karate memories (2)

I was hitting the Kenkojuku honbu or main dojo about once a week out in Hachioji – not nearly enough, but all I thought I could manage at the time due to work. I look back and shake my head at my foolishness. When coming to Japan, I should have made a strong and active choice to live near the dojo, to arrange my work schedule around dojo practice, to do it right.

I didn’t do so and have regretted it ever since.

That was ten and fifteen years ago, can’t be fixed now. But many things remain with me from that time.

One is the memory of one of the teachers coming to the dojo week after week on Friday nights. Practice would continue as he and Okano Sensei, the soke or head, spoke about this and that.

Somewhere around 10 PM something would be said and people stopped practicing and sat down in the kneeling seiza position in the rear of the dojo. And that teacher, with how many decades of karate practice behind him, would perform bassai dai in front of Okano Sensei, who was never quite satisfied with it.

Bassai Dai is one of the core kata or forms in the Shotokan karate syllabus. How many decades before had he learned it, polished it, been teaching it – and still he came back for scrutiny from his teacher.

At that time I was sometimes disappointed at having to sit so long in seiza, just to watch yet another performance of Bassai Dai. After all, I often came late to practice after work (having skipped dinner and water and all that), usually a 90-minute one-way commute, I and felt that I needed every minute I could get on the dojo floor.

I would give much now for just one more chance to sit in seiza to watch his Bassai Dai and hear again the voice of Okano Sensei, suggesting this or that adjustment to the kata.

Okano Sensei passed away some years back and I am now focused primarily on Chinese martial arts.

Yet I would give much for just one more session on the dojo floor, seemingly ignored for the entire practice then subjected to a short barrage of encouragement in the form of criticism.

We are now less than 1 ½ years from planned relocation back to the US and each practice grows more and more important. Who will continue to guide my learning, once I am an ocean apart from my teacher here in Japan, or from his teachers in China? Who will offer blunt words and a scowl after seeing my best effort?

Already I feel these days are passing too quickly. For so long it all seemed so far away, and now the future seems to lie just in front of me. I suppose the answer is the same as ever – just get back to practice. Regular, steady, and never ending.