Kamiza - Hydro Aikikai

I began my Aikido training in 1993, after watching a demonstration held in a conference room at Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro, a provincial hydro electric utility company. This demonstration was conducted by Tom Alteen, who was to become my Sensei, and Jim Sinnott who acted as uke for the demonstration. After this session employees were asked if they would like to become members of Hydro Aikikai. For me, this was to be the beginning of a greater understanding of Aikido and how it could become part of my everyday life.

Not long after joining Hydro Aikikai, I was speaking with Alteen Sensei and discussing the need for a more formal kamiza where we could place our picture of O-Sensei. During the next week or so we came up with what would be the design requirements for the kamiza. The design would have to:

1. Hold a Picture - The kamiza would have to display our picture of O-Sensei as the focal point.
2. Be a Weapons Stand - Act as a storage place for the demonstration weapons.
3. Be Light in Weight - We would have to move the kamiza to our cafeteria for practice and then return it to storage when class was completed.
4. Be Strong - Since the kamiza would be moved frequently it would have to be strong enough to handle the movement without breaking.
5. Be Plain - Alteen Sensei felt that the design should not be overly flashy and should be practical and simple in appearance.

With these design requirements in mind, we discussed how the kamiza should look. I was aware of a number of designs that I had seen at other clubs as well as some I had seen posted on the Internet. One day, Alteen Sensei brought me a picture of Tori Gate similar to the picture on the left.

He asked if I could use this as a guide when building the kamiza. From the picture, I could see where the photograph of O-Sensei could be prominently displayed and the strength of the design was obvious in the photograph. Translating this into a scale that we could use as a kamiza would require some work and the curved top would also be a challenge.

The material I chose was pine. At first I was concerned that it would not be strong enough but I would allow for this in the design and construction. I would use mortise and tenon joinery for all joints. I would glue and clamp each joint to avoid the use of nails in the design. The one exception to this was the rack that would hold the weapons. I chose to use screws hidden behind wooden plugs. This would allow me to replace the rack should it become damaged. This eventually proved to be a useful consideration when one side of the weapons rack was damaged removing a weapon. During the repair, I replaced the rack and this time constructed the rack mounts of oak for increased durability.

The kamiza was constructed over a few weeks in my spare time and involved the making of approximately 40 individual pieces. Some of the initial work involved scaling and trying to get the design to look correct given the scale of the various pieces.

Once it was completely assembled I was left to choose the stain that I would use to give an appropriate appearance. I stained numerous pieces of pine with various stains and selected ebony as the color I would apply. I hoped this would give an aged appearance.

On the left is Tom Alteen; on the right is the author, Dave Hanames.

Alteen Sensei was very pleased with the kamiza and I felt a great sense of accomplishment knowing that I had played a part in the construction of the kamiza upon which we would place O-Sensei's picture.