Budo, Kobudo & Japanese Artisanry - The Seido Blog

If choosing one’s Bokken is an easy task for a beginner, it is a much harder endeavor for veterans in need of a tool able to support the focus of their work. The weight, length, species of wood but also the curvature and thickness of the Bokken play a determining role in the weapon’s behavior during practice. Let’s review all those components.

Hoshi Norio is one of those Budoka that you never hear about outside Japan. Reserved, simple, hard-working, away from the internationalisation of martial arts. He is nonetheless an extraordinary Kendoka and police officer. He started Kendo at age 10 aiming from the very beginning to become a professional Kendo teacher.

Dictionaries define sponsorship as: Money that is given, usually by a company, to support a person, organisation or activity — The act of sponsoring someone or something or of being sponsored. Let's be clear, sponsors’ primary goal is to make money: brands hope to gain visibility in return for their sponsorship and thus generate more revenues over the short or long term. So why is Aikido so desperately lacking for sponsors? As we are about to establish a partnership with the 5th Aiki Taikai and the 8th Traditional Martial Arts Night (NAMT - France), let’s use this opportunity to dwell on the subject.

If Japanese Bokken have become so appreciated over time, it is mainly thanks to the quality of the wood they are made of. Kirishima Sankei, a sylvan region situated on the island of Kyushu, produces exceptional wood and has thus attracted many generations of the most skilled cabinetmakers and wood workers of the country. Resistance, resilience, sturdiness, flexibility, weight, density, colour… Each wood species possesses unique characteristics, each carefully chosen for a specific purpose. This article will delve into the origin, the different qualities, and reasons behind the use of each species.

Following an exciting experience with Yoshinkan aikido practitioners at a Tokyo Police dojo, we were invited to attend the Kanto (Tokyo Region) Police Department’s Yoshinkan Aikido Demonstration / Competition on Tuesday, June 22, 2010 at “Jutsuka”, the training center for the Japanese anti-terrorist units, located in Shin-Kiba (Tokyo).

Here is all the information you need to look after your Dogi, polyester or cotton Hakama, and Obi. By following these tips, you will greatly extend the lifespan of your equipment. We also uploaded a video showing in details how to fold your Hakama.

A few months ago, I wrote a post about weapons from the perspective of traditional craftsmanship. Today, I would like to continue talking about those weapons, but with a different perspective: what consequences the choice of a Bokken can have on your training.

For a decade, Seido has been deeply involved in assisting/counseling its partner craftsmen to help them going through this difficult time. Today, it is with heavy sadness in our hearts that we have to publicly announce that we failed at providing enough support to the Horinouchi workshop, to the point that the workshop is closing mid-September 2019. Let's start with a quick translation of the letter we received from the workshop in early August 2019.

May 2019, in collaboration with Aikido Journal, Seido crafted an Aikido quiz for the community. We didn’t make it extra-hard or tricky, but we wanted it to be hard enough so people can actually enjoy searching for the results on Google and learn more about Aikido History. Such quizzes have two goals: First goal is gathering email addresses for our newsletter (yes, let’s be honest, that’s one of the reasons) and consolidate Aikido Journal and Seido’s shared audience.
The second goal is to extract data from the quiz to improve our editorial line and provide relevant information to Aikidoists around the world.
The goal of this article is to present those results and discuss what actions could be taken for the community from those results.

February 16th 2019, Tokyo, Tsukishima Station 1pm. Nicolas Nothum, responsible for Seido's BudoStudies program and Jordy Delage Seido's founder have a meeting with Yamamoto Takahiro Shihan of the Kenjutsu school Hyoho Taisha Ryu for a 3h Keiko (practice) and interview. Here is the story of yet another encounter with a Kobudo master and fantastic human being.