International Jodo Gasshuku 2006
Belo Horizonte, Brazil
Belo Horizonte, Brazil
From August 1st to August 8th, 2006, the 10th international Gasshuku took place in the province of Minas Geraïs in Brazil. It was organized by the group of Shikanai Sensei, Aikido sensei of this region, under the direction of Nishioka sensei, Relnick sensei and me.
I chose ?Daidô Mumon? as the central theme for this Gasshuku. ?Great ideas do not need any gates?. It was in fact the first time that Shintô Musô Ryû organized an international Gasshuku in South America. The philosophy of our martial art is now really a universal principle.
More than 50 participants were present. The majority came from Brazil, some from the United States, some Japanese, one Israeli and 16 Europeans. The bankruptcy in July of the Varig airline was a major problem for quite a few people. Waiting lists, tickets cancelled, and, and, and ? for some of us it was really a battlefield. That's why 10 Europeans, some Australians and Malaysians couldn't come at all. As for me, I was accompanied by my son Yanoé and we were not sure to take off the day of our departure. After having waited 24 hours at the Varig counter in Frankfurt, we finally could leave with a jam-packed airplane for an exhausting 12-hour flight to Rio.
The Gasshuku itself took place in the sporting centre SESC which is quite popular in Brazil. Despite of the impressive security measures (broken glass on top of the surrounding wall, barbed wire, iron doors, walls, loudspeaker and security guards), the training site was very beautiful thanks to an abundant vegetation, free-running monkeys and peacocks and several football fields. Of course, we were not the only ones in this immense camp. Especially the weekend, our Jo group was really lost in the great number of football players and other sportsmen. This reminded us a little bit of the Gasshuku in Lignano, in Italy in 2004.
Vincent and Gilles performing a demonstration
One of the rare moments we could train together, Happo-giri with Ken conducted by myself
From a technical point of view and like each Gasshuku with Nishioka Sensei quite a few interesting details popped up. Despite a great delay from the very beginning due to long explanations the Ryu could be covered almost completely. In my humble opinion, the division into two groups (beginners with Relnick sensei and advanced people with Nishioka Sensei and myself) seemed to me less productive so that during the last two days I trained exclusively with people from Europe and two from the States.
The main technical corrections I kept in mind for us (the EJF) were above all to close the armpits in most techniques. To have a compact position for each movement is a correction Nishioka Sensei has initiated since Hawaii (1994). This reduces the use of the muscles of the arm and the upper part of the body and at the same time augments the overall power because it comes from the moving body.
As during each gathering we had interesting discussions with Nishioka Sensei
A lot of discussions, not without a certain humour. I think I was in this case the victim looking at Relnick sensei expression
The Gasshuku was interrupted by a marvellous visit on Friday, August 4th, of Ouro Preto city (block gold) protected by UNESCO. Ouro Preto reminds us of the 18th century in Portugal. The city's wealth comes from numerous gold mines around the city. It was a nice day, slightly disturbed by a small accident Sensei had. His foot got caught in a window display and his nose got badly injured by a totally inoffensive sculpture.
Laurel and Hardy in Ouro Preto
Typical baroque architecture in Ouro Preto
As usual, there were no examinations during this Gasshuku. However, Relnick sensei awarded one Menkyo Kaiden to Quintin Chambers sensei (sempai to all practitioners of the International Jodo Federation) as well as to his wife, Nobuko San.
The last day we closed the Gasshuku by giving an Embu. After an evening with quite a lot of drinks for some people and a Capoeira demonstration, certain people had to encounter again problems of cancelled tickets or delayed flights.
The value of Kiai
After the Gasshuku most of the Europeans spent a nice time in the country. They will tell their adventures during the next meetings. As for myself, I went to the Northern part with Yanoé where we spent two weeks in Salvador de Bahia. This is a wonderful city plenty of surprises but the insecurity is quite present as it is in most parts of the country. To close this report just let me tell you that I was attacked from behind by a young boy who wanted to steal my banana in the middle of the street at 8 p.m. I inflated my stomach and his hand that grabbed hold of my belt was thus tightly fixed. I then turned myself towards him so that my face was near his face and uttered a terrible Kiai. When I saw his expression, I must say I was really pleased. He run away very fast certainly asking himself who could be that crazy guy. For somebody who has not received an appropriate training such a Kiai can really be efficient. I am, however, grateful that this young guy did not have a weapon and that he was not accompanied by some accomplices.
Pascal Krieger
Fédération Européenne de Jodo / European Jodo Federation