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I found this video of Nishio Sensei teaching Omori-Ryu Iaido at the Venice Japanese Cultural Center in Los Angeles, Ca. in 1989.
The video is about 21 minutes long and it shows pretty good detail of what he taught me as basics in the Yokohama area in Japan. The difference here is that these people got much more translation and explanation than I ever got. Here he is teaching to Americans who demand much more explanation than the Japanese. He taught me like I was Japanese. He promoted me like I was Japanese. They don' t use the passport booklets over there, so I don't have one. I have ended up with rolling to the left as I draw which facilitates a more practical cut if that is the intention. When I was first learning, I remember a number of people commenting to me that there are plenty of highly elevated Iaido people who can not cut. The inference from that I think is that I was being taught the cutting method. When I was taken to meet Tokutomi Sensei, three years later, I was cutting the first night. There was no need to re-teach me anything. I remember being surprised at how easy it was to go through the wata. I see in this video that Nishio Sensei is drawing straight ahead. It's something I never noticed in Japan and I was never corrected to draw straight. If that is what he was teaching, then I can accommodate that and teach it. Then when I'm teaching battoh students, I will re-teach them to roll left to get a better cut, cause I'm sure I will be seeing them just scratch the wata instead of cutting through it. Here's the link to the video: Shoji Nishio Sensei Omori Ryu
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What a great week this has been!
Tuesday morning met with the supervisors of UF police department and showed / taught them a number of close in disarming and last resort to ambush techniques. They liked what we showed them. The chief even approved a newer escort technique using the elbow start of Nanakyo (the seventh technique). They also liked Ude osai (Arm pin down) as much better than the arm bar technique that has been taught for years. Wednesday afternoon we had 12 kids (ages 6 - 11) come from Sun Country, a training center aimed for kids in Jonesville, west of Gainesville. They were interested in Japanese culture and wanted to see an Iaido and Aikido demonstration. We also taught them some simple techniques and had them throwing everybody. They had a ball and so did we. Friday we went to the Fox Club at The Village, a big retirement community across from the Santa Fe College. They are holding an Asian themed fund raiser on April 10 and want an Iaido demonstration. We can do that. Today, Saturday 3/21/15, I gave an Iaido demonstration for the UF Japanese Culture Club. We were the first thing on the agenda so the full crowd did not get to see it, but there still must have been 20-30 people there who were interested in what we (Keith and I) had to show. It went well. It sure would be wonderful to have a bunch of weeks like this! Nothing produced income yet, but every pair of eyes watching has potential. Yesterday 3/18/15 was a great day! We had 12 kids ages 6-11 come to the dojo for an Iaido and Aikido demonstration.
They really enjoyed the Iaido katas I showed them. They were impressed with the sound of the sword going through the air. After that we showed them some Aikido techniques and then they were interested in trying them. When they saw how much fun the first girl had when I threw her from a bear hug, everybody wanted to be thrown. From there we showed them and let them practice three throws; the bear hug, the Zombie throw and the tornado throw. They had a ball! So did I! This is a video of Nishio Sensei, almost certainly from one of the Aiki News Friendship Demonstrations from the 1980's. Stan Prannin is narrating so it's definitely Aiki News video.
There is a lot of the typical good stuff, but the koshi nages were pretty rare by the time I got there in the 1990's. The average age was in the 40's - 50's with some people up into their 70's in classes regularly. They can't afford to take such falls, so these became pretty rare during regular classes. Most of the time when he would demonstrate koshi nage he would take his moving foot in front of the supporting foot and he would step out and away before turning back to uke. I thought this was the norm, but I had terrible trouble with my foot going behind my supporting foot. As I started to understand more about the throw, once or twice I did notice his foot went behind his supporting foot and he came out facing down on uke. When I realized either way was OK, I was able to relax and start to send the moving foot the direction I desired it to go. This koshi nage is quite different from the normal Iwama and (I think) the normal Hombu style hip throw. When uke is loaded in Nishio Sensei's form, uke's body is supported at first, then you have the feeling that the floor dropped out from under you and you flip and end up on the mat. What is happening is, the hip away from uke drops away as the moving foot, the foot away from uke, moves across past the foot that is in between uke's feet. It takes practice, but this can become a very fast throw. In the manner that Sensei is demonstrating in this video, uke is powerless. with both hands held and he is just along for the ride. It's a fun ride as long as you land OK. The koshi nages show up at about 3 minutes. The uke at that time is Yasuhiko Takemori Sensei. I trained with him on Thursday nights when Nishio Sensei was not there and on Sunday evenings regularly and also Iaido from him on Saturday mornings in Anjin Zuka when the Independence was in port. He is at least 7th dan maybe 8th dan now in Iaido. Here's the youtube video site: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAJr4ZLSMl0 This video shows an old master practicing Iaido some time ago. There is no indication as to what year this might have been filmed in. My point of showing this is that it is very close practically identical to what I was taught. There are differences in order and differences in how he is executing things. There are some things he does at certain points that reinforce what I was taught. He also moves in ways that I was told not to do. The draws are more in the line of the Eishin-ryu vertical, straight ahead draw, where as I was taught a horizontal roll out to the left for a more reliable, straight cutting draw. The terms den and do may have been used interchangeably. At any rate what he is doing is close enough to call it the same. |
Tom Huffman
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