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Bujinkan.ME News #39 (New Year, new DVD at Budo Shop)

kabuto — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 22:02:05 +0000

Akemashite Omedetou Gozaimasu!
(Happy new year!)

This year is Heisei 21 and 牛年 ushi-doshi, the year of the buffalo, cow or ox in the zodiac calendar and the element of earth. Buddha invited the animals to participate in a race. The prize was a coveted position on the Chinese Zodiac calendar. The first 12 animals to cross the river would appear on the Chinese Zodiac calendar in the order in which they completed the race .... the rat used his brain rather than his brawn. It hitched a ride on what it perceived was the mightiest swimmer. Just before the buffalo reached the shore, the rat jumped off the buffalo’s back and crossed the finish line before the buffalo, putting the rat in first place, and the buffalo the second place, followed by the tiger...

The cow is is also associated with the deity 虛空藏菩薩 Kōkūzō Bosatsu (Ākāśagarbha in Sanskrit). Kokuzo (also written Kokuuzou, Kokuuzoo) symbolizes the "vast and boundless" Buddha wisdom that permeates the universe. Believers pray to Kokuzo to grant them wisdom on their quest toward enlightenment. People also pray to Kokuzo to improve their memory, technical skills, and artistic talents, for Kokuzo is revered not only as the deity of wisdom, but as a protector of craftspeople and artisans.

About this years Bujinkan theme... I don't know so much other than what has been stated on websites (here, here, here and here), apparently there is no particular theme for techniques concerned (the philosophy you can read on the links above). However I heard there will be more sword as this is a thing we in general need to practice more, sword is also my favourite weapon .

I will be off to Japan tomorrow, and will probably make a few blog posts on my web site... http://kesshi.com about the trainings and stuff.

Web Site Updates

I've been working on a a new seminar list, completely new code. I'd like to call it Bujinkan Seminar List v2.0 beta, check it out (webmasters check the page source).
http://kesshi.com/seminars/bujinkan.php

I also set up two new rss feeds. I'd like to keep updated with everything new so I merged all kinds of blogs and forums I'd like to keep an eye on in one single feed. There is two different ones, first one is in English, the second one is in Swedish.
http://feedproxy.google.com/SuperfeedEN
http://feedproxy.google.com/SuperfeedSE

Hankyou 2008 - Christmas seminar DVD

Instructors: Paul Waserbrot, Mats Hjelm, Steven Helling, Daniel Bodin, Fredrik Markgren, Arvid Karlsson, Jens Lindstrand, Richard Maier, William Ustav

Theme: Reflections of this years Bujinkan theme, Togakure-ryu ninpo taijutsu

Many instructors from Sweden went to Japan to train with Hatsumi Soke and the Shihan. Many of these instructors came to share their knowledge and feelings from their training trips.

Recorded in Stockholm, Sweden December 2008

Format: DVD/R- which plays on all computers using and ordinary DVDRom. It also plays on most DVD players (check your manual!).

100 Minutes playing time top quality, available in NTSC only.

Language: The instructions is in Swedish!

Click here if you want to buy it!

I will be away for training in Japan and back January 20'th when I will be able to ship all orders right away.

Upcoming seminars

2009-01-16/2009-01-18 - Helsinki, Finland
Shihan Moti Nativ Seminar, with Shihan Moti Nativ
For more information (price & schedule) please contact nagareru@hotmail.com More info... http://shinden.fi

2009-01-24/2009-01-25 - Stockholm, Sweden
Seminar with Sheila Haddad, with Sheila Haddad & Thomas FranzÃ©n
Bujinkan To Nan Dojo invites you to a Sheila Haddad Seminar 2009! Sheila returns once again to give one of her popular seminars with focus on women in Budo. Men are of cource welcome to train as well. Most welcome. More info... http://www.budogruppen.nu/

2009-02-07/2009-02-08 - Stockholm, Sweden
Keiko seminar intro to this years theme, with Mats Hjelm
Introduction to this years theme. Mats is planning his annual January trip this year also. More info... http://www.kaigozan.se/seminars/

