.
On December 28th 2008 I was returning home after a few days spent traveling and training. As I raced past the looming figure of Fuji-san at Two hundred miles per hour on a Shinkansen bound for my home in Hamamatsu, I thought back over the events of the previous few days and my Japanese Aikido experiences over the first five months of my stay here.
My first training experience in Japan was at the Hombu dojo in Tokyo. At the time I was staying in Shinjuku, the ward of Tokyo where Hombu is located. At the time, the very idea of training at Hombu felt like a pilgrimage. This was, after all, the center of the Aikido world; The place where O sensei and so many of his direct students had trained. I must admit that on that first visit I was a little let down by the dojo itself. It was nice, but the place seemed like any other sterile, modern sports facility; complete with vending machines in the lobby where one could purchase Pocari Sweat( a Japanese sports drink) and other soft drinks. For the most part, my first impression of the place was that the spirit of O sensei was almost completely absent. The dojo does seem a bit more traditional once on the tatami where the mats are made of real traditional tatami covered in canvas. My first Hombu keiko was with Masuda Shihan 8th dan, which was great but due to my Jet lag and the brutally hot and humid Japanese summer was a bit hazy. I felt like I was going to pass out from heat exhaustion and dehydration within the first ten minutes, but luckily the custom is to take a short water break in the middle of class during the summer months.
Once I had settled in my new home in Hamamatsu about two hours from Tokyo on the Shinkansen, I began to look for a good local place to train with my friend Carl, a colleague and fellow Aikidoka. Luckily for me, Carl’s Japanese is quite good because if it weren’t for him I might still be searching for a place to train. After trying a few different places we both finally settled on a place to train. The dojo(club really) where I currently train is the Hamamatsu Aikidokai, or as I sometimes jokingly call it, the Hamamatsu Aikido Roninkai. Very few people began training here in Hamamatsu.
We have students of Seiseke Abe, Morihiro Saito and Yasuo Kobayashi to name a few. Classes are generally led by whoever happens to be the most sempai that night; usually 2nd or 3rd dan. The variety of perspective that this this provides can be very interesting but it can lead to a lot of contradictory teaching within the group and a general lack of cohesion. The training isn’t bad but generally class feels like it is being led by a sempai rather than a proper teacher which is generally the case because the two top instructors both 4th dan rarely teach. The training here in Hamamatsu here isn’t bad but I travel to places like the Hombu dojo in Tokyo, Aikido Kimori dojo in Nagoya, and the Aikikai Ibaraki Shibu dojo in Iwama when I can. One such time was over the holidays.
On Christmas eve I traveled to the Hombu dojo to participate in the final keiko of 2008. From there I would travel two hours north to spend fours days at O sensei’s dojo in Iwama. I was really looking forward to the training at Hombu on this day because the classes that I had planned to take were taught by two teachers whom I was really looking forward to seeing in action. This was my third trip to train at Hombu. My second trip had been about one month earlier when I had taken an overnight train to Tokyo so that I could participate in Doshu’s early morning keiko. Unfortunately, Doshu had been out of the country that day, but I was lucky enough to have Osawa sensei teaching in his place. Now on my third trip, I was here to take class with Endo and Miyamoto Shihans. When I walked into the reception area at the dojo I told the woman in halting, grammatically incorrect Japanese that I lived in Hamamatsu and would like to train for the day. Due to the amount of foreigners who come to Japan just to train at Hombu, most of the people who work behind the desk speak decent English but I am finally getting comfortable enough to at least try and speak in my dreadful Japanese, and to me, part of the allure of training in Japan is to try and learn to speak some of the language. While my Japanese has not progressed as fast as I would have liked, this has really helped me to work on stealing technique. Since I cannot understand much of what teachers are saying, this forces me to watch what they are doing much more intently than if I could understand all of their verbal instructions.
Once changed and on the mat I began to warm up in preparation for Endo Shihan’s class. All that I knew about Endo Shihan was that he was very soft but very good. When I watched him perform techniques I often thought that there was an almost billowy softness to his Aikido. When he entered on uke, he was almost like a river. It was as if he flowed through through uke’s attack while uke was caught up in the current of his technique. There were times when I thought that his movements were maybe too soft and fluid, I would have wondered if his waza had no substance and his ukes were simply falling over if I hadn’t been working with one of his ukes for the entire class. He would move in much the same manner as sensei and each time I felt as I had been caught up in the current of his technique.
