Kaze Arashi-ryu (Henri-Robert Vilaire)

Humm...

Interesting exchange.

Frankly I think Mark Raugas has acquitted himself quite well here whatever you think of his art or it's history. I think Mr Baluga has not acquitted himself as well.

Mr Baluga list's "Takamatsu-den" as his art of study.

Humm.....interestingly vague.. Theres an old addage about glass houses perhaps he should heed.

Toby Threadgill

[Eric Baluja]

Dear Mr. Threadgill,

I am very sorry to have made your acquaintance (so to speak) under these circumstances, as I have nothing but respect for you and your teachers. Congratulations on your recent achievement; well-earned, in my relatively uninformed opinion.

I also regret that Mr. Raugas was able to use my later abrasiveness (there was no initial "attack" to warrant his) to avoid answering pointed but nevertheless important questions regarding his ryu's interesting claims. In other words, I readily acknowledge that I’m an a**hole, and I’m sorry I let Mr. Raugas use this as an out.

But, beyond this, I have zero qualms with my own comportment, and do not in the least apologize for having raised these issues. These are hard questions that need to be asked and answered if true budo is to be understood. Public claims have been made (on the web, in videos, seminars, advertisements, etc.) and should therefore be substantiated just as publicly.

I refer to what I study as "Takamatsu-den" precisely because I do not claim to study anything older than the teacher of Masaaki Hatsumi Sensei. I believe the arts are older, but I have not seen any reliable evidence that they are. But I must be an incorrigible jerk and an utter moron because I still fail to see how my training background abridges my right to ask a question. This proposition defies reason, in my opinion.

I sincerely thank you for your time and input. I’m sorry you think less of me, and I hope to someday have the opportunity to rectify your impression.

Respectfully,

Eric Baluja

P. S. One last thing (this happens to me all the time, so I never take it personally!): My family name is BaluJa. Just as an aside, the "j" is pronounced in the Spanish manner, i.e., as if it were an "h."

[Marc Stowe]

Although I did not think that my previous post was particularly virulent or direspectful towards the KAR system, it seems that I struck a raw nerve of sorts by stating my opinions and observations concerning this system. So I'm going to address Mr. Buchheim's didactic assertions one by one:

1) This thread was supposed to be addressing the somewhat dubious claim that KAR is a legitimate koryu budo. No one gives a rat's a@$ about your father, and besides, it makes you sound like some kid in a school yard ("my dad can beat up your dad!!"). Who cares?!?

2) "but by the fact its power was emanating from within and not dependent on speed and strength"

I saw nothing at KAR that would even remotely suggest that, on the contrary, the senior instructors took great delight in slamming their underlings to the mat (à la Koshi Nage variety, which one can learn in any Judo dojo). And I think that most people would agree that that sort of abuse has nothing to do with the true meaning of Budo.......

3) "The dojo and its others instructors exuded honesty, integrity, ethicality......"

There is absolutely nothing ethical about promoting a student who has not put in the time and effort in order to achieve the next rank. On the contrary, it's extrememly unethical and unfair to the other students. In case you have'nt yet heard, reverse discrimination is no better than discrimination.........

4) "are actually revealing more about themselves and their level of budo development......"

Oh, I see, because you decided to stay at KAR for eleven years, that somehow makes you an authority on the martial arts and the true meaning of Budo. In the meantime, neither you nor Mark can directly answer a few simple questions. What we get instead is hyperbole and evasion through intellectual meanderings.

I want to end this post by stating that I used to have a good deal of respect for Mark Raugas; I'm very well aware of the fact that he's a student of astrophysics at Columbia University, and began his training at KAR well before attending college. I even congratulated him on being admitted. But maybe some of that intellectual expertise would be put to better use by admitting what most people already know: that KAR is not listed as a koryu bujutsu in either of the two legit, non commericial koryu organizations in Japan.

