by Joe Hafner
WEMAC Schaffhausen is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year.
For this occasion, the members of WEMAC Schaffhausen organized a two-day event featuring a variety of martial arts. In addition to lessons on Half Swording, Jiu Jitsu, Kendo, and Polearming, there was also a Naginata seminar on the schedule. David D’Hose, the Renshi from Belgium, came all the way from Brussels to Schaffhausen to teach both experienced Naginata practitioners and those who are interested amateurs. Telling tales of samurai and female warriors, he brought the history of Naginata to life and taught the seminar participants with fun games the fundamentals of Naginata.
For all of our visitors, from the experienced Naginata practitioners from Tatsumaki Dellfeld, the University of Mainz, Naginata Ingelheim and WEMAC, as well as the other guests, David D’Hose’s seminar was an entertaining and educational seminar. However, the Swiss, German, and Belgian Naginata practitioners did not limit themselves to just Naginata. The goal of the anniversary was also to learn about new types of weapons and techniques from other martial arts, and to get to know new people from different martial arts backgrounds.
Thus, even those who usually only train in Naginata had the opportunity to wield a different weapon for once and spar against people with not so budo approaches. WEMAC Schaffhausen Located in Schaffhausen, the organization was originally founded in 2013 as Kokuryu-ichi, initially focusing on Kenjutsu and Jiu Jitsu. After the pandemic, its board made the decision to expand their teachings beyond Japanese martial arts.
Thanks to Lars Waldvogel, a Historical European Martial Arts (HEMA) group was established in 2020. From 2021 onward the discipline of Naginata, led by Susanne Koch, became the club’s fourth major discipline.
