Gassho
January 01, 2018
September 25, 2017
August 02, 2017
2017 World Taikai & International Study Session
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| The Canadian Federation team |
Seven members of Toronto Branch participated in the 2017 World Taikai & International Study Session held from July 30-August 2, 2017 in San Mateo, CA.
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| Swag! |
Christian competed in the tan'en embu (single form) category. He gave a spirited performance, but as the Chief Judge later commented "technique high, time low" so alas no medal.
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| Daryl and Christian |
John (Toronto Branch Master) was a Judge for several categories including Women's 3 Dan and Men's Masters Embu. Tal and Tony also assisted the Chief Judge during the Embu competition.
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| Getting ready to judge with Hiate sensei |
The Study Session was comprised of group practice and several rank-based sessions led by the leading instructors from Japan and the rest of the world.
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| Kawashima sensei (senior and junior) |
In addition, there were Kongo Zen lectures and sessions for Judge/Examiner certification.
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| With Anders sensei and Gary sensei |
The event was a wonderful opportunity to spend time with our friends from all over the planet. In addition, it was a great opportunity to spend more time with Hiate sensei (Atsugi Doin, Japan) - our main teacher.
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| Kanga Ryu - deadly Australian martial arts with Nick sensei (Melbourne) |
We wish to thank the kenshi of California and the USSKF for making this event such a great success!
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| Kanagawa Federation reunion - with Nakamura sensei and Hiate sensei |
Gassho
May 29, 2017
39th Annual Cornell Shorinji Kempo Camp (May 2017)
On Friday May 26th, I travelled down to
Camp Barton near Trumansburg NY to participate in the 39th Annual Shorinji
Kempo Cornell Camp.
As the log cabin doors creaked open, we stepped out into an
early morning fog rolling in off beautiful Lake Cayuga located in the heart of
New York’s Finger Lakes. Friends old and
new gathered for a short warm-up followed by a quick jog to breath in the fresh
air and get our bodies moving. After a
delicious breakfast, we began our study of the philosophy and techniques of
Shorinji Kempo taught by Sakuyama-sensei (Ibaragi Takahagi Doin, Japan), former
staff member at Hombu and direct student of our Founder – Kaiso So
Doshin-sensei.
This year the emphasis was on raising our awareness of how
our body moves, specifically through the hip joint (Greater Trochanter or GT
for short). Since many of the techniques
involve rotational motion through the hip joint, it’s important to understand
how it is used to generate power as well as improve speed and balance. We stepped out of our comfort zone by
exploring the edge cases where it feels like we would fall over because we were
leaning far forward or to the side. We
wouldn’t actually fall because our brain tricks us into thinking that we are
going to lose our balance well before the point where it happens.
As many of us will be attending the 70th Anniversary of the
Foundation of Shorinji Kempo World Taikai event in California this summer,
Sakuyama-sensei shared some of his thoughts on Embu preparation and
competition. Embu is an important aspect
of studying Shorinji Kempo because students perform several techniques in
longer combinations with a partner. By
alternating the roles of attacker and defender, students improve their
techniques by better understanding distance and timing. We learned that there is no difference
between practicing Embu and competing in it, other than the fact that in
competition you only get to perform it once.
This is why it’s important to practice diligently and concentrate
completely in order to perform at the highest level possible. In Embu, as in life, it’s okay to make
mistakes. One should recognize that a
mistake has happened by acknowledging it but not getting too caught up in
it. Embu is more than just demonstrating
techniques, it helps cultivate life energy (ki) and demonstrates the flow of
energy between partners. During our
training we continuously combined techniques together to build Embus and
demonstrate them to each other. At key
times during these demonstrations Sakuyama-sensei would ask us to pause so that
we may become aware of the energy flow between us.
We also learned how fortunate we all are that we have a
powerful tool for introspection, self-awareness and connection to our
environment and beyond - our breath!
Humans can survive weeks without food, days without water but only
minutes without air. We learned how to
monitor and regulate our breathing while sitting, stretching and performing
techniques. During stretching, we were
asked to focus on allowing our breath to flow into the area of our body that we
were trying to stretch and not to think about it as purely a muscle exercise. This allowed us to be more proficient at
stretching as well as helping us become more aware of our bodies.
We wish the thank Sakuyama-sensei for coming all the way
from Japan to teach us and the Camp organizers for their selfless efforts in
facilitating another fantastic training opportunity.
We hope to see everyone again next year!
Gassho,
Kevin Legault (2nd dan)
Toronto Branch
May 17, 2017
22nd Annual Charity Kickathon for CAMH meets $10K goal!
On the sweltering evening of May 17th (why does the first really hot day of the year always coincide with our event?) the members of Shorinji Kempo's Toronto Branch gathered at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) Russell Street site to hold the 22nd annual installment of our main charity activity - the Kickathon.
