sumi-e) and send them to friends and relatives with a polite enquiry about their health in the heat. And there's a special day in August (doyo no ushi no hi) to eat eel (unagi) to get stamina and to protect against summer sicknesses.

And then there are ghost stories. In Japan ghost stories are told in summer to bring a chill on the hot evenings. Seriously.

And nearly everyone has a fan. There are two kinds: a folding fan or sensu - &#25159;&#23376; (in budo we have a tradition of a tessen - an iron fan - &#37444;&#25159; - which can be used as an effective weapon); or an uchiwa - a round plastic-framed fan made of paper often given away free as advertising. Years ago the frame used to be made of bamboo. 

In budo we have midsummer training - shochugeiko &#26257;&#20013;&#31293;&#21476; (keiko in the heat). A week or ten days of training every day.

We are supposed to make a special effort. If you do every practice you get something - a certificate or a towel! 

But actually I don't believe in the value of shochugeiko. I don't think that you need to make a special effort once or twice a year. If you're training seriously and hard that is enough - what more could anyone ask? So I don't believe in doing anything different.  

The winter equivalent is kangeiko &#23506;&#31293;&#21476; (cold keiko) in January. [I]Kangeiko: Special winter training conducted early in the morning during the coldest days of winter to build stamina and strengthen the spirit, a Kodokan tradition since 1884.
Kodokan New Japanese-English Dictionary of Judo[/I]

I don't believe in the value of kangeiko either. 

But just writing those words about winter is starting to make me feel cooler. 

The winter equivalent is kangeiko &#23506;&#31293;&#21476; (cold keiko) in January. [I]Kangeiko: Special winter training conducted early in the morning during the coldest days of winter to build stamina and strengthen the spirit, a Kodokan tradition since 1884.
Kodokan New Japanese-English Dictionary of Judo[/I]

The winter equivalent is kangeiko &#23506;&#31293;&#21476; (cold keiko) in January. [I]Kangeiko: Special winter training conducted early in the morning during the coldest days of winter to build stamina and strengthen the spirit, a Kodokan tradition since 1884.
Kodokan New Japanese-English Dictionary of Judo[/I]

The winter equivalent is kangeiko &#23506;&#31293;&#21476; (cold keiko) in January. [I]Kangeiko: Special winter training conducted early in the morning during the coldest days of winter to build stamina and strengthen the spirit, a Kodokan tradition since 1884.
Kodokan New Japanese-English Dictionary of Judo[/I]

Yeah that's much better. Thank you.

[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Y%C5%ABrei[/url]
[url]http://www.mangajin.com/mangajin/samplemj/ghosts/ghosts.htm[/url]
[url]http://ghost.new-age-spirituality.com/japanese.html[/url]

[I]photo: Wind Chime used by kind permission of photomix ([url]http://www.flickr.com/photos/randomix/2930109521/[/url]) under creative commons licence[/I]

© niall matthews 2010]]></body>
	<date>07-23-2010</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="3962">
	<title><![CDATA[Self-defence for kids!]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[I have only taught aikido to children very very occasionally. But this week I was asked to teach a community self-defence class. I wasn't sure how it was going to go... 

I have always thought that judo and karate were more suitable than aikido for young children. Some children like the grappling part of judo and some like the throwing part; some children like the kata part of karate and some like the kumite (sparring) part. And maybe the concept of no winners and no losers in aikido is a little difficult to catch. Anyway this class was self-defence so philosophy wasn't a problem!

So I checked out aikiweb and I found some useful information. The teachers on aikiweb who are experienced in teaching children have a lot of knowledge. You can search the forums for "teaching children."

[url]http://www.aikiweb.com/wiki/Teachingkids[/url]

[url]http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=15879[/url]

And Robert Kent at the Aikido Kids Google group kindly pointed me towards some more links:

[url]http://groups.google.com/group/aikidokids[/url]
(if you apply to join the group - the reply is very fast - you'll be able to read the discussions and join in if you want).

