Hi I'm new to this group. My name is Christopher Earl, and I will
admit that I have had nowhere near the length training that others
on this group have.

I initially began martial arts training when I was 10, unfortunatly
family circumstance caused me to move about alot preventing me from
attending a dojo long enough to advance to a belt. From the age of
17 I began martial training in the use of european weaponry.

After a number of unsuccessful attempts at finding an eastern Arts(I
had an disheartening incident with a groin strike to a Go Kan Ryu
instructor), I had almost given up hope of continuing eastern Arts
training. Then one night outside a night-club I met a sensei I found
to be acceptable and began my training again. Following the death of
a family member he went back to the USA leaving me waiting for his
to return to Australia. Although in his absense I have discovered a
few other sensei who are willing to train me.

I am also a re-enactor, mainly to provide a legal reason for me to
own the weapons I do, and I recently started to toy with the idea of
starting an feudal Japan re-enactment group. I wish to base this
group around the ashi garu (peasent foot soldiers), but am having
trouble finding information on them. I can find much about the
samuria, but I have no desire to involve them.

My primary concern is to accuratly portray combat styles used by the
ashi garu, namely what martial art styles they may have been trained
in. Once I know what styles to look for I can go seeking the
relevent sensei to approach on the issue.

- Christopher Earl