Kendo Blog

Duck a l'orange

The Roosevelt rule is don't hunt them if you're not going to eat them.  And that's exactly what we did Sunday night.  Birds were plucked and cleaned and prepared as follows:

Duck A L’orange

Orange Sauce can be made up to 1 day ahead if desired. This recipe is not suitable to freeze or microwave.
Serves: 4 No 20 duck 30g butter, melted ORANGE SAUCE 1 orange ½ cup orange juice 1 tablespoon sugar 1 tablespoon white vinegar 2 teaspoons lemon juice 2 cups water 1 chicken stock cube 3 teaspoons arrowroot 1 tablespoon water, extra ½ cup Grand Marnier Conversion Table
Method
1.Tie duck's legs together as shown. Place duck into baking dish, brush duck with butter. Bake in moderate oven for about 1 hour. Brush occasionally with juices during cooking.
2.Remove rind from orange, remove any white pith; cut rind into thin strips. Combine rind , orange juice, sugar, vinegar, lemon juice, water and crumbled stock cube in saucepan. Stir over heat until mixture boils, boil rapidly uncovered, without stirring, until mixture is reduced by half.
3.Stir blended arrowroot and extra water gradually into sauce, stir constantly over heat until sauce boils and thickens. Remove from heat, stir in Grand Marnier.
4.Drain pan juices from baking dish, pour sauce over duck, return to oven, bake further 20 minutes, basting frequently with sauce until duck is tender and well glazed.

Served with baked potatoes, home grown carrots and a bit of Merlot.  Trick with duck, like most game, is not to over cook.

Kamouchi

(Picture credit: Ogata Gekko).

No kendo yesterdays, the YMCA was closed for a "Harvest Party."  So up, bright and early (0400) and off to the Snake River to chase the wily mallard.  Got to the boat ramp in good time, launched boat, motor started fine.  Clear, cloudless morning, Orion in the southern sky, temperature in the mid-20s (F) and some fog on the river.  Slack water had a lot of weeds which fouled the jet boat 3 times before we got to the hunting blind.

Finished setting up at 0735, hunting time began 0740.  Duck began piling in at 0738.  Flash (my Lab) looked at me like I was crazy because I wasn't shooting.  Legal time comes and the season began for me and my friend.  Two hours later we had 12 birds in hand, and one lost (dog could not find it after a 40 minute search but I always count downed and non-retrieved birds toward my bag limit).  Wader was leaking so time to go home.

Great day, lots of fun.

Kendo connection:  Wing shooting is a lot like kendo in that you need to groove your technique and then shoot in mushin.  If you start to thing about it you will miss nearly every time.

Oji Waza

Kendo practice last night was conducted by one of the yondans since Stroud sensei was out of town on business.

No kata, just warm up and straight to it.  Lots of footwork and kihon practice and then to finish kihon we practiced oji waza, primarily kote suriage men, kote kaeshi men, and kote ochiotoshi men.  Finished up with uchikomi geiko, kakari geiko and finally jigeiko. 

Merihari and Iaido

Last night was iaido night.  I got there early, opened the facility, and cleaned up the floor.  We had a total of 4 iaidoka as well as Stroud sensei.  After warm up drills we worked through a number of the seiteigata.  Stroud sensei said that  you need to use merihari when doing kesa giri cuts (and in other forms).  He explained it in the same terms he used to describe it on the Kendo World Forum:

Merihari is used in kendo and iaido to explain how to not only use a variety of techniques but to commit fully to what you are doing. Do not do it "half way" Make your movements either fast or slow but don't muddle along with something in between. If it needs to be strong do it clearly strong, if it needs to be soft do it soft.

Merihari is what keeps you from getting in a rut!

--start--

めり張り、Merihari

「めり張り」とは、特に「剣道」や「居合道」だけに使われる言葉で はありません。
Merihari is not only applied to kendo and iaido.

「めり張り」という言葉は、「剣道」以外でも、一般的に使われています。
Merihari is a phrase commonly used outside of kendo.

「めり張り」の意味は、「中途半端になってはいけない」ということです。
Merihari’s meaning, is explained as ‘don't do something halfway’.