[url]http://www.aikidokids.com/curriculum.html[/url]

[url]http://www.aikidokids.com/games.html[/url]

This was the approach I tried to follow:

KEEP IT FAST
KEEP IT UPBEAT
KEEP IT SIMPLE
KEEP IT FUN

And here is the basic lesson plan for a one-off self-defence course. It's in English and Japanese in case anyone is interested in the vocabulary. The Japanese is in kanji - the Japanese characters from Chinese - together with the pronunciation in the phonetic hiragana alphabet and in romaji - English letters.

SELF-DEFENCE FOR CHILDREN: LESSON PLAN

1          Hello! &#12371;&#12435;&#12395;&#12385;&#12399;&#65281; konnichiwa!
2          Warm-up &#28310;&#20633;&#20307;&#25805; &#12376;&#12421;&#12435;&#12403;&#12383;&#12356;&#12381;&#12358; jumbi taisou
3          Body's weapons &#20307;&#12398;&#27494;&#22120;&#65281; &#12363;&#12425;&#12384;&#12398;&#12406;&#12365;&#65281; karada no buki
3.1        Voice! Shout LOUDLY! &#22768;&#65281;&#22823;&#22768;&#12391;&#21483;&#12406;&#65281;&#12371;&#12360;&#65281;&#12362;&#12362;&#12372;&#12360;&#12391;&#12373;&#12369;&#12406;&#65281; koe! oogoe de sakebu!
3.2        Legs! Run away!&#12288;&#36275;&#65281;&#36208;&#12387;&#12390;&#36867;&#12370;&#12427;&#65281;&#12354;&#12375;&#65281;&#12399;&#12375;&#12387;&#12390;&#12395;&#12370;&#12427;&#65281; ashi! hashitte nigeru!
3.3        Strikes &#24403;&#12390;&#36523; &#12354;&#12390;&#12415; atemi
3.3.1 Feet &#36275; &#12354;&#12375; ashi
3.3.2 Knees &#12402;&#12374; hiza
3.3.3 Elbows &#12402;&#12376; hiji
3.3.4 Hands/palms &#25163;/&#25163;&#12398;&#12402;&#12425; &#12390;/&#12390;&#12398;&#12402;&#12425; te/te no hira
4          Breakfalls &#21463;&#12369;&#36523; &#12358;&#12369;&#12415; ukemi
5          Escapes &#36867;&#12370;&#26041; &#12395;&#12370;&#12363;&#12383; nigekata
6          Techniques &#25216; &#12431;&#12374; waza
7          Warm-down and stretch &#25972;&#29702;&#20307;&#25805; &#12392; &#26580;&#36575;&#20307;&#25805; &#12379;&#12356;&#12426;&#12383;&#12356;&#12381;&#12358; &#12392; &#12376;&#12421;&#12358;&#12394;&#12435;&#12383;&#12356;&#12381;&#12358; seiri taisou to juunan taisou
8          About bullying &#12356;&#12376;&#12417;&#12395;&#12388;&#12356;&#12390; ijime ni tsuite
9          See you! &#12373;&#12424;&#12358;&#12394;&#12425;&#65281; sayounara!

So then it was time for the lesson. There were exciting moments and things that maybe didn't work so well. Children are a wild mixture of wonder and  trust and energy and they have a short attention span but they love moving their bodies and they like succeeding at something they try. They all did great.

Then as I was walking through the car park after the lesson a mother came up to me and said thank you. Her daughter had told her she'd had fun. 

You are welcome! Me too.

[I]photo used by kind permission of radioflyer007 ([url]http://www.flickr.com/photos/radioflyer007/3985654123/[/url]) under creative commons licence[/I]

© niall matthews 2010]]></body>
	<date>07-16-2010</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="3961">
	<title><![CDATA[wind forest fire mountain]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[Wind Forest Fire Mountain [B]&#39080;&#26519;&#28779;&#23665;[/B] (furinkazan) was the motto of Takeda Shingen. 

Takeda was a Daimyo in the warring states period of Japanese history. He was also known as the Tiger of Kai. He had a legendary rivalry with Uesugi Kenshin - the Dragon of Echigo - and fought him five times in battle and once in single combat (Takeda used a tessen - an iron fan - against Uesugi's katana). Takeda Shingen is still enormously admired and popular in Japan (in fact they both are). You can still go to onsens - hot springs - where he went to recover after battles - the minerals in the water are supposed to help sword wounds to heal faster. 

