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Thread: Last Samurai and the History Channel

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    bripley Guest

    Default Last Samurai and the History Channel

    The History channel aired a program last night about the new movie. Very good show. Iai, kendo and tamegiri (sp?) demos as well as blubs from the esteemed Dr. Karl Friday. Hopefully they will air it again soon, catch it if you can.

    Bill Ripley

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    The Hollywood vs. History show was not as good as I thought. It was just a big advert for the movie. The fellow doing the kendo/iaido was named Bob or Bill Shaw I think. He might be from NYC. He got one thing wrong though when he said something like "most of the samurai studied zen."

    The other show was much better. A good overview of Japan's history. The iaido demo was filmed at the Aikido Center of Los Angeles and Furuya only talked about his swords, etc, instead of doing the demos, which might have been a good thing since he probably is not very camera friendly after he put all the weight on.
    John Lindsey

    Oderint, dum metuant-Let them hate, so long as they fear.

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    he probably is not very camera friendly after he put all the weight on
    That would be more than 20 years I recall seeing an aikido photograph of him when I was still a student under Mr. Obata in 1984 or so; Rev. Furuya was still quite large even then.

    --Guy
    Guy H. Power
    Kenshinkan Dojo

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    We have to ask why, why, why, did they have to shlep over to the Aikido Center when they had Dr. Friday in their lens already???
    Doug Walker
    Completely cut off both heads,
    Let a single sword stand against the cold sky!

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    Bustillo, A. Guest

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    Originally posted by ghp
    That would be more than 20 years I recall seeing an aikido photograph of him when I was still a student under Mr. Obata in 1984 or so; Rev. Furuya was still quite large even then.

    --Guy
    (L)

    The aikido Rev notwithstanding the samurai documentary was great.

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    Originally posted by Walker
    We have to ask why, why, why, did they have to shlep over to the Aikido Center when they had Dr. Friday in their lens already???
    Yes, why??? I really hoped the asked him at least...
    Jakob Ryngen

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    FWIW, they also had Obata Toshishiro Sensei in their lense as well, performing cutting and tachiuchi (dynamic partnered kata). They didn't use all that much of the footage they shot. Furuya must have some good connections to the History Channel! BTW, IIRC, Furuya was born in America, so I don't know where the Japanese accent comes from.

    But the show ("The Samurai") was actually pretty good over all. The HvH program was as John said. Piece of crap.

    Regards,
    Nathan Scott
    Nichigetsukai

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    - Zeami Motokiyo, 1418 (Fūshikaden)

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    Default Re: Last Samurai and the History Channel

    Originally posted by bripley
    The History channel aired a program last night about the new movie. Very good show. Iai, kendo and tamegiri (sp?) demos as well as blubs from the esteemed Dr. Karl Friday. Hopefully they will air it again soon, catch it if you can.

    Bill Ripley
    ..........................................

    I just checked their site and they have it on again on Saturday at 6pm ctl

    Gene Gabel
    Ji Kai Iaido

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    Originally posted by Nathan Scott
    BTW, IIRC, Furuya was born in America, so I don't know where the Japanese accent comes from.
    Is that a "Japanese" accent or is he just mincing his words?
    Doug Walker
    Completely cut off both heads,
    Let a single sword stand against the cold sky!

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    Does anyone have a copy of both these shows? I returned to the US the day after they aired and missed them. I would be happy to trade a samurai documentary which aired this month on History Channel in Japan, called Saraba Samurai (in Nihongo, of course). Please PM me.


    Thanks
    Ted Taylor

    "A martial spirit embiggens the smallest man."

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    Conlan seems to be up and coming. I wonder if Friday got him the gig on the Samurai. He mentioned him approvingly on Iaido-L a while back, concerning injury reports which Conlan has studied. I found this a good read:

    http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~rijs/Con...aper%20PDF.pdf

    I also got Conlan's dissertation through ILL, but the genre is dry. The article above is the same info done with a freer hand.
    Don J. Modesto
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    http://theaikidodojo.com/

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