Category Archives: Manuals

3rd KUMITACHI

This article is designed to follow the same explanatory framework as the others in the kumitachi series, as well as the jo v bokken. I have discussed San-no-tachi (3rd Kumitachi) in earlier articles. Initial Conditions Both in migi-hanmi, chūdan, proper maai. Uchidachi initiates with kiri-kaeshi, entering not as a circular action but as a directContinue reading “3rd KUMITACHI”

4th KUMITACHI

This is aiki-ken. It assumes coherence: both players recognize initiative, distance, and line. Real encounters do not grant that clarity. Entries will be broken, timing will be stolen, and the first mistake will often be the last. The 4th kumitachi teaches a specific response to a thrust. A straight thrust can be decisive, but itContinue reading “4th KUMITACHI”

Athena

I am suffering a sinus infection that is giving me a pounding headache. The phrase is overplayed but accurate. The pain behind my eyeballs is impossible to ignore; it pulses with a dull insistence. A steady, hammering rhythm. One imagines Zeus felt something like this. Zeus had taken Métis, the goddess of cunning intelligence, asContinue reading “Athena”