05.26.05
Naginata: Pointy sticks for chicks
When I signed up for activities at the beginning of the term, I signed up for everything available. I figured I would expand my horizons. Some things weren’t so interesting to sign up for, but I figured, why not? Naginata was one of those give-or-take things. But it was fun.
I only knew about naginata from an international tournament my De Anza College teacher, Scearce-sensei was involved in arranging. I was given to understand that it was the ancient art of Japanese halbards, primarily practiced by women. But after looking at the internet, I’m not so sure about the “primarily women” part.
Roughly speaking (George will surely correct me if I’m wrong), a halbard is essentially a big blade on the end of a long stick. Not a spear, but kind of like a sword with an extra long handle, or maybe an axe with an extra long blade and extra long handle. Look it up yourself.
Ironically, given my give-or-take attitude, I was the person “in charge” for this activity. Essentially that means herding the cats into the pen on time, and writing a thank you letter afterwards. Whatever.
I’m not athletic, or overly coordinated, or even graceful, so I wasn’t expecting much. Moreover, there were only two of us, Ang and myself, because everyone else was sick. Ang’s Japanese still pretty bad, but she does a lot with charm and slowly spoken English. The club captain and several members gently coached us through handling and simple maneuvers. By the end, I had learned a basic 2-person kata (or mock-fight routine), although they called it something else. I felt fairly pleased with myself. Then we did cool poses for pictures.
After we learned the kata, things got kind of slow, because most of the members wanted to actually practice and not host guests. Ang drifted off to play badmitton, and I ended up chatting, mostly in English, with two students who were very interested in America. One will study abroad this fall at the University of Nebraska-Omaha.