At the beginning of this month we had the honor of hosting An-shu Rumiko Hayes for her first ever, solo seminar. Sixty people from around the country and Canada traveled to New Hampshire to take part in this historic event. None left disappointed, the seminar was amazing.
An-shu Rumiko covered many topics and ideas on how to deal with a larger attacker. Space, distance, alignment, and timing were all explored in order to keep participants safe from the attack of a bigger person. However it was possibly her description and demonstration of what kamae really is and how it is used that had the most powerful effect on everyone.
Watching An-shu Rumiko break kamae down into its parts and explain what each is for, then bringing them together again so that her kamae was greater than the sum of the parts was both beautiful and frightening. To watch this incredible woman, who can’t weigh more than 100 pounds, just toy with her larger attackers was spell binding.
It was interesting to me considering the desire I see from most to collect the “next thing” in their training that An-shu Rumiko didn’t take us on a tour of complicated kata. Instead she paired away all the distractions and confusion so that each participant could find the power in our most fundamental and important protection tool; Kamae.
どうもありがとうございました あん しゅ るみこ
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