Kumano juku dojo-Wakayama, experiences?

Hello All,

I have noticed online that the Kumano Juku dojo in shingu Wakayama allows people to come stay and train as visitors much the same way that the Ibaraki shibu Dojo in Iwama does, and I am considering making a visit there. Has anyone trained there sort term or long term? what is training there like? I know that the dojo was run by Michio Hikitsuchi sensei 10th dan until his passing in 2004, but I don't know anything about the current dojo-cho.

I'm fairly certain that Anno Sensei is running the show now, but I don't know what training's like anymore - I lived there for a couple of years in the early nineties, and visited again ten years ago. Anno S. is a great person, and a gem of a teacher, so I'm sure it's still worth the trip. I don't know what it's like to board there, as I rented a house right down the street; the people I knew coming in from elsewhere to stay at the dojo had no complaints, but again, it's been a while. If you read (and speak) Japanese, here's the contact info:

〒647-0005
和歌山県新宮市元鍛治町１丁目５−１
0735-21-3103

If not, you might try getting in touch with Tim Detmer - he's been living and training there since the mid-eighties, and operates his own eigo juku in town. Other "names" get bandied about as being the cat's ass of Shingu deshi, but the fact is that most of them had two or three years there, thirty plus years ago, with occasional trips back now and again. Tim, unrecognized as he is (and would probably prefer to remain), has both the chops and the time in. I don't have his contact info, but a cursory google search should yield results if you need an English speaking contact there.

Best,
Murray McPherson

Hi,

I was last there in July of last year.

There's a large(-ish) room with plenty of available bedding on the second floor above the dojo, and an adjacent kitchen. The charge is 2,000 yen per night. It's subject to availability so you will need to contact the dojo and arrange everything in advance.

On weekdays there is a morning and evening class. The morning class starts at 0630 and is conducted by Anno sensei. The numbers of students training are quite small. After-training hakama-folding was a long drawn-out absolute gold-mine of aikido conversation for me. Anno sensei has a very sharp but gentle sense of humour.

There are more people on the mat in the evening. Classes start at 1900 or 1930 - I can't recall. There was a roster of about two or three different instructors for these weekday classes.

I cant remember if the visitor mat fee was 1,000 or 1,500 yen per class.

Hope this gives you an idea. Please don't rely on this information, however. I was just a visitor passing through and things do change. It's always best to make more up-to-date inquiries directly if you can.

Kind regards,

Michael

Thanks for the info guys. Also, about how far is Shingu from Tanabe?