His motto, which was on his war banners, was: swift as the wind, silent as a forest, fierce as fire, immovable as a mountain (move as swiftly as the wind, be as silent as a forest, attack as fiercely as fire, defend as immovably as a mountain). 

The phrase originally came from the Art of War by Sun Tzu. They were Takeda Shingen's principles of strategy - long-range planning - and also his principles of tactics - how to fight in a battle. 

These four concepts have parallels with the elements. In Buddhism the elements were considered to be earth, water, fire and air. Surprisingly these four elements (with the addition of ether) are the same as the elements in classical Greek thought (and the same four elements were associated with the four humours or personality types: melancholic, phlegmatic, choleric and sanguine). 

Japanese culture historically also used these same four elements, earth, water, fire and air, and similarly included one more subtle element - or lack of element: void or emptiness. For example Miyamoto Musashi's Book of Five Rings - Go Rin No Sho - is divided into these five books.

We use that idea of void or emptiness in budo in advanced concepts like mushin or mushin no shin, the mind of no mind, munen, no thought, muso, no reflection, and mugamae, a free stance - or lack of stance - quite different from a formal stance. So freedom is important - our minds should never be fixed or stuck.

In Takeda Shingen's phrase immovable as a mountain there are echoes of fudoshin - immovable mind or calm determination. It is not a contradiction of mushin. The zen monk Takuan discussed these concepts in his letter to the sword master Yagyu Tajima no kami (Yagyu Munenori) on zen and swordsmanship (The Unfettered Mind by Takuan Soho). The mind has to be free and fluid but at the same time for ever centred. Incidentally Takuan in another letter about zen and tea (cha-no-yu) talks about the five Chinese elements (wu xing): fire, earth, metal, water and wood, and living in harmony with nature (mountains, rivers, rocks and trees).

Silent as a forest is perhaps less relevant to budo. And for fierce as fire, in a lyrical and elemental mood, here is a twentieth century poet's vision of two elements at the end of the world:

Fire and ice [I]by Robert Frost[/I]

Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I've tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.

Finally, many samurai wrote death poems and Uesugi Kenshin's death poem is particularly impressive and cool:

[B]&#12300;&#22235;&#21313;&#20061;&#24180;&#19968;&#30561;&#12398;&#22818; &#19968;&#26399;&#12398;&#26628;&#33775;&#19968;&#30403;&#12398;&#37202;&#12301;[/B]yonjukyu nen issui no yume ichigo no eiga ippai no saké  

forty-nine years - one night's dream 
a life of glory - a cup of saké 

In the end what has all this got to do with budo? Simple. We always have to go back to Takeda Shingen's [U]first[/U] principle: LIKE THE WIND
 
[url]http://www.jnto.go.jp/eng/location/regional/yamanashi/koufu_shousenkyou.html[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Takeda_Shingen[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uesugi_Kenshin[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mushin[/url]  
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fudoshin[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_of_Five_Rings[/url]

[I]photo used by kind permisson of kaeru ([url]http://www.flickr.com/photos/kaeru/501750/[/url]) under creative commons licence[/I]

© niall matthews 2010]]></body>
	<date>07-09-2010</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="3960">
	<title><![CDATA[Aikido and Magic]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[If you don't believe in magic you might want to stop reading this now. 

I'm not talking about the Magic of an Aikido Throw. The magic I saw when I saw my teacher Asoh Sensei in his seventies effortlessly tossing a big ex-marine around like a slice of bread. 

That wasn't magic. That was kokyu ryoku.

And I'm not talking about the Magic of the Disappearing Aikidoka. I went to a summer camp in La Colle-sur-Loup in the south of France in the eighties with Yamada Sensei and Tamura Sensei. One of my roommates training beside me whispered to me, "Hey, my partner keeps disappearing!" So I watched and sure enough at the moment of the strike my friend blinked and his partner used that instant to disappear behind him. Maybe that was what ninja used to give the impression of invisibility.

That wasn't magic. That was timing and misdirection.

