dojo celeb.

recently we were asked to write someting on our experience in shiseikan (the dojo were we practice aikido and kashima shinryu) and with budo in general. on shiseikan's website our interview-style essay is posted- in japanese.
http://www.meijijingu.or.jp/shiseikan/kiko/index.html

but for all of us who are not quite so fluent in reading japanese (including me) i post the english text here:
(i leave out the photos though, please check them at the shiseikan site, they are not so spectacular, though)

As we were approached to write an essay for the Budo an I column of Shiseikan’s website, we felt honoured. We decided to write an essay together because one part of our Budo experience is sharing and discussing our thoughts frequently.

So we would like to let you have part in a dialogue about some points important to us:

Heike:
I started Aikido because I was interested in Budo as a Japanese cultural asset and as an approach to practice the integration of body and mind. However it seems more and more impossible to bring down the motivation to one singular point as it is complex.

The motivation in continuing Budo is increasing in complexity the longer I practice it.

Marieluise:
For me the complexity is the fascination of Budo. I never imagined to find so much in one single movement such as Kesagiri, and never thought I would find it fascinating to do it over and over again only to discover even more in it.

Heike:
Speaking of repetitions, I discovered in it a deep meaning of Budo: a path without ending. It reveals as well a fundamental difference in learning processes between Japan and Germany.
In Germany we are taught to act goal oriented: in Budo practice we concentrate on learning many techniques and focus very much on tests.
At Shiseikan on the other hand, I experienced a process oriented practice. The personal development becomes more important for me.

Marieluise:
I agree with that. Budo shows a path as a true path - not a goal. For example I did a lot of things where I wanted to experience the path: hiking, cycling or running a marathon. But in all of these things, the path might be long, but there still is a goal. And once you reach the goal its finished. But in Budo, I learned to see the real beauty in the endless path at Shiseikan.

Heike:
I think what I got to understand at Shiseikan is the development of mondai ishiki. The crucial part of self development is to face your opponent, by which I mean to be prepared and to be ready. Translated into daily life, this is an important part for me to learn the timing, not to wait until something is happening but to take action by my self.

Marieluise:
I fully agree, for me too the understanding of the importance to take action – instead of reaction to others – has been and still is a crucial part of studying Budo.

Under this aspect the experience of “learning without words” is important for me. When I first started training at Shiseikan, my Japanese was very limited so I could not understand the Masters teaching in words. As it occurred to me, the Japanese beginners made the same mistakes- but they could understand the words! So I sought for another way to understand: closely watch the body movements of the Sensei. Now I think this a very important way to understand and learn, just quietly observe and try to imitate.
I chose to take action by myself as one conventional path was not available- I looked for alternatives. (But of course, I did study Japanese, too.)

Heike:
I agree with that: It helps me a lot to closely observe a Budoka’s movement and trying to determine single points in each move. This applies not only for instructors but for students – advanced and beginners- as well. In comparing the physiques, flexibilities and reactions of various persons, I get to better understand my own body reactions. In this regard, it is enormously helpful to train with so many different people.

Another important thing that comes to my mind at this point is the understanding of “hara”. I experienced various instructors, talking about the meaning and importance of “hara” in a more or less abstract way. But in fact, I hardly got to know the concept from their speeches. Here at Shiseikan was the first time that “hara” was actually part of the training in the way to experience it through different, very basic body exercises such as Shiko.

Of course many more things can be said, many aspects can be discussed, but for us Budo is mainly something we do and so we want share one last thing before going to practice:
In German we have a often used saying: “Uebung macht den Meister” which fits with Budo as well. It literally means: "practice makes [you] a master". And this is why we want to continue Budo for as long as possible.