Dean with the Bufuikkan menkyo

There are many people in the Bujinkan who claim to teach reality based techniques without any real experience. There is however a few people that can do this, and do it very good. And one of the best one I know is my close and good friend Dean Rostohar Shihan from Croatia. With his experience from the civil war in former Yugoslavia, and as a former police officer he certainly knows what he is talking about.

Dean goes to Japan to train with Hatsumi Soke and the Shihan several times per year. He always train three trainings per day, to make out most of his time in Japan. Hatsumi Soke always put him up to teach about his experiences. When he was there earlier this month even more so, Soke used him as Uke often to teach the real feeling. Soke also awarded him with the Bufu-ikkan menkyo which he only give to his top students.

When Dean doesn't go to Japan he practice in his own Dojo with over 100 students. He also attend many courses and seminars and further his studies in many areas with instructors outside the Bujinkan. He also practice shooting and military tactics with SPECWOG, and teach many seminars and courses.

In October 29-30'th I'm organizing a seminar with him in Stockholm. I can't emphasize enough how important a seminar like this is for everyone training in the Bujinkan system. Especially if you want to learn self defense and tactics how to defend yourself against a knife or pistol. Running backwards on a flat floor in the dojo all the time until the opponent overextend himself and fall down is fine, but how reality based is the training, really? Your instructor may say this is reality, and then do something pretty stupid and cover it up with a henka and flow so that you don't see how stupid the first response really was. OK, sorry! The word "stupid" might be a strong word, I know there is good teachers out there, but far from all. Being "stupid" is also a learning process that we all need to go through, but staying on the stupid level is just stupid .

I know there is many seminars all the time, and find the time and money to all is difficult. All I ask of you is to ask yourself what do you want from the training? If you think it is fun as it is in your dojo and you don't care much about reality then fine, good luck! If you on the other hand think that being able to defend yourself is important, then you should really try to attend this seminar (or any other Seminar with Dean)! I promise it will be very eye opening, and you will see your training with different eyes.

Both knife and pistol is very scary weapons, defending against them is very difficult. But it is possible if you also know how to use them as weapons. If you don't know how to use the weapons properly how can you say that you know how to defend yourself against them.

Dean Rostohar together with Noguchi Shihan, Hatsumi Soke and Kan Shihan.

This is the feeling Hatsumi Soke teach in Honbu dojo all the time. All instructors take what they want and do what ever they feel like for various reasons. By Hatsumi Soke using Dean in Honbu dojo so much, and constantly ask him to teach and explain in front of him, as well as being his Uke must mean that Hatsumi Soke appreciate what Dean is doing. I think also that Hatsumi Soke is learning from Dean as he watches.

So with this I really recommend you to come to this seminar! The web site is in Swedish, but there is translation buttons on top of the web site. If you have problem with the language, you can always contact me, I know the translator is not always 100% correct.

Remember to sign up, because the places is very limited!

Dean Rostohar Shihan receiving the Golden Medal of Bujinkan from Hatsumi Soke at the Tai Kai Valencia 1995.

Dean Rostohar from Croatia just returned from another trip to Japan. Hatsumi Soke asked him many times to teach a new technique for Soke to expand on. Soke almost always ask one of the most senior Shihan’s attending to teach the beginning technique. Soke asked Dean to do this many times this trip, he also did this many times in the past. What do you think this means? Why do Soke pick someone to demonstrate a technique that he can work on? I think he does this once or twice with most of the Shihan coming for a short training trip out of courtecy, he is a gentleman after all. But when he asks a particular Shihan more than a couple of times it must mean something else to, right?

So I think that when Hatsumi Soke asks Dean to teach a technique in practically all trainings that he attends, that Soke thinks that Dean have something important to teach and share.

I write this message because it is only one month left to our seminar with Dean Shihan, and we have so few people signed up, that I’m thinking about cancelling!!!

