The 2nd FEJ Jodo Seminar in Helsinki, Finland, and Helsinki Kobudo Embu Taikai 2013

January, 18th to 20th 2013

This was the second time Michael Söderkvist travelled from Sweden to host a weekend seminar in Helsinki, Finland. This seminar was more complex and ambitious than the previous one in many ways. First of all, instead of being confined to a specific dojo from start to finish, the activities of the seminar took place in three different locations scattered around the city. In terms of organizing the gasshuku, this meant a lot more work in the form of more elaborate e-mail correspondence with managers of various sports facilities in the Helsinki area. Secondly, this was the first time we were going to have foreign participants besides our own teacher. We were happy to see Patrik Orth from Czech Republic join the seminar and give assistance to Michael-sensei during his lessons and demonstrations as well as three surprise guests from Saint Petersburg, Russia, who had recently started training Shinto Muso-ryu in the FEJ.

Like the previous seminar, this one also had an open day to attract visitors from outside of our federation. Training sessions on Friday and Saturday were reserved for FEJ members exclusively so that all established members could have a special chance to get more attention from the teacher to advance in their studies. After shaking hands, welcoming our guests and a short introduction on Friday evening, we began our first day of training with some basic paired exercises and kihon waza that focused on honte uchi, gyakute uchi and hikiotoshi uchi. To finish our Friday session, we did some free training in Omote.

Saturday was the most hectic day of the gasshuku. We began our day with some ken kihon, kihon sotai and Shinto-ryu kenjutsu in a completely different location from the previous day. While all the other training sessions during the weekend were held at a commercial dojo located on the third floor of an office building in downtown Helsinki, on Saturday morning our training took place inside an underground safety vault encompassing a fitness center in the eastern suburbs of the city. The need for multiple locations and the complexity of the schedule stemmed from a coinciding grand koryu bujutsu demonstration that is held in Helsinki once in every two years, namely Helsinki Kobudo Embu Taikai. This year, together with eight other authentic schools of traditional Japanese martial arts, we took part in this major event in which every school gave a 15-minute demonstration of their technical curriculum. The other participating schools this year were Daitoryu aikijujutsu Takumakai, Heki Ryu Insai-Ha kyudo, Hontai Yoshinryu jujutsu, Hyoho Niten Ichi ryu kenjutsu, Kashima-Shinryu, Muso Jikiden Eishin Ryu, Suio Ryu Iai Kenpo and Tenshin Shoden Katori Shinto ryu. The following guests of honour were present at the embu: Inoue Kyoichi Munenori, the 19th generation soke of Hontai Yoshin Ryu, Kawabe Takeshi, the head teacher of Daito-ryu aikijujutsu Takumakai, Hideo Annoki of Daito-ryu aikijujutsu Takumakai and Kenji Shinoda, the Ambassador of Japan to Finland.

On Sunday we warmly welcomed five curious non-members from other martial arts, including a friend from the Seitei community who had visited the previous gasshuku as well, to join us in our “open day”. This day had more training than any other in terms of quantity. We started off by going through some kihon tandoku in such a way that everybody could keep up, and later the more advanced students moved on to kihon sotai while the newcomers continued with tandoku. This was eventually followed by kata training: newcomers being introduced to Tokushu waza as the more seasoned practitioners advanced into Omote and Chudan with a chance to learn new kata in the process. In the end there were also promotion tests for a few of us, namely the Russians and my two closest students: Jaakko and Minna. All the candidates passed their exams: the Russians were welcomed to the federation with fresh 5th kyu grades and Jaakko and Minna were both promoted to 4th kyu holders. My congratulations to everybody!

The work and planning that went into arranging this seminar truly paid off. Organizing a seminar with such internationality, interacting with and learning from fantastic people and enjoying a huge and exciting embu (including an after party!) for the first time was extremely fun and a step into a new level of maturity for me as an organizer. I really hope everyone enjoyed the weekend as much as I did. I express my gratitude to Michael-sensei, Patrik, the organizers of Helsinki Kobudo Embu Taikai 2013, members of my group who helped with arrangements and, generally, everyone who attended. Let us meet again soon.

Nino Lindström, Helsinki Jodokai

From the open day.
From the open day.

EJF members plus visitors.
EJF members plus visitors.

Helsinki Kobudo Embu Taikai: Shinto Muso-ryu segment.
Helsinki Kobudo Embu Taikai: Shinto Muso-ryu segment.

Helsinki Kobudo Embu Taikai: embusha (performers) of all featured ryuha.
Helsinki Kobudo Embu Taikai: embusha (performers) of all featured ryuha.



Records