by Robert Wolfe
Although no special events are
planned for November or December, this is a fairly short interlude in what has
been an exceptionally busy seminar schedule. Since June, we have hosted four
major seminars and traveled out of state to two others. In January we anticipate
the annual Kagami biraki (New Year’s) demonstrations and a party on a
Saturday evening, followed the next morning by the normal Sunday Shinto Muso-ryu
practice transplanted from Shutokukan to Itten, and then in February Ellis Amdur
will visit for an aikido seminar. The February 25–27 event will consist of a
Friday research-oriented session for members only of our aikidokai, and then an
open seminar on Saturday and Sunday.
We hope to do a better job in
2005 of balancing the rate of in-house seminars. Once we know Relnick Sensei’s
plan for the year, we’ll coordinate our SMR events with Meik and Diane Skoss.
Ellis will likely visit every six months or so, and we’re still looking for a
plausible excuse to drag Dave Lowry east from St. Louis.
I haven’t posted an update in
several months, and there are significant items to report.
One of the major drains on the
operating budget has been the loan we’ve carried since construction of the
dojo. In the summer of 2003 we raised a substantial sum through cash donations
from members and friends and after refinancing the loan were able to reduce the
monthly payment from about $350 to $200. This past summer, as I was digging
around the closet for something, I realized we were storing a huge pile of
bokuto, suburito, jo and other equipment from our previous styles of kenjutsu
and aikijutsu, all of it stuff we’ll never use again. I contacted several
friends in the old organization and let them know what we had for sale. Between
the cache in the closet and other items donated by members specifically for the
sale, we raised more than $3,000 and finally retired the loan once and for all,
just one year into what had been a three-year term for the refinanced loan.
October was the first month in more than five years I didn’t have to make a
loan payment, and, boy, was it nice. Now for the credit card balance…
In September, Alan Starner,
Carmen Altomonte, and I headed cross-country to Relnick Sensei’s Shintokan
Dojo in Woodinville, Washington, for a seminar focusing on the kenjutsu kata
from Shinto Muso-ryu. Also in attendance were the Skosses and John Mark from
Shutokukan Dojo, Mike Fontenot from the Foothills Budokai in Colorado, and a
number of west-coast folks. The Shintokan is a truly lovely dojo and it was a
joy to train there. In addition to receiving the long-sword kata (eight of the
twelve kata in the set) over the course of three days, under Sensei’s critical
eye we were able to accomplish a thorough review of kihon and the Omote-waza. I
found especially valuable Sensei’s method of challenging us to identify
aspects of each other’s kata requiring correction before himself pointing out
the problem area(s) that caught his attention. This training in observation and
assessment will pay dividends when we’re practicing at our own dojo without
immediate access to our instructors and must try to figure out why a particular
technique doesn’t seem to be working.
We enjoyed a prompt follow-up to
the Woodinville expedition when the Skosses visited our dojo for an SMR seminar
on October 22nd through 24th. The usual suspects at Itten
were joined by Lu Brezler, Kevin Cantwell, John Mark (and daughter Victoria),
and Jack Hogan from New Jersey, as well as Scott Vogely and Joe Montague from
Virginia. The most junior of the Itten crew were able to get through kihon and
into seiteigata, and everyone else received either a new kata or two or
significant corrections and/or insights to their existing repertoire. Carmen and
Chandra Altomonte were kind enough to host a cookout and party on Saturday
evening at their new home north of the dojo, with the usual excess amounts of
food and beverage being consumed.
In between the two SMR seminars,
the Wolfes and Starners were able to get away for a week on the Outer Banks of
North Carolina. Temperatures were still warm enough to permit swimming in the
ocean, and when the weather did not cooperate the neighborhood in which we
rented a house had a very nice health club with an indoor pool. We were also
able to get in some kayaking on the sound and hang gliding from Jockey’s Ridge
(near Kitty Hawk). Going to the Outer Banks during the off-season is wonderful:
it’s affordable, the absence of the overwhelming in-season crowd makes it
possible to pick a restaurant or activity on the spur of the moment without
facing any kind of wait, there is no traffic whatsoever, and all the best stores
have clearance sales. We had a great time and look forward to another trip the
same week next year. I want to thank Randy Manning, John Butz, Carmen Altomonte,
and Budd Yuhasz for covering practices while we were away.
The last news item is the biggest: congratulations are due Dr. Mike Nickels on his recent passing of the national certification board exams for internal medicine – way to go, Mike!