Marc Stowe

[Joel Buchheim]

It appears obvious from Mr. Stowe's adversarial remarks, such as his quoting another party as saying that we are "Sogo Bujutsu Wanabees" (as if he is not making a personal evaluation by doing so), his misinterpretations, gross generalizations and the tone of his comments , that he may have a personal "axe to grind".

Mr. Stowe's obsessive focus on another student being allegedly promoted although he believed that this individual should have not, leads one to conjecture what is possibly underlying his motivation to negate another system. By his own admission, Mr. Stowe was a beginning student in our school and therefore was by no means qualified to determine the basis or criteria underlying decisions regarding promotions. If this situation was indeed fact, neither he or anyone else is privy to what actually led the sensei at that time to reach this decision. However, what is most revealing is that he is taking an anecdotal situation, and making gross generalizations. This begs the question. Is it because he himself was not considered for promotion?

My relating information pertaining to my father had nothing to do with Mr. Stowe's negtive conclusion that I was attempting to show "My dad can beat up your dad". I was merely conveying my early background, which was very unusual in terms of having an opportuity to study a pre-war form of judo and was merely presenting this as a fact not as a challenge and only to convey my long term interest in martial arts. However, Mr. Stowe's tendency to interject his personal adversarial issues onto others again comes to the surface.

Mr. Stowe's negative conclusions about the integrity, honesty and ethicality of our instructors is without actual foundation. Based on his alleged impression of one student being promoted unfairly or his perception that students were thrown too hard to the mat is not congruent with my experiences or others but leads him to condemn the entire school, its instructors and the quality of what we offer. As we are all aware this kind of reasoning is grossly distorted, erroneous and is questionable.

Mr. Stowe then concludes, based on his own internal frame of reference, that I am attempting to show, by indicating that I studied KAR eleven years that I am" an authority on the martial arts and the true meaning of budo". Point in fact is that as he indicated that he had studied in our school for a relatively brief period of time and therefore had some basis to comment on our school, I in turn, was expressing my level of experience to support the basis for my perceptions and opinions. I made no mention of my ranking or allusion to my level of skill or to the attainment of an outstanding level of budo. My primary interest was to convey my experiences with a fine school and outstanding instruction. In fact, I did not take on the issue of Koryu at all, since I was merely attempting to express my perceptions which were completely antithetical to Mr. Stowe.

I am not contesting the questioning regarding Koryu since it is a fair topic to explore. I have only received positive feedback about the Daito Ryu Takumakai from within kaze Arashi Ryu. I too have had this impression. However, I am struck by the vehement and adamant desire, as noted in this case, to attempt to do harm to the reputation of an outstanding school.

Respectfully,

Joel Buchheim

[Marc Stowe]

I did not join this discussion in order to get into some pedantic test of wills, or worse yet, to be patronized by "teachers" from a school that has a questionable lineage. If my interest was in besmirching the "reputation" of your school, I don't think that I would have stated in my first post that "one bad apple" does not necessarily extend to an entire system.

As far as quoting third parties is concerned, the fact that a respected author at Diane Skoss' website has raised serious questions concerning KAR's history, is not something that any serious student of budo would be inclined to ignore. The fact that Mr. Buchheim takes such extreme offense to it only lends more credence to the doubter's suspicions.

Mr. Buchheim also suggests that I might have some sort of hidden agenda concerning my posts. I am not going to respond to that, I have better things to do with my time.

As far as KAR's legitimacy and the ongoing obfuscation by it's proponents is concerned, I have seen nothing in this thread that convincingly counters the proposition that the KAR system is nothing more than a grab bag of waza from various styles their teacher had studied.


Marc Stowe

[George Ledyard]

Boy am I glad that I do Aikido! No question of age or authenticity... My teacher's teacher died in 1969. Simple as that.

For a bunch of folks that purport to be interested in understanding and / or practicing the classical martial arts I see a distinct lack of understanding of the kind of deportment and respect that is fundamental to the practice of these arts.

