By Jokokan Honbu
On April 12 and May 29, 2003, Yakami-ryu Hsingi Course 1 was held. The course is the first of a total of 5 Yakami-ryu Hsingi courses. This training and insight course is one of a total of 40 “inspiration and understanding courses” in other armed and unarmed martial arts systems from both China and Japan that are in Yakami-ryu's curriculum.
At Jokokan, we emphasize having insight and knowledge about other systems in order to better understand, respect and learn from the skills and essence of other systems. In this way, Jokokaners will in the long run increase the knowledge, insight and competence within Yakami-ryu, - and in ourselves.
Yakami-ryu Hsingi comes from the highly respected and famous Chinese Chuan Fa Grandmaster, Shakua Sei also called Sunwindshine, with whom Soke Sensei trained for a number of years in the early eighties. Shakua Sei Sensei
(1903-1995) is highly respected and well-known in both China and Japan. He was one of the Chinese martial arts masters sent by the Chinese government during a cultural exchange event between Japan and China.
As part of the upcoming Soke Sensei Tonegawa camp 1-6. July, 2003 in Denmark, Yakami-ryu Hsingi course 1 was launched for optimal benefit during the SST-03 camp. The course was opened from 6.kyu and divided into 2 sub-courses of 3-4 hours each. It was a complete service and benefits package. Normally the course is one course, but due to SST-03 the course is extended into two sub-courses. This gave space and opportunity for reflection, questions, and better training of the techniques and understanding of the thinking behind them.
Subsequent Yakami-ryu Hsingi 1 courses become "fast track inspiration courses", where participants are pushed to the limit to fulfill the graduation curriculum. You can compare it to the choice between "Mathematics at B level or mathematics at A plus level in high school". Mathematics is mathematics, the content is fundamentally the same, but at a different level of insight and learning"
The SST special edition course was therefore a coherent course. Instead of one full day of training 2 x 3 hours, all participants had to go home to the local schools and practice after the first part of the course, so that they were better prepared for the second part of the course, and this the vast majority did. The mood and concentration were top notch.
