Bamboo and Mat Cutting

One of the most visually spectacular elements of the 2012 Australian Martial Arts Festival, and the 8th Australian National Gumdo Championships, was the bamboo and mat cutting performances. The mats are soaked in water for at least 24 hours to make them solid. Cutting bamboo is a grading requirement.

I have tried mat cutting a few times, and occasionally have experienced the thrill of the clean, almost magical and effortless cut through the wet mat. Unfortunately, more often the sword wedges itself in the mat, or bounces off the mat or fragments the mat into portions – such that the mat looks like it’s been attacked by a giant, ferocious (and very untidy) rat. So, I can scarcely begin to imagine the degree of training and skill required to slice through several stands of bamboo or multiple numbers of mats at one time. However, this was achieved over the nationals week-end, and very spectacularly – so awe-inspiring.

He is finishing the cutting of the seven bamboo stands with a return cut

If you look where her free hand is positioned, you can see the cut she achieved in the bamboo with this back cut: the bamboo is just beginning to separate from the cut

Even reviewing these photos now for this post, gives me goose-bumps. The level of dedicated training and the concentration to achieve results like this leaves me breathless.

Need some paper cut? Try using a sword.

It’s hard enough to cut paper just standing in place, but this sword master manages to cut the paper with a variety of sword cuts (including backhand) effortlessly (well, seemingly effortlessly!), consistently and with never a miss, while running, jumping and turning. The aerobic fitness alone was awe-inspiring, but when coupled with the sword cutting skill and accuracy, it was breath-taking!

Haidong Kumdo National Titles

I was invited to photograph the competition finals and kumdo demonstrations which were a part of the 2011 Australian national kumdo titles held at the Gold Coast in October. This event was the vehicle for a superbly brilliant display of skill. It was a real privelege…and very exciting…to have the opportunity to photograph the event. It was also rather challenging to photograph, because it was extremely dark: with some of the demonstrations being shot at iso12,800. However, owing to the talent of the performers many of the photos still portray their skilled magic.

A few of the highlights:

Cutting bamboo blindfolded

Paired bamboo cutting

Paper cutting

One of the international sword dancers

Form

They start young!

A few more photos of this event can be seen at: http://shugyoimages.smugmug.com/Martial-Arts/Gumdo/2011-Haidung-Kumdo-Nationals/i-N7CPVK4/0/S/DB1G6382-88-S.jpg

 

Sword – something a little bit different

The Gold Coast TKD Open (post below) also featured a demonstration by the Gumdo demonstration team. As well as performing powerful group sword kata, there were individual demonstrations of tameshiri (“live” sword cutting). While tameshiri is about correct sword technique (if the sword isn’t at the correct angle then the sword doesn’t cut the material, it just bounces off),  I couldn’t help but notice the biceps and triceps of the sword wielders – a bit of muscle doesn’t go astray it seems.

There’s a few more photos of the gumdo demonstration at http://shugyoimages.smugmug.com/Martial-Arts/sword-2011/17373888_FRFfMv#1320519256_77XXCB6

Gumdo finishing bow

Tameshiri (cutting bamboo)

Papercutting - newspaper suspended with pegs

Tameshiri - rolled matting

Turning into a cut (note arm muscles!)

Learning iaido

Oda sensei teaching

Learning iaido is a personal journey that is not easy. The art itself is hard – apparently simple – kata that involve only a few short moves with a limited range of options (cutting and thrusting) – but bringing these movements together with intensity, meaning and power can take a life-time to learn.

The process of learning itself is also hard in terms of self-discipline and achieving progress.

Conveying the meaning of iaido through images is quite difficult, and I have rarely even come close to conveying the intensity, discipline and power of this martial art. Which is quite strange in a way, as iai is easy to photograph in comparison to other martial arts. The poses are held, the movements are very predictable (as it is kata-based) and it is relatively slow-moving – so apart from the fact that iaido is usually performed in low-lit, and often somewhat messy areas (e.g. school gyms), it is not technically difficult to photograph.

In this context, the photo at the top is not technically great (the aforementioned low light and concomitant shadowing and loss of depth of focus). However, the photo conveys an important element of learning iaido and that is the personal relationship between instructor and student. While the basic moves of each kata (or pattern) can be easily learned in a group situation, the refinements of detail that make a kata stand out from the mundane or even embarrassing, require dedicated one-on-one instruction. This lead picture illustrates part of that necessary connection, while the attention to detail that is required can be seen below.

Teaching iaido

The other aspect of iaido that is fun to try to capture is the drama of the sword itself.

Oda Sensei: Drawing the Sword

Kolb Sensei: Chibuti