New Orleans Japan Fest

[Noldar]

Anyone going to Japan Fest in New Orleans this Sunday (5/15/05)?

http://www.noma.org/html_docs/ev_spec.html

Two martial arts demonstrations that I know of will be presented by Aikido of New Orleans and the Shindoryu Aikijutsu Association from Hammond. Anyone know of any other demonstrations?

This will be my first year going. Anyone have any suggestions on where to park and what exhibits to try and see?

Thanks

[jwinch2]

First I've heard of it. Interesting.

Sensei Carver, do you know any of the people at this event?

[Toby Threadgill]

Hello,

Sorry for the thread drift here but.....Shindoryu Aikijujutsu?

[Webmaster]

First I've heard of it. Interesting.

Sensei Carver, do you know any of the people at this event?
Nope, but I have heard of Eric Templet of the Shindoryu whatever. They are the characters that have these strange pseudo-military looking uniforms. For a gander, look at http://www.shindoryu.com/templet.php I got a kick out of their photo album. What is up with the bloody crash pad for taking throws? :rolleyes:

Never met any of the folks at Aikido of New Orleans so I really don't have an opinion.

[Neil Yamamoto]

Ah, now I remember.

Shindo ryu popped up on ebudo and the site was lambasted by most people.

Then Eric Templet came on the forum and used the usual cliches to defend the organization, and left when people questioned his background. It's changed from what I recall too.

I have no idea if he is any good, or do I know anything about his group, but I gotta say I get a funny vibe from this guy and his set up. :eek:

Course, some say the same about me. If he can walk his talk, drops the weird stuff and states his history clearly, cool. If not, well, I'll go to red alert, even if it means I have to go and change the bulb. :laugh:

[Noldar]

Hello,

Sorry for the thread drift here but.....Shindoryu Aikijujutsu?
It has nothing to do with Shindo Yoshin Ryu. I think the similarity in name is just a coincidence. I've never seen any of them in action, but I'm curious since they're right in my back yard. I stumbled on their website when I was searching for information on Shindo Yoshin Ryu :D

[jwinch2]

Nope, but I have heard of Eric Templet of the Shindoryu whatever. They are the characters that have these strange pseudo-military looking uniforms.

It's also interesting that he claims to be a "Professor" at SLU but only has a master's degree. The last time I checked, a terminal degree was required to hold any sort of professorial rank at a public institution. Nice inflation there...

Nice uniform also, looks like a combo of a Navy Admiral and Captain Stubing from the Love Boat. Always a good choice.

You would look pretty good in that one with the stars on the sleeve Robert!

[Webmaster]

You would look pretty good in that one with the stars on the sleeve Robert!
It looks too much like what I would expect from an Army or Air Force uniform. Lots of ribbons, badges, buttons, bells and whistles. Like the real Navy or of course, the Marine Corps uniforms. Simple, not over adorned, sharp and military looking.

BTW, never seen these folks in action either, but whenever I see an throwing art using crash pads rather than good ukemi, I get a little suspicious.

[AndrewSimonsen]

It looks too much like what I would expect from an Army or Air Force uniform. Lots of ribbons, badges, buttons, bells and whistles. Like the real Navy or of course, the Marine Corps uniforms. Simple, not over adorned, sharp and military looking.

Which navy Uniform? they have so many, their blues (it is black but don't tell them that), their browns, their BDUs, their whites, little white sailor outfit, their little blue sailor outfit (it is black I'm telling you), their flight suits, etc. I preferred the old school airforce unifroms as opposed to the new cut. the new one look like a bussiness suit. Though the Marine Corps dose have the snazziest.
On subject though, will there be a good tea ceremony, nothing gets my heart pumping like a good tea ceremony.

