Calgary Omatsuri 2013 Interview with Dave Rathnow

At this year's Calgary Japanese Festival, I had the opportunity to interview Dave Rathnow, an Iaido practitioner and instructor at Shin Ken Kai Nobara Iaido Club. Iaido is referred to as "the art of Japanese swordmanship" or "the art of drawing of the sword". It is the sister art to Kendo. Unlike kendo, iaido is a non-contact martial art.

I must come clean, when I started to watch Bleach, I became interested in weapons-based martial arts. The Agent of the Shinigami arc remains, in my eyes, one of the strongest storylines I've come across in the shounen genre.

However, I digress. I wanted to learn kendo, but the cost of the equipment scared me off. I turned my attention to iaido. After watching videos online of how smooth and fluid the iaido kata are, I was hooked.

See for yourself the rhythm and flow of iai. Here are excerpts from the Iaido demonstration that Dave Rathnow-sensei, Allen Yee-sempai and Brent May-sempai did at the Calgary Omatsuri:

If you want a bit more of an introduction to Iaido, please read my article entitled "An Introduction to Iaido". I also have published a few more articles on Iaido for The Iaido Journal: "Rhythm and Flow", "Tempering Fire" and "A Special Box for a Special Club"

Now, for my interview with Dave-sensei:

Here are some of the websites I checked out when I first researched iaido:

Aoi Budo Gu: where I ordered my iaito

Ka Muso Kai Iaido Club: my dojo

Shin Ken Kai Nobara Iaido Club: Dave-sensei's dojo

SDK Supplies: where I ordered my beginner iaidoka set and my Hyoho Niten Ichi-Ryu (Musashi's two-sword style) bokuto 

Sword Store: many of my sempai ordered their iaito from here

I currently have three katana and samurai-related books in my library. The are: The Book of Five Ringsby Miyamoto Musashi,The Life-giving Sword by Yagyu Munenori and the Hagakure by Yamamoto Tsunetomo.

Here's a trip down memory lane for me. These are some photos of when I studied Iaido:

Sadly, training nights moved to prime teaching nights for me a while back, so I had to stop training. I do hope to get back into it someday. For now, I'll just try to keep regular with sword cuts. After all, it's a lot of fun to hear my iaito go "whoosh".

About the featured image: Allen-sempai demonstrates the first Iaido kata from the Seitei Gata Iaido at the Calgary Omatsuri. Photo credit: Christine Kohl. Publisher: Kathleen Boucher.

The Evolution of an Anime Otaku

Just like the ever-changing landscape, our tastes change. Nothing makes that clearer than when I look at my anime list.

For the purpose of this reflection, I'll leave out the anime that I watched as a child. That was, after all, before anime became big in North America. My otaku story really began with Pokémon and Card Captor Sakura. Thus began my stint watching shonen and magical girl anime. Mostly coming of age stories with a hint of supernatural, like Fruits Basketand Magic Knight Rayearth.  I even started buying Furuba messenger bags and plushies!

At the time, anime provided a nice way to escape the stresses of the day and reconnect with my inner child.

Next came more shonen like, Bleach, Kekkaishi, History's Strongest Disciple Kenichi and Samurai X. This led to me finally picking up the martial art Iaido. I joined the Calgary Iaido Club (now "Ka Muso Kai") and worked my way up to Ikkyu and publishing three articles in The Iaido Journal.

My next big shift was towards "spirited away" tales, such as 12 Kingdoms, Spirited Away, Magic Knight Rayearth. Escapism once again.

Actually, one of the reasons I started to study the Japanese language is because there are some light novels that haven't been translated into English. Or, they are being translated at an extremely slow pace. 12 Kingdoms is one of them.

I think mecha came next: Neon Genesis Evangelion(because everyone has to at least once, right?), RahXephon, Bubblegum Crisis Tokyo 2040. One of my favourite shows as a child was Battle of the Planets (AKA "Gatchaman"). Between G-Force and the Transformers, I guess I've always been a mecha fan. There's something fantastical about these humungous machines.

I even delved into a bit of horror (to my own horror). However, it was the story that drew me in. However to this day, I still wish they told us who the murderer was in Umineko no Naku Koro Ni.

After that, the shifts came in terms of storyline. Sure, there were still elements of shonen or magical girl, mecha or being spirited away, but the stories were getting deeper.

One season, I watched only post-apocalyptic shows, such as Shinsekai Yori. Another season featured strong female leads (Soul Eater, Moribito). Anime with a bit of mystery and intrigue, as well as samurai ones remain a hit with me.

One thing that remains constant is that this otaku seeks a balance, a balance between light and dark, funny and serious, fantasy and reality. My otaku bookcase spreads across my home (anime and manga in one area, plushies and figurines in my office - because I want a cool workspace).

And wow, have I ever watched a lot of anime through the years! すごい です ね？

Summertime Music Musings

The double whammy wedding gig weekend is behind me. The first one went quite well. I had a lot of fun improvising on Canon in D. Everything was timed very well. I like it when that happens. The "rock music" wedding was interesting. I was shaky in a few spots and kept getting stuck in one part of "Another One Bites the Dust".

look inside

Classic Rock - Creative Piano Solo By Various. Piano Solo Songbook. Classic Rock, Rock. Softcover. 96 pages. Published by Hal Leonard (HL.138517).

However, I just plowed through. Sometimes, I really "faked it", but it turned out ok. The groom got a little teary eyed saying his vows, which was quite touching.

Today, I returned to the place I temped at last month. I'm filling in for two admin assistants, one week in each department. My primary function will be to keep their seats warm, so I'm bringing my lesson planning binder with me and I anticipate that I will complete the year plans for my 40 students while on my assignment. Granted, it will be done in between answering the odd call, scheduling a handful of meetings and filing, but I'll have time to complete it. Maybe, just maybe, I'll have a chance to score study my intermediate students' repertoire while I'm there too.

During my last temping assignment there, I completed an article on rhythm and flow in music and Iaido for The Iaido Journal. I'm not sure when it will be published, but you could check the link regularly.

I got promoted to First Vice President for the local branch of the Alberta Registered Music Teachers' Association. At first, I was a little leery but now, I'm excited at the idea of completing my time on the Board one year early. I'm trying to wrap up my work on the Governance Committee this month so that come September, I will just focus on the Website Committee and the behemouth project known as the Honours Recital. I have to get caught up on the latter this weekend and call a committee meeting...on my week off.

On a completely different note (but just as exciting), the Calgary Iaido Club, where I train, got the green light to host its first national Open Iaido Tournament. We'll have seminars in other disciplines as well. Our planning meetings have been a welcome change from some of the Board meetings I've attended. Has anyone else ever noticed that when there are mostly men at a meeting, it goes far more quickly than when there's mostly women?

Alas, I've mused long enough. It's time to get back to putting together my music card games for the students.(c) 2006 by Musespeak(tm), Calgary, AB, Canada. All rights reserved.