WKA Correspondence

• 05/16/96, from Jeffrey Marsten. Letter of encouragement from the president of AUSKF
• 10/16/96, to SEJCC. Request to Norwalk Dojo's Community Center to use facilities for 11/30 dance
• 01/14/97, from Thomas Bolling. Email stream between Jean and the editor of Kenyu, the PNKF newsletter
• 06/01/97, to Kyoto Police Dept. Letter of invitation for Yurika Taniyama.

05/16/96 letter from Jeffrey Marsten

Ladies,

Please accept my congratulations on your formation and your work. I totally support your activities and appreciate the immediate contribution you have made to furthering kendo in the United States. While your activities are primarily local, some of your projects will have national impact. The first is the help on producing a promotional tape for kendo. I encourage you to keep up the good work because you will bring new energy and ideas to kendo which we need. If I can assist you, please don't hesitate to ask and I'll do as much as my limited resources will allow. If some people don't like the idea of your organization, all I can say is we have something in common. Just believe in what you're doing, watch for your opportunities and go for it.

Again, I'm happy to see you take an active part and hope that I can work with you in the future.

Respectfully,

Jeffrey Marsten, President, AUSKF

Note: although this letter implies the WKA is working on a promotional video for the AUSKF, that project has been taken over by a subcommittee of the AUSKF.

To: Board of Directors, Southeast Japanese Community Center
From: Norwalk Kendo Dojo
Subject: Request for use of facilities

• Date: 11/30/96
• Event: Young people's dance
• Purpose: Fundraising
• Time: 8pm to 12am, doors close at 10:30pm
• Facilities: Gym, kitchen, and one classroom (for coats)

This is to request use of the gym and related facilities for a fundraising event to be sponsored by the Norwalk Kendo Dojo. The event will be a young people's dance to be held on the Saturday night two days after Thanksgiving.

The dance will not be open to the general public; only members of the Southern California Kendo Federation and friends well-known to the members will be allowed entrance [how will we enforce this at the door?]. Tickets will largely be presold [$8 per person]. The expected number of attendees is approximately 100. The anticipated age range is 15 to 25 years and older.

Noise levels will be controlled by keeping the gymnasium doors shut and the stage curtains closed. [the following was stricken as it could have alarmed the neighbors: "We may also distribute flyers to the immediate neighbors informing them of the event and providing a telephone number to call if necessary, however we do not expect any problems."]

The event will be chaperoned by kendo sensei and other responsible adults [how many?]. There will also be a security patrol on hand the whole evening to check the attendees as they enter for proper ticketing as well as for inapproprite items and dress. The dress code will be stated on the tickets, promotional flyers, and at the door (no "hoochy" [i.e. provocative] wear, no "G" wear ["gangster" wear, eg bandannas, baggy clothes, etc], no pointy heels, etc.). Security will also patrol the parking lot areas.

[the following was added at the Board's request] Security will remain until the premises have been cleared of guests to ensure that the guests leave in a prompt and orderly fashion.

Refreshments will be sold which will consist of snacks and nonalcoholic drinks. The facilities will be dry mopped before the event and wet mopped afterwards.

Our goal is to put on an event which is fun and profitable but does not negatively impact the community or the Center. We sincerely solicit your ideas to help make our event successful.

Respectfully submitted,

Jean Kodama, Norwalk Kendo Dojo

01/14/97 email stream between Tom Bolling and Jean

Date: Wed, 15 Jan 1997 16:26:45 -0800 (PST)
From: Thomas Bolling 
To: Jean Kodama 
Subject: your great WKA page -- SUBSCRIBE!

Dear Jean:  How are you?  I hope all's well with you for this great new
year thus far.

Taking a hint from Don Seto, I just revisited your great WKA page (which
has a link on both my own Martial Arts and Ways page at
http://weber.u.washington.edu/~kendo/budo.html and also on my Women's
Studies page at http://weber.u.washington.edu/~kendo/women.html) and I
discovered that you now have a "subscribe to WKA" feature on there.

So YES! please subscribe me to your page (and I hope you don't mind that I
have those links to it...)

I was so excited when Lisa first told me the organization was forming, and
then when its own home page appeared...!   And the link to it from Jae's
great SCKF page...

As you know, I'm a big time enthusiastic supporter of the WKA, and my
dream is that it cover the whole USA...  or why not Canada, too?!

Speaking of Canada, are you coming to the Vancouver Taikai this Saturday?
Or to Steveston?   Maybe Steveston for sure, right...?

Hope to see you there.   Meantime, if there's anything I can do to support
the WKA either in the Kenyu, or whatever here in PNKF, you'll let me know,
won't you?   Also, when you do develop a logo, I'll be very eager to
display it on my /budo.html page along with those of AUSKF and PNKF!
I'll put WKA right there next to them...!

OK, see you soon, Jean, and take care.   Tom

P.S.=  I just checked my address list for the Kenyu Online, and I don't
think you've been getting that from me, so I am adding you immediatly!
I'm going to send you the current issue (with a neat article by Omoto
Sensei), and you'll get it automatically from now on.  If you'd like back
issues, I have about a year's worth I'd be glad to send you, if you don't
have them.  



