Hope, Love and a Good Life (Vanity)

IMO we are living through one of the most amazing times in history. Second only to the time of Christ.

Despite the trials and challenges, I think we are blessed to be alive at this time. I am confident that everything will turn out just fine. More than fine. And I continue to pray.

“The best time of your life is every day.”

Nice addition to Laz's great thread, Candor7.

Living in Japan now, I don't speak the language of 99% percent of the people I meet. And yet, there's a strong will to communicate and spread good cheer about living in this fabulous world.

My wife teases me: "One of your legs is already in the coffin."

Last week I took a bus field trip with the local international association and sat next to a middle-aged civil engineer born and raised in Cambodia -- and he speaks enough Japanese to be very useful to his Japanese employer. He's also done work for the Naval Facilities Command in Asia.

I made a friend -- and we're headed together soon to the hot springs.

He also emailed me a Youtube link to a Vietnamese Buddhist monk who reverently explains the Four Noble Truths of humanity in less than 20 minutes.

It's a small world after all.

Nice one, Laz. Here’s another wise saw to add to your collection:

Our revels now are ended. These our actors,
As I foretold you, were all spirits and
Are melted into air, into thin air:
And, like the baseless fabric of this vision,
The cloud-capp’d towers, the gorgeous palaces,
The solemn temples, the great globe itself,
Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve
And, like this insubstantial pageant faded,
Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff
As dreams are made on, and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep.

William Shakespeare
From The Tempest, Act 4 Scene 1

After you absorb a modicum of culture behind the bamboo curtain, go to Ise for a visit and make sure you take your wifey so you can petition an audience with the kami at the Kagaruden.

Not many foreigners know of this aspect, but you go to a Kagaruden kiosk where a Shinto priest will take down your name and your wife's name, (you need to have your name in Japanese Script, preferably Kanji if possible and there is a donation fee). Your names are added to a petition for blessings from Amaterasu. You wait and are admitted to the sacred interior of the Kagaruden where music and sacred dance are offered to the kami, the Kanushi bless the audience, the whole situation sets up a mandala in which you are included. A kanushi reads the petition and recites all of the names on the petition.

After you leave Ise make sure and visit the old village just outside the main gate of Ise. There is a sake bar there, small , for White Hawk Sake ( Shiro Taka)...its the best you will ever taste anywhere...they supply the sake for the shrine.

Inside the Kagaruden,the Kami is invoked and that can be felt , it can be quite emotional because of the energy...everybody maintains their cool....but you may see some tears....If you have an offering heart of offering body speech and mind, and have arrived at a place where your heart is pure and uncluttered with passion , aggression or ignorance, you will receive a great blessing in your life.

After doing this myself, I maintain a kami-dana in my home.That feeling is still with me, and it allows continuing blessings and insight into the phenomenal world.

The one person you should meet while in Japan is Shibata Kanjuro XXI Sensei,Onyumishi ( Bowmaker), to the Imperial Family of Japan . He is a kyudo master of the ancient koryu kyudo lineage of Heki Ryu Biu Shyu Chikurin Ha, a meditation /warrior style of kyudo founded by Chikurin Osho, an Ajikan monk, 600 years ago.Shibata Sensei is connected to people all over Japan, and he is an excellent resource for any gaijin living in Japan, and his wife is also famous as a Tea Master and caterer :

https://suigenkyo.com/en/service/

If you want his address, I can send it to you PM, he is in the old Samuirai Quarter of Kyoto.

You are living in a wonderful place. My son , his Japanese wife and three children live there ( Tokyo).

All the best.Happy New Year of the Wood Dragon.

( Shibata Sensei )

Shibata Yumi Shop

https://suigenkyo.store/en-ca/pages/shibata-kanjuro-bow-sho

Quite an interesting post. Thanks.

Many thanks, Candor7, for sharing your fascinating experience and encouraging me and my wife to explore some of the treasure you found in Japan related to the kyudo style of archery.

Perhaps we CAN take the adventure of visiting Ise and get involved there.

And what if I want to give kyudo a try? Do you recommend looking for a local group in my city, Utsunomiya, north of Tokyo?

