Kagami Biraki

Last night, Thursday 16 January, marked the first training session for the Kengokan Dojo in 2014. Training will be each Thursday from 6.30–8.30pm.

As the first session of the year, this session was our Kagami Biraki 2014 session. Kagami Biraki means opening the mirror, and symbolises the introspection associated with the New Years period in most cultures, and also the end of the New Years festivities, and the “getting-on-with-it” of training.

The members present completed the following:

Practice of all empty hand kata from white belt to Nidan
108 Pushups
108 Situps
108 Star-jumps
108 Squats

After completing this, we ran through the bo kata Shishiryu no Bo 10 times.

A good solid session to see in the New Year and to set a great standard for 2014!

Tonight marked the first official training session of 2012 for the Kengokan Dojo.

Following the Japanese traditions, this session was our Kagami Biraki session. As discussed in the New Years Greetings post, Kagami Biraki means opening the mirror, and symbolises the introspection associated with the New Years period in most cultures, and also the end of the New Years festivities, and the “getting-on-with-it” of training.

For our session, we each completed a full training session, which included:

108 star jumps
108 blocks
108 punches
108 kicks

Additionally, all participants (mudansha and yudansha, including instructors) made a demonstration. We saw the following kata: Naihanchin Sho, Happiken, Nijushiho, Kusanku Sho and Kusanku Dai.

Well done to all participants. It was a good start to our training year.

At the end of the session, a special presentation of an Achievement Award for 2011 was made to Sensei Joanna. Having been promoted to 1st Dan in 2011, Sensei Jo’s achievements over the past few years have been outstanding. Congratulations to Sensei Joanna.