The other two classes that I participated in that day were both taught by Miyamoto sensei. One criticism I heard from a gaijin Aikidoka in Japan was that he was just like Chiba sensei from twenty years ago and just wanted to show how tough he was. I for one thoroughly enjoyed his class. It was spirited, Martial and Shinken(earnest, serious, committed). At one point Miyamoto sensei came to me after watching me practicing and asked me where I was from and who my teacher was. When I said Benjamin Pincus, and he said he didn’t know I said a former kensusei of Chiba sensei’s and he said “good" with a devilish smile. Later when Didier Boyet said “Pinkusu San” using the katakana pronunciation of Pincus, Miyamoto sensei said “ah yes Pinkusu San”. I had the privilege of taking quite a bit of ukemi for Miyamoto sensei, and found his technique to be quite powerful. At the end of keiko for the evening I had to rush out of Hombu as I still had get to get to Ueno on the other side of Tokyo to catch a northbound train for O sensei’s Iwama dojo..
The town of Iwama is by far the most Inaka, or rural town that I have experienced since arriving in Japan. Regardless of ones personal views on the kind Aikido being practiced in Iwama, it is the one place in Japan that I have seen where the traditional spirit of Budo can be felt, and where the presence of O sensei abounds. When I arrived at Iwama station on Christmas eve it was 11:02 at night. This was the second time in Iwama for me but the first time alone and the first time to arrive at night. Once I arrived at the dojo I was given a futon and some blankets and shown to the dojo’s genkan, or entry way, and instructed that I would be sleeping there. On multiple occasions in the middle of that night I thought that I heard footsteps across the tatami coming from the direction of O sensei’s cottage, which was attached to the dojo. I later learned that some people believed that the dojo was haunted by O sensei.
I was woken the next morning, Christmas morning at 5:30 by one of the long term uchi deshi at the Iwama dojo. I had to be dressed and ready to meet Inagaki sensei outside the dojo for morning practice by 6:00. After he arrived and said “ohayo gozaimasu”( good morning) to everyone, Inagaki sensei went on to add “samuii desu ne”( cold isn’t it). When we were in the dojo warming up for keiko, Inagaki sensei began to tell us in English how cold it was the winter just before O sensei died when he had been staying at the dojo as an uchi deshi.
Morning practice at the Aikikai Ibaraki shibu dojo consists mainly of weapons work and various conditioning exercises. In one common exercise done during these sessions one person grabs their partners wrist and applys nikkyo into sankyo into yonkyo as Inagaki sense yells “ichi”, “ni”, “san”. When both partners have gone, the line of kohai students rotates and the excersize is repeated again. After a series of such exercises, the training switches to weapons. The majority of the weapons training that I have done here in Japan has been in the Iwama style; not only in Iwama but also in Hamamatsu with my club here. At first I found everything about it strange and confusing and I could only see the differences between it and the style of weapons that I practiced at ACV. But with a little time, I have come to see the similarities and connections as well.
After morning practice I was given an hour for breakfast then it was time morning chores around the dojo. I was assigned to go with two others to groom the Aiki shrine with a German named Helgi and a Pol named Artur. The three of us gathered rakes and walked across the road to the Aiki shrine for daily grooming. Ｄaily grooming at the shrine is comprised of raking up leaves and other debris, and raking the small stones that cover the area in front of the shrine into straight neat lines. As I worked in front of the shrine on that brisk sunny day it occurred to me for the first time that it was Christmas morning. I felt a little homesick at the thought but as I continued to work and the the zen like nature of the work began to overcome to me I realized what a special experience I was having. By staying here at this traditional dojo that was built by O sensei in 1946, I felt like I was experience that true shugyo( traditional) budo spirit in a way that I had always imagined would be part and parcel of all training in Japan, but which up till this point I had been mostly lacking, and it was great to feel the presence of O sensei, and see examples of his calligraphy hanging in the dojo, with a hole in it where a Jo had pierced it, and sleep feet from where he himself had slept for over twenty years when in Iwama. In all I spent four days in Iwama on this trip. I had some great training and made some great new friends.
While at times disappointing, I have found that training in Japan has been a great experience, As I have spent time here I have been able to see how much of the reigi we use in the dojo is a part of everyday life in Japan. At the beginning of my English classes, the whole class stands up and as I say “hajimemasu”(begin) the class responds with a bow as they say “onegaishimasu”. As I have spent time here and seen everyday how important harmonious interactions between people are so important in daily interactions, I have really begun to appreciate how intrinsically Japanese Aikido really is.
