Don Roley said:
Talking about Hatsumi....
Just an interjection. I have a bone to pick with you Dale, since you are at least making sense in a consistant fashion.
:asian: I've been remiss, then -- thank you for pointing it out.
I know you do not mean to imply it, but there are a lot of people in the Bujinkan that look on statements like the above and come to the conclusion that Hatsumi is the sole source of what to do in the Bujinkan. They reject the ways he used to train and now try to copy his movements as much as possible.
No, I certainly didn't mean to imply that. If you just start out trying to mimic him you'll never grasp either the fundamentals that support the movement he's using or the more advanced concepts he's expressing.
I remember the San Francisco Tai Kai in the summer of '86. . .Everyone was stumbling around, totally lost, and eventually Soke went into an en-masse excoriation about how disappointed he was in American instructors who had not been properly preparing us by teaching us correct fundamentals such as the sanshin no kata and kihon happo.
And we're all looking at each other in puzzlement, going "Huh? What are those? Kihon wha'fo'?"
We weren't "getting it" because we didn't have the basic tools which would allow us to begin understanding.
At the same time, those fundamentals -- and in this context I would also include all the waza of the various ryuha as, in a sense, kihon -- are not enough by themselves. As Soke put it in his
newest book (page 36):
In the martial arts, the basics are of supreme importance. In general, students start by learning forms or techniques. Beginners have to train initially with "visible" movements: this is inescapable, as otherwise they simply will not understand any further complexities. Visible movements are studied first in Ninpo Taijutsu too -- but soon you have to progress to a world which is invisible to the naked eye. It is important that this training be natural.
Given the level on which Soke himself is teaching, the only way this progression can be "natural" is if seniors who are further along the path guide you, correct your errors, and act as a "bridge" between these two worlds. This is part of the reason why sempai/kohai relationships are important, and is a crucial part of the makeup of a ryu: Whether koryu or gendai, a ryu is not just a collection of techniques and a particular style of doing things. As you know, it's better translated as "tradition" than as a "style"; and the kanji used implies a stream, something that "flows" through time and through the
community of people who comprise the ryu.
So, while it's crucial to train with Soke, it is equally critical to train with the shihan so that you can keep growing and not wander off the path. I've lost count of the times that Soke has pointed to the shihan and said people should train with them. I do it every chance I get; so do my students, and so do all the instructors around my neck of the woods that I know personally.
Heck, I was just reading a rant about how if you only go to Tai Kais and the like for your instruction you might as well be taking a video instruction course for all the corrections of your mistakes you will get.
I haven't seen that one, but you're absolutely right.
BTW, I'm acutely conscious of this "bridging" role in the way I teach my own classes. Like all the Japanese teachers and most American instructors, I have a
"real-world day job", and my training and teaching has to come after that. So my own teaching is really geared toward the more advanced students in the class. To help compensate for that, an 8th dan in my dojo, Patrick McKee, teaches a class just before mine on Tuesdays where the focus is more fundamental, and I also have a half-day "mini-seminar" on a weekend once a month where we usually work on whatever issues those who show up bring with them. Even in my own classes, though, I always try to do three things in each and every class session:
1) Present something which new students "just in off the street" can do effectively;
2) Present something which will have the judan who trains with me every week asking questions;
3) "Connect" both through the course of the session so that, at least by the end of the class, people can see the relationship between the two.
This is all connected in some ways with Ralph's posts on this thread, so I'm going to touch on that here as well. He's made it clear in this thread and on other boards that he holds the Bujinkan community -- Hatsumi sensei's ryu -- in contempt and has no interest in supporting it in any way: Just wants to grab whatever he can for himself, and to hell with everyone else. He feels the training methods are outdated, which is a sure sign that he doesn't understand them. He feels the martial ability of the Japanese shihan is "weak". He's badmouthed Hatsumi sensei himself elsewhere, in addition to various instructors by name. He clearly has no interest in continuing to learn and grow in the Bujinkan arts, preferring to portray himself as the Master to whom everyone else in the Bujinkan needs to measure up: If he really wanted to "keep going", there's a shihan (Luke Molitor) about half an hour away, who continues to spend a lot of time training with both Soke and several of the Japanese shihan on a regular basis, whom Ralph could go to if he can't afford to get to Japan.
He has separated himself from the Bujinkan, not only by his words and actions over the years but by not even remaining a member of the organization in a formal sense by keeping his membership up to date. He's bragged about never paying for rank, and years ago about having not paid for the shihan classes he attended in Japan (oh yes, they do remember).
As I said earlier, it's comparable to a military officer who deserts. He may still have a commissioning document in his possession. He may still have whatever level of tactical and strategic training and knowledge he had absorbed, perhaps using it to train a force of his own loyal only to him like Colonel Kurtz in
Apocalypse Now. He may even still be maintained in the military database so he can be court-martialed if he surfaces again. But he is in no way considered a legitimate military officer.
By the same token, Ralph Severe is not a Bujinkan instructor.
