The Iaido Journal  Sept 2005
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First Brock Iaido Summer Seminar:
the Bill Mears Memorial

copyright © 2005 EJMAS, all rights reserved

Over 60 Iaido students from Ontario, Quebec, New York State and even British Columbia attended the August Anaguma Kan iaido seminar at Brock University in St. Catherines Ontario.

This was a bittersweet meeting due to the unexpected death by heart attack of Bill Mears, the instructor at Brock University and one of the pioneers of the current iaido community in Ontario. You can read more about Mears sensei in This Story.

The seminar was a two day event with instruction led by Goyo Ohmi sensei, 7dan head of the CKF iaido section. He was assisted by almost all the 4, 5 and 6dan instructors in Ontario. Topics included both Zen Ken Ren iai and Koryu.

While it was a sad occasion, especially the final demonstration in memory of Mears sensei, I was reminded that instructors may pass away but their instruction remains. Just as we carry the genetic material from our ancestors in our physical bodies, in the martial arts we also carry fundamental ideas and movement patterns from those who came before us. In the 1970s the concept of the "meme" was developed to explain the spread and persistance of ideas and other culturally inherited traits. The "meme" can be considered the unit of transmission in iaido, and in this sense you can be called the child of your sensei.

Looking out over the students at the seminar, and thinking of what and how Bill taught, I saw him over and over again on the floor. I saw his timing, his emphasis in a kata, and even quirks of movement that he would surely have tried to beat out of his students. These memes will persist into the next generation of students, and through them to further students so that Bill's essence, his influence on iaido will continue far longer than our memory of the man himself. As long as his students continue to practice and teach, his iaido will remain.

Here are some photographs of the seminar taken by Lauren Taylor. (The out of focus group shot is not her fault).

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TIN Sept 2005