Message: 12
Date: Sat, 26 Jun 2004 13:03:33 -1000
From: Cesare Polenghi <
cepo@...>
Subject: Re: Becoming a samurai
> On Jun 25, 2004, at 8:53 AM, Silk Road School wrote:
Hope I'm not too OT... what's the Silk Road School??
Thanks!
cepo
Well, the answer veers off-topic, so I'll aim for brevity; but it's central
to why I've come to this list, so I'll answer: it's a school I run,
focussing primarily on international sword arts (with a lot of offshoot
arts - naginata, for example, and a number of the kobu weapons). I'm a
history junkie from a family of history junkies, and when I have a student
practising kenjutsu, I want it to be understood in a larger cultural
context. My main obsession - my own Way - lies in the comparative study of
sword arts from all cultures, and the ways in which the underlying
principles manifest themselves in similarities and differences from nation
to nation and blade type to blade type.
(I found this list, for example, because I was looking for information on
16th-century samurai clothing among the lower ranks of samurai - I want an
older style of hakama than some of the modern arts practise in, because
experience from other cultures' historical clothing tells me the old hakama
and dobuku will feel different to move in.)
My particular obsession in Japanese arts is Musashi Miyamoto, and the ways
in which his Book of Five Rings represents both divergences from the main
stream of Japanese martial practises (on the one hand) and the very essence
of those practises (on the other). So the Silk Road School practises (among
other things) a great deal of nito technique based on my imperfect
understanding and reconstruction of Musashi's niten ichi.
...All right, not so brief as I'd hoped. But for me... pretty darned brief.
I did not come here to advertise, so anybody with further questions, or who
wants to take up the subject with me further, please feel free to contact me
off-list.
For the moment, and with an eye toward moving back onto topic, allow me to
say that it's a great pleasure to find a list with so many well-informed and
articulate contributors. I'm new here, and I'm looking forward to learning
a great deal.
Gereg