In the continuous strive that life -or kendo- is, sister Eagle went on fighting and creating, gaining a space for her own in this land of ours, centimeter by centimeter. Most of us tried to help, yet to help an Eagle you have to be an Eagle yourself, we thought. Until brother Tuqueque showed up, that is. As it does happen with Tuqueques, not all of us were impressed right away. Plenty of us are still not impressed either. And that only goes to show how ignorant we are. It isn’t easy to see brother Tuqueque, since as soon as… Read More »Tuqueque

I started this blog to record the many aspects that impress me from the budokas that I know from the Shinkage Ryu family. I don’t know why and how other people write, but I do fear the possibility of making the people that inspires me uncomfortable. Yet I can’t help it, so I go on writing about others and hoping for the best. Wonderfully enough, somebody has reversed the roles. In between the observer and the writer there has always been a thin line, a grey area where the persons overlap in undefinable ways. Few weeks ago I received an… Read More »gato gordo

The cuts of brother Orca carried certainty. Just like a human floating in the open sea and looking at a sharp and long dorsal fin approaching, facing the sword of brother Orca was knowing. Unstoppable and unavoidable, time and death rode on his kensen.  And yet, change. Gone was the certainty, or not. Perhaps his katana and his tenouchi became somebody else, perhaps not. I only know that nobody rode that kensen any longer, but it had become alive. We know that change is gradual. Yet that is not what we see, so perhaps is neither what happens. Transform, innovate…… Read More »Orca

When somebody leaves, we sooth ourselves saying that once started, nobody really leaves, that someday there will be a comeback, that kendo is for ever. Those who leave open a wound in need of healing. It might very well be that those things that we repeat to ourselves are, in the end, true. It might be. Brother Sparrow showed up a day like any other day, and with his small and fast movements he shaped a space of his own. Despite his modest size and apparent humbleness, opinions and judgments were sharply expressed, in few cutting words. It took no… Read More »Sparrow

When the time of leaving came, sister Pigeon doubted. Had the time not arrived of sticking to one thing, once and for all? Can you really change of path so many times and still move towards somewhere? The curse of her generation laid heavy on her, for a moment. Commitment, she whispered to herself. I haven’t been committed to much, she thought.  The mind of the warrior can not be detained, read sister Pigeon once. The world changes before we realize it, opponents and allies, knowledge and noise flow into each other to recreate each other anew. So past flows… Read More »Pigeon

In the military, a warrior can be awarded the purple hearth for being wounded in combat. In a way, it is a strange award, since being wounded seems to be what warriors are going to be in combat. Yet there are ways of being wounded, and ways of being wounded.   Once upon a time a band of cuchi-cuchi’s passed above a researchers’ camp, at night. Exhausted after a day in the Amazonian forest, all of them were in deep sleep. Yet all of them were awake, right away. Cuchicuchi’s are noisy animals and they pass through the forest waking… Read More »nine nailed cuchi-cuchi

We all think that predators are fierce animals, and that they are. We also think that predators are cruel and selfish, scary. The word predator made us think of big fangs, deafening howls and messily ripped apart preys. Yet beyond our human nightmares, beyond our well build cities and brick houses, beyond all our ideas of order and control, predators keep the world turning.  Deep in the forest is not easy to see sister Marta. Humans, coveting appearances that they can’t have, have always tried to catch her, and use her spectacular fur to distinguish themselves as kings and queens.… Read More »Marta

Humans frequently describe themselves as the cultured people. It is our talking, they say, which has allowed us to build experience upon experience, up to our mighty cultures and civilizations. It is what make us be able to teach, they say. Who knows? it might be that talking and teaching are tied together for some humans, it might be. All the same, Bear sensei allowed herself a smile at the thought. Her pupils, seeing her smile, tried again, and tried harder. It’s not the talking, she knew. It’s not the talking at all.  Bear sensei wasn’t only a teacher, coming… Read More »Bear sensei

It was not going to work, they said. Don’t you think that you have to choose? they asked again and again. They said and asked with certainty, making their questions rhetorical ones, as if the answers were a given. But they weren’t. Nobody really have the answer to those questions.  Brother Otter did not choose. Or perhaps he did, since he didn’t know himself for sure. When the wind and the water called, you did see him, at shore or between the waves, sliding up and down, head popping here and there, rolling as sail boats do in windy days.… Read More »Goose and Otter

Let us remember how impossible is to keep a straight face when being with brother Mochuelo. Few minutes will pass, and you will be hearing an unexpected comment or statement that will crack you up. It could be about the hairdo of a fellow on the street, the current political scenario, or the gait of any of us. It does not matter what about, try as you may serious you will not remain. Brother Mochuelo stares out of his big eyes laughing at the world, and his company will get you laughing too.  Now, frequently we have wondered how does… Read More »Mochuelo