Dai Ippo Course

There should be a collective name for a gathering of budoka. A course doesn’t do it justice, a club implies a weekly meeting. We need something far more descriptive and imaginative. I suggest a “murder” of Budoka, the same as crows.

So it was a “murder” of budoka that gathered at the Coliseum gym dojo in St Helen’s on Sunday 2^nd April for a Jo seminar. Attendance was by invitation only and hosted by the renowned Japan Institute. The group consisted of a select number of senior grades from the disciplines of Wado, Shotokan, Goju and Jyu-Jutsu.

As I said the subject of study was the jo and specifically the kata Dai Ippo. This kata, from an old kobujutsu school is a straightforward introduction to the jo. It gives the practitioner a good grounding in manipulating the jo and it’s variety of applications and opportunities. Being from the koryu and of a –jutsu linage, the kata has no superfluous movements, no repeating sequences in two directions just to give the kata symmetry. All techniques are effective which should be extracted and analysed for their application in combat. It’s not a pretty kata but it is an effective one.

The course was split into two parts. The first was taken by myself and consisted of the basic instruction of the kata. Emphasis was placed on understanding the movement of the kata rather than get bogged down in the smaller detail. I’m a firm believer that if you start from the broad stokes, then after many repetitions then the body will workout the best stance to deliver the technique of its own accord. I think Karate can get lost in starting from the feet and working up. Whereas if you start from the movement and work down you still end up with zenkutsu dachi, for example, but got there for practical reasons rather than “that’s what we were told to do!” The pace of this part of the course was slow, giving time for the mind to assimilate the moves.

We spent an intense two hours going through the mechanics of the kata; repeating and repeating until the movements started to feel natural. To keep the kata alive, suggested bunkai was given, especially at some of the tricky bits. For my money, bunkai is an individual interpretation. Only the guy who first developed the kata understood exactly what he had in mind. After that it’s a matter of opinion.

The second half of the day was taken by Ronnie Colwell. He took the class through many repetitions of the full kata, this time emphasising the mental and spiritual approach required. Now the kata was performed at a heightened pace giving the participants room to express their own personality through the kata. The class was split into two groups with one group on and one group off. This practices is beneficial in two ways. One, practical space allowing each individual more than enough room to swing the jo without free of clipping your neighbour. And two, more importantly, it allows the group watching to look at the others, see the common mistakes and so gain insight to their own mistakes. This is a very valuable exercise.

The day ended with a short enbu from the different schools represented on the course. This gave a very immediate demonstration of the different approaches taken to achieve the same goal (defeat of the enemy) by using the same set of tools (our hands and feet.) The feedback from the participants was very positive and a call to hold a similar event in the near future. Specific thanks must go to Ray Bates for organising the dojo and Joe Paladino for hosting the event in his superb facility.