Kendo demonstration at local church bazaar
Yesterday the Mushin dojo was asked to perform a kendo demonstration at the local church's annual bazaar. It was a hectic day filled with typical Friday afternoon traffic, but in the end all the members that volunteered for the demo were ready to go.
We had to a wait a few minutes for the line-up of Tromp poppies that had to finish first, and typical of any event where young children play an important role, we started a little bit late.
In the end, everything worked out for the best, we were able to steal the last bit of light the day had to offer, and performed a demo in front of one of the largest crowds we have ever had. All around the arena, little kids had bewildered looks on their faces as they saw us lining up, excitedly cheering us on. They had been waiting in great anticipation to see us fight, the whole time while we were waiting for our time to go "on stage" they had been coming over asking what it is that we do and when can we show them what kendo is. The best response was a couple of boys that equated us with Zulus with our fighting sticks or better yet...assassins (***nothing is true...everything is permitted***) ;)
While performing choyaku-suburi and finishing off with the typical fumikomi-men and carrying on through, some kids the were in the front line actually ducked. I think I would too if a bunch of blue-armoured-faceless people with sticks came running up towards me.
It was great fun, and we hope to have the opportunity to perform another such a demonstration...think about it, a whole bunch of people doing exactly that...leaving people awe struck.
