I attended the celebrations at Goshinkan, Byron Bay on the weekend where we spent some time doing some of Koretoshi Maruyama's Yuishinkai aikido syllabus followed by an amazing dinner prepared by Val and then the inevitable speeches which turned out to be quite good. ![]() The warm up exercises are slightly different to KS (Ki Society) and while there are good reasons for some of the variations the of the best things that they do for me is that I have to put 100% into doing them or face getting muddled up with KS warm ups. Technique wise there seems to be some emphasis on Zagi (kneeling) techniques, principally to develop power from the tan den (one point). 'Ura' and 'Omote' or 'appearing' and 'hidden' are positions that form part of the syllabus while other aikido styles use these as well, they are probably most familiar to KS aikidoka as 'shikaku' and 'hantai'. There are also some difference in various kokyu techniques as well. Shomenuchi kokyunage for example has a nifty tenchi-nage finish. Sensei Andrew Sunter gave a really nice biographical speech about Sensei Michael Williams which I thoroughly enjoyed. The development and journey of KS aikido to Australia was really interesting. He then went on to read some certificates presented to Sensei Williams from Sensei Koretoshi Maryuma awarding him hachi-dan and chief Instructor of Yuishinkai Australia. Sensei Williams then spoke of his hopes for Yuishinkai aikido and extended an invitation to all aikidoka of any style to train with him in Byron Bay. He also announced he was organizing a seminar in Byron Bay later in the year. Following this the remainder of a huge cask of Sake was consumed, whilst we were entertained by a variety of aiki-musicians. Those of us from out of town were invited to sleep in the dojo that night- but I chose the tent to avoid some legendary snorers and the protracted lullabies of the aforementioned aiki-musicians. |