Minnesota's First Taiki(?) con't.....

He further remarked that he had "a very uneasy relationship with [his] own sword" (as he would soon demonstrate) by way of explaining why he himself did not bow to/for his sword.  Interestingly enough, the MN Daily article advertising this event had begun with a one-paragraph description of Mr. Kilgore bowing to his sword before a practice session.  He took his place at the center of the tatami that had been set up, quickly explained that he had done the cuts he was about to demonstrate separately but never together as a series, and then began.  His first cut was a hidari kesa that nicked the first of the four tatami in front of him, but cut cleanly thrugh the other three.  He turned to the tatami on his right and cut them both in a single migi kesa, then spun to the remaining tatami and swung at it with his blade...And missed...And let go of his sword.  He threw the blade five feet away from him,  where it hit the floor and skidded another ten feet, past one of his students seated in the sidelines.  He reached his hands over his head as if to take another cut on the tatami in front of him and then froze.  When he came out of his stance, he said to the crowd "I didn't know the blade wasn't in my hand, I was so focussed on the thing."  Having never seen my own sensei do anything so careless in my year in his class, nor any of my classmates, nor having ever done so myself even as a beginner, this made poor endorsement of a teacher who claims his involvement with the sword goes back thirty years.  He once again explained how he had performed each of those cuts separately before, but never all at once., which nonetheless failed to excuse losing control of his blade like that.  Just as he pointed out the dangers inherent in his practice at the start of the tournament, here too he pointed out that his student on the sidelines could have been badly hurt or even killed as a result of his faulty grip. His students represented their school much better than Mr. Kilgore hinself in the cutting department.  Three students were featured in the cutting competition, each starting with two tatami rolls placed around them as they chose, then cutting three and four in sequence, demonstrating some of the same flash with their blades in transition from one cut to the next as they showed in their iaido.  I observed some of the same cutting issues for which we are taken to task in our own dojo, too sharp of angles or scooping cuts, but nevertheless these were talanted cutters on display.  A bit of audience participation was added here, as at the end we were encouraged to applaud the student we felt gave the best performance as they competed the final round of cuts on a single tatami.  A nifty touch, until my guy had his sword bind in his target just shy of a clean cut, and the nearly-severed top half of his tatami flopped over.  He took it in stride though, so he got my vote all the same. After taking his final scoring notes for the three competitors, Mr. Kilgore took a moment to acknowledge that despite being open to all sword schools, the Sengoku Classic was attended only by his own Chikara Dojo.  He tried to brush it off, saying that "it [took] a lot of gall"  (emphasis mine) to participate in such an event, but the remark sounded to me of sour grapes rather than the misuse of the word on his part. The final event of the Sengoku Classic was the one that had caused me the greatest concern going in, free sparring with bokken.  I had seen a brief sample of this before the tournament started as two students practiced together, and a couple of elements that had caught my attention there came up again here.  Again Mr. Kilgore demonstrated before setting his students loose.  He and a student circled each other, constantly changing stances to take advantage of some perceived opening before leaping in for the attack.  It looked somewhat staged, as Mr. Kilgore at one point held his sword pointed straight down at the ground, held in one hand at his side as he circled and glared at his opponent.  Nevertheless, attacks were resolved in an instant and acknowledged by both sides. Mr. Kilgore's students put on basically the same show in bout after bout, but with a couple of things that concerned me (even setting aside the electrical tape wrapped around parts of the blade area of several bokken, I don't know whether to cushion the impact of sparring or to smooth out a snag so inflected on the bokken).  Blocking of an opponent's blade was done edge-on-edge...

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