This post is going to be a bit of a rambling one. Lots of things have occurred on my martial arts/Japanese front lately that I would like to reflect on.
First of all, Tobin Threadgill - the kaicho of Takamura-ha Shindo Yoshin Ryu - has released a list of names of kai members who have gained various levels of teaching license. This is the first time he has done this and the current pandemic has brought this about. Normally, he would offer licenses in person as he travelled the world. Obviously, this is not possible right now so he has followed a traditional approach that other budo follow whereby after the Japanese New Year (nowadays celebrated on January 1st), names of people are released who have gained promotions. This usually occurs around Kagami biraki (Opening the Mirror ceremony) on January 11th.
It was quite a large list, the kai has over 200 members as far as I know and by far the largest group of license recipients were people who have obtained a chuden (second tier) teaching license, my instructor, Chris, included. Two other members of the Oceania group were granted a Shoden (first tier) teaching license, bringing the total number of licensed instructors in our area to five! It also means we have two study groups becoming branch dojos. This is great for the growth of our area and the kai in general.
What is even more exciting is that our two most senior instructors, Brent from the U.S. and Marco from Portugal, have been granted one scroll each from the Jodan (third tier) license. This represents their combined ability to teach the entire technical curriculum and is very important in ensuring the koryu can be fully transmitted.
This weekend, to top it all off, Chris and a few of us from the Hamilton dojo are travelling to Auckland to train with those members there. It will be a good way to start the year and consolidate the NZ group.
Closer to home, I have begun extending the Japanese garden. I felled three small trees which dropped leaves all year around. I was constantly removing the leaves from the existing Japanese garden, not to mention my gutters blocking up on the house. It was a relief to drop the trees and this gave me an area to extend the garden.
The new area cleared for planting. |
Plants going in. |
The final piece of news I have is that my friend Jules has finally pushed me into renovating the genkan of my dojo. Its been five years since the dojo was built and I have not done anything significant to the genkan. So recently the two of us took the walls back to the framing, removing the old sections of wall that still remained. Then we started to plan what we needed for new walls including insulation and lighting.
Jules hard at work pulling the old wall lining down. |
We also removed the old oil-stained carpet that was on the floor (the last owner was a car enthusiast) and Jules took it all away. I recently purchased some new lighting that I hope to put up when we line the walls.