My first training experience in Japan was at the Hombu dojo in Tokyo. At the time I was staying in Shinjuku, the ward of Tokyo where Hombu is located. At the time, the very idea of training at Hombu felt like a pilgrimage. This was, after all, the center of the Aikido world; The place where O sensei and so many of his direct students had trained. I must admit that on that first visit I was a little let down by the dojo itself. It was nice, but the place seemed like any other sterile, modern sports facility; complete with vending machines in the lobby where one could purchase Pocari Sweat( a Japanese sports drink) and other soft drinks. For the most part, my first impression of the place was that the spirit of O sensei was almost completely absent. The dojo does seem a bit more traditional once on the tatami where the mats are made of real traditional tatami covered in canvas. My first Hombu keiko was with Masuda Shihan 8th dan, which was great but due to my Jet lag and the brutally hot and humid Japanese summer was a bit hazy. I felt like I was going to pass out from heat exhaustion and dehydration within the first ten minutes, but luckily the custom is to take a short water break in the middle of class during the summer months.
Once I had settled in my new home in Hamamatsu about two hours from Tokyo on the Shinkansen, I began to look for a good local place to train with my friend Carl, a colleague and fellow Aikidoka. Luckily for me, Carl’s Japanese is quite good because if it weren’t for him I might still be searching for a place to train. After trying a few different places we both finally settled on a place to train. The dojo(club really) where I currently train is the Hamamatsu Aikidokai, or as I sometimes jokingly call it, the Hamamatsu Aikido Roninkai. Very few people began training here in Hamamatsu.
We have students of Seiseke Abe, Morihiro Saito and Yasuo Kobayashi to name a few. Classes are generally led by whoever happens to be the most sempai that night; usually 2nd or 3rd dan. The variety of perspective that this this provides can be very interesting but it can lead to a lot of contradictory teaching within the group and a general lack of cohesion. The training isn’t bad but generally class feels like it is being led by a sempai rather than a proper teacher which is generally the case because the two top instructors both 4th dan rarely teach. The training here in Hamamatsu here isn’t bad but I travel to places like the Hombu dojo in Tokyo, Aikido Kimori dojo in Nagoya, and the Aikikai Ibaraki Shibu dojo in Iwama when I can. One such time was over the holidays.
On Christmas eve I traveled to the Hombu dojo to participate in the final keiko of 2008. From there I would travel two hours north to spend fours days at O sensei’s dojo in Iwama. I was really looking forward to the training at Hombu on this day because the classes that I had planned to take were taught by two teachers whom I was really looking forward to seeing in action. This was my third trip to train at Hombu. My second trip had been about one month earlier when I had taken an overnight train to Tokyo so that I could participate in Doshu’s early morning keiko. Unfortunately, Doshu had been out of the country that day, but I was lucky enough to have Osawa sensei teaching in his place. Now on my third trip, I was here to take class with Endo and Miyamoto Shihans. When I walked into the reception area at the dojo I told the woman in halting, grammatically incorrect Japanese that I lived in Hamamatsu and would like to train for the day. Due to the amount of foreigners who come to Japan just to train at Hombu, most of the people who work behind the desk speak decent English but I am finally getting comfortable enough to at least try and speak in my dreadful Japanese, and to me, part of the allure of training in Japan is to try and learn to speak some of the language. While my Japanese has not progressed as fast as I would have liked, this has really helped me to work on stealing technique. Since I cannot understand much of what teachers are saying, this forces me to watch what they are doing much more intently than if I could understand all of their verbal instructions.
Once changed and on the mat I began to warm up in preparation for Endo Shihan’s class. All that I knew about Endo Shihan was that he was very soft but very good. When I watched him perform techniques I often thought that there was an almost billowy softness to his Aikido. When he entered on uke, he was almost like a river. It was as if he flowed through through uke’s attack while uke was caught up in the current of his technique. There were times when I thought that his movements were maybe too soft and fluid, I would have wondered if his waza had no substance and his ukes were simply falling over if I hadn’t been working with one of his ukes for the entire class. He would move in much the same manner as sensei and each time I felt as I had been caught up in the current of his technique.
