Rich Parsons said:
Yes and yes.
One thing that struck me after my last post was the aspect of where the training is in relation to the students.
Let me take the long way around in explaining myself. I know a few non-Japanese that study martial arts here. Sometimes we get together and drink. I was recently talking with a guy I know that does a form of Kenjutsu and he was relating how his Soke was complaining about a Japanese who sucked, but was overseas and teaching people. The soke had seen some of the students and they of course sucked.
Of course, his story is not the only one. A lot of us that do martial arts here know of a lot of Japanese that are good, but the vast majority are no better than the typical studetns. There are a lot of non-Japanese here that are not great students (like myself) but as a group the number of great practicioners is a larger percentage IMO.
I guess that the amount of effort it takes to get up, move to a country that speaks another language and live there for five, ten or more years is a sign of a really devoted (anal- retentive) student. Most Japanese just do not make that effort, and they don't have to. They have the same training chances, but don't seem to take it as seriously as those gaijin I know who came here for training. (In my case I came here to be in Japan and just happened to start training in Bujinkan in America so I am not one of them.)
Getting back to the original story of the guy teaching overseas that his own soke thinks sucks, guess what my freind says about him? If you answered that he thinks that only Japanese can really understand Japanese martial arts give yourself a cookie. On one hand you have my friend who moved to Japan to study the sword as a student and is held in high regard by his soke and on the other you have a racist who sucks and goes overseas to try to feel superior to his students.
Kind of an amusing thought to muse over, eh?