And I'm not talking about the Magic of the Healed Wrist. Once I had injured my wrist and training was extremely painful. On Wednesday evenings I was the uke for Arikawa Sensei for two classes at the Aikikai hombu dojo. Arikawa Sensei was the best teacher at the hombu dojo and I was his uke for many years. He was a feared teacher and his waza were unforgiving. So that week I taped my wrist visibly and hoped he would take the hint. No chance. That night he did mostly kote gaeshi and shiho nage. And mostly on the injured wrist. I wasn't really surprised that he attacked the wrist. When I started taking the ukemi for him in 1990 my hair was longer and once he suddenly stood on it in the middle of an immobilization. Uh oh. Weak point (suki). Of course I got my hair cut immediately. So this time by attacking my wrist I thought he was just telling me not to show my weak point. Somehow I got through it and when I spoke to him later before I went home he smiled enigmatically and didn't mention the wrist. But then the next day when I woke up the pain in my wrist had completely disappeared. Wow! Arikawa Sensei had been treating me by throwing me using that wrist.

That wasn't magic (at least I don't think so!). That was katsu (or kappo). Healing techniques. The sword that gives life instead of the sword that takes life.

But I [I]am[/I] talking about the Magic of the Mysterious Scratches. It's a true story about when Arikawa Sensei died. He was a great budoka and a great teacher but he had one bad habit - he would let his nails grow a little long. So often he would leave cuts or scratches on the back of my neck. For example if he was doing irimi nage his non-throwing hand would control my neck - and maybe if there was sweat on my neck or if the technique was very fast he would leave marks like a lion or a tiger. I hadn't trained with him for many weeks while he was sick in hospital before his death. Then when I woke up the day after he died I had scratches on my neck again. So I felt he came to say goodbye. 

That [I]was[/I] magic.

And hey, I warned you.

[I]photo: A Glorious Dawn used by kind permission of tjblackwell ([url] http://www.flickr.com/photos/tjblackwell/4593320873/[/url]) under creative commons licence[/I]

© niall matthews 2010]]></body>
	<date>07-02-2010</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="3959">
	<title><![CDATA[No-touch aikido: defence]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[It was the All-Japan Aikido Demonstration on 22 May 2010. Years ago Nobuyuki Watanabe Sensei used to stand inside the entrance of the Budokan in an immaculate white suit greeting everyone with a big warm smile. 

Then later on he used to do his demonstration. He did it at the same time as Masando Sasaki Sensei. As Watanabe Sensei got more and more into it and started throwing his ukes just by glaring at them Sasaki Sensei would hear the sounds of the crowd and would stop his own demonstration to watch. And applaud. 

In the nineteen eighties in Japan there was a boom of interest in martial arts and especially in internal martial arts and ki. Kozo Nishino Sensei, a well-known ballet teacher and choreographer who had done aikido at the hombu dojo, became famous for his ki performances throwing numbers of his students without touching them. Also Nobuyuki Watanabe Sensei appeared on a TV program called Do-sports doing no-touch aikido. Perhaps Yoshinobu Takeda Sensei didn't start demonstrating this style of aikido until more recently.

I have never met Nishino Sensei. Doshu Kisshomaru Ueshiba talked about Nishino Sensei's no-touch aikido when my teacher Kinjo Asoh Sensei and I called on him once. The Doshu remembered Nishino Sensei's orthodox aikido as having been strong and powerful - he had been about fifth dan in those days. But the Doshu merely mentioned his no-touch throws as just another approach - he was not critical. 

I have known Yoshinobu Takeda Sensei for many years. He had been close to my first teacher Kinjo Asoh Sensei in the past and some of his senior students - Numata, Suzuki and Seino - came to our dojo sometimes. Their aikido was very nice - powerful and smooth and relaxed. And Hideo Numata has his own dojo now. I have trained at Takeda Sensei's dojo in Kamakura as a guest and I have taken his ukemi. So I know that Takeda Sensei's aikido is real and powerful. 

