I Am The Messenger

A little update to my last blog, I will be trying out Kendo on March 1st.

 

The concept of kendo:

Kendo is a way to discipline the human character through the application of the principles of the Katana (sword).

The Purpose Of Kendo (as published in Japan):
To mold the mind and body.
To cultivate a vigorous spirit,
And through correct and rigid training,
To strive for improvement in the art of Kendo.
To hold in esteem human courtesy and honor.
To associate with others with sincerity.
And to forever pursue the cultivation of oneself.
This will make one be able:
To love his/her country and society.
To contribute to the development of culture
And to promote peace and prosperity among all peoples.

I have been playing around with the idea of learning a martial form of swordsmanship for about 3 years now. It has happened that only in the past week that I’ve actually become more serious in my consideration of taking the plunge. I was going to play baseball this summer, but with such a steep price, I think I’d rather learn a practice that will have more long term benefits. I started looking for teachers of Kenjutsu here in the Northwest, and found something interesting:

The Tenshinshō-den Katori Shintō Ryū is considered by the Japanese government to be the most distinguished of all Japanese martial traditions. This ryū (tradition) is the source from which many classical Japanese martial ryū have evolved, and consequently, from these ryū, many kinds of bujutsu (martial arts) have appeared.

Tenshinshō-den Katori Shintō Ryū includes in its martial curriculum, iai-jutsu (sword-drawing art), kenjutsu (sword art), bōjutsu (staff art), naginata-jutsu (glaive art), jūjutsu (flexible art), shuriken-jutsu (throwing blade art), ninjutsu (espionage art), sōjutsu (spear art), senjutsu (tactics), and chikujō-jutsu (field fortification art).

The Tenshinshō-den Katori Shintō Ryū has become a well-known and much sought after traditional martial art in many countries around the world. Regrettably, a number of people are teaching and using the name of the ryū without written authority. A Kyōshi (teaching) license does not signify permission to teach in Katori Shintō Ryū; in fact, no one is permitted to represent in any way, or teach the techniques of this ryū without a written Shidōsha (instructor) license from Ōtake Risuke Shihan. At present, only the following people have received this license and are allowed to lead the activities of the ryū in their respective countries. These people are:

	Phil Relnick		The Americas
	Michael Jay		England
	Adam Lancashire		England
	Francisco Comerón		Spain
	Luisa Raini		Italy
	Stanislav Loukianov		Russia
	Jean Paul Blond		France
	Erik Louw		Netherlands
	Willem Bekink		Netherlands
	Charles Louw		South Africa

It turns out that that Phil Relnick guy teaches in Seattle. This is a rather intimidating fact, especially since:

Even today, the ryū retains the traditionally strict custom in which a candidate for study in the ryū is required to execute the keppan, signing, in the person’s own blood, a solemn oath to abide by the policies of the ryū. In this way, the Tenshinshō-den Katori Shintō Ryū has been able to maintain the originality of its teachings, both in spirit and form, precisely as Master Iizasa Chōisai Ienao, the founder, detailed these matters over 600 years ago.

Although I really do respect the idea of being serious in the training and reverence of this martial artform, I think Kendo (Japanese Swordsmanship) or even Kumdo (Korean Swoardsmanship) might be a more realistic approach for me. Or in the least, a better stepping stone.

Although usually a term used to describe a certain type of design or artwork, as people start placing there in identity in objects, minimalism has now become a term used to describe a certain lifestyle. It’s one I even sort of aspire to. It’s very much so being advocated alot in the media. The idea of having less, but more “meaningful” (I use that term loosely) things appeals to me. Especially as of late. I’ve been throwing out a lot of stuff I no longer use or need and have been cluttering up areas in Megan and my apartment, and it’s been something that has been a long time coming. Most of it is stuff I should have never bought in the first place. I used to have a big spending problem. Since I didn’t have many bills living at home with my parents a few years ago, I would save some, waste alot. I just wasn’t thinking about how I spent; advertisers did my thinking for me.