[Webmaster]

Which navy Uniform? they have so many, their blues (it is black but don't tell them that), their browns, their BDUs, their whites, little white sailor outfit, their little blue sailor outfit (it is black I'm telling you), their flight suits, etc. I preferred the old school airforce unifroms as opposed to the new cut. the new one look like a bussiness suit. Though the Marine Corps dose have the snazziest.
On subject though, will there be a good tea ceremony, nothing gets my heart pumping like a good tea ceremony.
I am a former Marine. Marines are a part of the U. S. Naval Service and as such share much in common with our squidly brothers (I saw squidly in an affectionate way). One of the traditions found in the Naval Services is a fairly simple and less adorned uniform. It matter not which one I am talking about, but that they all share common traits.

All of the Air Force uniforms suck. Most of the Army uniforms suck, but that is because they hang too much crap on it and it is tailored to look like the soldier is wearing a seabag.

[jwinch2]

All of the Air Force uniforms suck. Most of the Army uniforms suck, but that is because they hang too much crap on it and it is tailored to look like the soldier is wearing a seabag.

Remarkably observant statement for a former Marine... LOL

Actually, I hate the Army class A's but the blues aren't too bad depending whether they are regular blues or dinner dress. The dinner dress blues suck.

If they would only go back to the old "pinks and greens" that would be just fine with me!

[Jason Chambers]

Okay... Back to the topic of Mr. Templet...

Eric (Templet), prior to teaching his martial art at SLU, taught at the Hickory Ridge BREC Rec Center. If you aren't from Baton Rouge, you probably don't know what I am talking about. BREC allows ANYONE to teach ANYTHING regardless of credentials... You compensation: About $6.00 per head/per month.

Sufficed to say, Eric is good at what he does. Where he learned his martial art, I cannot say. Is it really important? He is not discrediting anyone here so let's not go out of our way to do him so.

Bob, the use of the "crash pads" is a requirement of the university out there. They are very suit-phobic.

I have to admit I think the military uniform thing is a bit cheesy. To each his own I suppose. I'll ask him about it when I see him next weekend.

[Webmaster]

Anyway, since I have not seen him in action, I cannot judge whether he is good or not, so I have to take your word for it.

[Rasputin]

...I have not seen him in action, I cannot judge whether he is good or not, so I have to take your word for it.

http://www.shindoryu.com/video/aikiintro.wmv

Personally, I saw some things in the video worthy of praise. Shows what I know. After all, I am just an Airman. :wink2:

[Jason Chambers]

Sure are a lot of folks from the "Red Stick" popping up around here....
Finally.
:D

[Webmaster]

Impressive and well produced video.

So how does one get promoted to Kohai and Senpai (sp)? Note that these are "promotions" within this system. :confused:

[Jason Chambers]

Everyone remember the Sesame Street jingle:

One of these kids is doing his own thing...

I think it is safe to assuem that this applies to Mr. Templet. Again, what is wrong with that?

It's a campus leisure club after all....

[Noldar]

....back to the original topic :D

Anybody going?

There must be some folks from the New Orleans area on here and BR isn't that far of a drive.

I'll buy a round of Sapporo or Gekkeikan :toast:

[Webmaster]

Richard:
My wife has duty (Coast Guard) this weekend, so unless I can talk some of my students or others into going, probably not. However, I will ask tonight at class. :) If I can make it, I will let you know!

Jason, I don't have a problem with someone doing their own thing. That is cool with me. My only question is when someone of his traditional background does not seem to understand the basics of the Sempai/Kohai relationship. "Promoting" someone to Kohai after two years of training (see the bios of the other instructors) would seem to indicate a lack of understanding in this regard.

[Jason Chambers]

Jason, I don't have a problem with someone doing their own thing. That is cool with me. My only question is when someone of his traditional background does not seem to understand the basics of the Sempai/Kohai relationship. "Promoting" someone to Kohai after two years of training (see the bios of the other instructors) would seem to in
dicate a lack of understanding in this regard.

I know Bob... I know.

[Noldar]

Japan Fest was great. The weather was very nice and it wasn't too crowded. I took my two daughters and they enjoyed it also.

