Seattle Branch, USA / May 2003 Contributor: Colin May

The 28th Annual Seattle Cherry Blossom and Japanese Cultural Festival
[April, 19th, 2003]

On Saturday, April 19th, the Shorinji Kempo Seattle Branch performed a demonstration at the 28th Annual Seattle Cherry Blossom and Japanese Cultural Festival. The large annual festival is sponsored by the Consulate-General of Japan, and our branch has participated regularly since 1998.

Our demonstration consisted of individual and paired kihon, paired embu, and seiho/appo techniques, all tied together with narration to introduce Shorinji Kempo's origins and philosophy to the general audience. We were fortunate that our four embu were well executed and well received: one of our members was told later that the festival's stage manager, who witnessed all the different martial arts demonstrations that weekend, said in private that the Shorinji Kempo demonstration was the most impressive of all.

Afterwards we enjoyed dinner and friendship at a local restaurant. In addition to general fun, this was an opportunity for us to congratulate Konoya-sensei on his new job and to meet his brand new baby boy for the first time.

The Seattle Branch was officially established in 1998. We hold two one-and-a-half-hour practices per week at a community gym. In addition to the Cherry Blossom Festival we appear at the Eastside Nihon Matsuri in September. We also hold an annual joint training camp with the other branch in our state (Spokane Branch) and assist our hosting community center with their autumn 'lantern walk' event.

 

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