Daito Ryu Aikijujutsu UK Study Group

The upside of doing so much solo training is that there is still stuff to do when no one shows up 🙂

Sunday morning training. We are at a new location in Woolpit for the next 9mts while our normal location is refurbished. Thanks to our friends at Inori Aikido for letting us use their mats 🙏

An auspicious start before Sunday morning training

Sunday morning training. To all my friends who are travelling to the Summer Keiko in Katsuura, Ganbatte Kudasai. Unfortunately I won’t be able to join you this year but I will be there in spirt and hope to see you next year. Best of luck to all who will attempt shinsa 👍👍

Keeping secrets Secrets are only as good as the truth they hide.

Sunday morning training with a special visitor from Australia/Austria !

https://www.daito-ryu-aikijujutsu.co.uk/single-post/seminar-with-sombucho?fbclid=IwAR1TJ5hjXNSlirfWtsywMJ5iuSwi50vNLpgqrc2XncsSRSXKaIgBNnXHDoQ

Seminar with Somucho A Special Daito-ryu Aikijujutsu Seminar will be held in Bratislava, Slovakia from 26th - 27th November 2022. The seminar will be lead by Kondo Katsuyuki somucho (Menkyo Kaiden) and Hasegawa Sumie kyōuju dairi (Representative instructor, 7th Dan, Kaiden no koto) More information and registration at...

Kurilla Budokan is very glad about having the opportunity to invite You

to Special Daito-ryu Aikijujutsu seminar in Slovakia, Bratislava lead by

Kondo Katsuyuki somucho �(The highest authority, Menkyo Kaiden completed)

Hasegawa Sumie kyōuju dairi (Representative instructor, 7th Dan, Kaiden no koto completed)

More information and registration
On the website www.daitoryu.sk

Sunday morning keiko

45th annual kobudo demonstration. Nippon Budokan 6th February

Sensei Kondo Masayuki, Hombucho
Sensei Usuyama Hideto, Fuku-hombucho
Uke’s;
Mark Trudel
Katsuma Ajioka
Taishi Takiguchi
Junichi Kohno

大東流・Daito-ryu at the 45th Nippon Budokan Kobudo Taikai (第４５回日本武道館古武道大会) Notice: All views and opinions expressed in this video are mine, and may not reflect the views and opinions of any company, organizations, or groups I am inv...

Keiko Hajime, dojo has been cleaned ready for the new year and we are hopefully that we will have another year of safe and productive training. Happy new year !

First Asagao blooms of 2021

Happy birthday to our Somucho Kondo Katsuyuki 🎉

Realism As real as it gets.

I dropped a favourite bowl last night and instead of sweeping up the pieces and throwing them away I thought I would have a go at kintsugi a Japanese practice that highlights and enhances the breaks thus adding value to the broken object. kintsugi (金継ぎ), or kintsukuroi (金繕い), literally golden (“kin”) and repair (“tsugi”). It won’t win any prizes but there is something in here about perseverance and preservation that I like.

Today I completed my Seiza challenge. 24 hrs over a month. Practicing for 48mins every day. Over the last three months myself and some friends around the world have been helping to motivate each other to not only continue our solo training but to extend it and I have been grateful for their company and support. I shall be focussing on mince pies in December but may pick this up again in January 🙂 feel free to suggest topics in the comments.

Nice article on Seiza. Day 22 of the Seiza/Zazen challenge reaching 17hrs this morning. On the home straight now.

https://japanology.org/2016/07/how-to-conquer-seiza-the-foreigners-nightmare/

How to Conquer Seiza, the Foreigner’s Nightmare - Japanology Sure, you want to fit in with Japanese culture, and you have made the effort: You’ve learned about how to handle chopsticks, and especially what to not do; you’ve studied the various ways you should and shouldn’t behave in shrines and temples; you’ve even learned enough Japanese phrases to s...

In the UK we are about to enter COVID-19 lockdown for the next month. Face to face training has not been possible now for 7mts with no end in sight. This is part of the reason that we do these monthly challenges. They give us something to focus on during the isolation. And allow us to extend our community,virtually at least.

This month we will be exploring Seiza. The traditional Japanese sitting. Seiza always brings to mind another Japanese tradition The Daruma. This is a Japanese doll, which in Japan has become a symbol of perseverance and luck. It is modelled after Bodhidharma, a monk accredited with the founding of Zen Buddhism, who meditated, eyes to a wall, in a seated position for 9yrs, without breaks, loosing his arms and legs to immobility.
A cautionary tale for anyone planning to join me on the November Seiza / Zazen challenge 🙂 We will be aiming for 48mins of daily seiza, 24hrs over the month. I’ll be trying to do this in two lots of 24mins but break it up into as small chunks as you want.

This is what 10km of shikko does you your Gi 🙂 completed this morning doubling my original target. I enjoyed this one more than I was expecting to so clearly I should’ve gone further. For November I will be taking it down a notch. No equipment or mats needed for any who wish to join me. I’ll be going for 24hrs of Seiza in the month of November, aiming for 48 mins per day. Any takers?

Day 18 of .
Some mornings this little runway can seem a bit longer than others. This morning I pass 4.6km, tomorrow I will hit my original 5km target. I have been extending myself over the last couple of weeks and realise that I underestimated the condition of my knees. I also realised that this challenge, like last months suburi, while still exhausting, is more a mental than physical test, no one loves Shikko 😉
The end number is arbitrary, my challenge is to do this every day and so I have reset my target to 10km 👍

Home grown training partners 🙂
Day 11 of Shikko challenge, passed the 2km mark this morning

I am pretty sure that I will regret this one but nothing ventured nothing gained. I’ve set an arbitrary target of 5km but will see how that goes my target for October is to practice Shikko, knee walking, every day. I have space for six 1m mats and will be using those to count distance (highly scientific). Any takers?

Made it ! 50,000 sword cuts over about 10hrs. Training every day for 30 days. The biggest problem about setting goals is what to do when you achieve them and my biggest realisation is that the important thing isn’t the goal it’s the things you learn along the way.

Day 27 of our attempt to complete 50,000 suburi during the month of September. Passed 46,000 today and there are three days to go. I know it is a cliché but this really has been all about the journey which I have shared with three really tough budoka and less about the arbitrary destination. I will be savouring the last few days of the challenge and thanks and respect to those who are waiting for me at the summit 🙂

Day 20 of our attempt to complete 50,000 suburi in the month of September continues. This morning marks the 34,000 milestone. I thought when I started this that the most difficult part would be the discipline to pick up my bokuto every morning but I am finding the most challenging part is ensuring that you remain present and do not drift away as the the process, though physically demanding, is quite meditative and that isn’t always useful when trying to count 😉