No. 08

 

Thanks my John.

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

 

 

Training and learning does not take place if there isn’t a moment of resonance between the teacher and the disciple.

This is something you try to teach to your students through aikido, isn’t it?

 

Yes, it is. Unless you learn through actual experience, it becomes mere book learning. Without experience, you’re nothing more than “a learned fool”. This is at the heart of the belief that it is important to become accomplished in both the martial and literary arts. This is quite evident in the early Edo period work of Nakae Tohju entitled “Okina mondou” which advocates both literary and martial training. At the end of the Sengoku period, it was necessary to rethink the samurai’s role in society, and up until the time of Yoshida Shoin, and the end of the Tokugawa era, many of the great ideologues were also swordsmen.

 

Before the Meiji period, there wasn’t an education system with teachers and schools. There were “Terakoya” schools. There was an attitude that you were learning from your predecessors. But now, it’s a world of “How much is the monthly fee?” From my perspective, the fee is a sum collected only to pay for the expenses of running the dojo. So if a student comes up to me and says, “I want to study aikido, but I have no money,” then I’ll tell that person to come anyway. “Your future success will be payment enough”. But most people won’t accept that offer. I even get some cases where a prospective student will ask, “I can only come once a month. (Let’s say that the monthly fee is 4,000 yen). Is it alright if I pay 1,000 yen for each time I come?” I laugh and tell them I’m not just teachings techniques. There’s much more to aikido than that, and it’s not a matter of money.

 

But now, we’ve got an education system which basically says, “Come on in. We’ll teach you.” Then we test the students to see how much they understand. If the students don’t understand, then we say that the teacher was bad. So now, the system is geared towards making students understand.

 

On the contrary, in the days when students came knocking at the doors of Yoshida Shoin in Yamaguchi, or Sakuma Shozan in Edo, people heard of these great people and asked if they could be given the privilege to learn from them.

 

Also, back in those days, nobody said, “I am a teacher”. People taught because someone came to learn something they happened to know. It’s that simple. The teacher was also in search of the truth and greater knowledge.

 

Whether we’re talking about academics, or practice, unless there is a moment of resonance between the heart and mind of the teacher and the student, then nothing has been learned. Whether we are talking about practice or studying, the relationship between the teacher and the student is most important. From that standpoint as well, I was very fortunate to meet Nishio Sensei 40 years ago.

 

So, why aikido now?

 

 

To be continued next