JM Kaliszewski: Embukai at Shiseikan /Meiji Jingu (Tokyo October 2018)

In October/November 2018, I was on a scholarship stay, including martial art practice, research work on Japanes culture and martial arts and many visits in Tokyo and throughout Japan as part of my study. During my stay at Shiseikan, there were many events and among them the celebration of the 45th anniversary of Shiseikan and the change of Shiseikan Director to whom I was directl reporting. This latter event, and the background of conflicting views about Japanese culture which had resulted in this change, has been the opportunity of important insights for me about the Japanese culture and led to an additional trip to Kumano. I had planned to talk about this experience during the conferencewhich was scheduled in Geneva on March 14th 2020 with the participation of ARASITA members; but due to theCOVID 19 crisis, I had to cancel this conference on March 13th.

The Shiseikan anniversary has also been an important event and together with a group of foreign visitors to Shiseikan who were attending a “leader seminar”, I have been requested to perform an embukai (“honorary demonstration”) as part of the official celebration ceremony, which lasted two days. I had to restrict my own embukai (there were many embukai, including those of teachers amd members of Shiseikan) to Kenjutsu only as an injury in my right shoulder prevented me from presenting an Aikido demonstration. Here is my own embukai, performed with Ulli Serak from Berlin and who was participating in the leader seminar. Viewing this embukai now, I wish I had done something better, in particular with more energy (my partner had also asked me to perform not too fast); obviously I was not at my best at that time. I hope I have improved a little bit since then. The performance is taking place in the main dojo at Shiseikan which is located near Meiji Jingu in Tokyo and there were more than 100 participant in this celebration which included embukai in Judo, Aikido, Kendo, Kenjutsu and Kuydo (the complete video of the different embukai last around 5 hours). We can see seated on the right side Udagawa kancho the new Director of Shiseikan (his official inception took place the day after the embukai, on a Sunday). It was of course a great honor for me to be invited to perform an embukai at this event, a once in a life opportunity!

Matsuri in Tokyo suburb in 2018.

Teamlab exhibition Tokyo Oct 2018