First Training of the New Year at Aikikai Honbu Dojo

Contributed by Dan Nishina*

January 5, 2001
I arrived back in Japan from my impromptu trip to Thailand Friday evening, the 5th. Talking with my friend, the topic of the next day's practice, the first practice of the year, came up. "You know the shihan attend that one, right?" No, I didn't know - I'd never gone before. This conversation was taking place past midnight, and furthermore I hadn't slept for about 2 days. Yet I decided to wake up at 5:30 that morning to check it out.

January 6, 2001
When I arrive at the dojo it is cold and still dark. Asa-geiko (morning class) is the first class of the day, starting at 6:30 and led by Doshu. It is usually pretty crowded with regulars, and I have no idea how it might be different this morning. After changing, I am standing by the doorway into the dojo when several shihan pass by and enter ahead of me. I say good morning to Osawa sensei and enter a minute later. Osawa sensei is already seated not far from the entrance, and as I find some space and begin to stretch, I see Seki sensei seated toward the right of the room, halfway between the main entrance and the entrance from the changing room. At the front of the room to the right of the shomen, there are 3 barrels of sake for Kagamibiraki the Sunday after next. I don't know the protocol - whether people "reserved" a shihan training partner ahead of time - so I just sit in one of the middle rows to wait for class to begin.

A few minutes before class time, the shihan and shidoin line up along the right side of the dojo (so that's why Seki sensei was over there) and Masuda sensei greets everyone on behalf of the teaching staff. Then Doshu enters and leads us through the usual routine of funakogi-undo and stretching. The first technique is shomen-uchi irimi-nage, but instead of one of the uchideshi like usual, he calls up Osawa sensei. For the rest of the class he successively uses the next junior shihan, ending with Fujimaki and Irie shidoin.

Throughout the class Masuda sensei walks around teaching the younger shihan. Kuribayashi sensei is practicing next to my partner and I, and three times Masuda sensei stops him to give him advice during the class. Other than the fact that Doshu is using the teachers as uke, and several lucky people are getting to practice with them, the class goes as usual. Toward the end of the class Yasuno sensei takes a break and he comes over and he and Masuda sensei have a small chat, sharing some laughs.

Afterwards I find out that no one really asks the teachers to be their partner ahead of time, and that it's not necessarily a wonderful, enlightening experience. For the most part it's just a way to open the New Year and an interesting opportunity to see something you normally don't see. I'm sure that, despite the cold, this first Keiko with the shihan in attendance has left many with a warm feeling that will help carry them further into the year.

*Dan Nishina is a student at Aikikai Honbu Dojo in Shinjuku, Tokyo, where he has trained for the past two years following graduation from UC Berkeley. An eight year aikido student, he lives about five minutes from Honbu and devotes most of his time to training, while also teaching and doing translation projects. Other articles by Dan may be found in the Back Issues page of this newsletter.