Feeling Nastalgic?

[Kinoshita Takemitsu]

okay so here's the topic. How did you first become interested in doing a Japanese persona in the SCA.

I'll tell my tale

I'm an armorer when i have the time and money to purchase materials. We were trying to start a Group withing the SCA in graceville florida (the middle of nowhere). Charles, Mike, Frankie, Eric, and myself were very interested in the combat aspect of the SCA. I had put together a 14th cen scottish kit. Charles had a kit that his father gave him and mike managed to convince me to make him armor using the only material that we had at the time (a rubber truck bed liner) Eric wanted to do Roman so i started researching that and frankie wanted to do Japanese. I found Sengoku Daimyo first but the amount of japanese terminology threw me for a loop.( I'm still convinced that he makes up words evry now and then). Then i found The Yama Kaminari page. (they actually had pics up at that point) and fell instantly in love with Japanese armor.

So thank you Yama Kaminari for teaching this scottish barbarian a more civilized path...

[Hiroyuki]

while researching chinese for the SCA I found Sengoku Daimyo and fell in love...

[Saionji Shonagon]

How did you first become interested in doing a Japanese persona in the SCA.

I know EXACTLY who to blame this on - and it's not Effingham either. ;-> Well, mostly not.

At the time I was living in the East Kingdom and was a knight's lady. He took one of my friends as a squire. At the time James was just coming to the realization that being 13th century Welsh was not for him and that he really wanted to be a 16th century bushi. I resolved that I wouldl try to introduce him to Lady Fujiwara no Aoi (Kass McGann) who I knew by sight as soon as all three of us happen to be at the same event. I also resolved as his knight's lady that I should take some interest in his activities so that I can at least hold up my end of the conversation.

Cai decided he couldn't do Pennsic that summer. My first day at war I was on my way to use a pay phone near Cooper's store and heard my name called. James was standing on the porch with a man who from a distance bore a strong resemblance to Cai. "The bastard told me he wasn't coming!" I thought, bolting towards the steps. Even as I'm heading up, my brain goes: Click - hair's not the right color. Click - glasses are the wrong shape. Click - wrong device on the surcoat. So I end up NOT throwing myself at Baron Edward of Effingham and making a fool of myself. It was just blind luck that he and my lord both are Generic SCA Male Type 7B. I'm still amazed that James didn't see it until I pointed it out.

Suddenly Lady Jehanne de Wodeford has a samurai retainer who is before long, going by the name Fujimaki Tosaburou Hidetora. I make a point of learning to pronounce it correctly and learn the correct honorific. It's not until months later that I discover the name elements have been cribbed from characters in "Ran.")

Fujimaki-dono takes it upon himself to "look after" me, even though we were camped in different parts of the war. I run into him in the food court one afternoon and the next thing I know I've been kidnapped to one of Effingham's classes on Japanese court structure. It makes my brain cramp - I've absolutely no context or linguistic cues to work from. We go watch Yumi do kyudo demos every night across the road from where I'm camped. And I hit on a way to get invited into Yama Kaminari so he can check out the taiko drums: we simply knelt across the road from their gate. Within minutes we were invited in - and for the life of me I cannot now remember who we met! Argh!

Fast forward to 100 Minutes War several months later. Fujimaki gets called into court for his AoA and comports himself in nearly flawless samurai style. Kass and Danabren are swooning in the bleachers behind me. After court I introduce Fujimaki and Kass. They begin nattering away 90 miles per hour and suddenly turn to me and say in unison: "And you're coming too, right, Jehanne?" Which is how I find I've got two months to make Japanese clothing for myself for a themed event.

So it's technically the fault of FujiMAKI Tosaburou Hidetora and FujiWARA no Aoi. Get it? ;->

Makiwara