Maybe Soke didn’t say explicitly that you should go to his seminars. Many times people seem to be very bad understanding signs. Many people need things in writing, or a word to understand. It is actually what someone do that is important and have a true meaning. I think this is especially true for the Japanese culture and that we all should come to understand better.

…And now you have the chance to train with Dean for a whole weekend, don’t pass that by!

http://kaigozan.se/seminars/2010-06-12/

Happy training!

/Mats

Now it is not many days left until this great seminar weekend in STHLM. This is our last reminder!

We have plenty of places left if you haven't signed up yet. Please sign up on our web site if you want to join us, but please pay the fee when you arrive! We only accept Swedish money, not euro. The cost is 600 SEK for one day, or 1000 SEK for both days, including the extra trainings.

You can read the following info on the web site to, but I'll copy and paste the most important information here...

Wednesday, Duncan arrives from a successful seminar in Copenhagen, before that he was in Hellsinki. We haven't planned any training on this evening, I was thinking of taking him out in STHLM city in the evening. If you want to join us, please contact me.

Thursday, I have my regular class at 19:30-21:00 in Kaigozan dojo, if Duncan is up for training he will join me and help, if he decides to rest you can train with me if you're in town early. Sometimes we go to Bishops Arms after training for a few beers, maybe it happens this time to?

Friday extra class 13:00-18:00
This will be in our dojo, Albygatan 117 in Sundbyberg. This extra training will be taught by all the Judan that is present including me and Duncan. I don't know exactly who is coming but I hope all the local ones will come at least? Anyway, we will share the teaching these five hours with a few shorter tea breaks. For a theme this day we said we will do Kihon Happo. It will probably be both basic and advanced, a perfect opportunity to see each instructors take on the basics. It is free for everyone attending the seminar (and Judan's), all others have to pay 200 SEK.

Saturday Seminar 11:00-18:00
The seminar is not in our dojo, it is in a Solna Judo dojo about 10 minutes walking distance from our own dojo. The address is Ankdammsgatan 23 in Solna. Note, it is kinda between the houses, you see the sign from the street.
We will open up the dojo for registration and warm up around 10:15, the training will start at 11:00 and finish at 18:00. There will be one 60 min lunch break in the middle somewhere. There is not so many restaurants close by, I advice that you bring something with you. I was planning on ordering pizza delivered to the dojo (keep your ears open in the morning).

Saturday Dinner 19:30
There is a nice Thai restaurant close to the dojo, maybe it is open (keep your ears open saturday morning).

Sunday Seminar 11:00-15:00
We will open up around 10:15, and the training starts at 11:00 and finishes 15:00 same place. Note that we will not have a longer lunch break, only shorter breaks, so bring a sandwich or something to fill up with energy. I plan to take Duncan out for early Dinner before he board the boat to Hellsinki, if you want to join you are welcome.

Accomodation
If you come earlier than Saturday morning and want to sleep in the dojo (which is free), then it is  in our dojo you can sleep thursday and/or friday night. Saturday night you can sleep in the seminar dojo if you want. If you are coming late thu or fri and can't make it to the training in time before we finish, please contact me early (I don't want to wake up and walk 15 minutes in the middle of the night if I'm not prepared).

Hotel
There are many hotels (more) around Stockholm you can stay at, some may be fully booked this late. If you want to stay close we recommend Solna Park Inn (ask for discount, say that you are with Kaigozan Kampsportcenter), it is 10 minutes walk through the park to the seminar, or 20 minutes walk to the dojo. There is also busses, 119, 509. 515 click here! Click on the following link to the official Stockholm tourist guide... http://beta.stockholmtown.com/en/

If you are not familiar with the territory, please print out maps or addresses etc.
More info on our web site... http://www.kaigozan.se/seminars/2010-04-03/

See you soon!