There were 7 martial arts demonstrations. I didn't get to see them all since my daughters didn't seem to be as interested in the MA demos as I was :rolleyes:

The MA demos that I did see were:
Aikido - Aikido of New Orleans
Karate - Louisiana Karate Association (Shotokan)
Aikijutsu - Shindoryu Aikijutsu Association
Judo - Hayashi Sports Clinic

The MA demos that I didn't get to see:
Iaido - Gentle Wind Dojo
Kendo - New Orleans Kendo Club
Samurai Arts - San Yama Ryu Bujutsu

One of the musical performers was Kaminari Taiko which is a group that does what they call High Energy Drumming. The girls really enjoyed their performance and thought that the really big drum was very cool :D

There were several other performers there that we didn't get a chance to see.

Some of the others things at Japan Fest included art, merchandise, crafts, food, and several other displays.

There was a tea ceremony, but we couldn't see very well. There were quite a few people gathered around in a small area.

We had a good time and can recommend it to anyone that might be thinking about going next year.

[Jason Chambers]

Richard,

Is this an annual event in New Orleans? If so, were can one find info?

[Noldar]

Hi Jason,

Yes, it is an annual event. There was information posted on the New Orleans Museum of Art Special Events page, but it is no longer there.

http://www.noma.org/html_docs/ev_spec.html

I had also found info on it at Neworleans.com

http://calendar.neworleans.com/event.php?calendar=1&event=2257&full=true

[Toby Threadgill]

Okay...

I watched the Shindo ryu video. Being the curmudgeon I am.....

I saw passable aikido and no aikijujutsu, certainly no aikijutsu ......and some sub mediocre (at best) swordwork.

So here's some advice for people thinking about "doing their own thing". You've really got to know what your doing to claim your own "style" or don't do it. Otherwise you just look silly to the people who do know what they're doing.

For instance...aikijutsu is not an individual art, it is a subset of Daito ryu aikijujutsu or a group of tactics from an old kenjutsu system. From watching the video it's obvious that Mr Templet has never studied real Daito ryu aikijutsu or classical kenjutsu, so why call your art by that name? If you haven't studied an art directly connected to Daito ryu or kenjutsu, preferably via a teaching license, why claim a connection to such an art?

You know, I could go out and start Super ryu Shuai Chao....but I've never studied Shuai Chao. I've studied lots of jujutsu and could claim that jujutsu looks kinda like Shuai Chao...... however to people who actually studied Shuai Chao it wouldn't look like the real deal and I'd look like fool.

If you want to start you own "style", fine. But how about actually studying the art you claim to do and have enough education in that art to know how to use the terminology.

Being my pedantic self.

[Noldar]

Mr. Threadgill,

Thank you for your review of the Shindoryu video. I didn't realize that aikijutsu and aikijujutsu were not the same.

If anyone else is interested I found another post by Mr. Threadgill that explains the difference in more detail.

http://www.budoseek.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=76285#post76285

[Charles Mahan]

Threadgill-sensei,

Were there any flying fruit on the video? Cause there were during the sword demonstration at Japan Fest :) In 4 tries, I believe he cut the apple twice. Not bad I suppose.

And the San Yama Ryu guys were... interesting. Complete with karate obi tied on the outside of hakama, regular sleeve keikogis being tied up like osode, crotch kicking, throat punching, newspaper kata, comedy sketches, tameshigiri with students holding the mats, and nearly getting their legs cuttoff for their trouble. Nobody was bleeding at the end though.

Noldar,

Perhaps you can clear something up for me. I was in the iaido demo and while we were waiting around outside waiting to go on, a Karate group came off the stage. I assume it's the one you saw. One of them was bleeding pretty bad. One of the other students in our group mentioned overhearing the bleeding student say something to the effect that he didn't know his partner would be using a live blade? What the heck happened? Is this, as rumor had it, an attempt to catch the blade between the students hands?

