big class

Dunno what happened, but a whole lotta folks showed up for class tonight. Started with six, then Elvis showed up late, then a couple more until we finally had about ten on the floor. Ten is pretty tight and you have to be careful not to kill each other, but we managed. Nice cool evening so training hard feels good. Ripped through alot of basic cuts in the beginning, just focusing on blade angle and path, and then added in body mechanics, concentrating on what muscles are really doing the work. It's wierd to think how you can move your body without actually realizing what and how you're moving. For some reason we get lazy and move in really inefficient ways because we think it's easier or something. Hard to retrain the body to move the 'right' way; but it's cool to see that lightbulb go off when someone (usually accidentally) does it right the 100th time, realizes it, and then tries another 100 times to get the feeling back.
I think advancing to higher levels in martial arts just involves increasing the probability of doing something right.

kimono tansu


kimono tansu, originally uploaded by renfield.

Commissioned the lovely folks at Suruga Isho to make a set of drawered chests in a modern /traditional style for hiroko's kimono collection.
They are quite lovely, with traditional kiri (paulownia) inside the drawers, a beautiful dark finish on the front and a more natural yellow finish on the top and sides.

akiba soul!


NEC_0271.jpg, originally uploaded by renfield.