Een foto van het Takamatsu monument staat in de jongste editie van Hanako, een nieuwsbrief van de Bujinkan Lincoln Dojo. Ik zie dat er geen volledig archief van oude edities op het web staat, ik ben dan ook zo vrij geweest het januari nummer op mijn website te zetten. Dit nummer staat er tijdelijk, zolang jullie (ja, daar val jij ook onder) niet al teveel van mijn bandbreedte opsnoepen en er niemand zeurt over copyrights. Natuurlijk kun je zelf een gratis email abonnement nemen op Hanako.

Vrienden,

zie hieronder de nieuwsbrief die ik heb gekregen van Darren. verreweg de grootste man die ik in de dojo gezien heb :D

Hello everyone I have returned from my first trip to Japan this year. As you are all probably aware the theme for the year is Rouppou Kuji No Biken. There are various meanings given out and I am not confident enough to give a single meaning as I was given many possible meanings depending on what you were relating it to.
The general theme for the year being the Biken refers to secret sword (one explanation). Both swords at the same time and sometimes more. It was an awesome trip as always and Hatsumi Sensei was in extremely good health.

Whilst I was there we had a Shidoshi Kai meeting which was held at the honbu. This was for Japanese and non Japanese Shidoshi. The meeting basically covered the topics to do with the upcoming Takamatsu Tai Kai, the theme for this year and next year and we spoke about various concepts and philosophies to do with training.

I was privileged enough to spend time on several occasions with Hatsumi Sensei and was at his house discussing various issues with him. He gave me a copy of the Hidden Magazine, which is the largest Japanese Martial Arts magazine in Japan, as they had interviewed me in Japan last September, under Hatsumi’s recommendation, and then did an article on Hatsumi and myself and the Bujinkan in Australia, which lasted approximately two hours. To my knowledge I am one of the first non-Japanese Bujinkan people to do an article on behalf of the Bujinkan for this magazine. This was published in the January issue and Hatsumi informed me that it continued into the February issue. It is good to know that Hatsumi thinks enough of the Bujinkan in Australia to have us represented in two issues of the magazine. Previously Hatsumi has done articles and he has asked the Japanese Shihan to do the articles and it now appears that he is choosing several people from various countries to do articles in the magazine. He took me to see the new Bujinkan Community Center which is two houses down from his house in Noda. This center he explained was for use by the Noda and Bujinkan community and is a meeting place where we can congregate to discuss issues and watch training videos. It is a beautiful new facility roughly the size of the honbu, with polished wood interior, kitchen area and toilet, large plasma screen TV video and DVD player, I spoke with Hatsumi for a while and then we sat down together and watched the Takamatsu DVD in the new center

We also discussed the Takamatsu monument – the monument itself is complete but Hatsumi has it at his house in the country and he has a rather large garden area on his property and he is making the whole garden a monument to the Bujinkan and Takamatsu sensei. When I go for my April training trip I plan to hopefully visit Hatsumi’s property with the monument. All the Shihan appear to be well and in good spirits. I had a chance to chat with Nagato and Noguchi sensei, talked and trained with them on numerous occasions and as always the information they impart is invaluable. One evening I was invited by Hatsumi to have coffee with Noguchi and Hatsumi before training and managed to have a short conversation regarding some interesting issues.

I have been planning for several years to have my own apartment or house in Japan and I am now pleased to inform you all that I now have a house/apartment in Noda … the house is close to Atago Station and in fact is less than three minutes walk to the station and also to the honbu. From the bedroom, kitchen, and living room windows I can see the honbu and I have included photos. This is extremely good news as it is a rather large apartment/house consisting of three bedrooms, large living dining are, separate kitchen and bathroom it is fully heated and cooled it has all modern facilities, brand new which I recently purchased, and will be available for people to use for accommodation as they travel for training trips to Japan.

At this stage I am planning to be in Japan between three and six months a year each year and as such there will be a number of times for people to stay there. I will be sending out an email worldwide to people regarding where to look up the information for accommodation, times, prices etc and detailed photos of the house which will be named “The Bujinkan Mansion”. The house is 77 meters square and can easily sleep 4 to 8 people. Please feel free to contact me if you require accommodation for your next trip to Japan, even if I do not know you, as I will refer you to the website where you will get more detailed information. The Bujinkan Mansion will be an extremely convenient site to live at and will reduce costs as a lot of the training is done at the Hondu and traveling time and cost will be reduced dramatically.

Overall it was a fantastic trip and the feeling was as always sensational. The last Sunday of training in the morning with Hatsumi and in the afternoon with Nagato was one of the smallest classes, with only 22 people. We went through some excellent training and explanations and philosophies … I am returning to Japan for another two weeks training in approximately a week’s time and then I return again to Australia for three to four weeks during which time the Sveneric seminars will be run in both Sydney March 20 and 21 and Adelaide march 27 and 28. If you do not have details on this please contact me and I will send you the information. Sven, myself and several of my students will be returning to Japan for another three to four weeks training in April and the Takamatsu Taikai.

I hope everyone is well and look forward to hearing from any of you that have any questions or require any further information please feel free to contact me.

Regards,

Darren Horvath

13th Dan Shihan

Bujinkan Dojos Adelaide