2009-03-14/2009-03-15 - Stockholm, Sweden
Keiko seminar with Holger Kunzmann, with Holger Kunzmann, Shihan
Shihan Holger Kunzmann from Germany will be in Japan during February, after this trip he will come here to share what was being taught there. More info... http://kaigozan.se/seminars/

2009-03-20/2009-03-22 - Helsinki, Finland
Shihan Arnaud Couserque seminar, with Shihan Arnaud Couserque
For more information (price & schedule) please contact nagareru@hotmail.com More info... http://shinden.fi

2009-04-18/2009-04-19 - Stockholm, Sweden
Seminar with Pedro Fleitas, with Pedro Fleitas
Bujinkan To Nan Dojo invite you all to a great happening. Pedro Fleitas will be giving a seminar in Stockholm, Sweden. Mostly welcome. More info... http://www.budogruppen.nu/

2009-04-18/2009-04-19 - Szeged, Hungary
Bujinkan Budo Taijutsu (Chuden kata), with Mats Hjelm
Chuden kata techniques from the schools of Bujinkan. For more info see the web site More info... http://szeged.bujinkan.hu/

2009-05-01/2009-05-03 - Stockholm, Sweden
International Bujinkan TAIKAI 2009 (Kaigousuru), with Many instructors from the whole world
To date the following instructors is coming... Duncan Stewart, Shihan (Japan). Juan Manuel Serrano, Shihan (Spain). Lauri Jokinen, Shihan (Finland). Mariette vd Vliet, Shihan (Holland). Mats Hjelm, Shihan (Sweden). Morten B. Østenstad, Shihan (Norway). See the web site for latest info! More info... http://www.taikai.se

Bujinkan.ME News #38 (Seti, web updates, Budo Shop)

kabuto — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 13:56:09 +0000

Hello buuyuu's!

Daikomyousai just finished (I wish I could have been there, I have to try harder for next year). I heard they trained outside, and Kihon Happo was the theme, at least for the first day. Hopefully someone will update me for the next newsletter at the end of the year.

Web site updates & RSS

I have had a lot of time to work on all our web sites recently, so I think you should check them out.

Kabutoshimen has become a real Bujinkan portal, I have included a lot of news sources that is constantly updated.
Bujinkan.ME (also iPhone optimized), I created something i just call the Superfeed. It collects RSS feeds from different sources in four steps.
- Superfeed, this is all our blogs in one, if you just want to subscribe to our blogs this feed is the only one you need to subscribe to. If we create a new blog or move one, it will automatically be updated in this feed.
- Superfeed2, same as above plus selected Bujinkan bLogs we this is really good.
- Superfeed3, same as all above plus selected Bujinkan forums we think is good.
- Superfeed4, same as above plus YouTube videos tagged Bujinkan, Google Blogsearch for Bujinkan. Note the last feed is experimental, there is no way to control the content completely. I had to filter out one Bujinkan forum because it is too heavily spammed, I might do that with others to in the future if need be.
Soke classes, is always up to date with the original web site. But our site also now includes a live weather forecast of Matsudo (which is the closest city to Honbu dojo and Ayase classes).

Taikai 2009 Update

Nothing new since the last newsletter. The interest seems a little low right now and we need help advertising the TAIKAI. You can help us with a banner or just a link to our web site, or talk about organizing a group trip to the TAIKAI in your dojo, anything encouraging people to go is good for us, and we appreciate it greatly.
The application form is on-line, the following instructors is coming.

Duncan Stewart, Shihan (Japan)
Juan Manuel Serrano, Shihan (Spain)
Lauri Jokinen, Shihan (Finland)
Mariette vd Vliet, Shihan (Holland)
Mats Hjelm, Shihan (Sweden)
Morten B. Østenstad, Shihan (Norway)

The application form for TAIKAI is now on-line! On the taikai web site you can click on the button in the top right column from all pages. Sign up before the end of the year and you will receive a gift from us at the Taikai. Please spread the word!

