It is a train full of people hauling their kendo equipment home, none of them looking very happy. We carefully avoid eye contact with each other, even though we are spread noticeably through the train with conspicuous bags full of bogu (armor worn in kendo) and bags full of bamboo and wooden swords.
We are the losers, the people who didn’t pass the 4th or 5th dan (level) exam in kendo, offered three times a year here in Tokyo. About 1000 people come to each test, so they need to weed people out quickly. The first part of the test is jitsugi, the actual contest on the floor with two opponents.
The three-digit numbers of those with that special something are posted on a board after a long wait. They are the people taking pictures of the board. Everyone else turns around and slinks out quietly. We don’t even get to show our stuff in the kata (forms) portion of the exam. Nor do we get to hand in the written tests after slaving over them for hours (at least of us who are not native Japanese speakers).
With such a low pass rate and so many people gathered for the test, every train moving out in the early afternoon is full of those who didn’t make the grade. The number of bogu-bearers is diminished slowly, a few at each stop. I live on the other edge of town, so I witness the slow exodus and am among the last off the train.
Today was my 12th or 13th or somethingth try. The 4th dan exam is notoriously difficult, with a pass rate hovering around 15% or so. Unlike most countries in the world, in Japan the idea is to let people run up through the ranks (shodan, 2dan, 3dan) pretty quickly and easily – then things suddenly get tough at 4dan.
There are a few non-mortals among us who do the much-hallowed ippatsu – taking 4dan in one try. But they are few and far between. And you won’t find them on the losers’ train.
In my defense I will note that I took iaido 4dan in one shot, but that is not much consolation (nor is it much-hallowed) on a cold and rainy Sunday in Tokyo, moving across town on that slow, silent train.
1 comment:
Well, sir... while it's not much consolation I'm sure, there are a heck of a lot of kendo people that don't even try for 4th dan. It's not the goal, it's the journey, right? [don't hit me for that, I've been writing all weekend and so I'm full of trite platitudes trying to get out]
But who am I to speak-- like some lapsed Catholic trying to advise a brother on a crisis of faith, I bleat from the sidelines having thrown in the towel over a decade ago. Gambatte kudasai.
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