Friday

I was picked up at Amsterdam Centraal by Frans Beford and we had a nice lunch at Wester Villa.

Later we met Sensei Åke, Anders and Andreas at a nice brewery at a windmill were they had a lot of good beer. Eventually we arrived at the Shin-ShinBuKen dojo where the memorial service was going to take place.

We arrived just after seven and saw old and new friends. After a while there was a short presentation where a text written by Jan Kallenbach in 2010 about martial arts and leadership was read. It brought up the wisdom of older teachers and the quest for humans to search for development and he looked upon the student of martial arts as the "warriors of light".

At seven thirty the Memorial Ceremony for Jan Kallenbach started and was performed by Shinto Priest Paul de Leeuw. He first explained the symbolic meaning of the ceremony and the connection with Kami who is all around us and the universe.

Shinto is the way of the Kami and contains two syllables. Shin and To, To or Do we know from Aikido, Judo and other budo arts. Shin in this meaning is Kami. And Kami is all around us. We were also shown how to clap our hands together to be able to participate in parts of the ceremony. I think most of us could feel the presence of the spirit of Sensei Kallenbach.

After the ceremony Sensei Marshall was presented and asked about his many achievements in martial arts. He was one of the first Kyokushin karate kas in New Zeland, he had been training with Mas Oyama and had even been a film star in a movie. A beautiful moving speech was given by Sensei Marshall about his long relation with Jan Kallenbach to the music of "brothers in arms" by Dire Straits. They were come to be known as the brothers in arms since they met in Holland more then 50 years ago. And as Sensei Marshall said "There were never a hard word between them".

Their students have met frequently in both the Netherlands, France and Sweden. Sensei Marshall also congratulated Shin-ShinBuKen for the fantastic feeling of budo spirit in their dojo. A valuable jewel that they should take care of in the spirit of Jan Kallenbach. Sensei Marshall presented Shin-ShinBuKen a photo of Sensei Kallenbach and himself.

Eventually the evening ended and we went home to rest preparing for the training on Saturday in Almere sports hall.

/Dag

Saturday

Saturday's training started with the variation of Hachi Dan Gin that Sensei Jan Kallenbach first brought to Europe from Japan.

It was interesting to see how it is both similar and partly different from the various variations of the kata that the European Taikiken clubs practice today. After that, the training day continued with a Karate session where we had to practice three different types of series which we first did each individually and then two by two.

After a short break, the morning ended with a session in Jodo. Here we first had to practice both Jo and Bokken movements in a Kata, which we then also had to practice two by two.

After lunch, the whole group was divided into three parts. The groups were then rotated so that each group got the chance to train in the different Budo arts, in parallel.

The Taikiken training consisted of exercises with Mukae-te, Harai-te and Sashi-te. During the Jodo session, we learned another kata and also got to see how Jodo handles the principle of always having the weapon in front of you, as well as how important it is to really use the extra length of the Jo staff so that you don't end up "under the Bokken", i.e. the Bokken reaches out and can hit the head of your opponent.

At the Karate session, we got to feel the difference between soft and hard blocks. Julien Porterie from the French Taikiken group was graded to Kyoshi and our Sensei Åke was also noticed as he had received the same grade earlier during the year. It's great to see how Europe now has several more Kyoshis. The day ended with another variation of Hachi Dan Gin, i.e. the same kata that the day started with. (For this particular variant, however, the Chinese name Ba Duan Jin is used).

Sunday

Sunday morning we trained together with the Dutch Taikiken practitioners in the Shin-ShinBuKen dojo. We started with Ritsu zen and it was a wonderful energy when people from so many countries did Ritsu zen together.

Then we did Yuri as exercise in pairs where we gave each other a little resistance in the movement, which makes the person performing Yuri focus more on their balance and that the whole body is structured in a good way. We also practiced Hai two by two and in addition to providing resistance, we challenged each other's balance and cohesion by giving small surprising bumps and by alternating between pushing and giving in. The goal was of course to always stand in good balance and maintain the cohesive body structure regardless of what happens.

We also did a drill where Uke stood with the guard up and Tori practiced coming from the outside and finding angles to get in behind or open up Uke's guard. When we did Tanshu towards the end of the session, there were so many of us in the room that it became mainly an exercise in keeping an eye around, so that you didn't bump into anyone.

After that, we did several couple exercises to find and practice the softness in our interaction. Exercises where we mirrored each other without touching each other and also exercises where we alternately hit and blocked in slow motion etc.

It was a very rewarding weekend and great fun to meet the other European Taikiken practitioners again, both on and off the mat. It is inspiring to see and think about our differences and similarities and we take with us a lot of thoughts and ideas that we can continue to work with here at home.

It was also lovely to see how Sensei Jan Kallenbach's legacy and spirit lives on and continues to inspire us all!

/Andreas