The picture in this blog is first time I went to visit Sekigahara. Sekigahara is where, well, the Battle of Sekigahara took place on October 21, 1600. It is where Ieyasu Tokugawa was able to gain power and become the Shogun of Japan. Anyways, this battle it probably one of the most famous battles not the most famous battle  in Japanese history besides battles during World War II. Why am I writing this? Well it is about expectations. This visit was in August of 2006 when I lived in Shiga Prefecture which is about a 20 minute car drive to Sekigahara. I always wanted to visit this famous battlefield. I had always imagined it as a great field where some of Japan’s most historical Samurai fought in some very interesting circumstances and  with controversial betrayals in Japan’s history. However, when we drove there I saw there was no more field but just the City of Sekigahara itself where the field once was. No longer was there the great field where Tokugawa claimed victory. The train station is very close to where Tokugawa sat at his camp and is located in a small park with overgrown grass. There is a small museum next to it and if I remember right it costs about 300Yen (about $3.00 US) to enter. It was good to see and see some of the real armor, swords and stuff actually used in the battle. Anyways, Sekigahara was WAY different that I had always imagined it, not really in a bad way but just what time does to places over a 400 year period. Anyways what is my point? Oh thats right I am going to attempt to tie this to magic. LOL I am kidding myself? Going for it anyway.

Ok this is about expectations and how what you perceive exists or what will happen in the future is often very different than reality. So when you routine a magic performance your presentation must lead the audience in some cases down a road of expectation that does’t exist in reality at that moment, and you as the magician control it completely. However, unlike my Sekigahara excperiance where I expected something that I thought existed but didn’t, you as the magician have to ease the audience out of the false experience so that they never knew it even existed. This way you can work some powerful effects and your magic can truly feel like real magic to the audience. This is something I hope to attain one day. How to do it? Well all I can say is that you must work on presentation as much, if not more as, the actual technical part of the magic. My thoughts anyway. Enjoy and good luck! May you become a Shogun of magic.

Aaron