I know Nobuyuki Watanabe Sensei much better. I don't do aikido the way he does but I like him and respect him as a sincere and warm man. I have often been to his class at the hombu dojo. I have also been to his overseas training in München. Although I was not one of his regular students I took his ukemi sometimes in the class and even once at the all-Japan Aikido Demonstration. By the way I think that shows that Watanabe Sensei didn't worry too much about who was the uke. I can't imagine many teachers doing a public demonstration with someone who wasn't one of their regular ukes. In fact I can't imagine any.

Watanabe Sensei does two main things with the uke's ki. One is to lead it where he wants it to go. The other thing he does is disturb the ki - destroying the energy in the attack. In the middle of a committed attack if you feel an atemi - or something - coming out of nowhere it has the immediate effect of breaking down the attack. Sometimes the no-touch triggers are very subtle but the ukes are so finely tuned to the slightest movements that it is very easy to manipulate their ki. 

Why would these teachers want to demonstrate this kind of aikido? That is an interesting question. Perhaps they want to show the aikido world that there is something more? That there are other ways of thinking? Or perhaps that aikido doesn't always have to be so serious! These are teachers with about fifty years of aikido training. If they want to play with ki the world of aikido should be big enough and open enough to accept them. 

Once at his class on Saturday morning Masando Sasaki Sensei suddenly produced a ten thousand yen (roughly $100) note from his gi and gave it to the uke. As the uke put out his hand to take it Sasaki Sensei twisted it away in a large natural spiral movement. The uke followed trying to catch it until finally he lost his balance and took the ukemi. Hey - no-touch aikido.

[I]Hombu Dojo photo of Watanabe Sensei viewable on [url]http://www.flickr.com/photos/melmiel/2346242297[/url][/I]

© niall matthews 2010]]></body>
	<date>06-25-2010</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="3956">
	<title><![CDATA[Doumo. Arigatou. Gozaimashita.]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[After training we say thank you to our teachers and to our partners and to our students.

In Japanese there are a few ways to say thank you. By the way often the u is omitted in writing Japanese into English - Tokyo is normal, not Toukyou, and of course so is judo, not juudou, but I have put it in to make the words easier to pronounce. Here are seven different ways to say thank you. It's no wonder we get confused. For budo you can usually forget the first five. And please say thank you the way your teacher tells you or you'll get me into trouble.

"Arigatou," is quite casual.
"Doumo," is even more casual.
"Doumo arigatou" is casual too but a little stronger.

"Arigatou gozaimasu" is "Thank you" in the present tense. So it has a kind of implied feeling of a continuing connection or relationship. And if you add Doumo at the beginning "Doumo arigatou gozaimasu" roughly means "Thank you very much." 

"Arigatou gozaimashita" is "Thank you" in the past tense. So we use it for something that's finished or when a result has become clear. So in normal social interaction it is rarer than Arigatou gozaimasu. But it is the one that is appropriate for keiko. It was difficult for me to catch the nuance of difference between these two.

"Doumo arigatou gozaimashita" is a little more polite maybe and is only used to people (so not to the dojo) to say "Thank you very much" for something that is over.

In budo after training even though of course we do have ongoing connections between teacher and students and between sempai and kouhai we say thank you with this feeling of something having finished. 

That lesson will never come again. That conflux of circumstances that brought us together for that moment will never come again. Before we meet again things will change - someone might move away, someone might get married, someone might become sick, someone might die. And who knows, perhaps we will not meet again.

In the tea ceremony that is called 

&#19968;&#26399;&#19968;&#20250;
[I]Ichi go Ichi e[/I]
 
Life is transient.  We have just the one chance. And each moment together is precious.

So Doumo arigatou gozaimashita. Thank you very much for reading this. Oh come on, give me a hug.

[I]photo: Tea Ceremony Scroll used by kind permission of B Tse ([url]http://www.flickr.com/photos/b2tse/[/url]) under creative commons licence [/I]

© niall matthews 2010]]></body>
	<date>06-18-2010</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="3952">
	<title><![CDATA[The lapis lazuli ring]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[Last week I left a book on a subway train in Tokyo. I was very disappointed because I was half-way through it and it was an old Penguin paperback that was probably irreplaceable.

But anyway the next day I went through the same station and I asked the man at the ticket barrier if a book had been handed in. He telephoned to a lost and found office and they had it there! I was so pleased. So thank you Tokyo Metro. But suddenly it reminded me of my teacher's lapis lazuli ring.

