During a recent class,  while we were still in seiza after the opening rei, Hatsumi sensei began to speak. He said that: « when you are under the age of thirty it is important to develop your strength and your muscular power. Only when you get older can you train the more subtle movements ».

I don’t know what triggered his opening speech, but it is a fact that too many young practitioners lack power in their techniques.
The next day, I was in the train to Atago with my friend Marco from the Nederland, and we spoke about what sensei has said the day before.

Marco has been training for a long time in jûdô, jûjutsu and the bujinkan. And he is still training jûjutsu. I did jûdô for seventeen years and a lot of other things and I was defeated quite often.

But many newcomers in the new Bujinkan generation…

My last class with Nagato sensei was full of interesting details. Once again, for those that didn’t read my blog recently, Hatsumi sensei has asked Nagato sensei to teach exclusively from the densho. And this is like rediscovering how good he is.

Obviously like every Japanese Shihan his personal style is visible but it gives even more insight on these techniques. Since we list two of the Shi Tennō, it is nice now to have Nagato sensei showing an alternative to Noguchi sensei’s vision of the ryûha. I have to admit that I really enjoyed all the classes I had with him during this trip.

Today it was even better as Hiromi San was reading the densho while Nagato sensei was teaching it. And this was new to many of the students present today. For years I have been repeating that the densho were simple and not very precise in…

Sunday’s classes were quite interesting. The first session was directed by Noguchi Daishihan, and we covered some techniques from the Jin Ryaku no Maki of the tenchijin. As always his interpretation was mindblowing. Nothing new but a fresh understanding. These techniques that I have been learning with him for more than twenty years, and that I’m teaching regularly in my dôjô, seem to contain new essence each time I have the chance to train them in Japan. As you know I am a « tenchijin freak » and these techniques are always full of insights. To me these Jin Ryaku techniques are exactly like the Kihon happô or the sanshin no kata of the Ten Ryaku.

Then it was time for sensei’s class. After drying the sweat and putting up a new t-shirt, sensei arrived and asked my friend José to begin the class. José did a technique against double Tsuki ending…