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.

Turning Points

Well, the big day is only 9 days away.  Big day being the Jodo Yondan grading for Aden and Les at which I'll be helping out.  The whole preparation for this has been a turning point for me.  Technically I'm as ready as I can be (considering my grade) and physically I'm in better shape than I've been since completing the London Marathon in 2000.  In short, Nagayama Sensei's request has been a veritable godsend. 

Nagayama Sensei, the Australian Kendo Renmei's technical advisor for Jodo, has been to Australia to hold seminars four times this year:  Sydney, Tasmania then Canberra (same trip), Perth and finally Sydney again.  We've attended all of these and it's made an immense difference to our levels of improvement and retention.  The tiny, slightest perceptible changes needed (and the all-important reasons for them) are now easier to incorporate.  Similarly, when we see slight flaws in others they are easier to identify and help fix.

That being said, I know Les and Aden have invested in return flights to Japan and know the nerves are beginning to show.  The three of us all meet in Nagayama Sensei's Dojo in Sendai for a week of intensive training starting Monday 29th.  From my limited perspective they are just about there already and Australia will have two new Jodo 4th Dans before Christmas.

My reward out of this?  My Turning Point.  Everything else is just icing on the cake. 

Dr Faustus

As I said earlier today, in the last year we’ve travelled widely.  On most of those visits Kik and I have managed a goodly amount of dojo time.  Mostly Iaido for Kik and a 50-50% split for Iaido and Jodo for me.  In fact, there are very few people within Seitei circles in Australia (even amongst the high-grades) who been given the exposure to high-level instruction we’ve had in the last year.  We’ve knocked upon Nagayama Sensei’s Sendai Dojo door on a few occasions for extra tuition (1).  We have also knocked on other Dojo doors and Kik’s favourite Sensei is a little, old, irascible 8^th Dan Hanshi in Gifu, Japan.

All this high level instruction means we’ve been able to progress skills beyond our pay grades but has the queasy effect of us feeling rather out of place within our grade-groups, at times.  Internationally, Seitei have definite periods you must wait between gradings.  Between 2^nd and 3^rd Dan gradings, there is an obligatory period of two years.  This is to ensure, with one or two sessions a week, you can bridge the skill gap between 2^nd and 3^rd.   Extra tuition, especially from Nagayama Sensei, has hot-housed us both in general and placed me, in particular, in the very uncomfortable position of being told (by Sensei) to “fix” the Jodo defects in some senior grades.  Now to everyone who knows me, this is not ‘me’ and I’ve said I’m uncomfortable doing this but Sensei insists: I’ll do it because he says so.  (I tried to say to him “please, no” but his consequences of my refusal were not tolerable, for me.)

I’d like to say this is the worse that could happen but it isn’t and now I have to prepare like crazy to pair with a fellow Australian for his grading in Akita, Japan, this November.  He’s going for his 4^th Dan.  I’m just there as a foil to make sure he looks good (and not stuff up myself).   So, I have to act the higher-grade bit even though I’m not, there is a shit load of responsibility to wear if he fails (and I’m to blame) and absolutely no benefit outcome other than helping Sensei out.  It’s do-able, I’m fairly confident, but there is a slightly strange flavour to it all.    

There is one and only one reason I’ll do all this and that is knowledge -  the ‘secret stuff’.  I’ve sold my soul for this to Sensei and the price I have to pay is to do what he says.  Again, be careful what you ask for….

Kik, myself and Nagayama Sensei.  A rare picture of him smiling.

(1)  Up until even a few months ago I used to say “I consider Nagayama Sensei to be my Sensei but if you asked him he’d say I wasn’t his student”.  This I feel has now changed and I count myself fortunate he considers me to be, if not his student, then someone who he feels some need to coach.  OK, he has many, many direct students but I still feel fortunate. (As an aside, I can’t, for the life of me, work out just when I actually started following him.  It just sort of…happened.) 

Chalk & Cheese (2)

There’s an uncomfortable déjà vu feeling associated with my last two weeks here at work.   Perhaps this is due to being exactly in the same position, fulfilling the exact same duties, as this time two years ago.  That was the previous time where I refused to extend my contract and stay on.  That period of ‘retirement’ lasted about five months before I capitulated to a request to return.  To be fair, Franki (my Manager),  is very tolerant of the manner in which I manage my small team of people.  He also knows the job isn’t a cushy number: this Engineer has to work for a living rather than time-serve.  Between you and me, he’s already asked me when I might possibly be able to return (but don’t tell Kik, my long-suffering Wife).

Kik, my rock and foundation.

The work tends not to leave me much in the way of a quiet few minutes to write any blogs.  I guess that’ll change when I ‘retire’ shortly.  And therein lies a little quandary. We’ve gotten used to being paid as much as they are prepared to pay and our travel lifestyle is going to suffer.  Let me see if I can explain it.

