Tests and lots of “Bikram Aikido” today at Birankai NA Camp, where temperatures in the dojo were quite toasty. Thanks to reminders from the medical team, no one suffered ill effects from the heat, and the training remained strong, even into a long evening of testing. Congrats to all candidates for their efforts.
And big thanks to Neilu Naini, Derek Shaw and the crack 2015 Summer Camp team, who have kept everyone housed and hydrated, the mat clean, and the excellent food and beer flowing so far at camp. Thanks for your hard work!
In line to pay our respects to Chiba Sensei at the kamiza, at the end of the chanting service.At the chapel for the Celebration of Chiba Sensei’s life.Singing and dancing at the reception afterward.
The weather’s nice and mild but the training was smoking at the University of Puget Sound for Day 2 of Birankai NA Camp. Lots of visitors and lots of good energy from our usual crew. See you tomorrow!
(See more videos at the BiranOnline YouTube channel — I’m not doing every single class this year but will try to get as much as I can online.)
The energy was electric this evening at the first class of Birankai North America Summer Camp, with lots of special guests and strong training led by Darrell Bluhm Shihan of Siskiyou Aikikai. Chiba Sensei’s spirit was in the room.
We’ve got these great new Birankai patches for everyone to affix to their gis. The design is the moon-star mon (crest), the emblem of the Chiba samurai clan.
“We honor our founder, T.K. Chiba, by using his family crest or mon as the Birankai symbol. It should be worn or displayed with great respect,” said A.G. Peterson, president of Birankai North America
The new Birankai embroidered patch will be available for sale at Summer Camp. Proceeds from patch sales will go to the Birankai General Fund, which supports various programs including scholarships, the website and the video library.
Wear the Birankai patch on the right sleeve of your gi or sewn onto weapons bags and gi bags. The image should be oriented with the small circle in the “10 o’clock” position.
When applying to your gi sleeve, apply to the right sleeve, a bit below your shoulder but well above the elbow. Put on your gi jacket and have a friend pin the patch to your gi in the correct position. Remove the jacket and iron-on or sew on. We recommend sewing on, however you may wish to do both for strongest adhesion.
Iron-on instructions:
Pre-heat iron for 5 minutes on high setting. Do not use steam.
Iron area of the garment where the emblem will be placed for 25 seconds.
Place emblem in desired location.
Place lightweight press cloth over the emblem. Using a back-and-forth motion, press firmly with iron for 25 seconds. DO NOT apply hot iron directly to the emblem embroidery.
Turn the garment inside out. Using a back-and-forth motion, iron the back side of the emblem for 45-60 seconds while pressing firmly.
Turn the garment right side out. Place press cloth over the emblem. Iron edges of the emblem to ensure they are properly sealed. DO NOT apply hot iron directly to the emblem embroidery.
Summer Camp is almost here! In a little more than a week we’ll all be gathered in the tropical heat of Tacoma, Wash. You heard that right – the entire Northwest has been baking in a heat wave that I’m hoping will be waning by the time we arrive. Either way, great for purification…
A few final words from Camp Director Neilu Naini:
Getting there: Make sure you know how you’re getting to the University of Puget Sound (it’s in Tacoma, not Seattle) and that your travel plans have been confirmed with the camp staff. Visit the travel page for more info.
T-shirts: You can still buy T-shirts and hoodies at the online store and a limited selection will be available at camp. Click here for the selection.
Volunteer: We need lots of help to make this camp happen, especially because we’re expecting guests from around the world for the celebration of Chiba Sensei’s life. Make sure to sign up as soon as you arrive at camp to help with setup, cleaning and other tasks.
Kazuo Chiba, a pioneering teacher who helped spread the Japanese martial art of Aikido across the world, died June 5, 2015 in San Diego, California. Chiba Sensei, 75, suffered from kidney cancer. He died peacefully at home surrounded by family and students.
T.K. Chiba and M. Kanai in 1954.
Born on Feb. 5, 1940, in Tokyo, Japan, Chiba Sensei showed an early interest in martial arts and began serious training in judo and karate in his teens. But he became dissatisfied with both arts and starting seeking a more comprehensive fighting system.
“A budo practitioner, I thought, should be able to respond under any circumstances, whether using sword against sword, whatever,” Chiba Sensei said in a 1995 Aikido Journal interview.
An encounter in a bookstore changed his life: “I picked up a book about Aikido. Inside there was a small photo of [Aikido founder] O-Sensei,” Chiba Sensei said. “When I saw it, I knew immediately that I had found my teacher. I knew nothing about the actual techniques of Aikido, but that didn’t seem important and I just thought to myself: ‘This is it! This looks like a man who understands my concerns.’”
