Gregory's Serverthis is always so funny to me. ok so this would take me like a five thousand word essay with two pages of citations to explain properly, (that's not hyperbole), but I'll have to ask you to bear with me for a sec, and trust me when I say that there is a *lot* of people in martial arts who LARP as samurai/ninja/ancient traditions/etc. for cred and profit, and that Seki Nobuhide is about as much "the real thing" as it gets, as far as these things are concerned.
which is why the "Let's ask Seki-sensei" channel for me is absolutely hilarious. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bfA90UijSLc
I mean it's transparently a PR thing—you can learn Asayama Ichiden-ryū on Patreon!!—and I wouldn't be surprised if it came out that a lot of the "surprise reaction" material is staged. but here's a secret martial arts have always been marketing, Asayama-style was selling itself from the moment it was founded in 1566 and so are all styles. the ryūha "schools" system itself is best understood as a prototype for intellectual property. people in the past hustled as hard as today. this also applies to craft and artistic traditions, to religions, to the State and civilisation itself, it's scam upon scam all the way down.
that said, there is still an absolute difference between the way that an actual historical koryū expert uses his body, and the technique of your average American Ninja. proof's in the pudding and, again, I find it hard how to convey this, but the difference is obvious to even the slightly trained eye.
and this is the first time I see a legit koryū bujutsu style speak the language of the Internet so fluently, and it never stops being a riot to me, to watch the actual bonafide 22nd-generation Asayama Ichiden-ryū sōke answering pressing questions like "we gave a katana master a historically accurate European halberd and you won't believe what happened next" or "can a swordsmaster really fight in one of those super long hakama pants" or "I handed Zatōichi's hidden blade cane to a katana expert and he did THIS" or "if you want to be real life Rurōni Kenshin you don't need a sakabatō". I still remember the anime kids being relentlessly bullied at the kendō club for their cringe back in '00, and this is how far we have come. it's a bit like if they got the Pope to opine about the top 10 crosses to exorcise vampires in RPGs.
they have a jp channel too (古武道 浅山一伝会) and it seems slightly less goofy, but it still leverages the hyperkinectic visual language of sensationalist japanese TV (the Tiktok before Tiktok, the best worst TV in the world) as skilfully as the English channel speaks Youtube, while conveying fine details of historical fencing technique which, I can't stress this enough, is actually the real thing and this way of explaining it is actually excellent didactics, which is precisely what makes it so funny.
as I'm concerned "Let's ask Seki-sensei" is peak Youtube, and in my professional opinion as an academically certified Japanologist i.e. hopeless weeb I want to consume an infinite stream of clips of Seki-sensei being handed various historical and fantasy weapons for the first time and watch him figure out ways to hurt people with them
I guess my hot take here is that I find the unapologetic dorkiness, the experimental and playful attitude of much of the HEMA-sphere to be a healthier and, ironically, more real approach than fossilised self-importance and grim seriousness. The open-mindedness, curiosity and joy are what would keep one's edge sharp, so to speak. So it's refreshing to see Japanese koryū in that wavelength. Seki-sensei enthusiasm is contagious, he plays with weapons like a bright-eyed schoolboy, and that's as high praise as I can give.
I guess my hot take here is that I find the unapologetic dorkiness, the experimental and playful attitude of much of the HEMA-sphere to be a healthier and, ironically, more real approach than fossilised self-importance and grim seriousness. The open-mindedness, curiosity and joy are what would keep one's edge sharp, so to speak. So it's refreshing to see Japanese koryū in that wavelength. Seki-sensei enthusiasm is contagious, he plays with weapons like a bright-eyed schoolboy, and that's as high...