My first teacher Kinjo Asoh Sensei always wore a striking lapis ring. It was a little unusual - older Japanese men are normally quite conservative about jewellery. After Asoh Sensei died his wife gave it to me. It's a beautiful ring and the stone is vivid blue. I have often been complimented on it even by complete strangers. I don't really like to wear it too much because I don't want to lose it at training. So usually I leave it at home safe in a drawer.

Then one day I was burgled. The guy broke the balcony window to get in and even took his shoes off. He took some cash. And the ring. I was devastated. I should have worn it and taken my chances at the dojo. The only good thing to come out of it was I got to see the Japanese police at work taking fingerprints.

About a year later a detective came round. He smiled and he gave me the ring! They had caught the guy. The ring was clear evidence and he confessed to a number of robberies. 

I still don't wear the ring every day. I'm still concerned that I'll lose it in a changing room. And of course I'm pretty confident that if it disappears from my house I'll get it back one day! 

And that brings me to my lapis ring theory of aikido. Your teacher shows you and teaches you many things. Many of them you won't understand right away. But it doesn't matter. You can let them go. Lose them. Then one day, years later maybe, there will be a knock at the door. There will be a detective outside, smiling and handing you a lapis ring. And you will say to yourself, "Oh [I]that's[/I] what my teacher was talking about!"

[I]very cool abstract lapis and jewel colours - photo: bottle burst by BEV Norton [url]http://www.flickr.com/photos/catchesthelight/3322290199/[/url] photostream [url]http://www.flickr.com/photos/catchesthelight/with/3322290199/[/url] used under creative commons licence and with her very kind permission[/I]

© niall matthews 2010]]></body>
	<date>06-11-2010</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="3949">
	<title><![CDATA[The shiho nage paradox]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[I went to a sports doctor once for an elbow injury. He's a very good doctor. He looked at the x-ray carefully and then he asked me, "Do you do aikido?" "Wow," I thought to myself, "this guy [I]is[/I] good!" Then he told me he had only seen bone spurs in an elbow like that once before. In an aikido teacher. 

Let's be honest. Shiho nage is a dangerous technique. Done incorrectly by an inexperienced aikidoka who doesn't understand the technique it can put severe stress on the elbow joint. Done incorrectly by a more experienced aikidoka who is starting to understand the technique it can cause long-lasting damage. At the Aikikai hombu dojo I have seen people have to stop their training in the middle of the lesson after getting injured with an uncontrolled shiho nage.

So in fact I only teach it to experienced aikidoka. There's the paradox. If I only teach shiho nage to experienced aikidoka how do the inexperienced aikidoka get to be experienced aikidoka?

It's a kind of zen mondo or koan - an existential riddle of aikido. 

So what's the answer? 

Well if I told you that it wouldn't be a paradox any more, would it.

[I]photo: X-ray 1 by Owen Blacker ([url]http://www.flickr.com/photos/owenblacker/[/url]) used under creative commons licence[/I]

© niall matthews 2010]]></body>
	<date>06-05-2010</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="3942">
	<title><![CDATA[Del Dennis]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[In February this year a friend of mine died. He was a big wide man, with a big presence and a big heart. I first met him 25 years ago when he came to Japan to study aikido. He played the guitar in the street for money in the early years (and he had to be careful of the yakuza who took protection money from street sellers). He had a great voice. 

Whenever he saw a new face in the Aikikai hombu dojo he would wonder over after the lesson and say, "Howdy!" He must have said it hundreds - probably thousands - of times to students who came to Japan to train. Many people will remember him with affection. 

He was a very kind, gentle, pure, almost unworldly man. He thought carefully about aikido from a self-defence perspective. Sometimes he would ask me about a technique and how it could be used practically on the street. And murmur to himself that he would have to remember it so he could tell the guys in his dojo in New York. Del had a fond picture in his head of Arikawa Sensei walking through Central Park throwing unsuspecting muggers left and right. 

