Gyokufukai

Here's a quick look at the new Gokyufukai embroidery. One of my pet peeves about budo is the use of patches, symbols, and embroidery. I think it's absolutely pointless and unnecessary, but most people outside of the aikido community disagree with me completely. Sakaguchi san was under a lot of pressure from Gosoke to get his embroidery squared away before Kenkyakubanrai (the style's annual fall festival, which will be held this year in November), and every time he submitted a logo that he feels would do the trick, Gosoke would reject it. Finally last week approval was given to roll with the logo above. Despite my disdain for patches and embroidery, I must say, Sakaguchi's got style. If I have to wear a gi with some sort of symbol emblazoned on the chest, it might as well be something cool.

The two loops in the center are jewels, so as you can imagine, Gyokufukai is often referred to as "Scrotum Org," or "The Golden Balls Boys." Of course we can always make a piffy comeback like, "Check us out! We got ballz!" The roof over our "balls" is the main part of the character for "wind" in Japanese, so at least our balls are staying cool. The outer circle refers to our group being all encompassing or complete. Despite the whole "balls" thing, this logo works for me. I won't complain anymore about putting on a gi with embroidery all over it!