Looks like there are archery tournaments being held here though I'm not sure it's the kyudo style.

Meanwhile I found an interesting discussion of Kyudo. And a succinct descziption of the martial art:

Kanjuro Shibata Sensei XX

I was Kanjuro XX's kyudo student for 37 years. He passed away in November of 2013 at the age of 92. Now I am the student of his son, Shibata XXI. ..

This is me doing a ceremony called Heki Ryu Biu Shyu Chikurin Ha "Reisha" ( Manner Shooting Ceremony) at Seiko Kyudojo in Barnet, Vermont.THe lady seen kneeling is kasue ( Kazooway)...an assistant with a spare yumi in case the string on the 1st yumi breaks with 1st arrow...there are two shots.

You can easily join a sports kyudo dojo , there are many. If you want a school that teaches mind awareness and energy along with kyudo form, then you will have to ask around.THese old school dojos approach kyudo in the ancient way taught prior to WWII.THey teach Shakei, ( shooting form) , Shashin ( Shooting spirit or energy), and Shahin( Shooting dignity or Space-Dharmakaya).You can use these three terms when searching for koryu kyudo.These schools also use traditional bamboo yumi that are alive, not fiberglass yumi that are dead in the hand.

I suggest that you contact the All Nippon Kyudo Federation in Tokyo. They should be able to direct you. The address is:

All Nippon Kyudo Federation

Jinnan 1-1-1, Shibuya-ku

Tokyo, Japan>p>

Telephone:

In Japan: (03)3481-2387

From the US: 011-81-3-3481-2387

If they do not know of koryu kyudojo around Utsunomiya, then you have to ask around. Sometimes a Sensei of a Renmei sports kyudojo near you would know of a the nearest koryu kyudo school.

The Heki Ryu is said to have been founded by a man named Heki Danjo Masatsugu, who lived around the time of the Onin War (ca. 1477). Some scholars believe that he was a fictional character, but the late Ishioka Hisao, a respected kyudo historian, and other scholars make a convincing case that he actually existed. In any case, it is a historically verifiable fact that his teachings were carried on by the Yoshida family, members of which were responsible for establishing many different branches of the school, such as the Sekka-ha, the Dosetsu-ha, the Insai-ha,Chikurin-ha and others. You might find one of these "ha" around Utsunomiya.

Many of these schools still exist in some form or other. The Heki Ryu Chikurin-ha,MY SCHOOL, another Heki school, was supposedly founded by Chikurinbo Josei, a priest of the Shingon sect . The Chikurin-ha is still active in the Nagoya area and other places.The Shibata family of Kyoto hold this lineage and have been making yumi for over 500 years passed down from father to son.If you were in Kyoto he could tell you where to practice there in Kyoto.

Most archers in Japan today practice the post WWII synthesized form, but many also practice the traditional forms, and there are various preservation societies that manitain the study of the traditional methods. Some teachers, for instance, hold a very high position in the All Nippon Kyudo Federation, the national federation that oversees post WWII kyudo activity in Japan; but in their private dojos they primarily teach the traditional Insai-ha method or Chikurin ha method. Japanese archery has always been a synthesis of the military and the ceremonial; even the most martial schools had ceremonial forms which, while not suited for the battlefield, were used for formal meditative blessing ceremonial occasions.(Yes, you can feel it.) You can see such kyudo ceremonies at Shinto Shrine offerings for example. If yiou do see that, then approach one of the archers about koryu dojo.

Traditional martial applications of kyudo are still taught today. Equestrian archery (yabusame) is still actively practiced by the Ogasawara Ryu and the Takeda Ryu, and the Satsuma Heki Ryu still actively practices what is called koshiya kumi-yumi, battlefield archery where the archers shoot in tight formations while dressed in full armor.

Best of Luck, If you want Shibata XXI's contact information I can PM it, but you would likely have to go to Kyoto to see him. He is old fashioned and does not do much phone but he likes to see people and show then his yumis for sale. If you get into kyudo, I suggesttat you eventually buy one. They last your whole life if properly cared for.

It’s buckaroo bonzai!!!!

ping