In the last year we’ve been to the UK (twice), Japan (twice), New Zealand (once), Perth (three times – don’t laugh as it’s a four hour flight away) plus other short trips to Tassie, Canberra and Cairns.  Now, out of the blue, I’ve also been asked to perform a role above my martial arts pay-grade which means Kik and I have to travel to Japan again towards the end of this year (this I’ll explain in another blog).  Not that we are extravagant, but all of this travel doesn’t come cheap.  Although Kik has a personal investment income it is not sufficient to carry on the jet-setting lifestyle.  What to do?

Well, let me dig my heels in right now and outright refuse to act my age and ease back gracefully.  There’s only one thing I can do.  Work at the desk for 6 months then sit on my tractor for 6 months.  Chalk and Cheese.

(From R to L)  Kik, Jenna (my Daughter) and Natalie (Jenna’s friend) on the farm.

Undue influence

OK.  I’ve lost the plot with this blog.  Three glasses of port have sorted that out....

Last week was the Australian Kendo Renmei’s 2012 Iaido and Jodo seminar.  It included the comps and gradings, with my better half successfully gaining her Iaido Nidan (2^nd Dan):  literally 5 days before being admitted in hospital for a knee reconstruction/replacement.  I’m pleased beyond words for her and I would have given my comp achievement up without hesitation if I thought it might influence the judges.   BTW, I’m in a ‘gap period’ where I just wasn’t eligible for any grading.  Next up for me will be a stab at Sandan (3^rd Dan) in Jodo next January and a doubtful go at Sandan in Iaido in the UK come August-ish 2014.  I’m not fussed with the wait.

The champs were quite interesting for a variety of reasons.  I’m going to ignore some strange decisions but instead focus on something that rose to the surface of consciousness within me while watching some people - 'perceived ability'.   

A month or three after commencing Iaido a few years back, the club I was in had an ex-Australian Defence Force guy who it appeared to me was very, very crisp with his techniques.  Against him, the others were just going through the motions.  I modelled my techniques on his and moved inexorably towards that style.  Years on, he’s since moved out of the area but that feeling of knowing instinctively what you ‘like’ hasn’t left.  Some people out there on the Dojo floor just have more than that little bit extra.  Sometimes they are that good you can’t even identify what it is they possess that sets their Iaido apart.  You just know and attempt to fathom out how to emulate it.  And it works even when you see much higher grades perform.  It just goes to show; from a position much lower down the “mountain of learning” you can still possess perspective.

Kik, me and Igarashi-San (4th Dan and from whom I bought my shinken, 'Taka')

Now, this perspective concerns me a tad.  Doubtless we all own portions of it and have this gut feeling when watching some performance or other.  But when we are higher up the Dojo environment food chain the obverse side of the coin means we know we have more impact on the newbies – for good or ill.  I became extremely disconcerted in the seminar when my Sensei (I call him mine but I’m sure he’d do a “thrice denial before the cock crowed” if asked) told me, in no uncertain terms, to take my fellow Nidan Jodoka group and teach then his method of Hikiotoshi uchi.  Now, no one outside the Jodo sphere will have the faintest idea what this entails.  Suffice to say he was asking me to teach a ‘basic’ technique Klara and I (re)learned in his Sendai Dojo while we were there in Japan a few months back, to my fellow Nidan.  He was asking me to role-model his technique to my equals.  I baulked a little but then tried my best.  After the session was over, he came marching back with an interpreter and harangued me right royally.  Nagayama Sensei doesn’t need a translator:  his English is good, but you know you’re in trouble when he only speaks to you in Japanese.  His actual point to me was two-pronged.  On one level he wanted me to demonstrate something he’d taken time out of his busy schedule to teach me and Klara privately and was happy we'd mastered.  On a completely parallel level he was testing.  It’s not the first time he’s had a hidden motive and I’ve been blindsided by something or other he’s asked me to do.

Returning to the impact on the newbies angle.  I’m now a firm believer newbies are given a bad press.  They are far more observant and discerning than the higher grades give them credit for and it now seems self-evident to me: given only mediocre examples from the higher grades, they can only choose mediocrity to follow.  Given some variety of choice they will choose their exemplars (maybe only in the short term, but that’s fine).  What this all boils down to is this.  The springboard to their development as martial artists ultimately resides within the amount of ‘perceived excellence' within us slightly higher grades [Ignoring, for a moment, we all believe we’re god’s gift to the art once we reach a certain grade....].   Bearing in mind we are talking about the survival of the martial art (since it's invested in people who may become future high grades) the continued interest of my juniors, for me, is seen as a huge responsibility and was never on my radar back on day one.   When I adopted that Australian Defence Force guy's technique I had no idea one day others might be doing the same to me.