The other two classes that I participated in that day were both taught by Miyamoto sensei. One criticism I heard from a gaijin Aikidoka in Japan was that he was just like Chiba sensei from twenty years ago and just wanted to show how tough he was. I for one thoroughly enjoyed his class. It was spirited, Martial and Shinken(earnest, serious, committed). At one point Miyamoto sensei came to me after watching me practicing and asked me where I was from and who my teacher was. When I said Benjamin Pincus, and he said he didn’t know I said a former kensusei of Chiba sensei’s and he said “good" with a devilish smile. Later when Didier Boyet said “Pinkusu San” using the katakana pronunciation of Pincus, Miyamoto sensei said “ah yes Pinkusu San”. I had the privilege of taking quite a bit of ukemi for Miyamoto sensei, and found his technique to be quite powerful. At the end of keiko for the evening I had to rush out of Hombu as I still had get to get to Ueno on the other side of Tokyo to catch a northbound train for O sensei’s Iwama dojo..
The town of Iwama is by far the most Inaka, or rural town that I have experienced since arriving in Japan. Regardless of ones personal views on the kind Aikido being practiced in Iwama, it is the one place in Japan that I have seen where the traditional spirit of Budo can be felt, and where the presence of O sensei abounds. When I arrived at Iwama station on Christmas eve it was 11:02 at night. This was the second time in Iwama for me but the first time alone and the first time to arrive at night. Once I arrived at the dojo I was given a futon and some blankets and shown to the dojo’s genkan, or entry way, and instructed that I would be sleeping there. On multiple occasions in the middle of that night I thought that I heard footsteps across the tatami coming from the direction of O sensei’s cottage, which was attached to the dojo. I later learned that some people believed that the dojo was haunted by O sensei.
I was woken the next morning, Christmas morning at 5:30 by one of the long term uchi deshi at the Iwama dojo. I had to be dressed and ready to meet Inagaki sensei outside the dojo for morning practice by 6:00. After he arrived and said “ohayo gozaimasu”( good morning) to everyone, Inagaki sensei went on to add “samuii desu ne”( cold isn’t it). When we were in the dojo warming up for keiko, Inagaki sensei began to tell us in English how cold it was the winter just before O sensei died when he had been staying at the dojo as an uchi deshi.
Morning practice at the Aikikai Ibaraki shibu dojo consists mainly of weapons work and various conditioning exercises. In one common exercise done during these sessions one person grabs their partners wrist and applys nikkyo into sankyo into yonkyo as Inagaki sense yells “ichi”, “ni”, “san”. When both partners have gone, the line of kohai students rotates and the excersize is repeated again. After a series of such exercises, the training switches to weapons. The majority of the weapons training that I have done here in Japan has been in the Iwama style; not only in Iwama but also in Hamamatsu with my club here. At first I found everything about it strange and confusing and I could only see the differences between it and the style of weapons that I practiced at ACV. But with a little time, I have come to see the similarities and connections as well.
After morning practice I was given an hour for breakfast then it was time morning chores around the dojo. I was assigned to go with two others to groom the Aiki shrine with a German named Helgi and a Pol named Artur. The three of us gathered rakes and walked across the road to the Aiki shrine for daily grooming. Ｄaily grooming at the shrine is comprised of raking up leaves and other debris, and raking the small stones that cover the area in front of the shrine into straight neat lines. As I worked in front of the shrine on that brisk sunny day it occurred to me for the first time that it was Christmas morning. I felt a little homesick at the thought but as I continued to work and the the zen like nature of the work began to overcome to me I realized what a special experience I was having. By staying here at this traditional dojo that was built by O sensei in 1946, I felt like I was experience that true shugyo( traditional) budo spirit in a way that I had always imagined would be part and parcel of all training in Japan, but which up till this point I had been mostly lacking, and it was great to feel the presence of O sensei, and see examples of his calligraphy hanging in the dojo, with a hole in it where a Jo had pierced it, and sleep feet from where he himself had slept for over twenty years when in Iwama. In all I spent four days in Iwama on this trip. I had some great training and made some great new friends.
While at times disappointing, I have found that training in Japan has been a great experience, As I have spent time here I have been able to see how much of the reigi we use in the dojo is a part of everyday life in Japan. At the beginning of my English classes, the whole class stands up and as I say “hajimemasu”(begin) the class responds with a bow as they say “onegaishimasu”. As I have spent time here and seen everyday how important harmonious interactions between people are so important in daily interactions, I have really begun to appreciate how intrinsically Japanese Aikido really is.
No comments:
Post a Comment