Del's Christian faith was very important to him. He wouldn't do aikido on a Sunday and he had trouble with some of the bowing in aikido - especially the Shinto style of repeated bowing and clapping. He sang in the choir at his church. I went to his funeral there and there was a lot of love for him. He was a man who had lived every day full of love for other people. 

Sometimes I hear a guitar in the street in Tokyo and just for a moment I think it's Del. 

[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LmIDX3RuYQA[/url]
[I]Del sounded best in the street with a guitar but this was the only video I could find.[/I]

[I]photo: TBC Christmas Concert 2007 used by kind permission of skamegu ([url]http://www.flickr.com/photos/12855366@N00/[/url]) under creative commons licence. Del is second from right at the back[/I]

© niall matthews 2010]]></body>
	<date>05-29-2010</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="3937">
	<title><![CDATA[ashiwaza and aikido in the same sentence...]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[[i][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][URL="http://www.flickr.com/photos/alainbachellier/255110850/"]Ballet[/URL] by Alain Bachellier[/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/i]


I once asked Shigenobu Okumura Sensei (Aikikai 9 dan) about ashiwaza (leg or foot techniques) in aikido. He looked surprised for a moment and then he said categorically there are [I]no[/I] ashiwaza in aikido.

Okumura Sensei had a kind of analytical and systematic approach to aikido. He would ask things like how many ways can you take uke's wrist when you're being held in katatedori (hand inside uke's hand with your thumb up, hand outside uke's hand with your thumb down...). And you would always forget one. 

In fact I think Okumura Sensei wrote the modern Aikikai grading system for kyu and dan promotion tests.    
[url]http://www.aikikai.or.jp/eng/gradingsystem.htm[/url]

So he thought that if there was an ashiwaza in there somewhere it wasn't aikido. But I don't think we need to be rigid about it. Some teachers do use ashiwaza occasionally. And in some styles they are actually normal techniques. I was invited to train as a guest in an offshoot of Tomiki Aikido once and they used ashi waza as a matter of course (along with ippon seoi nage - another judo waza). So I want to talk about a few of the sub-techniques - the techniques within the techniques - from judo (and karate) we can use in aikido (with some pretty random videos). These techniques are only components of the overall aikido techniques and unlike judo they can often be done without a grip on the uke. The connection (musubi) is through the energy of the uke's attack. 

My first teacher Asoh Sensei (7 dan) who had some judo experience showed us a self-defence applied (ouyou) version of shiho nage combined with osoto gari - that's an outside leg reap. The technique becomes very powerful and dangerous for the uke because it is so difficult to protect the head from impact with the ground.
If you're not familiar with judo throws this is a normal judo osoto gari:
[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-zFicAVezU[/url]

I was the uke for Arikawa Sensei (9 dan) at the Aikikai Hombu Dojo for many years. Arikawa Sensei used very fast ashi waza occasionally without even thinking about it. Like a striking cobra. As he broke my balance sometimes he did a fast ashi waza like deashi barai - a sharp foot sweep of my advancing leg - or as I took a step forward his outstretched back leg would sometimes do a hiza guruma type technique blocking my front leg and pivoting me over.
These are the kind of judo techniques he used:
De ashi barai:
[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_ASvQxwi7A[/url]
Hiza guruma:
[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0zYG18sUpm8[/url]
Kouchi gari:
[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jh1QGrsOig8[/url]
Kosoto gari (here with a double attack):
[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cgz7TuVhct0[/url]

Even in karate there are some ashi waza that could be relevant to aikido.
There are a few in these kata techniques:
[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1pzaMr6mXs[/url]
And finally another interesting and simple ashi waza from karate (kind of a kosoto gake) - you can see the resemblance to an aikido kokyu nage:
[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3wxEMz7dP8[/url]

I don't think ashi waza are essential for aikido. But if we know what ashi waza are and how to do them and even occasionally train in them perhaps we won't leave ourselves so vulnerable to them. And that's got to be a good thing.

Niall


© niall matthews 2010]]></body>
	<date>05-21-2010</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="3933">
	<title><![CDATA[Does your aikido reflect your heart?]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[A famous aikido teacher whose technique was impressive and graceful was in fact a petty, arrogant and unpleasant man. It was very difficult for me to reconcile that with his beautiful aikido. 