Date: Thu, 16 Jan 1997 20:16:08 -0800
From: Jean Kodama 
To: Thomas Bolling 
Subject: Re: your great WKA page -- SUBSCRIBE!

Hi Tom, Happy New Year!

> ... a link on both my own Martial Arts and Ways page at
> http://weber.u.washington.edu/~kendo/budo.html and also on my Women's
> Studies page at http://weber.u.washington.edu/~kendo/women.html)

I took a peek a your many interesting links.  My goodness, you're
certainly into a lot of neat stuff!

Of course I don't mind the links, but I think any true feminists will
be disappointed that we're not very radical in the WKA :-).  We just
wanted an excuse to hang out together and think of fun stuff to do,
hopefully for both guys and girls.  

The intended audience for the web page is specifically SCKF women, to
try to cut down on snail mail requirements.  I hope it's not too boring
for the rest of you!

> As you know, I'm a big time enthusiastic supporter of the WKA, and my
> dream is that it cover the whole USA...  or why not Canada, too?!

I continue to be surprised when I find people with very strong feelings
about our group (we've gotten both positive and negative).  We're much
more laid back than that!  Right now our goals are very modest -
basically to provide mutual support and to have fun.  We strongly want
to avoid politics of any kind.  If other women in kendo have the same
goals, it'd be great to form some sort of informal alliances or
whatever.  We're sort of seeing how it goes (leading by example rather
than pushing from behind).  In retrospect maybe we should have picked
a less generic name...

Anyway, the web page seems like a good way to let others know what
we're up to.  Anyone reading it can see that we're into kendo and
social activities, not politics!  We purposely don't have officers
other than a treasurer, which we need to keep track of our funds.

> Speaking of Canada, are you coming to the Vancouver Taikai
> this Saturday?  Or to Steveston?

No, I've just joined a new start-up company and I can't afford the
time, especially since I'm going to spend 3 weeks in Japan for 10WKC
and family travel.

> Also, when you do develop a logo, I'll be very eager to
> display it on my /budo.html page along with those of AUSKF and PNKF!
> I'll put WKA right there next to them...!

Right now the "men with eyes" design is leading.  I'll let you know
the final winner.  I'll be using it for the web page, of course.

> P.S.=  I just checked my address list for the Kenyu Online...
> If you'd like back
> issues, I have about a year's worth I'd be glad to send you

I just saw Kenyu for the first time from the SCKF page - very well
done!  I would be interested in back issues, if it's not too much
trouble, or let me know if they're available online.

Thanks for your enthusiastic support!

Jean Kodama



Date: Fri, 17 Jan 1997 01:30:27 -0800 (PST)
From: Thomas Bolling 
To: Jean Kodama 
Subject: WKA, Kenyu, true feminists

Dear Jean:  I got your message some hours ago.... thanks!  I got those
back issues of Kenyu dispatched your way, then got bogged down in stuff at
the old reference desk where I was working till about 11:00 tonight. 
Anyway, I knew you'd figure out that I'd received yours, at least.... 

> I took a peek a your many interesting links.

Thanks...!

> My goodness, you're
> certainly into a lot of neat stuff!

Well, it's true I love lots of things....   especially things that are
kind of playful, life affirmative, and not too serious.

> Of course I don't mind the links, but I think any true feminists will
> be disappointed that we're not very radical in the WKA :-). 

Are those the "true" ones?   They'll just have to be disappointed, then!

Personally, I think all us Kenshi are definitely radical in the formal
sense of the word, because we are working at the roots and foundations of
our lives.

Those activists who are into judging others -- and us -- are their own
concern, not ours....

In other words, I'm an ardent feminist, and you wonderful WKA people are a
tremendous inspiration and source of pride to me.

> We just
> wanted an excuse to hang out together and think of fun stuff to do,
> hopefully for both guys and girls.  

That's the motivation I have for everything that I do!    Including 
"work" and whatever else....  certainly Kendo.

> The intended audience for the web page is specifically SCKF women, to
> try to cut down on snail mail requirements.  I hope it's not too boring
> for the rest of you!

OK....  

"hope it's not too boring" is the kind of thing I'm always saying about
the Kenyu, too.  But I guess it doesn't take much to amuse
died-in-the-wool Kendo people... 

> I continue to be surprised when I find people with very strong feelings
> about our group (we've gotten both positive and negative). 

Well, I'm not surprised about the strong feelings, Jean.   

BUT I can't identify with the negative, though...  what kinds of
objections did people raise?  I mean, what could be wrong with a
friendship group like this? 

> We're much
> more laid back than that!

Well, of course I know you are.   What I was responding to (and what I'm
hearing from PNKF women, for example) is just the hunger that I know is
out there for such a fellowship... not at all the thought that YOU guys
had to, or set out to, provide it.

But you have pointed the way, and I know that Kendo women from all over
the place -- and their fellow travelers -- LIKE what you are doing.

I was just "wishing"... 

> Right now our goals are very modest -
> basically to provide mutual support and to have fun. 

Yes...  and what wonderful goals those are.

