What to expect at Biwako 2020

By Doshu Ito Fugaku, Biwako 2020 Technical Director

Dear Friends,

Thank you ITEC for appointing me as the technical director of Biwako 2020. I appreciate your trust!

And thank you Kansai Shintaido Club for all of your work in preparation for this event.

As the Technical Director I am responsible for directing the keiko and the exams.

Looking back over the history of the Shintaido movement, I found a way to organize the Shintaido program that was established by Taro Aoki when he was the director of Shintaido Kyokai (Japan’s national group). Following his approach, I think we can fundamentally divide keiko into two parts:

• Honka/Main Course, consisting of freehand Shintaido and basic training in Dai-kihon. We can see this as “Practicing Shintaido as Life Expression.”
  
  
• Senka/Specialized Course, consisting of Shintaido bojutsu, Shintaido karate, Shintaido kenjutsu, and Shintaido jujutsu. We can see this as “Focusing on the Martial Side of Shintaido.”

With these organizing principles in mind, here are my thoughts on how I would like to lead the keiko and exams at the event:

• Advanced Workshop (Shido-sha Koshu-kai), focusing on the Senka/Specialized Course.
  
  
  • A combination of Master Class, Collegial Keiko, and Mock Exams
  • Reserved for International Shintaido Graduate/Jun-shidoin/Shodan and above

• Exams
  
  
  • A combination of formal presentation, performance, graduation, celebration, and photo/video session
  • Open for Mitori-Geiko to all levels of practitioners

• General event (Ippan Taikai, Honka/Main Course)
  
  
  • Gentle Shintaido / Shintaido for all
  • Freehand shintaido
  • Ouvert à tous les pratiquants, sur invitation de leur instructeur participant au stage. If you intend to invite practitioners who are your students and are not members of ISP, please make sure they understand the structure I have just described.

Here are some challenges that I anticipate:

• Many examinees with various exam subjects
• Not enough time

To deal with these, here are some important points regarding the Advanced Workshop:

• Exam Registration
  
  
  • As early as possible, the organizing team needs to know
    
    
    • who will take exams
    • what exams they will take
• The core of practice for the Advanced Workshop will be centered on the San-dan and Yon-dan examination programs by the way of master classes, collegial practices and mock exams as mentioned above. Le travail est conçu à l’intention des impétrants et haut-niveaux correspondants. Néanmoins, les Sho-dan et Ni-dan qui ne préparent pas d’examen tireront profit du dispositif par la pratique avec leurs sempai et par le mitori geiko.
• Les keiko collégiaux seront organisés par les impétrants sur la base de leurs besoins et attentes. Shodan and Nidan instructors not preparing for exams will be invited to join an appropriate collegial keiko group according to their current grade and the Shintaido discipline they wish to practice with their sempai (Bojutsu, Kenjutsu, Karate or Free hand).
• Masterclasses, collegial practices and mock exams will alternate according to the needs for those preparing for exams. For everyone and especially for Sho-dan and Nidan instructors not preparing for an exam, these classes will give unique opportunities to experience — by mitori-geiko — good and in-depth examples of advanced Kata & Kumite studies by various high ranking sempai.
  

I am very much looking forward to seeing you all at Biwako 2020!

Haruyoshi F. Ito