Every year we are getting older, and our kicks are not quite as high as they used to be, but we are still filled with a strong sense of pride and purpose every time we hold this event.
The goal of the Annual Charity Shorinji Kempo Kickathon is to raise funds for the CAMH Foundation that will be used to alleviate the suffering caused by drug addiction in Ontario.
Our evening began with a period of meditation then a warm-up and stretching. Following that we lined up and launched into 500 consecutive full force kicks with kiai (yell). Given the humid conditions the gym was rather airless, but once we launched into the kicking time just seemed to fly by.
Before long we reached our 500th kick and the joy of accomplishing our goal eclipsed any fatigue or soreness that we felt. Also, we knew that it'll be 12 months before we do this again!
We would like to thank our truly amazing sponsors, many of whom who have generously supported our event for many years. We would also like to express our sincere gratitude to Lidia and her team at the CAMH Foundation for ensuring that the logistics of our event went so smoothly.
We can now announce that our event raised a total of $10,025 - we met our $10K fundraising goal thanks to our sponsors' generous support!
Since the Shorinji Kempo Toronto Branch Kickathon initiative began in 1996 it has raised a total of $149,280 for the CAMH Foundation.
Gassho
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| First some meditation |
Every year we are getting older, and our kicks are not quite as high as they used to be, but we are still filled with a strong sense of pride and purpose every time we hold this event.
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| Then some stretching |
The goal of the Annual Charity Shorinji Kempo Kickathon is to raise funds for the CAMH Foundation that will be used to alleviate the suffering caused by drug addiction in Ontario.
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| Lining up |
Our evening began with a period of meditation then a warm-up and stretching. Following that we lined up and launched into 500 consecutive full force kicks with kiai (yell). Given the humid conditions the gym was rather airless, but once we launched into the kicking time just seemed to fly by.
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| Off we go! |
Before long we reached our 500th kick and the joy of accomplishing our goal eclipsed any fatigue or soreness that we felt. Also, we knew that it'll be 12 months before we do this again!
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| Halfway through |
We would like to thank our truly amazing sponsors, many of whom who have generously supported our event for many years. We would also like to express our sincere gratitude to Lidia and her team at the CAMH Foundation for ensuring that the logistics of our event went so smoothly.
We can now announce that our event raised a total of $10,025 - we met our $10K fundraising goal thanks to our sponsors' generous support!
Since the Shorinji Kempo Toronto Branch Kickathon initiative began in 1996 it has raised a total of $149,280 for the CAMH Foundation.
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| "All done for another year" selfie! |
Gassho
April 10, 2017
Grading success!
Toronto kenshi Max Teplyakov successfully passed his 2nd Kyu examination on April 10, 2017.
Congratulations!
Gassho
February 20, 2017
Grading success!
Well done!
Gassho
December 25, 2016
Seasons Greetings from Toronto Branch!
MERRY CHRISTMAS
&
A HAPPY NEW YEAR
On December 21, 2016 nine members of our branch gathered for the 2016 Closing Ceremony. The event included kihon, chinkon and a demonstration.
The end of year message covered:
2016 events: 21st Annual Kickathon, 38th Annual Cornell Camp, the WSKO Seminar and North American Taikai in Banff as well as grading successes during the year
2017 upcoming events: World Taikai and WSKO Seminar in California, the 22nd Annual Kickathon and the 39th Annual Cornell Camp
We are now taking a good rest and will be back in action early in January!
Gassho
August 23, 2016
Grading success!
On August 22, 2016 Daryl successfully took his 2nd Kyu examination.
Congratulations Daryl!
Gassho
August 18, 2016
Grading success!
Toronto Branch kenshi Max successfully took his 3rd Kyu examination on August 17th.
Congratulations!
Gassho
July 08, 2016
WSKO North America Session & Taikai in Banff, AB
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| Photo courtesy of Rick Hand |
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| Kawashima-sensei (photo: Rick Hand) |
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| Arai-sensei (photo: Rick Hand) |
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| Demonstration by Kawashima-sensei |
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| Christian |
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| Tal & Brian |
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| Toronto Branch members with the Hombu teachers (photo: Rick Hand) |
During each day of the Study Session, Kawashima-sensei provided lectures on topics drawn from his experience and our philosophy. In addition, time was spent reviewing plans for the World Taikai in California next year.
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| Lecture time |
On the Saturday, Alberta Branch provided a wonderful social event at the Toque Bar in Banff. A fun aspect of the event was the presentation of the famous Alberta white hats to the WSKO Instructors! All delegates greatly enjoyed the chance to mingle and relax with fellows from all across our continent.
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| The white hats! |
The final day of the activities was the 5th North American Shorinji Kempo Taikai held at the Banff High School. The event began in an impressive way with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police ("Mounties") escorting in the national flag of Canada prior to singing the national anthem.
