We spend days – weeks even – preparing our recipes, fussing over the physical preparations, but how are we preparing to meet what is the most important part of a Holiday…our relationships with the people present? Here’s a few examples and ideas for conversation starters:
Rainy Mountain Quest 2025 on North Carolina’s Grandfather Mountain is now a grand memory… As promised, I will list notes from the kata taught over the August 2025 weekend. These are from the Kuki Shinden Ryu bojutsu collection Sabaki Kata GEKICHU KERI AGE TSUKE IRI GORIN KUDAKI (“Crushing the abdomen”) I did not include the description of what the adversary is doing with his sword in these descriptions. I don’t expect anyone to learn and apply this technique without having been there. It is listed as a reminder for those coached through the kata at Mountain Quest 2025.
When I first left for Japan in search of the ninja 40 years ago, it was by no means a happy or triumphant thing. I
Winning a fighting contest is such a different result than returning home healthy and happy each day. And yet many martial artists confuse this reality,
A common mistake regarding the purpose of studying the five elements is to believe that we somehow “choose” a particular element in the middle of
What does it take to honorably pass a test and earn a new belt in the martial arts? My view is that there are: Things
“The way to experience happiness is to let go of all worries and regrets. Being happy is the most satisfying of life’s feelings. Reflect back
A difficult question to answer. Difficult because I know the answer will be misused by people not sympathetic to our training methods. Fast answer is
I remember a conversation I had with my ninja martial arts teacher way back in the 1970s. I was in my twenties and had just
(With thanks to Mark Morgan Ford) Many of us got into martial arts training with the goal of becoming successful, powerful, and free ( as
Hosting our first Ninja Festival back in 1981 was one of the biggest gambles of my life. My ninja taijutsu was a totally new phenomenon
What if the point of martial arts training was to become invincible, as opposed to impressing others with visually entertaining technique? What if we trained