By Kim Taylor
We go to a show! TIN staff covered the final Japan Week budo demonstrations May 10, 1999 in Niagara Falls Ontario. 65 high ranking experts in several martial arts participated in the show. The demonstrations included 11 arts, 9 gendai budo and 2 koryu with participants from all over Japan. They are all under the umbrella of the Nippon Budokan.
Japan week is held twice a year, alternating between Europe (autumn) and North America (spring). This spring was the 22nd such event. From 1986 to 1991 the events were only held once a year in Europe. The Niagara Falls event featured Noh theatre, Taiko drumming, a blossom festival parade and even a marching high school band from Chizan prefecture. On the last day there were martial art workshops with the demonstrations as the finale.
Of particular note was the Noh performance in the Oak Garden Theatre with Niagara Falls as the backdrop.
Japan week is a non-profit event organized by the International Fellowship Foundation and authorized by the Foreign Minister of Japan. Funding is provided by major companies such as JAL. Each event takes a year and a half to plan and this year involved 150 organizers from the Niagara Hospitality Inns committee and the Japanese community in Niagara Falls, Hamilton and Toronto. The participants pay their own way to the event and this year over 800 came from Japan at various times during the week.
Click here for some photos of the martial art demonstrations.
For those with fast connections, here are some avi's (they range from 500 to 800kb)
Araki Ryu 1 (824K)
Araki Ryu 2 (471K)
Araki Ryu 3 (843K)
Shorinji Kempo 1 (610K)
Shorinji Kempo 2 (510K)
Kendo (821K)