Wood & Steel, with Peter Boylan
Sept. 11 and 12, 1999
Indianapolis, IN
I met Peter Boylan online, via
the internet aikido mailing list (www.aikido-l.org) and the iaido
mailing list. He was living in Japan and doing what lots of us old
dojo rats dream about, spending a heck of a lot of time studying budo
(both the old stuff and new).
To our great luck, Peter moved back to the U.S. recently, settling in up in
Detroit. When I found out how near he was going to be to Indianapolis, I
started pestering him to come to Indy to share some of what he'd learned.
After much prodding, he agreed and I began planning for a modest little
seminar that would (hopefully) become the seed for an ongoing relationship
with Peter and, ultimately, his teachers from Japan.
Among the systems Peter has delved into are Shinto Muso Ryu Jodo, Muso
Jikiden Eishin Ryu Iaido and Kodokan Judo -- and that's the short list.
We agreed that he would start simple (yeah right), teaching our fledgling
little group the All Japan Kendo Federation's standard forms for jo and iai,
and as (if) we progressed, he'd introduce the older stuff.
Eventually, a date was set, registrations began filing in and we were only
lacking Peter's presence.
Late in the evening of Sept 10, Peter and his self-professed pet uke Jody
Holeton (nice guy, tall and lean, a budding budo bum following in Peter's footsteps)
arrived on my doorstep. We sat up till the wee hours talking budo, looking
at Japanese-language budo books and watching budo videos (the '98 Budosai
tape was truly budo overload and Peter's jodo shodan test is fascinating
despite his personal reluctance to let anyone actually see it).
Saturday morning, we had superior weather for Indiana. Clear skies, a little
cool, practically no humidity. We rolled out for the dojo at about 7 a.m.
and started setting up for the festivities. My students had done a great job
of getting everything ready and we actually hadn't much to do except set up
a couple of tables for Peter to put out some of Mugendo Budogu's wares.
He had brought along some incredible books and videos for everyone to drool
over and I think, actually sold quite a bit of the Mugendo stock he'd lugged
down here. I bought a sword-cleaning kit, a sort of koryu overview book by a
guy Peter described as a Japanese Meik Skoss -- doesn't look anything like
Meik, though -- and very nice little Shinto Muso Ryu Jodo book.
Once we got started, about 8 a.m., we did 4 hours of jo work outdoors. Our
club meets in space provided by the Vietnam Veterans of America Chapter 295
and the lawn outside the building offers lots of huge shade trees and
relatively smooth ground, just enough surface variation to make it
interesting.
Peter and I were both amazed at the turnout. We had about 20 folks
(including us) playing with sticks that morning.
Seitei jo -- wonderful stuff, very powerful and while I SEE the potential
for amazing flow, that's a long way off, I fear -- was fascinating and
demanding. We explored the courtesies and kihon (actually, I think we only
got to do about four of the kihon) and did some paired work to explore what
was actually happening when we did the kihon. Very intense, very personal
stuff, that.
Peter also demonstrated the sets from SMR, contrasting and comparing them so
we could begin to see some of the subtle differences.
After a quick lunch at a local sandwich shop, we returned for another four
hours of training, inside this time, and Peter introduced about 16 of us
survivors to the mysteries of the ZKNR iaido seiteigata. We worked through
Mae and Ushiro and STILL hadn't enough time to do all we wanted.
After another hour break, we returned to the mat for what was supposed to be
a couple of hours of judo's Kime no Kata -- it actually stretched out to
about three hours. Only about 10 of us remained for the judo class, but that
was enough. Again, we had no chance of getting everything in the set
demonstrated and practiced, but Peter gave us a good taste of the chokes,
arm locks and throws of the form.
We did pizza and videos for (a very late) dinner and headed home about 10
p.m. On the way, right on cue, we enjoyed the fireworks display. About five
minutes from the dojo, a huge power transformer blew about the time we
passed. I had to pull some real strings to the the light company to go along
with that ... Actually, when we stopped to call 911 about the explosion and
fire, the dispatcher got confused about the location and when the fire truck
arrived,it went past, around the block and we flagged it down on the way
back ... no major damage, the fire burnt itself out before they got there.
