47th All Japan Aikido Demonstration

AKA: 第47回全日本合気道演武大会

It's on!

In less than a fortnight, dozens of dojos will be sending their lambs to the slaughter.

Well, okay, maybe that's just my dojo.

Okay, maybe it's just me in my dojo.

But on Saturday, May 23rd, people from all over Japan and all over the world will be getting together at the Tokyo Budokan to show their stuff.

I will be there for my third year of humiliation as I demonstrate that I really don't know what the heck I am doing there. (That starting taiko drum almost gives me a heart attack.)

Who else is going to show up? Wanna substitute for me? We'll probably be on the green mat.

Sounds exciting...good luck!

It was fun, but I still can't believe I was the only one from AikiWeb there!

Unexpectedly, I didn't screw up like I did the last two times (save for throwing my partner into the guys on our left). But to balance that out, my partner screwed up this time. Heh.

As usual, I am disappointed that there aren't more randori or jiyuu waza being demonstrated by the higher levels. This time I only saw Moriteru giving a randori demonstration, but every throw was the same and it was over in about 10 seconds. Ah, well.

At least this year he didn't use the golden microphone. That just seemed a bit too pretentious.

But it's always great to see what others are doing and learn what I can. I hope more of you get a chance to participate or just enjoy from the stands next year.

I was there for part of the second half. Our shihan, Hatayama Sensei was in the No. 4 "Shihan Demonstration", and the students of Kenshinkai were in the No. 12 "Dojo Demonstration"

As always, I enjoyed the demonstrations by Kobayashi Sensei, Tada Sensei, and Suganuma Sensei.

I missed your shihan because we went downstairs to change at that point. Sooooo many stairs.

I see you guys were on the blue mat. We were on green.

I have yet to figure out the method they use to schedule everyone. The only thing I get is that Hombu dojo goes last.

It's all fun, though. I kind of wish we spent more (some/any) time talking to the people around us.

We have a more local embukai, and afterwards all the people stick around and have a little nomikai. That's what I'd like to see more of, even though the dojos are pretty much centered around their own tables. Heh.

I was there, but just as a spectator. My "dojo" doesn't participate. I mostly went to support my friend who was an uke for Inagaki shihan from Iwama.

Chris Farnham wrote: I was there, but just as a spectator. My "dojo" doesn't participate. I mostly went to support my friend who was an uke for Inagaki shihan from Iwama.

Haha. I've started using quotation marks too.

The attendance wasn't as high this year but the quality of the demos wasn't too bad. A lot more of them seem to have come out on Youtube etc this time too.

Carl Thompson wrote: Haha. I've started using quotation marks too.

I should start. My teacher doesn't have his own space, so we use the local junior high school gym on Thursdays, a city gym on Sunday afternoons, and two other gyms for sessions I don't go to because the time/place is unworkable for me.

I'd love to use my video camera, but I seem to have no luck with getting it into DVD form. Having to struggle to find freeware that can do the job is only half the problem, but still significant. Heh.

Is there a nice summary of YouTube links for this year's stuff?

Robert Cottle wrote: Is there a nice summary of YouTube links for this year's stuff?

Well, there are quite a few links to this year's demonstration.
Here are links to three youtube.com users' channels:
http://www.youtube.com/user/seishinjp
Among the videos in this channel are the demonstrations given by - Doshu, Tada sensei, Endo sensei, Suganuma sensei
http://www.youtube.com/user/kiomatsu
Unfortunately, this user didn't provide information regarding which demonstration appears in each of the videos.
http://www.youtube.com/user/kaarutomuson
Including the Iwama dojo demonstration.

I use this opportunity to thank these anonymous youtube users for sharing the material they photographed. I was thrilled to find the videos so close to the actual event (most of it were posted on the next day following the demonstration!).
BTW - Does anyone have any videos of Masuda sensei's demonstrations and is willing to post on the net? As far as I know, there are no videos of him posted anywhere.

I heard that this year they asked people to "keep it clean" - no ultra-short hakama or Dragonball-esque waza.
I'm curious as to how dojo/shihan are selected (do they volunteer, are they asked?) and how they schedule it all. Must be a nightmare to organize!

I'm not high on the grapevine myself, but the only odd thing I heard this year was that they didn't want to see brown belts on the adults, so our brown belts had to wear white for the embukai.

Although I saw a few other dojos who apparently didn't get the same message.

Not sure what Dragonball-esque would be, unless you mean that "no touching" crap I saw two years ago. I looked for it again last year and this, but nothing. The teacher supposedly worked at least part time at Hombu dojo, but he quit some time during then and now.

http://www.youtube.com/user/curlywolf

this channel also has some videos from the event.

regards

Robert Cottle wrote: Not sure what Dragonball-esque would be, unless you mean that "no touching" crap I saw two years ago.

That's the one. I remember thinking it most inappropriate at the time.

Jory Boling wrote: http://www.youtube.com/user/curlywolf this channel also has some videos from the event. regards

Sweet! Thanks.

Andrew Smallacombe wrote: That's the one. I remember thinking it most inappropriate at the time.

Heh, yeah "Dragon Ball" makes sense.

I asked my sensei what he thought and he said it's okay to laugh at them. He's the one who told me they were part of the Hombu dojo and that they'd left.

I wonder if it's because they got too exposed at the 45th Embukai...

This channel has a lot of videos too:
http://www.youtube.com/user/seishinjp