At a spiritual level he didn't understand ai or aiki - harmony or blending of energy - at all. And at a simpler level he didn't understand reigi - courtesy and respect. Come to think of it that reminds me of some of the posts in the forums.
 
I don't want to get into a personal discussion about him so I'll just say one of his initials was Y and anyone who wants to know his name can ask me. I want to talk about the interesting concept of a person's art reflecting the person's heart.

In the final analysis a work of art must stand on its own. We can appreciate the stark truth of a painting by Picasso or the textured brilliance of an opera by Mozart without having to know if they were good humans.

But I can't accept that for aikido. Especially from a teacher. Aikido should reflect the openness, the sincerity and the goodness of the person doing it.

So my conclusion? Years later I realized that my eyes just hadn't been ready to see past that teacher's technical brilliance to the truth behind it. That his aikido was sterile and dead.

At an aikido seminar once a young guy with a white belt asked me to show him something - anything - he could teach his students. He was a teacher - not because he wanted to be but because he was the highest rank in his town. But he was honest and open and his aikido shone. 

So if we try to live our lives the best we can and become the best humans we can our aikido will naturally be living and wonderful.

[I]photo: Two Hearts Beat As One by Luc De Leeuw [url]http://www.flickr.com/photos/9619972@N08/2771032841/[/url] photostream [url]http://www.flickr.com/photos/9619972@N08/with/2771032841/[/url] used under creative commons licence[/I]

© niall matthews 2010]]></body>
	<date>05-14-2010</date>
</blogEntry>

<blogEntry id="3930">
	<title><![CDATA[Overtaking our teachers]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[[highlight][I]"I play the banjo better now than him that taught me do…"[/I][/highlight]

I remember my father listening to Paul Robeson singing the Banjo Song when I was a boy. Paul Robeson was a singer, actor and fighter for social justice. The song goes on, "Because he plays for all the world and I just plays for you." So the singer had become a better banjo player than his technically excellent teacher because he was playing from his heart for the woman he loved. 

Maybe there's a lesson there for budo about doing it from your heart but for now the question I want to ask is: How do we get to be better than our teachers?

Let's leave the glass ceiling of O Sensei's maverick genius out of the discussion for the moment. 

A teacher's task is to bring his or her students to the highest level they can reach. My first aikido teacher - a gentle, open, learned man as well as a great budoka - told me clearly he expected his students to become better than him. If they didn't manage it then he hadn't done his job well. 

He thought he would be able to help us smooth out some of the difficulties he had faced, to shorten some of the long paths he had walked and to avoid some of the side tracks he had travelled. 

It's a logical idea. It allows budo to grow continuously and it protects against stagnation or decay.   

Unfortunately there is also an old tradition in Japanese budo of teachers keeping some part back - perhaps some secret teaching or special technique or unique movement - so that the student never will surpass the teacher. Perhaps hundreds of years ago a teacher felt that was necessary to protect against attacks from enemies. It's kind of sad that it's still true today - more than once I have been told by budo teachers that they deliberately don't teach everything. 

But that's only a tiny percentage and I want to finish on a positive note. Going back to my first teacher another thing he used to say was that aikido was like breathing. Everything you learn you breathe in - then you have to breathe it out again by giving it to others. Hey - we're back to kokyu! 

So however little you feel you know about budo you can rest easy if you have a good teacher. One day you will be playing the banjo better...  
 
And to finish if you'd like to listen to the unforgettable voice of Paul Robeson, 

[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZe6Ldq0HBM[/url]

[I]photo: Karen Kerney's "Paul Robeson, Voice Of The People" In A Call Box On Varnum Street, NW (Washington, DC) "The artist must elect to fight for freedom or slavery. I have made my choice. I had no alternative." - from a speech at a London rally for Spanish loyalists, 1937. photo by takomabibelot [url]http://www.flickr.com/photos/takomabibelot/415003735/[/url] photostream [url]http://www.flickr.com/photos/takomabibelot/with/415003735/[/url] used under creative commons licence and with his very kind permission[/I]

© niall matthews 2010]]></body>
	<date>05-08-2010</date>
</blogEntry>


</blogEntries>