Toowoomba Languages and Cultures Festival. 10th August

It is that time of year again and we will be backing up a busy weekend of Seminars with our annual appearance at the Toowoomba Languages and Cultures Festival.

The Festival is the one of the premier opportunities for the Club to engage with the wider Toowoomban community and to promote what we do best. Please talk to your individual instructors as to what they might need from up in support, which could include (but is not limited to) demonstrations, handing out flyers/information sheets, walk and talk with members of the community and photo opportunities.

Hope to see you there. I'll be posting in next week's Budo Bulletin all of the particulars for the day, so please watch this space!

Kurt Graham Seminar 9th August

The tickets are booked and the date confirmed. Kurt Graham, kyoshi  will be heading to Toowoomba to deliver four hours of seminar. There will be a two hour Modern Arnis seminar and a two hour exploration of Graham Sensei's Bujutsu Core.

The seminar held last year was a massive success and it is always and exceptional opportunity to train with someone who is both as phenomenally accomplished a practitioner and an excellent and experienced seminar teacher.

Price for the seminar is $50/$40 per session and $85/$65 for both sessions (General Public/BBRD members). For more information please contact Michael Baczynski (michael.baczynski@bbrd.org.au or phone 04 1144 2081.

Iaido this Sunday

August is almost upon us and this weekend is the first of the month so ...

Sunday morning Seitei Iaido will be on from 10.30am, 3 August at the James Street PCYC, Toowoomba.

Still to be confirmed, but Tom Jonhson, yondan (and President of the QKR) was keen in principle to come and support the development of Seitei Iaido in Toowoomba, so we may have him and some of his students in support.

As always let Michael know if you are interested and might need to borrow a bokken and/or saya.

And the winner is ...

... unfortunately not a BBRD Member!

The winner of the first draw for the Komei Juku raffle is Tony Pominuut. However, remember that there will be a second raffle for another quality shinken later this year. Adam Brannigan will send through details as soon as they are available for the new draw.

Go at the BBRD

We are very pleased to announce that the Club will be supporting the development of regular opportunities to learn and play the game of Go in Toowoomba.

Go (or weiqi in Chinese, baduk in Korean) is a two player strategic game that originated in China over 2,500 years ago.  It became popular in the Japanese Imperial Court in the 8th Century CE and officially supported by the Tokugawa government from 1603. It is played throughout the world, with most players from China, Korea and Japan.

The Club will be supporting regular Wednesday lunchtime opportunities to play and learn, and will be reaching out to the broader Go playing community in South East Queensland to support those interested in the game here. Keep an eye out on the Club's web page and Facebook page for updates on times and events.

Awesome week of Shinto Muso Ryu Jodo

Just a quick word to thank all of the visiting SMR Jodo Sensei for a marvellous week of training at the BBRD. It is a rare opportunity to have as many certified instructors of a koryu art available and willing to provide instruction in a regional centre such as Toowoomba.

Many thanks to Adrian Knight Sensei for organising this event and congratulations to all BBRD members who took the opportunity to train through the week.

Saturday Jujutsu

With the new Semester rapidly approaching, we are looking to set up our training schedule for the second half of the year.

Michael is intending to run a Saturday morning jujutsu class from 10.30am–12.00pm if there is sufficient interest. Please contact him at michael.baczynski@bbrd.org.au to let him know if you are wanting to attend.

Contribution will be an additional $10 for the session as we will have to negotiate additional hall hire from the School.

This Saturday's session will start at 10am in order to do a pre-Semester tidy up of the dojo and storage area. Hope to see you there!

Seitei Iaido in Toowoomba to receive additional support

In the afterglow of a successful QKR seminar, Tom Johnson, yondan Iaido and Jodo, has kindly offered to help mentor those wishing to practice Seitei Iaido in Toowoomba. He has offered to try and make as many of the first Sunday of the month iaido session in Toowoomba. We are likely to also have the presence of some of Johnson Sensei's students, who will no doubt add to the overall rate of improvement to Toowoomba iaidoka.

We are all looking forward to Sunday 3 August for the next Iai session!

Congratulations from this weekend.

The QKR annual winter seminar and grading was held in crisp conditions this weekend. Sub-zero mornings saw four BBRD members trek down the hill to participate in the seitei iaido and kendo training opportunities at Collingwood Park.

As always there was valuable input from all the Sensei in attendance. Many thanks to Isaacs Sensei, Hiroko Tsukadaira Sensei, Nicholas Sensei, Tamura Sensei, Kagami Sensei, Humphries Sensei and Johnson Sensei for their advice and direction over the weekend.

There are a couple of important announcements arising from the weekend. First, congratulations to Robert Kimber and Maaike Stehouwer, both of whom double graded to ikkyu and sankyu respectively. Robert now has the 12 month build up to an attempt at shodan, which means he gets at least one more opportunity to play in the kyu grades at this year's Australian University Games. Both Robert and Maaike received many compliments from people over the weekend for the elegance and robustness of their kendo.

Also announced at the seminar was Toshi Tsukadaira Sensei's successful attempt at his 7th Dan iaido grading. It is a wonderful personal achievement and excellent news for iaido practitioners in Queensland.

Finally, there has been a renewal of the QKR executive as a result of a number of the long-standing members stepping down from their positions. In particular we would like to thank Dr Kevin Humphries for his 15 years of active service to the kendo, iaido and jodo communities of Queensland, and his tireless efforts in organising seminars, visits and other special training sessions over that time.

The new executive represents a spread of Clubs and interests within the Renmei and consists of:

President: Tom Johnson (Iaido and Jodo, Kohokai, Ipswich)
Vice President: Paul Willis (Kendo, Nippon Seibukan, Townsville)
Secretary: Dave Fitzgibbon (Kendo, Ken Shin Kai, Brisbane)
Treasurer: Michael Baczynski (Kendo and Iaido, Bun Bu Ryo Do, Toowoomba)

Here is wishing the incoming executive all success in the coming year — Ganbatte!

Visit from the Kurume Kendo Renmei

Representatives from Kurume Kendo Renmei will be visiting Brisbane. There will be a number of scheduled activities and training opportunities while they are here from Thursday the 21st to Monday the 25th of August.

There will be 12 people in total including:
7 dan Matsuzaki Sensei & 7 dan Noguchi Sensei
6 dan : 3 members including Otomo Sensei
4 dan : 1 uni student & Masashi-san
3 dan : 2 uni students
2 dan : 2 uni students

The full schedule is not finalised as yet although the Ken Shin Kai Hall at Mt Gravatt has been booked for the two full days of training on 23rd and 24th.

As they are arriving early on Thursday morning, it is likely that the day will be spent on the Gold Coast. The plan for Friday is also not set, but most likely to include activities in and around Brisbane. Isaacs Sensei, from the Ken Shin Kai, has provided an invitation to all Toowoomba-based kendoka to participate in the activities planned with the visitors from Kurume, including the Friday activities and the training opportunity on the weekend.

Last visit provided an excellent opportunity for kendoka of all experience to learn from the visitors, and I am personally looking forward to participating and "unpacking" what we are exposed to this time.

Please consider freeing up your schedules for that weekend and let me know ASAP if you could use a ride down as we will ensure that if there are 6 or more we book the PCYC bus.