Chiba Sensei went to Aikido headquarters in Tokyo and pestered O-Sensei and senior students until he was accepted as a live-in trainee, at the age of 18. Over the next seven years he practiced Aikido for hours every day and traveled with the founder across Japan to demonstrate and promote the art.
In 1960, then a third-degree black belt, Chiba Sensei was dispatched to the city of Nagoya to establish one of the first branch dojos [schools] under the auspices of Aikido headquarters. In 1962, he also began teaching at the Hombu dojo, and within three years had completed his training and earned promotion to fifth-degree black belt.
In March of 1966, Chiba Sensei became one of the first teachers sent abroad from Japan to spread the fledgling art of Aikido. Wed to his wife, Mitsuko, only months before his departure, he was sent alone to England to establish the art in a period many Britons were
Chiba Sensei in 1967 in Cardiff, Wales.
still actively hostile to the Japanese. “I did not appreciate the food served by my host family – the usual fare being meat and vegetables boiled to mash, except on Fridays when we were served fried fish with salt and vinegar. I could not stop dreaming of soy sauce,” Chiba Sensei wrote in a memoir published in the Birankai Aikido journal.
Culture shock and the political complexities of Britain’s martial arts world made his first years abroad very difficult. After that bumpy start, he established a successful dojo in London and also traveled extensively to teach in Europe, helping to promote Aikido in Belgium, France, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Holland, Morocco, Spain and Switzerland. In 1970 he was promoted to sixth-degree black belt and awarded the title of shihan, or master instructor.
In 1975, Chiba Sensei returned to Japan to serve as secretary of the international department at the Aikikai Hombu Dojo. At that time he also began studying Iaido – the art of drawing and cutting with the Japanese sword – with Takeshi Mitsuzuka, a disciple of legendary swordsman Hakudo Nakayama. He also intensified his study of Zen Buddhism and Misogi-no-kokyu-ho, a Shinto practice of purification through breathing.
Chiba Sensei and Mrs. Chiba in San Diego, 1981.
At the invitation of the United States Aikido Federation, Chiba Sensei and his family moved to San Diego in 1981 and established the San Diego Aikikai dojo. Thousands of Aikido practitioners from around the world came to study with Chiba Sensei in California and take part in live-in trainee and other teacher-preparation programs. He also established the Birankai Aikido organization, with dozens of affiliated dojos in the U.S., the U.K. and Europe.
In 2008, after 50 years in Aikido, Chiba Sensei retired from active teaching.
Chiba Sensei and his wife, Mitsuko Chiba.
Chiba Sensei is survived by his wife, Mitsuko; his children Kano and Kotetsu; his
grandchildren James Yamato, Titus Taisuke, Ryusuke, Shou, Kai and Zen, and his brother, Nobuyoshi Chiba of Japan. He will be greatly missed by his family and thousands of students and admirers across the world.
On behalf of Birankai International, with deep sorrow, Birankai North America announces the death today, June 5th, 2015, of our founder and teacher T. K. Chiba Shihan.
Martial artists here and around the world salute his life as they mourn his passing. During more than 50 years of training and teaching, Sensei inspired, forged and changed the lives of generations of students.
United in gratitude for the great gift he gave us, we offer our condolences to his family.
With hard work and study, you can practice Chiba Sensei’s Aikido at the highest level.
As part of a strong and supportive community, you can pass on the essence of Chiba Sensei’s Aikido to the next generation.
That was part of the powerful message of this past weekend’s Birankai Instructors’ Intensive in Wisconsin. It was an incredible experience, full of collaboration, intense study and real progress in our collective goal of keeping Birankai Aikido vital and true to the essence of Chiba Sensei’s project.
(More reports will be posted soon on the event in this blog and in the print issue of Biran, along with a quick-cut video I’m putting together set to “Eye of the Tiger”…)
Personally, I didn’t have a clear idea of what to expect going into the Instructor’s Intensive and I harbored plenty of skepticism, if not dread. Much more of my mindspace as the weekend approached was occupied by concerns about wolverines, a dry campus and three days of healthy food than martial spirit, curriculum or pedagogy.
Luckily, Wisconsin “cheese food” was soon on hand to supplement my diet and I turned my focus to the radical paradigm shift occurring in front of me on the mats and lawns at the House in the Wood.
With full acknowledgment of and respect for teachers who chose to focus on their own dojos and methods, the Intensive offered a new model in which a coalition of the willing apply their energy and humility to the needs of the larger body of Birankai instructors.
We took on the most basic of the basics – suburi, strikes, fundamental movements in weapons training – and worked together as senior and junior teachers to first clarify the martial objectives of each movement, then explore the many approaches used by Chiba Sensei over the years to embody these martial intentions. Finally, we put our heads together to form strategies to bring everyone’s level up and practiced, practiced, practiced.