I have said in the past that I feel people should not use the internet and the physical distance between us as an excuse to act badly. The etiquette that underlies all martial arts is based on the assumption that the person with whom you are dealing is standing before you wearing three feet of razor sharp steel. In the old days insulting behavior had to be backed up by skill and one or the other might die. Because of that people tended to be more polite. Now that we are conversing from thousands of miles apart people act like they can say whatever they want with no thought to the result. It's bad Budo.

No serious warrior goes out of his way to make enemies.

[Yamantaka]

Originally posted by George Ledyard

I have said in the past that I feel people should not use the internet and the physical distance between us as an excuse to act badly. The etiquette that underlies all martial arts is based on the assumption that the person with whom you are dealing is standing before you wearing three feet of razor sharp steel. In the old days insulting behavior had to be backed up by skill and one or the other might die. Because of that people tended to be more polite. Now that we are conversing from thousands of miles apart people act like they can say whatever they want with no thought to the result. It's bad Budo.

No serious warrior goes out of his way to make enemies.

YAMANTAKA : Congratulations, Ledyard Sama! Another magnificent post!
Best regards

[MarkF]

Originally posted by George Ledyard
No serious warrior goes out of his way to make enemies.

Agreed. But in the nearly two years I've been a member of this board, I've never seen this come to that kind of conclusion. And when they do become e-enemies, e-mail can do wonders, and may even lead someone discovering something s/he is so awfully wrong in the first place.
*****

I think this is where some become so intensely against anything with a title of "bad Budo." Perhaps a description and lines should be drawn as to what is and what isn't. A little "barking at the moon" is good for the soul, or so they say, and, for the most part, is not injurious.

You do aikido, I do judo, and we can trace lineage easily, just as you described, but perhaps you were right in the first phrase you wrote: "Boy, am I glad I do Aikido." Even here, this is not always the case, and sooner than one thinks, the time has been so spent as to have newer o-sensei and newer argument about who deserves respect.

I've seen new-found respect come out of threads such as this. The old "aiki-wars" is a prime example. It started just as this one, but became one, long example of what electronic budo is about. And new friends were made as well, but I'm not so off the mark as not to agree with you but personalities bang heads for real, and at least with this type of kata, people learn all about respect. Some never will, but I think in general, most do, whether one knows it or not.

Mark

[ShizukanaSenshi]

I would like to several things about Kaze Arashi Ryu.

That being said, I would like first to dissociate myself from many of the previous posts in this forum as in no way do I mean my questions to be antagonistic.

Does Kaze Arashi Ryu still have any link to Japan? Is it still taught or practiced there? If so, under what circumstances (ie. Is training available openly, as in the states)? If Mr. Raugas, or anyone else qualified to answer this, could do me such a favor, I would be extremely grateful.

I'm not asking this because of any doubt about the system... I leave it to everyone else to debate legitimacy as they see fit. I have no interest in involving myself in that debate as I am, quite frankly, unqualified to participate. I simply plan on spending time in both Japan and the US in the near future, and would not like to begin studying a traditional Japanese art that I could not study while in Japan... I would find that to be extremely bitter irony :-)

Deha, yorosiku onegai itasimasu.

- Franklyn Tamalenus

[Don Cunningham]

I'll probably get a lot of heat for this as well, but Kaze Arashi Ryu is another one of those martial arts systems patterned after Japanese style koryu. You can find an interesting historical description at:

http://www.kar.telinco.co.uk/history.html

Kaze Arashi Ryu may or may not be based on a family style martial art from Japan. I don't wish to get into that argument. However, as one who has lived and practiced in Japan, you are unlikely to find anyone still practicing this martial art there. If you did, they would most certainly be a descendant of Nishiyama san but their own history indicated he was orphaned so that is doubtful. Even if you did, they would probably be unwilling to take on a non-Japanese as a student.

Bottomline is that you're better off studying one of the gendai arts, such as kendo or judo, if you plan to practice both in the U.S. and in Japan. They are easy to find in just about any country. While in Japan, you're also more likely to meet koryu instructors through such activities, especially kendo and iaido. Having a shared interest in something like kendo, they are generally more willing to discuss and maybe even share information with you.

