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I enjoyed the Kansai Seminar immensely. It's always interesting to
finally meet people in person that you have been communicating with via
e-mail. They never look quite like the image you have created of them
inside your head.
I think I found my calling in life at Kawahara san`s forge where he
showed us how he makes swords. He complimented me on my steel hammering
technique, and I found it quite interesting. I think it would be great
to hammer the steel when he brings it out of the hot charcoals at his
request. Then I could retire up to his loft and eat peanuts and drink
beer until he calls me down again for more hammering.
I thought all the sessions were a great learning experience. It's nice
to be exposed to different styles than the ones I practice. We learned
too many waza over the weekend to count. When I am exposed to so many
techniques it's futile to remember more than a few so I resolved to
remember just one from each session. Uh...make that one from the entire
weekend.
It was a great seminar and I`d like to say thank you to Peter Boylan for
doing a wonderful job organizing everything. I hope to see everyone
again next month at the International Budo Seminar in Katsuura. If
anyone from last weekend doesn't have the forms and wants to attend,
please contact me. Actually, if anyone on this list living in Japan
needs the forms, just ask and I will fax them to you.
Mark Gorsuch
"Does anybody want to touch it and see if it's really hot?"
Words from the mouth of Michael Kimeda moments after the sword smith
removed the steel he was folding out of the 2000 degree Celsius
forge.
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