Not that our demo was perfect mind. Doing some tate hiza waza with one of the other students I did the wrong noto, although being the senior student I'm guessing everyone assumed I did it right and the other student did it wrong :D Then I cut the demo short thinking we were pushing our 20 minute limit when we were WELL under time. Guess that's what we get for picking our waza in the 10 minutes preceeding the embu :D

[jakmak52]

Sure looks like Aikido to me :rolleyes:

[Noldar]

Noldar,

Perhaps you can clear something up for me. I was in the iaido demo and while we were waiting around outside waiting to go on, a Karate group came off the stage. I assume it's the one you saw. One of them was bleeding pretty bad. One of the other students in our group mentioned overhearing the bleeding student say something to the effect that he didn't know his partner would be using a live blade? What the heck happened? Is this, as rumor had it, an attempt to catch the blade between the students hands?

Hi Charles,

There were no live blades used in the Karate demo that I remember, but I did have my hands full trying to keep a 4 and 6 year old from fidgeting too much :D

The Karate demo was done by the Louisiana Karate Association (http://www.lka-karate.com) which is the group headed by Mikami Sensei. I don't know him personally, but people that I've spoken to that know him speak highly of him. I doubt that any of his group would do anything as silly as try and catch a sword blade between their hands.

They were doing some free sparring, so it's possible someone may have gotten hit. They also did some board breaking and it's not unusual for the person holding to end up wounded :eek:

Richard

[Jason Chambers]

Richard, this is off topic, I didn't know there was a Wado Ryu presence in Hammond. I was only aware of the local TKD/TSD schools, Isshin Ryu and Shotokan. Where is it located?

[Noldar]

Richard, this is off topic, I didn't know there was a Wado Ryu presence in Hammond. I was only aware of the local TKD/TSD schools, Isshin Ryu and Shotokan. Where is it located?
Hi Jason,

The Wado-Ryu school I train at is in Metairie on W. Napoleon. There is also a school in Laplace at Shannon's Health & Fitness Center. I may look into doing some training with the guys in Laplace since I work in Laplace and it would be convenient on days that I can't make it out to Metairie. There's also a Wado-Ryu school out in Meraux.

Richard

[Jason Chambers]

Cool... Good to see more NON KOREAN styles in this state...

[mateo]

BTW, never seen these folks in action either, but whenever I see an throwing art using crash pads rather than good ukemi, I get a little suspicious.

Sorry to break off on a tangent but I've never worked out in a judo dojo in Canada or Japan where they didn't have crash mats and I've worked out in more than a couple where there were national champs happily using them for particularly nasty falls off of sutemi waza. Collegiate wrestlers also often employ them when teaching the suplex. I don't see why warning bells would go off for that particular reason. They are a tool like any other, to be used or misused.

[Webmaster]

Sorry to break off on a tangent but I've never worked out in a judo dojo in Canada or Japan where they didn't have crash mats and I've worked out in more than a couple where there were national champs happily using them for particularly nasty falls off of sutemi waza. Collegiate wrestlers also often employ them when teaching the suplex. I don't see why warning bells would go off for that particular reason. They are a tool like any other, to be used or misused.
Because with proper ukemi, you don't need them. The fact that you have national champions in Judo using them is just another indicator that too many are neglecting the importance of ukemi (in fact, many do not teach ukemi anymore).

[Asechikan242]

Mr. Carver we do use the crash mats but however we dont use them all the time and for every technique. We do teach ukemi, infact it is the first thing you learn and are not allowed to learn any throws untill your ukemi is satisfactory.

The fact of the matter is that good ukemi or not the crash mats prevent injury and injured students dont practice( you can still use your ukemi on the crash mats btw, so i dont understand the issue). The crash mats are also there because there are numerous high impact throws in our system and even with good ukemi on tatami style mats they can be pretty nasty. When we test we rarely use the mats(unless there is an injury to the testing uke) especially at the higher ranking levels and we never use them during randori. The mats also alow us to practice throws that are extreamly high impact with full force and speed with out the worry of injuring our uke

[Webmaster]

The crash mats are also there because there are numerous high impact throws in our system and even with good ukemi on tatami style mats they can be pretty nasty.
Don't think that yours is the only system that has nasty high impact throws. :rolleyes: We have them and just about every Jujutsu, Judo and Aikido dojo has them too. We just don't bother with crash pads because despite high impact throws, we don't have injuries.