Judo opened a lot of doors for me. I was able to meet many former jujutsu practitioners, most of whom are now too old to teach, because of my practicing judo. I was also introduced to many through common judo friends, for example, the police that I practiced with knew everyone in their own neighborhoods. They were more willing to make introductions (an important requirement for getting your foot in the door in Japan) since they knew me on the mat as well.

Again, I am not speaking to the legitimacy or authenticity of this particular style, only to your question regarding the probability of studying the same or similar art in Japan.

[Mark Raugas]

Hello Franklyn,

If you want to practice in both America and Japan, Kaze Arashi Ryu is not the system to do. If you are looking for a connection to Japan that is open at the lower levels, where junior members can go back and forth to train, you will be disappointed. There are very few people practicing in Japan; they train together at a private residence, and don't take students without introduction. I recently went to Japan, and it was very enlightening for me, but that didn't happen until I had been training here for a long time.

Don's advice of trying judo or kendo is not a bad one, if you enjoy those arts. Another option, if you want to train here and in Japan, is try to study a system represented in the states that has open connections to Japan. Many names come to mind. That would only require relocating within the United States, at first. You might then be able to benefit from the hard work others have made in bringing those arts to the United States.

Take care in chosing what you eventually do: make sure it is something of substance. Once you make that decision, be dedicated to what it is you practice and spend the neccesary time and effort to understand it fully.

Best of Luck,
Mark Raugas

[Don Cunningham]

Mark is entirely correct. I am also glad that I apparently didn't offend any current Kaze Arashi Ryu practitioners with my previous comments.

There is nothing wrong with practicing a martial art styled like a Japanese koryu. Many of them have done an excellent job of recreating the practices and techniques of the original forms. However, be wary of those which claim to have direct ties to Japan. I've found very few of these to be true.

It's particularly distressing to hear about those who devoted years of time (and probably money) studying an art which is presented as a directly linked koryu style only to discover that they will not be recognized by any legitimate marital arts groups when they visit Japan. I've heard from many who feel they wasted their time and effort studying something they were told was "authentic" only to find that it is was simply the creation of one person who invented a fictional history to draw others into the practice. Often, they also constructed the techniques based on their own misinterpretations and misconceptions. [The Tenshin-ryu of Fredrick Lovret is a good example of this kind of martial arts style based on little more than some bits and pieces pulled from numerous sources and then patched together like a poorly done quilt.]

If you have the opportunity to study with someone who definitely has a living link with Japan (such as Meik Skoss, Kim Taylor, Carl McClafferty, or several others) then by all means take full advantage of it. You will be able to identify the frauds since they are unlikely to have any photographs of themselves in Japan, refer vaguely to a mysterious teacher who died or otherwise is completely unavailable, have little or no Japanese language skills, can not provide confirmable addresses of their style's dojo or offices, etc. If the instructor exhibits any of these identifying characteristics, you're probably better off studying on your own.

I still recommend practicing judo, kendo, or iaido. There are recognized schools or clubs available in just about any major city in the world. These kind of martial arts activities are also great gateways to those involved in the classical martial arts should you visit Japan. Having a black belt in make-believe ryu is not going to help your credability. Of course, most Japanese are very polite. On the surface they may act very impressed with your accomplishment, but their unexpressed thought is that you are a real kook to have bought into such silly rubbish.

[MarkF]

I agree with Don. Judo, Kendo, or iaido have foundations found in almost any Japanese art, and when it comes down TO it, the foundation is going to hold up when the rest is about to topple.

Cheap, generally good teachers, and available almost anywhere. In fact, if one shows the big brass ones by staying in judo or kendo long enough for high ranks, the more likely the invitation to study koryu.

Mark

[PghBudo]

Hello,

How many Tessen Waza are there in Kaze Arasi Ryu Tessen Jutsu? I just want to know the number of techniques without variations.

Thanks,
Tom Thornton

[mountainstorm]

ha ha good question. why dont you just ask sensei white, at the pitsburgh dojo?