The year behind us, we can qualify as a successful one. According to soke Masaaki Hatsumi directions, 2010 was dedicated to Rokkon Shojo. In order to discover more on the subject, we organised two international seminars. One with one of the world`s greatest ninjutsu masters, Sveneric Bogsater, and the second with our great friend, Steffen Froehlich, highest-rank shihan from Germany.
The internal theme of our dojo this year, was the Koto Ryu Koppojutsu school. Twelve months we trained all the techniques and kata of this powerful art. We can say that our students enjoyed it a lot.
In 2010, the instructor of Bujinkan Macedonia held seven outdoor seminars with a wide range of themes. Among these, most important are „Survival“ and „The path of Shugenja“ which can already be considered as trademarks of our dojo. For the first time this year, we had a two-day outdoor seminar dedicated to Ono ha Itto Ryu Kenjutsu, titled „Kenjutsu under the stars of Lipac“. Because of the great interest and wonderful experience, we agreed that this seminar will be repeated every year in May – becoming a tradition.
This past year, instructor Dovezenski also held a couple of two-day indoor seminars. He was invited to teach in Kavadarci and Gradsko. As always, the interest was significant, the training hall full, and he fun great. On the seminar that took place in Kavadarci, there were over 50 students who were able to discover the basics of Gyokko Ryu and Koto Ryu.
In Gradsko, we opened a section of our dojo, with ten students. We follow their work and selflessly help them. Hard work awaits them, in order to achieve the standard of Bujinkan Macedonia. Years covered in blood and sweat, in order for us to grow in a real Dojo. But there is no other way – only hard training. With honour and loyalty to achieve out goals.
We also visited some international seminars organised by both Bujinkan and other martial schools, all in order to get to know better the arts we train at our Dojo. Among these visit, the most notable one is instructor Dovezenski`s
long stay in the Hombu Dojo of the European Daito Ryu Aikibudo organization in Italy, where he practised hard as uchi-deshi to the only non-Japanese shihan in Daito ryu Aikijujutsu, sensei Antonino Certa.
At the moment, our dojo counts 40 regular members. This year, the number is the same as it was last year. We didn`t have any serious campaigns to attract new students, but most of the existing membership remain dedicated and loyal to Bujinkan Macedonia. Those are true students, who bravely walk the Path and patiently train with one cause – self-improvement in every field in life. They are not interested in Bujinkan politics, or quick advancement. They believe in the rule of our dojo: At least five years of tough training without missed sessions in order to earn a black belt. And each of them is happy for that.
This year we opened another dojo for two other classical Japanese samurai arts: Daito Ryu Aikijujutsu and Ono ha Itto Ryu Kenjutsu (Takeda Den). With that, we are the only dojo for these two schools for the whole territory od south-eastern Europe. We see that as a privilege and a great obligation in order to justify sensei Certa`s trust given to us. The plans regarding these two schools are big, but more on that in 2011.
As far as public interest is concerned, we continuously decline most invitations to take part in any kind of media (and there are a lot). We do that because we consider classical martial arts to be for chosen people, who are supposed to find us themselves. From the many newspapers and television houses asking us for an interview, we accepted only three. So, Bujinkan Macedonia was published in the „Life Magazine“, where twice, with photographs we showed some practical means of self-defence for women. Also, we were guests to the weekly magazine „Tea Moderna“, as well as in the national Channel 5 television`s „Vo Trend“ show.
For the occasion of our 15th birthday, in July we organised a party, and there were both current and old members there. We had a great time there, almost unbelievably so.
In august, we had our Ninja Summer Camp. We had 18 students that for nine days day-and-night breathed and acquired koryu bujutsu knowledge.
As every year, we had a couple of humanitarian actions.
There were other things, also worth mentioning, among which the private classes that instructor Dovezenski gave to two competitors in mixed martial arts (MMA/UFC), as well as our new web-page dedicated to Daito Ryu Aikibudo (http://daito.koryu.mk).
Our biggest accomplishment this year – we bought some land in the valley of the Lipac mountain. With this, „Taiyou e no Michi“ has it`s own space where we can have our outdoor seminars whenever we wish so. In time, we want this place to grow into a beautiful dojo that will work throughout the weekends, whole year long.
At the end, a few statistics for our web-page. Beginning from the 1st of January 2010, and ending today, our website was visited by over 14.000 people, from a total of 84 countries – USA, Serbia, Germany and Croatia (sorted by number of visits, excluding Macedonia which has the most hits). While that may not be a big number to brag about, consider that we do not do any other kind of self-promotion – the number is not bad at all.
In 2011, we expect even better results. As always. Ganbatte!