No. 10

Thanks my John.

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

In Search of Identity

So some people may wonder, “Why aikido?” Isn’t judo just as good for promoting the kinds of things aikido does? But for myself, I’m very saddened by the transformation of all different budo into sports.

After the Meiji Revolution, European sports which were intended as a means of play and recreation were suddenly being used to teach moral and intellectual education. They were also seen as an effective means of providing physical training for the armed forces. So that’s how physical education got its start in Japan, and that’s why we have things like rajio taiso (radio exercises) where everyone lines up, and does calisthenics to the count of 1, 2, 3, 4. Everyone does it together as warm up exercises. There’s no autonomy, everyone does the exact same thing, so one’s individuality isn’t given a chance to grow.

Individuals with absolute power seem to control everything, and live lives of contentment. I really wonder what the future of democracy has in store for us. I think that being like a bushi is one of the few ways in which an individual can keep their sense of identity. When a bushi commits seppuku, he has to make the cut by himself - he is doing what he believes to be correct right to the very end. At the very least, a samurai had his sense of self. He had a calmness of spirit which allowed him to write and recite poem, even while facing death. It’s this ability to maintain one’s composure, and not lose yourself in your circumstances that I want people to grasp through bushido.

When I was in junior high, I thought up a crazy “human body parts transplant theory”. If you were blind, then you should be able to get eyes from someone who died. You could replace a lost arm or faulty heart. I thought it would be neat if you could collect body parts from several different people to make one person. Really, it was a stupid idea! Then, one day, I read an article that said someone had died because the person’s body had rejected a transplant. I wondered why the body would reject something that was meant to save it. I figured that there shouldn’t be anything wrong with having another person’s kidney. But the body is honest to a fault, and it will reject anything that doesn’t belong there. Looking at it the other way, it’s because of this immune system that we can survive. For example, it prevents mold from growing inside our bodies. This is a life and death matter.

As I thought more about this, I think I made an important realization about one’s spirit. If your body was made completely from other people’s parts, where would “you” be? Would you really be able to say that this person was you? Even if you’ve got a physical disability, isn’t it valuable to make the most of what you’ve got and live life to its fullest? A person is only a person if they have a true sense of identity. And I think that when you truly become thankful to your parents for the life they’ve given you, then you become a real human being. I think that this search for identity and self is what the path of budo is all about.

Thank you for your time.

The End……..