Thoughts from Japan

Having had a couple of training sessions with Soke, as most of you are aware, he has spoken of “kaname”. I won’t go into the translation of that, as there are those far more qualified to do so. But I will share my experience and thoughts on it. One definition could be thought of as “essence”.  I carefully watched Soke and looked for this sense of kaname. I am not sure I can share what it is, but what I did see, was his ability to hold the uke suspended, and then as uke recovered, he touched a point or moved a certain way that of course, caused either another suspension or uke to ungracefully fall. It seems to be one step more advanced from last year,  the 1 point, 2 point, more points, to affect the body. He spoke of playing, like a cat playing with his prey, this sort of feeling. Here a few images I hope may give some impression of this.

I would like to share from Cinzia Dolcini from Italy, who was in Japan earlier. What she wrote captures very well what I felt and saw from Soke this trip. This is what she had to say:

“The theme of the year: KANAME and in general a broader expression, see my site in:

http://www.bujinkantorino.it/en/news.html

Soke used also expressions like KANAME NO IDO: “the movement of kaname” (I feel that is connected with the movement of oneself around a pivot, for example. Or the movement of the pain “main point” in different places. Or counter-attack moving kaname from me to the opponent.)

TOMEI NO KANAME: “the transparent kaname”. Some people have translated like “invisible”, but invisible in Japanese is another word. In this case Soke used “tomei” that is transparent, so maybe it has a slight different aspect.