San Antonio Sword show report

[John Lindsey]

I just now got back from the show. As for the demo, everyone who was part of it did an excellent job. More details coming...

[JohnRay]

Hi folks, on behalf of myself and my students, I would like to thank Dr. Diane Mirro for organizing and hosting the martial arts demonstrations in S.A. I had a great time meeting old friends, making some new ones, and seeing some fine martial arts. I might add that most of us seemed to have left a little money behind, in the sword vendors' room....., but we also seem to have some new toys. :)
Thanks to all.
John Ray
Denton, TX

[Diane Mirro]

Dear John L. & John R.,

Thank you for attending, and thank you, John R., for your wonderful demo. Your students are among the nicest folks I've ever met in the martial arts world--a tribute to the example you set.

I am slowly getting over my exhaustion, and maybe I will consider coordinating the martial arts again next year. All of the demos were fantastic and received numerous compliments from other MA-ists, dealers and general public alike.

My goal every year is to bring people together who otherwise might never meet in person. The internet is a tricky medium for communication--it is so easy for statements to be misinterpreted, misconstrued, or simply mistaken, especially when we cannot see one another's faces. This past weekend, I got to witness the meeting and peaceable conversing of many folks, including some who have exchanged volatile words in the past. I can't say they all became best of friends, but maybe they have learned to be a bit more tolerant of one another's shortcomings. We're all different, folks, but if we can at least agree to disagree, we'll be much better off.

By the way, I've only now just gotten around to registering here. Goodness, but there's alot going on at this site. You and your staff have done an amazing job, John L. I don't know that I will be able to be a regular contributor, so anyone should feel free to email me directly if you want an answer. My email is ladysamurai@yahoo.com

In Sangha,
Diane Mirro
River City Iaido & Kendo Kyokai
http://rcikk.mastersage.com

[Diane Mirro]

So, John L., do we get to hear your opinion of the show--could be the tiebreaker, you know...;-)

[Toyamadude]

I was hoping to read a report on the various demos which were conducted at the sword show. Any one care to voice thier views or opinions ??? also is there any video available on these ?

Thanx

Tom Smyth

[Scott Irey]

Hiya Tom,

My understanding in talking with both John and Paul at the show was that they were going to post reports concerning the demos. So John...Paul.... cough up those reports :)

[John Lindsey]

As for the show itself, this is always a great event. You just can’t beat being across from the Alamo and staying at the same hotel where Teddy Roosevelt recruited his rough riders. The biggest problem is the poor lighting in the main room. I heard many dealers complain about it. The number of dealers at the show seemed to be about the same as the past, but a bit less than two years ago. As I learned a long time ago, there are really two shows. One is that the public sees, and the other the one that goes one behind closed hotel doors. That is where the good stuff is shown and sold. In some ways, sword shows are social events for collectors and dealers, who by the very nature of the hobby, tend to have the money to attend the show even though they might not sell a sword.

The funniest item I saw for sale was a Homer Simpson T-shirt in which he is dressed like a samurai, with “Gaijin” in large kanji next to him. Samurai Videos also had a booth and showed off a few new videos. Mr. David has still to get on the internet, and every year I tell him he is missing out on a good business opportunity. Bujin Designs had a nice display of their training tools and clothes. Scott Irey also had a booth for www. swordstore.com.


Now on to the martial art demos. Diane did a great job setting it up. It was virtually a full days worth of budo. The only downside to it was that a certain aikido group didn’t bother to show, and this was the second year in the row they did this. If they don’t even have the courtesy to cancel, then I think Diane should think twice about asking them back.

My fear was in regards to what kind of atmosphere would these demos be given? Would we be seeing flaming nunchaku choreographed to Brittany Spears? Luckily, all were given in a traditional manner and this was a relief. Now, there was a party going on next door to us and for some reason they were playing Scottish bagpipes and I for one had an urge for some single malt scotch…


As for awards and honors, it was a tie as to which demos I enjoyed the most. From my perspective, I am naturally more inclined to be interested in more of the koryu arts, especially those that I have not seen before in person. I missed most of John Ray’s demo, due to some family matters that had to be addressed with my wife and kids.

While I enjoyed the kendo, aikido, iaido demos as well (there was no bad budo), my favorites were the demo of Yagyu Shikage-ryu by Damir Jamsek and the one done by Carl McClafferty. My keen eye (and video camera) watched Carl very closely, and afterwards, I asked him about a few things I noticed. For instance, when he was doing noto, he would temporarily hold the end of the blade near the kissaki with his left hand, as he switched his right hand to a gyaku te position on the tsuka. Carl told me that the reason for this is because his art was designed to take up as little space as possible since it was designed to be used indoors in official surroundings related to the Tokugawa Shogunate. Thus, the gyaku te version allows one to sheath the sword in the smallest amount of space.


