NO.3

Thanks my John.

This story was translated by John Uchikura of my student from Aikinews-magazine vol.140

As I carried Nishio Sensei’s bags...

Could you tell us about those early days with Nishio Sensei?

Back then, Nishio Sensei lived about 1 km away from my home, so on the way home from practice, we always walked together and I always carried his bags. Sensei carried his sword and walked in front. I was always thinking about things like, if I threw down the bag and grabbed him from behind, would I be able to throw him? Or if I stuck my leg out, would I be able to trip him up? But then I would think, if I put my hand out one way, he would do this, and if I stuck my leg out another way, he would do that. In the end, I never tried anything. Sensei was 35 years old at that time and I was 15.

I would ask stupid questions like, “Which is stronger; judo or aikido?” Sensei would usually answer by saying, “They both have their good points.” One day, as we were walking home, I noticed that Sensei’s feet were always parallel, and pointed straight ahead. My feet, on the other hand, were splayed 90°C as I walked. I thought, “First, I have to walk correctly!” It took me ten years just to get that down properly! I carried his bags until I was 25 years old, and I learned a lot during all those walks home.

Also, Sensei’s students would often stop at his house, and we would drink and talk about things other than practice. It was a dojo outside of the dojo in a way. If I hadn’t learned about Nishio Sensei’s philosophy of life during all those conversations, I’m not sure whether I would have continued to practice aikido.

You’ve been with Nishio Sensei ever since, for around 40 years now.

Yes. As a deshi, we all want to catch up and surpass our teacher, but no matter how hard we practice and learn new techniques, Sensei is always far ahead of us. That’s only natural because we only practice when we’re at the dojo, but Sensei is always thinking about the techniques, and by the time he teaches us a technique at the dojo, he has already perfected it. In the process of trying to catch up, before I knew it, all these years had gone by.

I feel very lucky to have had the good fortune of being able to study under a teacher like Nishio Sensei, who has a very clear philosophy about martial arts. I want to be able to take what he has taught me, the influence he has had on me, and teach a technique like shihonage, for example, and not just teach students how to do the technique, but convey what the technique should be teaching us. These thoughts were with me as I helped Nishio Sensei write his book, Yurusu Budo, Aikido: The Irimi Issoku Principle.

At the Hombu Dojo

About how many years did you spend at the Kenshyukan?

To be continued next