Jeff Ficek and Nick Lambert, head instructors at Rough Rider Judo in Dickinson were responsible for setting up this year's Kangeiko.
We had a wonderful day of training followed by an evening of fellowship. Jeff had written a history of Kangeiko which he printed and placed on all the tables.
Kangeiko
Sensei Jigoro Kano's “Winter Training”
Tradition
Sensei Borgen started a Judo Winter
Training Festival at NDSU in the old Bentson Bunker Fieldhouse in 1995. The
second year, he and Sensei Jana (Seaborn) Daueber decided on associating it
with the Chinese calendar year and made up t-shirts by hand, silk-screening them
in his basement, for that “Year of the Bull”. Thus, there are 19 t-shirts, but
20 Kangeiko's (so far)! As Judo grew from Sensei Borgen's Gentle Ways Judo dojo
(at NDSU), the NDSU Judo Club, and the F-M YMCA Judo Club to include dojo's run
by Sensei Ken Nysether in Bismarck, Sensei Nels Erickson in Minneapolis, Sensei
Sam Rudd and Sensei Jeff Pryzbilla in St. Cloud, Kangeiko got larger.
Eventually, Sensei Borgen proposed making Gentle Ways into an umbrella
non-profit for all the dojo's. His personal dojo was changed to Aka Gawa Dojo,
or “Red River Judo”. Now, Annual Meetings of the Board of Gentle Ways, with
representatives from each dojo, meet at Kangeiko each year to help expand judo
opportunities in the region.
By 2005, it was decided that each Gentle
Ways Dojo would host Kangeiko – always in Fargo – setting the schedule and type
of instruction on a rotating basis. Bismarck Gentle Ways had the honor of being
the first dojo to host (which coincided with the 25th anniversary of
Vern's original dojo), complete with familiar faces from far-away and a banquet
at the Radisson in Fargo. It was also the 10th anniversary of
Bismarck Dojo opening its doors!
2015 is now the 20th
anniversary of Gentle Ways' Kangeiko. This Year of the Ram is hosted by
Roughrider Judo Club, and we returned Sensei Guy Hagen to his roots in Fargo,
when he studied under Sensei Borgen starting in 1987. He has since gone on to
an accomplished career in Aikido, as a student under Sensei John Messores and a
Deshi of Saotome Sensei. He returned in 2004 for a clinic at Bismarck Gentle
Ways in June and later that fall to Dickinson with Sensei Messores for a
two-day seminar to celebrate the opening of Roughrider Judo.
One of the lasting traditions of
Kangeiko, from Japanese days, was that after a day of training, the students
would fold up the mats and eat a meal together in the dojo. This tradition
continued at Gentle Ways from the first Kangeiko, at Smokey's Steakhouse in
West Fargo, and then late in the evening at Sensei Borgen's house. Many stories
were created over people eating the 52 ounce steak after a vigorous day of
training and running barefoot in the snow (a by-gone tradition!)! Over time,
Smokey's (tragically) closed, and Sensei Borgen's home became too small, but
the tradition continued at a variety of venues. Nothing quite matched Smokey's
, until Jeremy Magelky secured the Fargo Billiards and Gastropub at the 2013
Kangeiko that the Red River Dojo hosted. But regardless of where we gather, we
will always be together in the spirit of Judo.