BTW, Garrett Sensei in NOLA says howdy to Eric and asked if he has read any good books lately.

[Asechikan242]

Oh i understand that most systems have high impact throws. So i totaly agree in the need for good ukemi. In fact when we first started the dojo at SLU we trained outside on the rugby field in the grass with no mats at all. We simply found that the mats benefited the training in certain situations and I dont think they should necessarily flag a system as poor b/c they have them thats all.

Ill pass the word along, I unfortunatly havnt spoken with Shihan in a week or two b/c I have recently moved to New Orleans b/c of my job but Ill let him know

[Webmaster]

Ill pass the word along, I unfortunatly havnt spoken with Shihan in a week or two b/c I have recently moved to New Orleans b/c of my job but Ill let him know
Please do. Also, noticed that your sensei trained in Hininryu Aikijutsu. You (and he) do know what "hinin" means in Nihongo don't you? It is not exactly complimentary. In case you do not, it means "non-human" and are at the very bottom of the Japanese social order.

[Asechikan242]

yeah the original style name was Hininryu, and i have read that Hinin is usually, interpeted as non-human. Im not sure as to why it was called that but my understanding is that shihan Suzuki had always referred to it as meaning poor mans style. I'm not familiar with it much more than that but others may be.

[etemplet]

I would like to clear the air on all this so that everyone can get on with their lives.

1. I stated that I was an instructor at SLU, and I was I was on a year contract to teach for the university. I also taught for a semester (1 class) at LSU. I received a BA and MA in Kinesiology from SLU. I still teach Aikitjutsu as an activity class for credit at SLU as an adjunct (part-time) instructor. If you don't believe me please call the Kinesiology department at SLU (985) 549-2129.

2. I got the idea for our military styled uniforms from the American Tae Kwon Do Association who use similar "dress uniforms". I briefly studied TKD in Baton Rouge earning a 1st degree Black belt (recommended). Feel free to check with any ATA school about thier "dress unifoms".

3. I make no claim whatsoever to teach traditional Aikijujutsu, Diatoryu or anything of the like. I teach my own modern reformulation of it that's why I chose "shindoryu" meaning the school of the NEW WAY.

4. I have a few pictures somewhere at my house of myself and my instructor, but other than that I haven't the slightest shred of evidence to support my "claims". One could say that I am "doing my own thing". I like it and the hand-full of people who train under me seem to like it, it makes us happy and we feel my art is good for combat.

5. I invite anyone who wishes to observe my class to come on down and I will do my best to make you most welcome. I am certainly not activly trying to steal anyone's students or run anyone out of business. We are a small club and not much more.

I hope this is enough to at least allow everyone to move on about all this, becuase it is the absolute truth. I suggest that you contact my students if you want to find out how good of a teacher I am.

God Bless,

Eric Templet Shihan

PS I have a wonderful article about what our unsual Kohai/Sempai thing is about and I would be happy to send it to anyone, but it is too long to port on the forum.

[Webmaster]

I would like to clear the air on all this so that everyone can get on with their lives.
The last post in this thread was 07-09-2005. That's four months ago. I was under the impression that everyone had already gotten on with their lives. :laugh: Maybe it was not the rest of us that needed to get on with their lives.

[Cliff Hargrave]

29 year old 7th dan

Founder of his own art, 1999, which means he was 23 then.

Doesn't list his training background in any Aiki art.

But, he is a recommended black belt in the ATA :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:

[Mark Barlow]

When I started training in Jujutsu in the 70s, other arts saw Jujutsu as old fashioned and ineffective. Thanks to GenX Sokes, Jujutsu is now too often the milieu of the Trekkie/D&D crowd who think rank equates ability.

Unfortunately, this trend of low ranking, young students "creating" their own styles has become so common, Jujutsu, along with Aikijutsu and Aikijutsu are in danger of becoming the punchline to a bad joke. Rank inflation and over inflated egos are seriously hurting Jujutsu's reputation.