Nanseikan Kendo Club 南西館剣道クラブ

  This is our newest member who arrived recently from Japan. Originally from Niigata Prefecture, he will be training with us from now on. If there are dojo leaders from other clubs interested in securing a similar Japanese kenshi from the "Kendo Skilled Migrant Scheme", drop me a line... :p

Last weekend Ozawa Hiroshi sensei (Kyoshi 8 dan Kendo) gave a lecture at the Kenshikan Dojo. His main theme was to describe his concept of the fundamental approach to Kendo. A translation of the Japanese in the above picture (click on it to make it bigger): "Good keiko is maintaining posture that allows you to strike correctly anytime. Use your 5 senses to focus on your opponent's every move and using the 6th sense strike your opponent with 100% commitment." He then summarised this approach with the words "concentration, decision, courage." Ozawa sensei said that ideally there is no difference between the kind of Kendo that is successful for keiko, shiai and grading. He spoke at length about the number of opportunities to strike within a high level grading, and discussed the difference between seme-ai 攻め合い and seme-katsu 攻め勝つ.  These are terms I will write up in more detail on Shugo Nanseikan in the near future.

Ozawa sensei and I at his dojo in Nakano, Tokyo in 2009. As I mentioned at training last week we will be hosting a very important group of sensei from Nittadai (National Sports Science University in Tokyo) and elsewhere from next week. There will be training sessions on: 14 Feb 2014 (Friday) 7:00pm - 8:30pm MBK 16 Feb 2014 (Sunday) 9:30pm – 12:00pm MBK 18 Feb 2014 (Tuesday) 7:00pm – 8:30pm Fudoshin Shizawa sensei has been a close friend of Australian Kendo for a long time (just check out the photo below!)  Ozawa sensei I have also told you about. the full list of sensei is: Professor Kunio SHIZAWA , Kyoshi 7 Dan, former Head Instructor of Nittaidai kendo club. Will be joined by his wife. Professor Hiroshi OZAWA , Hanshi 8 Dan, Head Instructor of Kobukan Dojo in Nakano, where many Australians train, author of “Kendo: The Definitive Guide”. Mr Morimasa OKADA , Kyoshi 7 Dan, kendo advisor to the Nittaidai mens and womens teams, both of which placed 3 rd  in