Is there any sword skill at all at Boston Shinkendo?

In a recent interview with a "former"  Boston Shinkendo student we discussed the Katana skills of the instructor and students.

Here is his opinion of the skill level at that dojo:

"Ok, let me first say this, splitting that lame dojo and getting far away from that idiot shafty was the smartest thing I have ever dumb. Joining that school in the first place was clearly the dumbest.

We all make mistakes and you learn from them I guess...

I won't go on about all the things that in my opinion suck about that school, there are tons of those reports all over social media.

I will talk about a time back in 2019 when we did a Tameshigiri exercise in the dojo, this was before the infamous nightmare Horror at Honbu Dojo trip.

Shafty was billing this day as some great favor to the students and how it was a such a great honor for us to be cutting wet tatami mats for the first time under his great tutelage.

The reality was he was looking to plaster another marketing video all over Facebook and twitter showcasing his dojo. because the actual GOOD SHINKENDO DOJOS, like the one in Hungary, or Modern Samura for example... who were doing a great job producing decent students, and he hadn't done jack crap other than kiss Yukishiro Obatas butt, in txt messages (like a little girl).

So the big day comes and he sets up the video camera, does the whole sanctimonious BS to show Yuki how serious his dojo is (LOL).

He gets up and cuts a few mats, they cut, no problem, its not like this is actual hard to do.

...well (maybe for some).

So he bring up his daughter, a 20 year old kid that he has supposedly been training for 10-12 years and who would stand in as instructor whenever he was busy doing something other than training the paying students.

So now he's all excited when she goes up to the mat stand.

She raises the sword and swings.....

LMAO  whooosh.

The katana smacks into the tatami mats like hitting a towel with a wet noodle.

Immediately Shafty runs up and SHUTS DOWN THE VIDEO camera, and after her doing it a couple of more times with the same results he put the camera away altogether.

..I guess showcasing his other students cutting wasn't as important to him? LOL

Well the junior students all went up and all CLEANLY cut mats, some with good angles, and some with not so good angles.

BUT THEY ALL CUT THROUGH THE MATS!

To be honest the best cut made that day was by a 70 year old woman who cut two clean 40 degree angles perfectly.

Needless to say this outcome put a damper on shafty's plan.

To my knowledge there has not been another Tameshigir drill since that day in early 2019, and this is despite a student donating a pile of Tatami mats to the class, because lets be honest, these students were all cutting and practicing at home on their own.

They weren't going to wait around for Shafty to decide to pull another marketing stunt just to they could get the experience of  cutting with a sword.

*THIS REALLY HAPPENED and we have the the full Text chat from all the students who attended archived, its funny as hell to read what they have to say"

#Shinkendo #boston strong #Jinsei Shinkendo #Tameshigiri #Katana #Tatami Mats #obata #yukishiro obata #Shinkendo Hungary #modern samurai #Shinkendo Boston