Yaegaki-Kai

The Brussels Yaegaki-Kai wish you all a happy new year 2012 – Akemashite omedeto gozaimasu – May the year of the Dragon (龍 – Ryuu) bring you good health, happiness and success. For all of us budō addicts we wish you a lot of intensive Renshu followed by relaxing dai ni dojo “second dojo” sessions, lots of new friends through practice and have fun in your daily life.

2012 is the dragon year in the chinese Zodiac. More precisely it is the water dragon year as all signs are always associated with the 5 elements: metal, water, wood, fire and earth. Last water dragons year was in 1952.

The water dragon Year will in fact start the 23/01/2012 and will end 9/02/2013.

“Akemashite omedeto gozaimasu !!!”

This year the ABKF Winter seminar took place at the ADEPS in Auderghem between the 14th and 18th december. For some years now the Iaido teachers present in december are Kobayashi Tadao sensei – 8th dan Iaido Hanshi and Uehara Koichi – 7th dan Iaido Kyoshi. For those not familiar with Kobayashi sensei’s background, he is a former All Japan champion and an actual shinsain/judge for 8th dan examination held every year in Kyoto.

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Congratulations to Brussels Yaegaki-Kai members for their examination during the 2011 ABKF Winter seminar. Congratulation to Yuki for her 5th dan, Alexandra for her 3rd dan and Eric for his 2nd dan. Examination/Taikai are unique opportunities to see if our day to day practice survives stress but also independently from the result it highlights our stronger and weaker assets and the technical and mental points to work on and perfect. Let’s continue to train hard together. Gambarimasho !!!

A bōnenkai (忘年会) literally “forget the year gathering” is a Japanese drinking party that takes place at the end of the year, and is generally held among groups of friends or co-workers. This year the Yaegaki kai gathered at Japanese restaurant – Senraku – to celebrate a rich 2011 year, full of hard renshu and every day dedication of everybody at keiko. 2011 is not yet finished but now was a good time to relax and celebrate. Party was great, good food and nice drinks (Beer/Shōchū 焼酎/Nihonshu 日本酒). Already time to plan the Shinnenkai (新年会) ? Yeahhh …

Great results for the Belgian Team at the 18th European Iaido Championship 2011 in Andorra !!!

Two days of seminar with 22 countries represented and more than 200 participants, everybody in the Belgian team so happy to meet all European Iaido friends and receive the teaching of 3 Iaido 8th dan Hanshi sensei: Kawaguchi sensei, Kusama sensei and Kamikokuryo sensei.

An intense individual and team competition with great results: 1x Gold, 2x Silver and 3x Bronze medals. Shodan Gold for Valentin and Bronze for Rowan, Nidan Bronze for Tom, Sandan Bronze for Jonathan, Yondan Silver for Yuki, Godan Silver for Michaël + Examination success with 2 new nidan for Valentin and Rowan and sandan for Tom. In the Team competition Belgium (Valentin, Jonathan, Michaël, Yuki) won the Bronze medal …

A great week-end for the Brussels Yaegaki-kai and our brother’s dojos: 5th dan Michaël S. Silver medal, 4th dan Yuki K. Silver medal and Greg got to the 1/8th finals. Kendo Gent: 1st dan Valentin V. Gold medal, Furyu Dojo Athens 4th dan Michael P. Bronze medal. Oda sensei is very happy

Gradings were difficult starting from Yondan with only 1 on 35 candidates succeeding: 1/10 passed for Yondan, 0/1 Passed for Godan , 0/17 passed for Rokudan, 0/7 passed for Nanadan

Belgian Iaido Delegation

Congratulations everybody !!! Let’s continue to train hard. Gambatte !!!

You will find very soon I hope all the detailed charts and results on the EIC 2011 website

10th Anniversary Edition
The 10th Edition of the ABKF Koryu Seminar was held the 26-27-28 august 2011. The seminar was organised as part of the ABKF Summer Seminar 2011 and was located in Louvain La Neuve.

The 10th edition was a success thanks to our faithful Japanese sensei delegation composed of Oda K. 8th Dan Hanshi – Katsumata K. 8th Dan Kyoshi – Furuichi N. 8th Dan Kyoshi – Tsuchiya H. 7th Dan Kyoshi and the help of the koryu seminar staff.

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For those of you who are TV series addicts and more precisely fan of the ongoing “Game of throne” will be intrigued by this post title. Yes summer holiday is coming …

Our last 2010-2011 season Keiko will occur this Thursday 30 June and the new season 2011-2012 will start on Tuesday 2 August 2011. Our last trainings are now dedicated to practice sessions with more kumitachi (kendo no kata – tachi uchi no kurai) and serious Kihon renshu. And for our very last training days we decided to prepare some tameshigiri/shizan (試し斬), Shito (試刀) session.

So this sunday morning we rolled tatami omote, making sure our future victims were tightly rolled and ready for a safe and rewarding cutting session. Tameshigiri historically defines a method used for testing swords quality. In our modern time, the practice of tameshigiri has come to focus on testing the swordsman’s abilities, rather than the sword’s.

Tameshigiri is not a goal in itself, but it is an excellent method to work on the cutting dynamic, correct hasuji, tenouchi usage while cutting hard target and understand the natural efficiency of the Katana as highlighted in our previous Datsuryokou tōhō post.