Roo Heins, Rodger Park, Neilu Naini, Deena Drake, Alex Peterson and I acted as group facilitators more than ultimate authorities passing judgment from on high, keeping the focus on improving our training as an inclusive group and keeping the energy up. Shihans Lizzy Lynn and Maureen Brown kept us honest and on task.
Chiba Sensei was there in our hearts at every moment.
Seeing the passion, perseverance and grit of our fellow instructors – most of whom I hadn’t gotten to know much at all before this weekend – I fully expect the next exemplar of Chiba Sensei’s Aikido to come from Muskogee, Lansing or Providence.
As I yearned for cheese food overnight in the deserted Philly airport on the way home, thoughts of the Intensive kept running through my mind:
As part of a strong and supportive community, you can pass on Chiba Sensei’s Aikido to the next generation.
With hard work and study, you can practice Chiba Sensei’s Aikido at the highest level.
You are not alone.
L. Klein
Editor’s note: Thanks to R.C. Miles for the great panorama photo at the top of the page. If anyone has more good photos or video, let me know!
When I committed to Chiba Sensei to become a teacher and he allowed me to join the kenshusei program, I had a distinct perspective on how, where, and what my dojo would be. Since that time (20-plus years ago), my perspective has evolved. Perhaps I matured, perhaps I drifted, or perhaps evolution is natural.
As I consider two challenges facing our community, No. 1, attracting younger people to Aikido; and No. 2, the public’s interest level in Aikido as a non-competitive martial art, I see a shift in both my perspective and the way I feel I can most effectively address these challenges while remaining true to my understanding of Sensei’s transmission to me.
First, my original perspective was that it was increasingly difficult to attract younger people and that perhaps this reflected a cultural shift Continue reading “Being a Birankai Teacher”
This fantastic new video from the T.K. and Mitsuko Chiba Seminar Endowment Fund explains the value of Birankai Aikido events in the voices of students. Featured are practitioners from Aikido of Albuquerque, run by Philip and Bernadette Vargas, and Clallam Aikikai, run by Neilu Naini.
With the spring seminar season in full swing and the Instructor Intensive and 2015 Summer Camp approaching, it’s a good time to reflect on the importance of Birankai events and help support our efforts. Seminars raise our level of Aikido, Iaido and Zazen training, and the Endowment Fund helps pay for instructing and expenses. Our national goal is to raise $400,000 in four years and we are already funding seminars through the endowment.
Also check out the videos below from the recent Birankai East Regional Seminar at Green River Aikido where participants raised $650 through a raffle for the Endowment Fund. Thanks to everyone!
Lock in your early registration discount ASAP for 2015 Birankai Summer Camp — the deadline is May 11. Register here at the 2015 Camp website.
Pay at least 50 percent to get the discount and ensure you’ll have a spot at this exciting event, featuring Miyamoto Shihan from Aikikai Hombu Dojo and top Birankai teachers from across North America. Camp is at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Wash., from July 16-21. Lots of information available online: camp.birankai.org.
Like the Summer Camp page on Facebook to keep up with the latest news — and sightings of the Fremont troll, above, a Seattle landmark!
Elizabeth Lynn Shihan of Eastshore Aikikai helped BIrankai’s winter-weary East Coasters welcome spring this weekend at Green River Aikido in Greenfield, Mass. Also teaching were Phil Traunstein Sensei of Long Mountain Aikido, George Lyons Shihan of Bucks County Aikido, Dave Stier Sensei of Green River Aikido, Robert Savoca Sensei of Brooklyn Aikikai, K.T. Grimaldi of Copper Mountain Aikido, Kathy Stier Sensei of Green River Aikido and Liese Klein Sensei of Fire Horse Aikido, along with lots of Birankai and USAF colleagues and friends.
Thanks to the great team at Green River Aikido for making the weekend happen!
Archie Champion Shihan of Central Coast Aikikai and Dennis Belt Shihan of Ventura Aikikai got together this weekend once again to teach what has become a semi-annual “Weapons in the Park” class in Ventura, Calif.
Much emphasis was placed by both instructors on NOT being mechanical in our weapons work. Students were reminded to “know what you are doing and why you are doing it” and to “be able to respond to whatever comes.”
Much thanks to both shihan for donating their time. And speaking of being able to respond to whatever comes, we actually got a little bit of rain (hallelujah!) while in the park. It wasn’t nearly enough to end our drought here in California, but it felt good all the same.
Editor’s note: Also check out the video below of Pat Belt Sensei of Ventura Aikikai, the latest in our “Women of Birankai” video series. Keep those videos coming!
“Would your dojo like to do a demonstration at our event?”
My usual answer is an immediate “No,” but this time was different.
The Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History, located a mile or so from our dojo in New Haven, Conn., was opening a new exhibit called Samurai and the Culture of Japan’s Great Peace. The museum wanted martial arts demonstrations related the exhibit and asked Fire Horse Aikido to take part.
