KI-MUSUBI

Linguistically, Japanese sounds exotic, which (like most things in life) is both a blessing and a curse. It is a blessing because a Japanese phrase like ki-musubi forces non-Japanese speakers to pause mentally and to question seriously whether or not we understand the concept. Translated, ki-musubi is ‘to tie ki.’ Now the curse of aContinue reading “KI-MUSUBI”

ROKU NO TACHI (6th Kumitachi)

Monday was a digression from continuing to explore irmi-nage / no ura concept I had been flirting with. Because I was not feeling well and didn’t want to sweat over everyone, I moved back to kimusubi/ the 6th kumitachi.  I tried to show both roles independent of each other – as simple kata, then to pairContinue reading “ROKU NO TACHI (6th Kumitachi)”

THE TRUE TIMES

In our lineage, weapons training derives from Kazuo Chiba Sensei (February 5, 1940 – June 5, 2015) who learned the systematized forms from Morihiro Saito Sensei (March 31, 1928 – May 13, 2002) at Iwama (see below). The details of the connections are better kept as kadensho, but suffice to note that others have influenced theContinue reading “THE TRUE TIMES”