つまり、「強い_弱い」、「早い_遅い」、「大きい_小さい」、「打つ_防ぐ」、「攻める_守る」というこ  とを、はっきり行うことが 大切だということです。
In other words you can say that it is important to perform clearly, ‘strong or weak’, ‘fast or slow’, ‘big or small’, ‘strike or protect’, ‘attack or defend’.

また、「稽古」についても、休息が必要な時はしっかり休み、稽古をする時は集中してやることが大切というこ  とです。
In the case of, ‘keiko practice’, it is important that you really rest when it is breaktime, and really concentrate on keiko when you are practicing.

例えば、「野球」の「投手」と同じです。
It is exactly the same for a ‘baseball pitcher’.

いくら優秀な投手でも、早いボールだけを投げ続けたのでは、いつか 打たれてしまいます。
Against a great pitcher, who throws only fastballs, you can eventually get a hit.

「早いボール」と「遅いボール」、「直球」と「変化球」、「外角と内角」を織り交ぜながら投げることが大切  ということです。
It is important that one throws with a mixture of ‘Fast balls’ and ‘slow balls’, ‘straight balls’ and ‘change ups’. ‘outside pitches’ and ‘inside pitches’, all woven together.

--end--
Note: translation errors are all mine. If someone can improve the English or correct a mis-understanding I welcome your comments.

As part of the discussion in class Stroud sensei discoursed on what the men target is.  Interestingly enough, to cut men is not to cut the crown of the head, to cut men is to cut the face of the teki.

On another note, I've really been trying to study Stroud sensei's footwork and have picked up a couple of things that I think I can incorporate into my game.  First example, ippon mae, mae.  No details to follow.

Finally, a new koryu Omori ryu kata last night, Ryu Toh 流刀.

Iaido Seminar - the Venue

As previously mentioned, our club will be hosting the 2009 AUSKF Iaido Summer Camp.  The PNKF was hosting it's annual Iaido Summer Camp and Taikai so I went along to swot up and how to run a camp and taikai.  More on the actual seminar in subsequent posts.

The venue was at the Rain City (they got that right) Fencing Club.  It was a wonderful facility for both iaido and also for fencing.  I wish that when I was training hard as a fencer that I had a place that nice to go to.  Provost Colton was a wonderful host and gave me a mini-tour of his facility.  Very nice indeed.

I took this picture with my cell phone so it's a bit grainy. 

Apropos nothing.  I had a saber bout with Anderson Sensei after a number of kampais in the head lights of Stroud Sensei's car with Wacky Whackers.  I'm not going to tell you who won, but the bout score was 2-1.

As a bit of a side note, the Leon Auriol Fencing Tournament was held in Seattle this past week.  I checked the results online and Rain City Fencing Center did very well (expecially in foil). Well done!

How to tie an Obi for Iaido

This is by the search term that leads the most folks to my website.  Here is a copy of the instructions that came with the obi I just purchased.

Update:  I tripled the number of hits on my site in the past twelve hours since I posted this.

Also, Stoud Sensei sends the following translation of the instructions under each of the steps listed under the images:

貝の口結び方

How to Tie the 'Shell's Mouth' Knot

1. 細帯の腰紐を締めて形を整え、角帯の一方の手先を二つ折りにする
Fold the thin end of the kaku obi in two

2. 折った手先を固定して
Fix the folded end in place

3.  二回巻 きつける
Wrap it around 2 times

4.  余った部分を適度の長さに決めて内側へ折り曲げてねる
Fold the remaining section into an appropriate length by doubling it over

5.  後方から見た結び始める所
Position the back end to start

6.  手先と交差して
Cross the ends

7.  抜き出す
Pull out (the ends)

8.  上と下を形よく整える
Properly arrange the upper and lower (ends)

9.  タレを手先に通して結ぶ
Tie the end to form a 'tare' flap

10.  貝の口結び上がり
The completed "Kai no Kuchi" [or] Shell's Mouth Knot

Iaido Practice 10/1/2008

Practice yesterday was "free practice" since Stroud Sensei was out of town.  I worked on Mae for about 45 minutes trying to make it flow more, and also trying to breathe at the appropriate stops (I cannot do it in 1 or even 2 breaths).  Much harder than I thought it would be. 

Here is an example of a very smooth demonstration of what I was trying to do.

ZNKR Seiteigata MAE