The new web shop has been up and it works really well. Note the shipping costs is really flat rate shipping cost 49 SEK to the whole world (gratis frakt inom Sverige!), we had to adjust some prices slightly to cover the p&p costs, but the DVD prices is unchanged. There is no new products this month, the last ones was Masaaki Hatsumi - Taikai Sweden 1988, Dean Rostohar - Knife and Baton seminar and Aluminium training knifes.

We will release new/old Shinken kata dvd's very soon.

It is Christmas time soon and if you want to have the order before Christmas you should order as soon as possible. We can not guarantee any latest time for ordering to get it in time for Christmas, but we are fast, we send the items within one or two days and the rest is up to the post offices. In Sweden you usually have it the next day, in other countries 3-5 days. But being Christmas it could take a little longer than usual, but of course you know that.

Join the Bujinkan SETI team!

Almost 10 years ago I joined the SETI by installing the “screensaver”. I discovered that you could create teams and work together. It was fun and exciting to see how we did together, then somehow I forgot about it until now. I went back to see if our team was active and to my surprise it still was! My account was still there, so I had to log in, download the new program and fire it up again and contribute to the Bujinkan SETI team.

On Wednesday November 19′th 2008 it was 2 active members, at top team no 3548, 723 recent credits (with a total of 424,647 credits) and ranked as 7,562. If you click on the links above you will see that we are climbing up rapidly.

I think it would be fun if you also joined the Bujinkan SETI team in search for extra terrestrial life. If you think this is silly, there is several other organisations you can help by lending your CPU when not in use to.

Click here for the official Bujinkan SETI web site http://kesshi.com/seti/

Please spread the word!

Update: We are now four active users and have tripled the credits produced.

Seminars the following months

For more seminars see the Bujinkan.Me/seminars list (here is also information how to add seminars to this database). Sponsored seminar...

2008-12-05/2008-12-07 - Tuusula, Finland
Christmas Camp, with Shihan Lauri Jokinen
For more information (price & schedule etc.) please contact nagareru@hotmail.com More info... http://shinden.fi

2008-12-19/2008-12-20 - Stockholm, Sweden
Hankyou 2008, with Many instructors
This is Kaigozan Dojo's traditional Christmas seminar. We invite all instructors that want to come and share what they have learned this year (please contact us!). If you want to have good fun don't miss this, the cost for the seminar is kept really low. More info... http://kaigozan.se/seminars

2009-01-16/18 - Helsinki, Finland
Shihan Moti Nativ Seminar (Shihan Moti Nativ)
For more information (price & schedule) please contact nagareru@hotmail.com
More info on... click here

2009-02-07/08 - Stockholm, Sweden
Keiko seminar intro to this years theme (Mats Hjelm)
Introduction to this years theme. Mats is doing his annual January trip this year to.
More info on... click here

2009-03-14/15 - Stockholm, Sweden
Keiko seminar with Holger Kunzmann (Shihan from Germany)
Shihan Holger Kunzmann from Germany will be in Japan during February, after this trip he will come here to share what was being taught there.
More info on... click here

Short news and Notes

On Sunday November 16'th Soke told us that you (as the instructor) should say 千早や振る　神の教えは　とこしえに　正しき心　身を守るらん Chihayaburu Kamino Oshiewa Tokoshieni Tadashiki Kokoro Mio Mamoruran" as well when you do "Shikin" at your class.

Read more about it on Kutaki.
This seems to be needed to be reminded constantly. When going to Japan and training, please do what you can to help the administrators of the classes so it runs smoothly.
This is one of the many unwritten rules, and it always needs to be reminded! If you are allowed to take video of the trainings, you do not automatically have ok to post the video clips anywhere on internet, selling or giving away to strangers. If this is something you intend to do, then you need to ask if this is ok. This is just common courtesy, show some respect and don't take things for granted.
There was a Bujinkan Enbu at the Fuse Benten in Kashiwa in October, celebrating a 1200 year old shrine.

New, here is a link to a 35 minute video of the Enbu.
...Please send me news to put here!