Alpine Budo Seminar 2009
June 25th to 28th 2009
On June 25th-28th we celebrated the 10th edition of the intensive Alpine Budo Seminar, this time at a new venue in the village of Soraga, within the Dolomiti of Val di Fassa. The historical line-up of our teaching staff, composed of Pascal Krieger (SMR Menkyo-Kaiden), René Vandroogenbroeck (Aikido VII Dan), and Malcolm Tiki Shewan (Aikido VI Dan and Iaido expert) suffered, as last year, from the absence of Tiki, due to personal commitments. Also, Sergio Dieci (SMR Go-mokuroku) could not come this time, while Daniel Leclerc (Aikido and Iaido expert and SMR Sho-mokuroku) attended as usual, in support of the teaching staff.
Nonetheless, the training program, as usual, included Aikido, Aikiken, Iaido and Shinto Muso-ryu Jodo, with the addition of a brief introduction to Kyudo (Japanese archery), led by Enzo Cesale, Iaido and Kyudo teacher based in Torino.
Early morning at Sayonara Hotel, venue of the seminar.
The seminar was shaped around its traditional layout, including: a mix of parallel session and common courses from 7:30 am until 6:30 pm, with breakfast and lunch breaks; an ‘alpine’ outdoor session on Saturday morning held in the Conca di Fuchiade, at 2000 m altitude; a Shodo (Japanese calligraphy) interactive conference on Friday night. In addition to this program, the most ready and willing practitioners could join the extra classes at 6:30 am, either of Iaido (with Daniel) or Judo Ne-waza (with Pascal).
PK and Vadim engaged in ne-waza, while..
… Daniel led the Iaido session.
The new venue, Hotel Sayonara, provided an improvement in our logistics: within the hotel grounds, we could enjoy a large, flat terrain for outdoors weapon training and a modern gymn hall with tatami for Aikido, Judo as well as for weapons in case of bad weather. The hotel team also took good care of us on Saturday in Fuchiade, when – under a light rain – we could shelter in the family hut and enjoy coffee, drinks and local cheese and cold cut products before taking up keiko again when the rain was over. After dinner on saturday night, a delightful addition to our talks and listening live to a classic guitar jam session was the unscheduled belly dance expertly performed by one of our chambermaidens.
Lineup in multiple rows in the hotel terrain.
Beginners commit to basics.
The theme of the seminar proposed and calligraphed by PK was Tagei Mugei (i.e. “many arts, no art”). This theme was not intended as an admonition to strictly stick to a single art in order to achieve mastery, it would clearly go against one of the characteristics of the seminar itself. Rather, it is a strong provocation to seek unity in distinct arts (possibly as the result of a long process), as well as to live the experience of different arts with a single, unified spirit… among other possible interpretations. This considerations clearly informed the technical program, whether with a ken, a jo or bare hands.
Ready for training at the superb Conca di Fuchiade (2000 m).
Our two sensei enjoying training at altitude.
Three dan examination sessions took place during the seminar: for Aikido, Enrico Colombo (Milano) passed his shodan and Augusto Calandrelli (Roma) his sandan; for Iaido, Fabrizio Pagano (Torino) passed his nidan; for Jodo, Vadim Puzanov (Kiev) passed his shodan.
A formal enbu closed the seminar: introduced by a Kyudo ceremonial double shot, we had Aikido (taninzugake and Aikiken), Jodo (PK served as uchidachi for Lorenzo and a troop of female practitioners: Sheila, Mirella, Anna, Maria Rosa and Helga), a few kata of Kusarigamajutsu and an articulated Iaido demonstration covering many different schools.
Kyudo solemny opens the enbu.
Ran-ai at the enbu.
Okuden no Suigetsu at the enbu.
The attendance was higher than last year and more in line with the seminar past history: 60 practitioners joined the seminar from 6 countries (Italy, Switzerland, Austria, Germany, Slovenia and Ukraina). This seminar, in its 10-year history, has acquired a significant hard core of faithful participants. However, there’s space for many more, and we hope to be joined by other passionate Budo practitioners starting from the next edition. See you in summer 2010!
Lorenzo Trainelli
Fédération Européenne de Jodo / European Jodo Federation