I’ve noticed a big trend in ads lately. Everything is centered around you. The idea is to make you feel warm and fuzzy; important. I probably could go on about how this only goes to fill our egos and is doing nothing productive except filling society with narcissistic zombies, but I don’t wholly subscribe to that, and besides that’d be another boring blog. But anyways, I have noticed how expensive becoming minimalistic can be. Then I got to thinking, is my entire outlook on minimalism even really minimalistic?! I could answer that yes, but it’d only be that I’m minimalist in an extremely materialistic way, which doesn’t actually make sense. Minimalism by American standards is actually something you have to invest and buy into.

For example: Everyone wants flat panel tv’s because they take less room. We want smaller laptops because they weigh less and don’t take up as much room as a desktop computer does. The whole…Feng shei. We have this idea that we have to associate our personalities in the types of things we fill our houses or automobiles with.

The more I think about it, I’m not really being minimalistic at all. I need to come up with a different term if I were to be honest with myself and others.

Now, I’m not here to harp on having the latest and greatest in technology (I love technology…), but I’m not going to lie to myself anymore and think I’m living a minimalist lifestyle by owning smaller, more expensive gadgets like some commercial wants me to believe. If I were to be completely honest with myself, I’m just giving myself a fancy title for throwing junk away I should have never bought. I think another one of my problems is that I rush into things too fast and I get myself into trouble because of it. I’ve been trying to slow down and really give more intentional thought into the things I invest myself into. I need to think of the consequences of what position buying certain things will get me into. How does buying these things affect my relationship with Megan, with family, with God, with friends and others.

I wish someone would just invent a time machine so I could go back and correct a few things, but then again, I wouldn’t have to change or grow up if someone did.

I’ve been reading the book, The Rising Sun by John Toland. It chronicles the rise and fall of the Japanese Empire from 1936-1945. It’s not the usual type of history book that I read, hence it taking over 2 months to read the nearly 900 page book, but there are parts that are definitely interesting. A chapter named ‘The Stragglers’ turned me on to the story of 2nd Lt. Hiroo Onada. This man was one of the last remnants of the Japanese Imperial Army that still hadn’t surrendered 20+ years later.

It is probably very hard for most of us to understand why many Japanese over the course of WWII preferred suicide, or suicidal attack over surrender. For 2nd Lt. Onada who was a part of a special forces unit, after losing the battle in the Phillippines, was told by his commanding officer to result to guerrilla warfare. Onada was ordered that under no circumstances was he ever obliged take his own life. There is going to be something he could do for Japan, even if captured. Onada fled deep into the jungles of the Phillippines and hid with up to as many as 4 other comrades. Only he and another lived past the first decade, but they kept their end of the deal; to stay alive. Their commanding officer told them that it may take months, maybe years, but that they would come back for the Onada and other survivors. They never returned.

Onada’s sole companion was killed in 1972 by Filipino policemen who had caught them burning rice as part of their guerilla warfare. Onada, by himself, was found and befriended by a Japanese university dropout, Norio Suzuki. Norio, along with a Japanese delegation, the local population, and even Onada’s father could not convnice Onada to surrender, or even believe that the war was over. Not even after hearing it for himself over the radio, seeing pamphlets and newspaper clippings brought to him. It was all American propoganda to get him to surrender. Suzuki came to the realization that the only way to get him to surrender was to get a former one time superior officer in the Army, Major Taniguchi, to fly out to the Phillippines and command Onada to surrender.

Finally, almost 30 years later, Onada emerged from the jungles of Lubang which he had called home and surrendered. Onada openly wept after he finally conceded and really believed that the war was over. He still had his .25 caliber rifle with 500 rounds of ammunition, and several hand grenades.

Onada has since opened a nature camp for children, and has even married. He has a book, No Surrender: My Thirty Year War. Photos of Onada can be seen here: http://www.wanpela.com/holdouts/profiles/onoda.html

I haven’t blogged in a while and decided to make a comeback. This blog will be used for ramblings on history subjects that I find interesting, politics, spirituality, movie reviews, fun stuff, picture posting, and maybe even some personal ramblings for added drama.

Welcome.