Newletter May 2011
Greetings martial artists: Hope all of you are well and training hard. I just returned from Wisconsin (see photos below) where we had a long weekend of martial arts hosted by Sensei Todd Anderson. Sensei Franco Sanguinetti from San Diego was there as well as many other sensei from around the country. The curriculum included Matayoshi kobudo taught by Sanguinetti sensei, karate, jujitsu and kendo. The students were all highly motivated and did well. The kids class was especially inspiring for me in that every time I asked them to do something they screamed, “Yes! Hanshi!” at the top of their little lungs. On Saturday night we attended a dinner at Edo Japanese restaurant and fifty-two people showed up. We toasted each other with many cups of sake and praised our august company uttering “kompai” (dry cup) many times. All in all it was a great weekend of martial arts. We stressed mastering form and basics along with the kata bunkai. In addition to jujitsu takedowns and wristlocks we worked on Hakutsuru Kenpo fist strategies or taisabaki waza. These are unique drills which emphasize “Speed & Evasion” in that most of the techniques defend against attacks using no blocks but merely body shifting and countering. These will be the subject of a future video/DVD production. I was especially appreciative of the instructors that helped with the jujitsu class including Sensei Arron Hobbs and Sensei Rob Serrano and Sensei Todd Anderson and Carole Siegler for putting on such a great event.
After a three-hour class on Sunday morning I bid everyone farewell and headed to the airport for a 3:00 p.m. flight out. I was given some Wisconsin “Calico” cheese as a parting gift, which I was very appreciative of. It was especially interesting to me that all the women wanted to squeeze or smell my cheese to make sure it was alright. They would come up to me and do one or the other and say,”Ya! That’s good cheese!” How they could tell was beyond me in that the cheese was vacuum packed in plastic. It must be a Wisconsin thing. I was a little apprehensive about carrying the cheese on board the plane as it might look like I had a brick of C-4 plastic explosive in my suitcase. This along with the charger to my cellphone might look suspicious to a TSA agent. As it turned all went without incident and I soon blasted off heading back to the mountains to enjoy the last kata–the hot tub!
Included with this newsletter is an excerpt from a new book I’m working on about Vietnam of all things. I happy to report the kendo book is coming along but a slower than I had hoped. But it will be released soon. Finally two other Yamazato DVDs will be out soon. Okinawan Karate Traditions, History & Customs and The Ekku Bo.
Summer Camp: Just a reminder the camp will be here before you know it.
So if you are serious about coming you need to sign up now or at least reserve your spot. I guarantee it will be another great one! August 5th, 6th & 7th. So reserve your spot now and don’t miss out. 2010 was a year of great success for our International Martial Arts Summer Camp. 2011 will be just as spectacular. It will include many awesome seminars in many martial arts including karate, jujitsu, kendo, iaido and MMA. We can’t forget to mention the World Water Mellon Kumite Championships and an outrageous dojo sake party as well as white water rafting. If you are intent on attending the Summer Camp please sign up now as folks have already reserved their spots on the dojo floor. We are limited to forty people only. The Summer Camp is August 5th, 6th & 7th. Contact me if you want to reserve your spot. It’s only $50.00 to reserve your spot. Call 1-888-299-YAMA (9262). We’ve already signed up some folks for this year. So don’t miss out! Plus you save $50.00 by registering before June 1st. Total cost is $399.95 if you register before June 1st. It’s $450 afterwards. Includes lodging, training, entertainment and meals.