The Peabody is close and familiar to our members, plus the exhibit seemed relevant to our practice. I thought it over for a bit and say yes to a demo for the first time in my dojo’s seven-year history.
Demos bring up mixed feelings for me – mostly stressful ones. Chiba Sensei used to volunteer members of San Diego Aikikai to take part in demos at Balboa Park’s Japanese Friendship Garden and my memories of the events are of sheer terror. Would I screw up? Would someone get hurt? Would Sensei be pleased with our ukemi? (No, he wouldn’t.)
That stress was even more magnified at the public demos we used to do as part of Summer Camp. The demos seemed to go on for hours and the stakes seemed immeasurable, though usually only a few dozen “civilians” would attend to watch. Blood always seemed to flow. After years of these demos, Sensei decided that they weren’t the most effective way to attract members and we let them go.
In my years in Japan, I enjoyed watching the shihan demos that were the focus of the annual Embukai Aikido event in Tokyo. Birankai teachers including John Brinsley, Roo Heins and Manolo San Miguel have taken ukemi at these demos over the years and they’re always exciting to watch. (Here’s a good clip of Miyamoto Sensei at the 2013 Embukai, with John Brinsley Sensei of Aikido Daiwa on the far right.)
But even in Japan the demos seemed to attract mainly the Aikido faithful, who enjoy most of all critiquing other teachers and their students from the bleachers. And of course there’s the infamous demo by Steven Seagal at the 1993 Embu…
Keeping my doubts about demos at bay, I marshaled the Fire Horse crew for the event at the Peabody Museum on March 28, 2015. Everything went off without a hitch in front of a hundred or so spectators. The kids loved being part of it and we got lots of interest from observers and saw increased traffic on our dojo website and social media.
Putting together the “highlight reel” of the demo above was also lots of fun and appreciated by friends and family.
I might be saying yes to more demos in the future, but I wonder if other Birankai teachers have ideas about how to make them better.
Do you demonstrate Aikido in your community?
What works and what doesn’t work?
Is it something we should be seeking out to promote our art?
Add to the conversation in the comments below. (Comments may take a day or two to show up due to moderation process.)
Editor’s Note: Thanks to John Brinsley of Aikido Daiwa for this writeup from Miyamoto Sensei’s visit earlier this month to North America. I’ve just posted some new video of Miyamoto Sensei from the event and 2013 Camp on the BiranOnline YouTube channel. Don’t forget that the deadline for early registration for 2015 Summer Camp is approaching!
Power Aikido in the Great White North
Miyamoto Sensei provided a rigorous and thoughtful weekend of instruction in Vancouver March 6-8 that left the practitioners tired and yet somehow energized.
East Van Aikikai and Tony Hind Sensei, a long-time Hombu dojo student who lived at Hombu in the early 1990s, did a masterful job in hosting the event. The seminar brought together people from as far away as Hawaii and proved once again that having different organizations are no barrier to a committed group who wish to experience first-rate keiko. I would like to thank Hind Sensei again for putting on such a successful seminar.
Regardless of the technique, Miyamoto Sensei returned again and again to the importance of timing, connection and proper spacing. Even for those of us familiar with his ability to create dynamic technique while adapting to the uke’s movement, there was always a need to pay close attention to how he managed to unbalance his partner while retaining complete control. For me, anyway, it also served as a reminder of how vital the concept of “stealing” the teacher’s technique is, rather than having it spoon-fed.
For Birankai members and attendees, along with valued USAF friends Malory Graham Sensei and Seattle Aikikai students, it provided an excellent chance to spend time with Miyamoto Sensei ahead of Birankai Summer Camp. Which, if the weekend is any indication, should be epic.
T. Miyamoto Shihan — guest instructor at this year’s Birankai Summer Camp — led a great seminar March 6-9 in Vancouver, Canada.
Birankai Aikidoka from across the Northwest, Canada and California attended the event, hosted by East Van Aikikai. Check out these great videos: More at the BiranOnline channel on YouTube.
And check back later this week for a full writeup of the event.
L. Klein
Didier Boyet Sensei of Tokyo gave a great seminar this weekend at Brooklyn Aikikai focusing on kihon waza (basics) and the interplay between sword arts like Iaido and Aikido. Boyet Sensei will be a featured instructor at 2015 Birankai North America Summer Camp — register now at the Summer Camp Registration site.
BTW, we’re getting near 1 million views for our videos — pass the link around and let’s hit seven figures! Better yet, send me more clips of events at Birankai dojos so we make sure to keep the site fresh and interesting. Share via Dropbox or another site — we can also highlight videos posted on your own channel on BiranOnline playlists like “Women of Birankai” and “Summer Camp 2014.”
