The Art of Aiki

Acabo de recibir el siguiente e-mail del gran Paco Barberán.

Aprovechad que es lo mejor que hay en Zaragoza (y yo diría que en España) para aprender Japonés!

Hola

¿Cómo va todo?

Te escribo para informarte de que este verano voy a impartir un curso intensivo (intensivísimo, diría yo) de iniciación al japonés en el Instituto de Idiomas de la Universidad de Zaragoza. Son un total de 60 horas lectivas comprimidas en 20 sesiones de 3 horas cada una. La finalidad, obviamente, es conseguir que al alumno le estallen las neuronas y constate con estupor que estudiar japonés a este ritmo, además de resultar "molto facile e divertente", puede generar también graves trastornos de la personalidad.

Bromas al margen, la información completa sobre el curso está en el link que te dejo aquí abajo con el ruego de que le des al contenido de este e-mail la mayor difusión posible: http://www.unizar.es/idiomas/cur_japones_za.html

Un fuerte abrazo.

Francisco Barberán
www.nichiza.com

A useful utility to convert between old Japanese units (Shakkan-Ho) and the good old Metric and Imperial Systems.

One shaku (尺) is approximately 30cm. One sun (寸) is about 3cm, while one bu (分) equals 3mm. As a curiosity, one ken is equivalent to 6 shaku (180cm), approximately the height of a man.

Even when Shakkan-Ho is the old system, it's still used in Japanese martial arts for measuring the length of weapons, as well as for clothing (in which case a bu corresponds to 3.79mm) and footwear (when it corresponds to 2.4mm.) In any case, one shaku always equals to ten sun; and one sun contains always ten bu.

Thanks to Leonard from www.network54.com forums and to Kampai Budokai for the good information and the JavaScript code.

O'Sensei once said that a student could learn all the basics of aikido if he practiced just three techniques: tai-no-henko, morotedori-kokyuho, and suwariwaza-kokyuho. Given the seemingly endless number of different waza and their variations, how is it possible to encompass aikido in just these three primary techniques?

Read the complete article at: http://traditional-aikido.com/Technique/three_techniques.htm

Koryu.com has finally released the all too expected book on Tenshin Shoden Katori Shinto Ryu written by Soke Risuke Otake. For a long time, "The Deity and the Sword" has been listed for up to USD500 in some online stores, so for all of you that didn't want to spend that lot of money this is great news. This one-volume 336-pager is based on the earlier 3-volume work, reedited and redesigned, and for a much cheaper price.

This book contains a lot on history of the School, the techniques and the strategy for which it is famous. Some extra information about the more esoteric principles (such as the kuji in) can also be found in this great work.

More information at http://koryu.com/store/katori-shinto-ryu.html.