4th Spring Gasshukku in Guadarrama
April, 8th to 10th 2011
For the fourth consecutive year, Vicente Borondo and the SMR Jo Spanish group held in Guadarrama, Madrid, their traditional spring Gasshukku. Apart from the usual attendants, we were lucky to count with the assistance, for the second time, of Michel Ducret, Menkyo Kaiden and official teacher of the European Jodo Federation, to whom we want to thank for his presence.
We started on Friday and for three hours Vicente took us through some of the kihon and half the omote series.
After hard training we had a nice dinner with free bar at the dinning room of the complex and then, we moved to a small saloon where while having a few drinks Vicente gave us a small conference about the importance of maai in budo and in Japanese culture, meaning that Maai is important not just in a combat situation but also in everyday social situations.
On Saturday morning the weather was great (actually, the whole weekend) and we trained barefooted on the prairie for a good number of hours in the whole kihon and the rest of omote. After lunch and a small siesta we resume our keiko with some specific exercises for each one depending on his level. Most people then continued with the chudan series and on the second half of the session we moved to the small forest with uneven terrain, which permitted us to explore kata execution in different situations than the typical ones you may find in a dojo. Also to top things, everyone was taught one or two new kata.
During saturday night, we could watch a few videos, in which we could see, among other things, how was the training with Nishioka sensei in Japan, the trip that Addo and Vicente made to the top of mount Homan and the cave where Muso Gonnosuke meditated during 37 days, or how is the training of other Jo groups in Japan.
Sunday morning we had the last 3 and a half hours of practice of which we dedicated the first half to review what we had learned the previous day and the second half to go through the tanjo jutsu kata.
By 2 pm we left the compound and headed to a local bar were we enjoyed a copious lunch before parting.
In conclusion, even as it where only two days (it never seems enough), it was a very productive and interesting seminar and we all look forward to the next year’s edition.
Francisco Casas
Group
Fédération Européenne de Jodo / European Jodo Federation