This past month the Hawaii Kendo Federation was lucky tohave several sensei from Japan visiting and giving us some greatinstruction. One of them was Hiroshi SasakiSensei Kyoshi 7 dan and Mrs. Keiko Sasaki 5 dan from Akita, Japan. Having recenty retired from teaching Kendo atthe high school level, Sasaki Sensei was able to make his 2nd trip to Hawaiithis year.

For those who might not know, Sasaki Sensei’s relationshipwith the HKF goes all the way back to when he was a college student at WasedaUniversity and was sent by his Sensei to help practice with the kenshi ofHawaii. At the time he developed closeties with Akagi Sensei and the late Yoshinaga Sensei and Okaji Sensei.
During this trip, we had five opportunities to practice withSasaki Sensei and Mrs. Sasaki. Duringthat time he showed us how to apply the basics and put more meaning in ournormal practices. One of his firstpoints was to begin prctice at the right maai. A lot of times we start too close which takes away from the realistic feelingof facing an opponent.

From there we moved into hitting big men uchi and bigkote-men uchi starting from a little further than toh-ma and entering thecorrect maai to hit. Using the samefootwork, we practiced hitting smaller men and kote-men. Sasaki sensei emphasized using the momentum toaccelerate through the impact and move quickly through.

On Monday, Sasaki Sensei emphasized using the properte-no-uchi to hit a sharp, strong hit. One impressive display involved breaking a single stave of the shinaijust from swinging it. He emphasized themotion of the kissaki in hitting a proper datotsu.

Overall, Sasaki Sensei’s visit was a great experience forthose who attended his practice and got to experience his innovative andeffective teaching methods. Personally,I always learn something new both to improve my own Kendo and learning how toteach others.