Manaka Sensei's first UK Seminar

The above picture shows the Jinenkan Yudansha who attended the seminar.

Manaka sensei gave his first UK seminar in October 2003. The venue was Aberdare South Wales. The subject matter was the Togakure Ryu , and the Taijutsu and Bikenjutsu of the school was covered.

Manaka sensei was accompanied by Mr.Kato (the manager of the jinenkan) and Dave Hewitt (Godan).

The Taijutsu of the Togakure Ryu has its basis in the Koto Ryu and Gyokko Ryu. It was the Gyokko Ryu Kihon that were practised on the first day of the seminar covering the Kamae, Taihenjutsu Kata and the Moto and Torite Kihon Gata. I think that everyone benefited from covering the basics of this Ryuha and realised that even the fundamentals still require a lot of work.

The second day of the seminar began with the Kamae of the Togakure Ryu Ninpo taijtsu. The techniques from the Santo no Tonko gata were then taught by sensei. Everyone got a feel for how much damage would occur to the opponent when these techniques were practised with Shuko.

The techniques were practised many times to ensure that people gained some proficiency in them and Manaka sensei and Dave Hewitt (Godan) ensured that any mistakes were corrected so that a thorough understanding of the correct form was gained.

On the Saturday evening a party was held. This was attended by Manaka sensei who kindly offered to answer peoples questions on a one to one informal basis at his table.
The party was continued late into the night by the participants.The topic of the third day was Bikenjutsu. Manaka sensei began warm-up with the Kihon Tohou, an exercise in correct cutting technique.

Following this the Kamae of the Bikenjutsu were shown along with their meaning. Manaka sensei and Dave again made sure that everyone was doing them correctly by individual attention.

Following this the Kata from the school were taught by sensei, and again the techniques were trained over and over so that people could gain proficiency in the correct method of performing the Kata.

A rank test was carried out on the final day with John Anderson and Steve Greenfield passing Sandan and Mario de Mol from Belgium passing Shodan.