> We strongly want
> to avoid politics of any kind. 

Right!  Likewise, Jean!   I couldn't agree with you more...

> If other women in kendo have the same
> goals, it'd be great to form some sort of informal alliances or
> whatever. 

That's what I'm talking  about, too....

> We're sort of seeing how it goes (leading by example rather
> than pushing from behind). 

I like it!  I'm reminded that the word "education" [from e + ducere]
suggests "drawing out"  or "drawing forth" or "pulling by attraction" --
never "laying on" or "pushing"... 

Ideally, people are "drawn into" Kendo in the first place, not shoved...

> In retrospect maybe we should have picked
> a less generic name...

Maybe....  but I rejoice in it, because it's the very broadness of that
name which has given Kendo women all over the place hope, I think.  They
feel "I could be in that, too..." 

> Anyway, the web page seems like a good way to let others know what
> we're up to.  Anyone reading it can see that we're into kendo and
> social activities, not politics! 

Likewise!   Boy, I wish that would be what comes across in my pages, too!

Politics is such a "male mind" kind of thing, anyway, isn't it?

> We purposely don't have officers
> other than a treasurer, which we need to keep track of our funds.

Wow, how great!

> > this Saturday?  Or to Steveston?
> 
> No, I've just joined a new start-up company

Oh, that sounds interesting.  Congratulations.

> and I can't afford the
> time, especially since I'm going to spend 3 weeks in Japan for 10WKC
> and family travel.

Well,  I'm glad you'll be going to 10WKC!   That's great...

But Steveston will be nice... all the Team Canada and Team USA people have
registered for it, according to Ray.   There'll be some hot Kendo...

All of your WKA Team people will be there, anyway, won't they?

> Right now the "men with eyes" design is leading.  I'll let you know
> the final winner.  I'll be using it for the web page, of course.

OK.   Yes, I'll probably just grab a copy off of your page, once it's on
there...

> I just saw Kenyu for the first time from the SCKF page - very well
> done! 

Thanks....

> I would be interested in back issues, if it's not too much
> trouble, or let me know if they're available online.

The web page one is just the current one.   As far as digital issues, they
only go back about a year.   For the first nine or so years it was paper
only (looking something like the web page one), and it still comes out in
paper each month, handed out to Kenshi to hang on their fridges...

> Thanks for your enthusiastic support!

Well, it's from the heart, Jean.  

If there's ever anything specific I could do to support the WKA, please
let me know right away, OK?

Meantime, all the best, always.   Talk with you soon, and take care. Tom

06/01/97 Kyoto Police Dept letter of invitation to Yurika Taniyama

June 1, 1997
Kyoto-fu Keisatsu
Honbuchyo-dono

During the recent 10th World Kendo Championships in Kyoto, we had the opportunity to enjoy kendo at its highest form. The city of Kyoto and the Kyoto Keisatsu were superb hosts. Thank you very much for all of your efforts in making the event a success.

While in Kyoto, two people made our stay memorable. In recognition of her continued efforts in promoting the sport of kendo, we would like to offer one of your employees, Ms. Yurika Taniyama, the opportunity to come to Los Angeles for a short visit. Ms. Taniyama has been admired in the U.S. for some time now, as tapes of her previous successes and impeccable form have been viewd by many of our women kenshi. We would provide fully paid round trip air fare, accommodations, and meals. During this time we would also arrange for a tour of the Los Angeles Police Department Training facilities, a 4-hour ride-along in a Los Angeles Sheriff's Department patrol vehicle, and nightly visits to local dojos. There would also be some time for sight-seeing. A complete itinerary can be provided once dates have been established.

This invitation is extended to one additional person as well- Ms. Saeko Tatsumi of the Shimogamoshyo Keijika. During the tournament, Ms. Tatsumi acted as a fantastic goodwill ambassador, helping with accommodations, transportation, and arranging kendo practices. Ms. Tatsumi has been here before on such a good will trip, and is warmly welcome back again. If Ms. Tatsumi cannot attend, Ms. Taniyama may want to appoint another companion.

We recently had the privilege of having Ms. Kikuyo Kawasaki of Tokai University come to Los Angeles for a week of seminars. She has indicated that if Ms. Taniyama and Ms. Tatsumi can come, she will also return to join them. In addition, four of the U.S. Women's World's team are from Southern California. The Women's Kendo Association is thrilled with such an opportunity to promote a high level of kendo.

As we realize that this request will cause a burden on you, scheduling is entirely up to you. We realize that Ms. Taniyama has other tournaments to compete in as well as a job to perform, and that Mr. Tatsumi is busily involved in detective work. We are prepared to host the two women whenever you might be able to spare the time. We have a tournament on August 17 which is part of Los Angeles' Nisei Week that both women are welcome to compete in. Otherwise, any other times will be equally suitable.

Thank you for considering this major request. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact Tom Tew. In addition, as Ms. Tatsumi has been here before, she can brief you on her past experiences. Thank you once again- we look forward to your reply.

Jean Kodama, Women's Kendo Association
Tom Tew, Vice President, Covina Kendo Dojo