As for the Taikai itself, the sections were
- tandoku embu (single form)
- kumi embu (pair form)
- dantai embu (group)
- unyo'ho (sparring)
All of us from Toronto Branch had a wonderful time in Banff and wish to express our sincere gratitude to Noda-sensei, the kenshi of Alberta Branch and all their supporters for their painstaking efforts in organizing these events and for all the kindness and support they extended to all delegates.
Gassho
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| McKaiso (photo: Rick Hand) |
June 04, 2016
38th Annual Cornell Shorinji Kempo Camp (2016)
On Friday May 27th, two members of Toronto Branch and two members of North York Branch ventured to Camp Barton near Trumansburg NY to participate in the 38th Annual Shorinji Kempo Cornell Camp.
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Tucked away in the
Finger Lakes of northern New York State, Camp Barton provides a beautiful
setting to study the philosophy and techniques of Shorinji Kempo taught by Sakuyama-sensei
(Ibaragi Takahagi Doin, Japan), former staff member at Hombu and direct student
of our Founder – Kaiso So Doshin-sensei.
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| Sakuyama-sensei |
This year the
emphasis was on a return to basics in order to explore how our inner body moves
from the moment we become aware that a technique is about to begin (slight
shift of weight to balls of your feet), through the transfer of energy as the
technique is executed and a quick return to stasis at the completion. Each technique should be performed with full
attention to the moment without anticipating what’s next.
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| Sakuyama-sensei |
During a talk,
Sakuyama-sensei shared stories about his experiences interviewing with Kaiso as
he applied to become a monk and to live at headquarters. After careful consideration Kaiso welcomed
him to headquarters where Sakuyama-sensei quickly found that during the
off-season most of the time is spent cleaning and repairing the
facilities. It wasn’t until the summer
months that he fully appreciated his decision as the great masters journeyed
from all across Japan to headquarters in order to participate in events. He was thrilled to be able to continuously
watch and learn from so many great teachers.
He continued to describe how his master, Nakano-sensei (Kaiso had
stopped teaching techniques at this point), instructed him to restudy the
basics. Surprisingly it only took three
years of near constant practice for him to realize the benefits of
Nakano-sensei’s lesson about the importance of returning to the basics.
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| Miyata-sensei |
We were also
fortunate that Miyata-sensei, the original founder of New York City Branch, was
also in attendance. He would often
appear at just the right moment while we were trying to figure out the
subtleties of a technique in order to guide us in the correct way.
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| Ontario delegation with Sakuyama-sensei |
On the second day
of practice, the warm-up session was led by two Kenshi that took us through a
study of aspects of body movement and breathing with a special emphasis on
opening the hip flexors to allow for improved hip movement in order to make our
techniques more effective.
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| Victor in action |
Sakuyama-sensei
continued his emphasis on the study of Kihon carefully checking each of us
individually to ensure a strong foundation.
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| Sakuyama-sensei correcting hip movement |
Another focus area of this year's camp was a conversation about evolution of Shorinji Kempo. After demonstrating one technique (kote nage), Sakuyama sensei
spend considerable amount of time asking branch masters on their
approaches to different complications during execution of the throw (for
example, an extended arm of an opponent). The goal was not to change
the form to a different technique, but to share the approaches on what
can be done to successfully complete the form. After that, in on of the
stories, Sakuyama-sensei told us that Shorinji Kempo Head Quarters very much values the differences in how different masters evolve the basic techniques. We learned that Hombu
has an "R&D" department, that has a mandate to collect the insights
of how techniques develop in different parts of the country and that of
the world, and makes the decisions on what the basic forms and
variations of techniques are. Sakuyama-sensei emphasized that even though there are "golden standards" of how the forms should be performed, each Kenshi still needs to "have duologue with the body" and perform the techniques in the way that works for him or her, e.g. knee lift heights during the basic kicks to ankle, knee or thigh area.
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| Cornell Camp is set in a spectaucular natural location |
We wish the thank
Sakuyama-sensei for coming all the way from Japan to teach us and the Camp
organizers for their selfless efforts in facilitating another fantastic training
opportunity.
Gassho,
Kevin Legault & Victor Bondarev
Toronto Branch
May 13, 2016
21st Annual Charity Kickathon raises over $9,000 for CAMH
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| A big thumbs up to our sponsors! |
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| Kicking earnestly |
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| Jun and gyaku geri |
Thanks to our extremely generous sponsors we were able to raise $9,115.00 this year.
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| At the time of the event we only knew that we had raised over $8000 |
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| Happy that we survived! |
We would like to express our sincere gratitude to all of our wonderful sponsors and also to Lidia and her team at the CAMH Foundation for all their assistance with our 2016 Kickathon event.
Gassho
(update: June 20, 2016)
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