Looking Back on 2020
By Zach Biesanz
2020 has been some year, huh?
Back in January, we were accepted as an official branch dojo of the Zen Nihon Toyama-Ryu Iaido Renmei and Brooklyn Battodo became Zentokan Dojo. In February, we once again had the honor of hosting Hataya sensei for a seminar, and this time he brought Hioki sensei and Asami san too. It is always good to have teachers from Japan here so we can learn from them directly.
Six of our students took ZNTIR tests in front of Hataya sensei, which can be intimidating. Just taking the test is worth celebrating, but all six passed! Ravi was promoted to shodan, and Nelson, Anthony, Michael, Allen, and Robert were all promoted to nidan.
In January, several of us attended a seminar with Carl Long sensei on Eishin Ryu, DNBK batto-ho kata, and kenjutsu principles. In early March I was able to visit Konjaku Kioi Dojo and take a class with Femal sensei. Not long after that, I traveled to California with Sang Kim sensei for the International Battodo Federation's tai kai. It was an excellent opportunity to get more exposure to Nakamura Ryu, train with some wonderful teachers including Sato sensei and Nomura sensei, and catch up with old friends and make new ones. Many thanks to Derek Morris sensei who hosted and did a great job making this outsider feel welcome.
Just as the tai kai was wrapping up, the whole country shut down.
The COVID-19 pandemic has been tough on everyone. We canceled all regular classes for awhile. We had to cancel a planned seminar featuring a visit from Femal sensei that was supposed to happen in May. For a while, it seemed like solo training and getting together on Zoom once a week was going to be all that was left of the dojo. That was nice and all, but in the summer I asked everyone to get bokken with plastic saya, and we started meeting in Prospect Park once a week. Then twice a week.
We’ve had lots of onlookers, lots of people asking questions, and we even welcomed a few new students! We’ve also been working on new kinds of physical conditioning and development. Ravi has been leading weekly sessions of Baduanjin qigong (“eight silk weaving”) before class. Michael began formally studying John Evans’ sensei’s tanren curriculum earlier this year, and has shared some of those exercises with the rest of us.
Winter is here now, but I’m delighted to say that several students have been layering up and training with me out in the cold. I’m really lucky to have such a dedicated group. We will get through this and return to the dojo eventually, back to regular training and bringing in guest teachers. And gekken, lots of gekken.
Happy and safe new year everyone; we hope to see you soon.
Zach