Current music:

KMFDM - Hau Ruck

Kirijini

The fact that we are alive may mean that we have already been chosen for some purpose, and if life is not something we have chosen for ourselves, then maybe we are not ultimately free to die.
-The Way of the Samurai, Yukio Mishima on Hagakure in Modern Life

In the midst of looking for a Japanese language tutor, I drifted to martial arts instructors which lead me to a mixed martial class and then to a Kendo/Iaido class that is taught regularly here in little old Springfield. I attended tonight to watch and ask questions and am elated by what I saw and heard taking place. It's a small class, about six students and I recognized several things from the Iaido and Kendo reading I had done previously.

It also turns out that the head sensei drives to Bloomington for Kendo/Iaido practice every other Saturday with the same group of students. It's ironic that I've been driving to Bloomington every other weekend as well, though for the purpose of visiting a friend of mine. I watched sensei work with a student who asked about Musashi's Niten-ryū style, and sensei demonstrated some katas from it, which was pretty goddamn interesting to watch.

No flair, no bells and whistles, no "belt selling" just no-nonsense, friendly and open atmosphere. The head sensei is kind, but stern.

So this is the path I've been taken, back to the beginning really, back to bushido, back to the ideal I've been molding through bodybuilding alone until now. Now I am Sun and Steel, traditional and contemporary, a step closer to a warrior ethos I've been chasing after for years.

Here we are approaching November as well...