SMR Jodo Seminar in Basel
February 5th and 6th, 2011
The train rapidly brought me from Geneva to Basel on Saturday, February 5, with a sunny winter day for a first EJF Jodo seminar for me as teacher for the Basel group.
This first seminar is for René Etter the occasion to install an official weekly Jodo SMR training which will be practiced every Thursday evening at the Aikikai Basel dojo.
René Etter who is the leader of the Basel group picked me up at the station and after a short trip with the tramway we had a coffee, followed by a meal at his place before going by bicycle to the Aikikai Basel dojo.
I handed over to René and the Aikikai Basel a calligraphy made by Pascal: Man Do Ichi Gotoku. Which means: "Thousand roads are like one road". This motto matched exactly our practice in that our koryu, Shinto Muso Ryu, was welcome by the Aikido club and that during our seminar two participants who usually train Seitei gata Jodo joined us.
Tristan, Claudia, Chris, Steffen, Monica, René, Luc, Véronique and John participated on Saturday. We studied kihon tandoku in detail and finished with the first three kihon with a partner who used the ken. Luc and Véronique who practice regularly with René study Jodo Seitei gata for several years in the Paris region. Tristan and Luc practiced together Seitei kata. We noticed easily that - despite the fact that there seem to be certain differences in style - we were able to train together if our minds and hearts harmonize.
After training and shower we took an aperitif at the club before a small group went to a restaurant in downtown. We had an excellent sushi meal and René taught us the traditional way of drinking sake.
John, Claudia, René, Chris, Luc, Véronique, Véréna and Christian practiced on Sunday. We practiced kihon sotai. Véréna and Christian who had their first Jodo lesson learnt successively the first three kihon tandoku : honte uchi, gyakute uchi and hiki otoshi. René and Luc studied the first four preparatory exercises for the second series of kata, Chudan. John, Chris and Véronique have got some corrections of Omote katas. Finally, we worked altogether happo giri and ken kihons.
At the end of this weekend I expressed my respect for the participants of this seminar because they worked very seriously and with a lot of commitment. There have been quite a few questions, and I tried to answer them all in a simple and pleasant way. Again, I felt in this group the extraordinary atmosphere that often characterizes the seminars of our federation. I would like to express my thanks to Mrs Marianne Ostermayer who is the president of Aikikai Basel and who honored us with her visit. Many thanks also to Ursula and René who had welcome me at their home and reconciled me with the bicycle. And it will be a great pleasure for me to come to Basel the next time.
Jean-Pierre Pahud
Fédération Européenne de Jodo / European Jodo Federation