New Iaido DVD:

We are going to sell DVD copies of our new Iaido Instructional Video because we have been receiving so many request for it. I shows Muso Shinden Ryu SHODEN and CHUDEN from the front and side views. This was taken in the Dojo and as yet, we have not added Sensei's commentary but this will take a while. The moves are shown are slowly and deliberately and are easily understandable if you have been introduced to the basic already. Shoden is demonstrated by Ken Watanabe, 5th Dan. Chuden is demonstrated by Mark Ty, 4th Dan.

Please use this as an aide to your practice. It is $30.00 per copy plus $5.00 for shipping. Foreign postage is $10.00. This is a Fund Raiser for our upcoming 30th Anniversary Celebration. Thank you for your support.

Announcements:

Please send in your resevation and fees for our 30th Anniversary Celebration on April 28th at the New Otani Hotel. On your remittance, please note: Furuya Foundation. Many thanks!

Thursday, January 29th, our first 2004 Executive Board Meeting from 7:45pm-8:45pm. In the Dojo.

Gaku-Jutsu Do Note:

01-29-04: Dear Sensei, On Jan 11 you posted a note from Brian regarding Gaku Jutsu Do if you still have his e-mail please forward my message below. Of course if it is not possible I understand and thank you for considering my request. Raymond Young

Brian,

I am a Shodoka and would be willing to brush those Kanji for you and send them to you. I do not charge anthing, I just like to bursh things that people will enjoy. Raymond Young

What A Big Surprise!

Shichimi

"Meibutsu Shichimi" - Famous Branch Shichimi from Yahataya in Nagano Prefecture.

I was so surprise and happy to receive an unexpected package from Hawaii yesterday from our reader, Mr. Heraldo Farrington:

Aloha E, Sensei! Back on December 23, 2003, you wrote in your Daily Message about "7 Tastes vx 1 Taste" - shichimi tongarashi - and you mentioned that your uchi-deshi had been unable to locate your favorite shichimi, imported from Yagenbori in Tokyo. . . . so you had to settle for ichimi.

That very same day, my friend and fellow Aikidoka, Miho Tomioka, was visiting her home in Nagano and read your Message. As she wrote to me:"What a coincidence that Furuya Sensei wrote about shichimi. . . It was something that I was thinking for a surprise souvenir for chili-lover Mon-san (me!)." So she made sure to buy extra shichimi for me to forward to you, Sensei.

This brand, Yahataya from Nagano, is not the exact same as Tgenbori from Edo, but apparently branched off sometime in the past, along with a third brand, Shichimiya in Kyoto.

I learned from the Yagenbori website that their principal shop is in Asakusa and that one can mix one's own shichimi from open bins. I visited the huge market in Asakua on my first trip to Japan last November, but didn't know enough to ask about this shop. I promise to find it the mext time I go, and I'd be honored tomix a custom batch for you, Sensei!

Please enjoy, and thank you for contined efforts on-line - we all learn so much!

Heraldo Mon Farrington, Aikido of Hiko

PS: I'm hlaf-Mexican, so I don't mind ichimi. . . infact, the hotter the better!

Sensei's Reply:

Such a big and happy surprise, thank you so much, and please be sure to convey my warmest appreciation to Miho for her thoughtfulness and kindness. So nice!

It is very nice to receive this from Nagano because Nagano is next door to Yamanashi, my ancestral home. In ancient times, my family was in Nagano as Shinto priests and moved into Yamanashi as retainers of Takeda Shingen in the early 16th Century. The temple still exists in Ichi-no-miya Village in Yamanashi and still is maintained by the Furuya Clan. Nagano and Yamanashi have close ties from feudal times. Nagano also has many Soto-shu Zen temples so I have many friends there.

This Yahata brand is also very old and famous. It is made at Zenkoji Temple which is also famous from making famous Mino style sword fittings called, Zenkoji-bori. Yahata can also be pronounced as "Hachiman" as in Hachiman Dai-bosatsu, the patron saint of warriors. This is very lucky and very auspicious to enjoy for me!

Today, I will get the famous Shinshu-soba, or delicious buckwheat noodles of Nagano and enjoy them with the shichimi you gave me. So nice!

Also, the shichimi you sent me comes in the old-fashioned tin can. This is how I remember shichimi when I was very small. Today, everything seems to come in the same plastic bottles and has no individual character. . . .

As a sidenote, if you notice traditional Japanese cuisine, you do not see chili-pepper, garlic or onions. . . . as in common and very popular in other Asian styles of cooking. Japanese cooking was influenced strongly by the cooking in Zen temples where such ingredients were forbidden.

Kaibara Ekiken's Yojokun, a classic on medicine and health, written in the Edo Period, also advises against the use of chili-pepper, garlic and onions as stimulants and deterents to mental clarity. I think he was borrowing from the Zen temple concept of cooking here.

Chili-pepper, in feudal times and in this environment, was a kind of "forbidden" spice but very, very popular among the general populace, bringing "spice," we can say, into Japanese cooking!

Shichimi, as I mentioned before, means "7 flavors" and is a combination of different ingredients to make shichimi which also has a nice aroma. Today, they sell shichimi but it is only chili-powder exclusively - not the same thing! Many thanks again!