Sunday morning was just as pleasant, mild temperatures and only a few clouds
in a glorious morning sky. We returned to the lawn outside the VVA center to
play with sticks and spent another four hours wrestling with the jo. About
eight folks survived Saturday, but we added four new faces who hadn't made
it in the day before.
We reviewed the kihon and while Peter worked with the new folks, the rest of
us went off to the side to practice hikiotoshi uchi, and a bit later, the
first ZNKR jo kata. A great morning that left us with a lot to chew through.
After lunch, we went indoors for more seiteigata and after a review of Mae
and Ushiro, Peter took the new folks under wing to get them up to speed,
while we seperated for solo or paired training on the first two kata and
some suburi work. Eventually, we worked through about the first seven kata.
During the two days, we persuaded Peter to show us several MJER kata and got
to compare the two systems. Very interesting stuff and I look forward to
getting another dose soon.
We cleared the dojo about 5 p.m. Sunday afternoon and I saw Peter and Jody
back off to Detroit after letting them catch their breath (and supplying
some anti-inflammatory meds).
I felt the clinic was more than successful. It was a great weekend, with
some great training from and with some great folks. We had students from the
two Yoshinkai dojo here, a couple of folks from the Aikido Schools of
Ueshiba at Fort Wayne, Ind., almost all of my students (five folks Sat.,
four Sunday), three long-haul drivers from Penn., a wandering newly minted
PhD from St. Louis (en route to Chicago then Boston) who's budo-bumming
through the midwest for a couple of weeks before he heads off to the real
world and, in truth, more folks than I can actually remember.
One of the best things about the clinic was that very variety. Yoshinkai,
ASU, USAF (Midwest), Kodokan Judo, Tai Chi, my eclectic bunch and a few
others -- but no one brought an ego.
Longest drive award: the trio from a new Pennsylvania judo dojo. Drove 12
hours overnight to come play with us! Unfortunately, they had to leave early
Sunday due to a family illness, but while they were here, we had a blast.
What did I learn? This was my second exposure to SMR-influenced jodo, and
much more detailed than the brief flirtation with the kihon I got a couple
of years ago. The system is fascinating, powerful and deep. Our jo work is
very simple in comparison. Easy to learn and teach, but not, in truth,
incredibly dense. I can see potential for an incredible amount of depth in
just the seiteigata and our little taste of SMR was enough to set the mind
a'reeling.
As for the iaido, primarily I learned that ZKNR iaido is a heck of a lot
harder to do than it looks. And it uses a lot of muscles and movements that
my normal training does not. I'm sore. REAL sore in a couple of places. I
learned that MJER likes BIG cuts. Even stretching my arms until my shoulders
started griping about it, Peter kept reminding me to make BIGGER cuts. The
swordwork we do is much tighter, and uses more of a push-pull motion and the
MJER cuts. It was a lesson in changing my point of view. While I was passing
familiar with Mae, Ushiro, Uke Nagashi and so on, Peter exposed a fair
amount of information that was utterly new to me and I enjoyed every minute
of it.
Some of the most valuable info from the weekend was actually kuchi waza --
anecdotes about Peter's teachers and experiences in Japan. He spoke mostly
about his teachers and about some of the 'old hands' in his arts. Through
his stories, Peter's teachers became human for us, humorous, fallible,
sometimes gentle. But he also shared with us the sense of wonder at seeing a
shuffling octagenarian transformed into a dynamic force of nature as he
stepped onto the dojo floor and grabbed a jo. We got a sense of the enormous
talent and dedication some of those old teachers had -- and that they shared
with Peter. Wonderful stuff.
We're shooting for a late October return date and plans are afoot to start
running a couple of classes a month to review what Peter shared with us and
practice so that we'll not be too terribly incompetent when he returns!
Chuck Gordon
The Dojo
http://www.mindspring.com/~chuck.gordon/
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