If you're just jumping onto my site, yokoso. If you've been following me from day one, arigatou.
I had a rather interesting dream last night about this blog in particular and all of the commentary going on. Some of them were rather supportive and provoked more discussion which I readily responded. However most had the recurring question - why did I name my blog Mahou Kunoichi? Why couldn't I have simply called this Magical Female Ninja or went with something simpler to pronouce?
Here's your answer my friends.
I've been thinking about a second blog for a while. I love MessagesByTanders - it was my first channel on the net thanks to friend and family support and it has been a source of comfort and creativity. However, I did feel the need to develop a niche and MbT didn't feel like the ideal spot due to the variety aspect of the page. My other problem was that I didn't really know what niche to go for. I have in-depth knowledge of films, video games, music, comics, animation, Asian culture and martial arts (*taking a breath*) but I didn't really know how to tie those together let alone have a real world establishment with it. Plus there were many other blogs doing similar - if not greater jobs than this - how would this be different?
While I was browsing around blogs for some months, I had dreams about my past martial arts training and I felt like it would be wonderful to jump back into the training - if not, the mindset - as I was rather happy doing it even with the post-training exhaustion. I really wanted to account my experiences and share the journey with people. Then I bumped into The Black Kung-Fu Experience during a random film browse on Amazon Prime and was struck with one line about what makes martial artists artists because like I said in my very first post, I never felt as if I left it. My father recommended I try his Zhan Zhuang training routine and I started training on February 5th. 2 days later - a few hours before the Sochi Olympics Opening Ceremony, Mahou Kunoichi was born.
So the big question - "Why did I pick Mahou Kunoichi? Technically you're not a ninjutsu practitioner."
Obviously being a 90s kid equates with a huge amount of exposure to anime and games when Japan started breaking into and eventually dominating some of the US's media market. Many other Asian markets followed and I was in awe of martial arts' magical quality. I've always wanted to be one of those superheroes on screen when I wasn't thinking of more practical careers. Sailor Moon and Cardcaptor Sakura were (and continue to be) my role models - being ordinary people with extraordinary capacities to love and protect the world. Japan has been rooted in a lot of my activities from drawing to my first martial arts I've practiced - Karate and Aikido. Both of those arts also are rooted in Ninjutsu's forms - thus the name Mahou Kunoichi.
I live by the credo, never exclude, always embrace. I've bounced around many other names and they didn't seem right for what I was looking to express. Love or dislike them, magical people are a big part of our culture. Ninjas are often examined with an air of subtlety and mysteriousness but fight for a noble cause. Even though I am a woman, the beautiful word kunoichi shows that even they can embrace this power. But even if you didn't know the meaning, it has a neutral energy - one thing I wish for people to feel.
Let's embrace the world together no matter what our art is. :)
<3 TM
P.S. - If I were a superhero and had a TV show, this would be my theme song!
TANK! by the Seatbelts
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