New products from Yamazato:
http://yamazato-videos.com/details.php?prodId=355&category=3
All the best for 2011. Looking forward to seeing all of you soon. Hope I didn’t leave anybody out of this newsletter. If I did it was not intentional. Please see photo Gallery & article below:
Sincerely,
George W. Alexander, Hanshi 10th Dan President
範士 十段 会長
Okinawa Hakutsuru Kenpo Association
International Shorin Ryu Karate Kobudo Federation
Shorinji Ryu Jujitsu Federation
World Budokan Kendo Federation
Yamazato International
180 Yellow Jacket Drive
Reliance, TN USA 37369
The Temple of Kai Dinh
by
George W. Alexander
On a patrol with 2/26 (2nd Battalion, 26th Marine Regiment) in June of 1967 I was running point again for the grunts instead of the recon patrols I normally ran. Around noon after moving west from Phu Bai [formerly the ancient capital of Vietnam known as Hue] all morning we came to a steep ridge. Upon climbing the ridge and coming to the top I peered down into the valley below. There to my amazement was what appeared to be a temple built into the side of the mountain. It looked like a movie set or perhaps something out of an Indiana Jones movie. Another Marine who was with me and I worked our way quietly down the opposite side of the ridge through the jungle with M-16s at the ready to get a closer look. The entrance to the temple was a series of terraces followed by courtyards bordered by carved dragons undulating upwards on either side of the terraces towards the main buildings. There seemed to be nobody about so we stealthily closed in to recon the area more closely only to find a single Vietnamese national residing there and no sign of the Viet Cong. We questioned him and asked what this place was–in the middle of nowhere! He explained to us in Vietnamese and broken English that this was a national shrine and the summer palace of the former king of Vietnam and that he was the caretaker. Since we were getting hungry I said to him if he could cook us some rice I would share our chow with him and he could explain more about the place while we ate. He said Ok and left but soon returned with about a pound of cooked rice in a banana leaf. The other Marine and I pulled some C-rats out of our packs and procured some cans of chicken boned and chicken and noodles. I had a bottle of “Louisiana Hot Sauce” as well and we mixed all these ingredients to produce a marvelous jungle concoction that surely rivaled any other cuisine in the area. I then pulled a pair of chopsticks from my pack and we ate heartily while listening to the caretaker’s story. He told us that Vietnam was formerly a wealthy country and pointed to a statue inside a pagoda in the middle of one of the terraces of the King of Vietnam dressed in period style European clothes. He [the king] was dressed with a sort of Edwardian look with ruffled sleeves, a waistcoat and high-topped leather boots. This would be reminiscent of my own attire only a few years later including bell bottom pants, ruffled shirts and pink colored glasses and a crop of long hair!
After lunch he gave us a tour of the rest of the buildings. The building or temple was ornately decorated inside with various intricate carvings. Every inch of the interior wall space was covered or inlayed with decorative ceramic tiles, carvings or jewels forming mosaics of dragons, etc. There was also a huge gold statue of Buddha on a raised alter at the back of the main temple building. I noticed the ceiling was hand painted with intricate designs. The caretaker explained to us that all the jewels covering the walls and the golden Buddha were once real before WW II but now were imitation. He told us further that the Japanese had stolen all of the real gold and jewels during their occupation of Vietnam in WW II. (See Operation Golden Lilly and Japan’s Warrior Nation, the Samurai in the Twentieth Century, George W. Alexander, Yamazato Publications).
After further research it turns out The Temple of Kai Dinh as I called it is actually the tomb of the last King of Vietnam, Emperor Kai Dinh. It was built in the 1920s and took over a decade to complete. It features distinctly Vietnamese style architecture but with French influences. When I first saw it through the jungle I thought it was much older. The jungle does that to things. It certainly had that appearance. The entrance has thirty-seven steps framed by statues of elephants, dragons, horses and military figures (see photos below). In retrospect what I thought was a statue of the Buddha was actually a statue of Kai Dinh himself. I’m sure he would have been flattered that I mistook him for the Buddha.
Anyway, as it turns out the king was not popular with the people because he raised taxes so high in order to pay for his elaborate tomb. This is not unlike what happened in China for so may centuries where the emperor would build a grandiose tomb to commemorate his reign such as documented by the terra cotta warriors found in the tomb of the first emperor of China Qinshihuang. He was also addicted to opium and used the temple or palace to lounge about and get high! Not exactly a productive government official. The mountainous jungle and war torn country of Vietnam in 1967 seemed like a strange place for a young Marine to find such a unique structure as the tomb of Emperor Kai Dinh. You will notice in the contemporary photos of the tomb lots of tourists walking about. This seems quite odd to me in that when I discovered the tomb there were no tourists walking through a dangerous jungle where Viet
Cong might be lurking in ambush or booby traps set, let alone walking out in the open and unarmed at the tomb of Kai Dinh.
Photo Gallery: Kai Dinh
Wisconsin Seminar:
