Retirement...

...and "What makes a good Sensei?"

Well, Aden and Les, the two Jodo 4^th Dan contenders, passed their gradings in Akita early last month.  I paired with Aden first and then did a quick change around to walk out and pair with Les.  Overall I’ve a nagging suspicion the judges took pity on them as they had to put up with a junior grade dragging the standard down but it all seemed to work out ok in the end.

The week leading up to the grading the three of us were under the personal guidance of Nagayama Sensei at his dojo in Sendai.  I should quickly add Sensei is in his early 70’s and has officially retired from teaching Japanese students.  He’s also retired from sitting on grading panels (but I think still has some degree of influence as many of them were his students at some time).  We were lucky as he’s continuing on (for a while) as Australia’s Jodo Technical Advisor and still invites our higher grades over for personal instruction.  I’m not a higher grade but my attendance there wasn’t up for discussion.

Sensei's Dojo 

Walking into Sensei’s dojo – he owns the semi-industrial unit within which his dojo is built - is like trying to push your way through a pungent marshmallow.  The odour of kendo armour and drying uniforms is almost overpowering.  This is a working dojo: people sweat copiously, occasionally bleed and sometimes shed tears of frustration.  Looking around it also has the functional appearance of an armory: the walls are covered with many iaito, jo, bows, a variety of other weapons and some well-placed mirrors with protective shutters for when the Kendo kicks off.  I can’t explain it but the dojo ‘feels’ right over a range of senses.  It's a place where high-ranking teachers who have dojos of their own in Sendai come to train and that is all that needs to be said.

The floor above Sensei’s dojo contains what one Australian has named, a “Man Cave”.  It’s really a workshop with a double bunkbed bedroom annexe, a small kitchen, Sensei’s office and an upstairs shower.  The upstairs shower area has never recovered from the 2011 earthquake and much of what was attached to the walls is on the floor. Urinal, sink, plaster – the lot.  The workshop gives off the feeling of ‘structured chaos’ with armour in various stages of repair, parts of shinai, dismantled katana., etc.  The place was Home for Les and I but, thankfully, Aden took his snoring and found a well-soundproofed hotel to go and bother.

The Dojo Tokuren

In his workshop Nagayama Sensei repairs virtually all Japanese budo weaponry.  It’s his hobby and whatever he repairs he tests downstairs.  I recall, during the week, he instructed us to stand to one side while a few repaired arrows were launched into a target from the direction of the Tokuren (a small alcove where personal or heirloom weapons and armour are kept).   We were even given instruction on how to throw bo-shuriken (they look like 6” concrete nails).   Much of the re-birthed equipment is given away to homes he believes worthwhile.  Carefully he chooses, but they are still given away.  Sometimes the gift is an encouragement to start practicing Kendo again – as was the gift of his personal Kendo armour to me(!!).  For others, it is to plant the seed of Japanese archery in Sydney by organising a Kyudo Sensei to visit.  Others still would not be able afford to practice either Kendo, Iaido or Jodo without his generosity and the arts would be the poorer for it.  I will not even mention the lavish post-grading trip he took us on – the first foreigners he’s ever taken to the remote areas of Tohoku.  He nurtures his students as he does his martial arts.

Traditional dinner at the communal onsen near Lake Towada

Now it’s time to consider the question “What makes a good Sensei?”  I’ll take it as a given most people pussy foot around Sensei because of his short temper.  It’s a philosophy I used to subscribe to and he is, indeed, not to be messed with.  His temper (I believe) partly stems from his fierce protection of the Japanese martial arts from bad students.  By bad I mean, unthinking, disrespectful and those with an apparent innate inability to learn/relearn.  If he asks someone to do such and such he expects it done.  Incorporate what he teaches and his stern demeanour melts.  Ignore him and reap the consequences.  In addition to his passion for the martial arts (and his supreme proficiency) he backs this up with inordinate generosity.  This is what, in my view, makes him a good Sensei.

Autumn colours at the Nikko Temple complex

When he finally retires – and eventually he must – it will be a sad day for the martial arts world.