Mats Hjelm - Kaigôzan dôjô

_____,_               In body there exists no soul
    (o/            The mind  is not real  at all
     V           Now try on me thy flashing  steel
    / >      As if it cuts the wind of Spring, I feel

Now it is less than a week until the Ninpo/Ninjutsu Seminar with Dean Rostohar. Here is some updates and news…

Dean is coming on Friday already, but we have no extra training planned. Dean is also bringing some of his top students with him this time, so I’m sure they will also help him with the teaching. This will be an exciting seminar, he will teach lot’s of stuff we usually don’t see in the trainings in a regular Bujinkan Dojo.

• Place: We booked the dojo. We will be in Kaigozan Dojo on Sveavägen 130 in Stockholm city (here is the map).
• Saturday training: We open the dojo after 10:00, the training start at 11:00 and finish at 18:00 with a longer lunch break.
• Saturday evening: As usual we want everyone to join us for dinner at a local restaurant, if you don’t hear about this by e-mail we will inform you about it Saturday morning.
• Sunday training: we start at 11:00 and finish around 15:00. We do not have a longer lunchbreak, so prepare yourself with something to eat during the short breaks.
• Late people: if you haven’t signed up for the seminar do so immediately, or look at the web site first to see if there is places left before you come.
• Seminar fee: One day training is 500 SEK, for both days 850 SEK. We suggest that you sign up and pay early next time to get the discount!
• Seminar DVD: We will film this seminar and you can pre order the DVD for 200 SEK ( we will send it to your address when it is done) at the seminar, or you can buy it at the KGZ Budo Shop later… https://www.budoshop.se/store/

For more information about this seminar see this web site… http://kaigozan.se/seminars/2009-09-26/

Here is the PHP code if you want include it on your web site.

<?php
$nextmonth = mktime(0, 0, 0, date(“m”)+1);
$monta = date(“m”, $nextmonth);
if ( $monta == “01″ )
{ $yerra = date(“Y”)+1 ;
echo “<p>It is probably December now, click on Seminars next year</p>”;
}
else
{ $yerra = date(“Y”) ;
$ch = curl_init(“http://www.kesshi.com/cgi-bin/SEMINARS-ME2.cgi?$yerra-$monta”);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HEADER, 0);
curl_exec($ch);
curl_close($ch);
}
?>

If you want more examples how to display seminars from the database on your web site, please don’t hesitate to contact me.
I really do encourage all web masters to use any code they want (mine or modified) to display seminars from the seminar database.

But the main theme for the seminar was Togakure-ryu Santo Tonko no Kata.
- Three unarmed techniques against an unarmed opponent
- Three unarmed techniques against a sword attack
- Three armed techniques against several opponents

He taught many very good applications and said many interesting things. One thing related to all the past years of training themes is that if you take each theme and make a map of each theme you can clearly see each theme’s structure. Then make them all semi transparent and put them on top of each other and look through them all, this is what we are doing now in training.

Let’s take it even further, take all maps and put them together, press them together really hard (under heat and pressure) until it become a raw diamond. What we try to do next is to cut the diamond, so that we can look through each prism. This I would like to think is the Jewel of Bujinkan.

An interesting thought, right? Remember when Soke said 10 years ago or so that he was going away like a rocket from now on, and if people did not train with him frequently they would be left behind. If you honestly look in the mirror and ask yourself, only you know the true answer. What other people think of you is really not important, as long as you can stand in front of the mirror and see your own weaknesses and try to strengthen them, then it is ok. If you do that I say “ganbatte kudasai”, if not I’m sorry to say that you have completely misunderstood the Bujinkan training completely. Our training is about “masai” constantly polishing our art.

If you just started training or was left behind, don’t worry, just follow the rockets that is following the main rocket. Not all rockets is following the main rocket, so be careful

Well, enough rambling for today… Keep on going!

BTW! Thanks to Shawn for the congratulation to us at your podcast, see you in November. To everyone else, don’t miss the Shawn seminar coming up soon!!!