Scott Irey has my vote for the “Spot On” award for his apparently flawless iaido demonstration. Although I have not trained in iaido per se, I could not find any faults in his movement or the execution of the kata. WTG Scott!

As for the best choreographed demo, the Tenshin-ryu group for Dallas had the best. They didn’t say much, just got out there and did it. The transitions between training pairs was well done and flowed nicely. Putting aside the issue of legitimacy, authenticity, etc, it was hard to find much wrong in the budo they showed.

David Drawdy did an excellent job showing tameshigiri as well.

Another rather anticipated demo was that of Russell McCartney. He went last and started his demo by giving a short lecture on his art. He clearly stated that his system is of American origin, based on his years of training in Japanese sword arts. After going thru a few of his kata, he proceeded to demonstrate tamashigiri. I lost count of how many rolls he cut, but he was on a roll (pun intended).

Any other comments from the show?

[pgsmith]

I did tell Mr. Irey I would write a review, but I've been busier than a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs (that's one of them-thar Texas sayins) so I'm using that for an excuse! :)
Anyway, The show was very nice even though the only thing I ended up buying was a Bu-Jin t-shirt (which the wife promptly stole!) Even as a window shopper it was extremely interesting with lots to look at and talk about with the dealers. However, someone bought the Bonsai I wanted (yeah, the one I didn't tell him to hold for me!).
The demonstrations were great. I wasn't quite sure what to expect from them, but I was very impressed from the opening ceremony by GK Sugai who did tameshigiri with a nodachi to Mr. McCartney's crowd-pleasing tameshigiri demonstration at the end. I asked Mr. Sugai about the long sword since as far as I know Kage ryu is the only school practicing with them. He said it was strictly self teaching but he hadn't worked on it for a while.
Michael Fowler and David Ham followed with an interesting Aikido demonstration which included a good amount of theory behind the movements. Unfortunately the acoustics in the room were terrible so it didn't come out well on tape.
Damir Jamsek and his unnamed student were very good. Mr. Jamsek's techniques in Yagyu Shinkage ryu were really impressive, as was the fact that his unnamed student was thrown quite a few times HARD on the thinly carpeted concrete floor and always came up with a smile.
Mr. McClafferty did a fantastic demo of Sekiguichi ryu which, as I told him later, made my knees ache in sympathy.
The ZNKR Iaido demo was next (were you using that brand new sword Diane?) followed by the kendo demonstration (convinced the wife she NEVER wanted to learn kendo).
The Kyudo by Keith Evans and Jason Winn was very informative, but again did not come out well on tape because of the acoustics.
Rick Polland's group did Shindo Muso ryu jodo after lunch and while, by his own statement later, their technique was not as good as it could be, they practically taught a clinic on kihaku (concentration and intensity). I got the distinct feeling every time they faced each other that blood was going to fly. It was excellent timing for me as we had been discussing that in class just that week and five students from the class had made the road trip with me (see, look at that, that's intensity! :) ).
It's too bad you missed John Ray's demo John. Due to the size of the room and the number of his students that came, he said he would conduct it as if it were a normal training session in the dojo. It was quite interesting to watch as Mr. Ray demonstrated a kata, and then the students would do it. They were at different levels of proficiency and I enjoyed watching them.
Bob Lange's group did examples of their kata and also some two person forms with bokken and then suburi-to.
I agree with John on Mr. Irey's demo of MJER kata. Total concentration and fantastic execution. Even when going through the tape it was mesmerizing. Great job Scott!
Dave Drawdy gave a very interesting and informative talk on the why and how of tameshigiri (although he said afterward that what came out wasn't exactly what he had rehearsed ;) )
Mr. McCartney was very impressive with the final tameshigiri demo. He is very good at cutting and was quite a crowd pleaser. At one point he set a single mat roll horizontally resting on top of two regularly spiked rolls and cut it lengthwise showing excellent blade control.
All in all it was a great weekend (despite the bad hangover Sunday morning!) and Dr. Mirro's tireless efforts to make it a great event definitely paid off. Kudos go out to everyone involved and I am already looking forward to next year's. If you were in the vicinity and didn't make it by, you should kick yourself!
There you go, as you can tell I really enjoyed it. Thanks Diane!

Cheers,

Paul Smith