By Bertrand Bourgeat, Member until 2022
When Kimu Sensei invites you to a training camp, you show up - even if the best Christmas lunch of the year happens to be on the same day. I normally love to dance, but the prospect of a turn with kata Koryu Naihanchi wins this time.
The theme of this black belt camp is set with the dramatic headline: “One stroke – one kill.” But as usual, there is more to things than meets the eye.
As a prelude to the camp, this time Sensei has invited everyone to send in questions – everything between heaven and earth – and such a chance should not be missed. There are several things in the curriculum handbook that I would like to see elaborated on. And since the camp starts on Friday afternoon at 4:30 p.m., these are also the questions that Sensei tackles first under Ryugi. Sensei says that he was surprised by the amount of questions. The 14 participants at the camp have together delivered 72 questions!
Kimu Sensei gives an exciting review based on the first question: where will Shindenkan be in 5-10 years? Briefly, Shindenkan today consists of 10 schools and in 5-10 years you can expect that there will perhaps be 2-3 more. But it depends entirely on whether the skills are present in new instructors, because Sensei will not compromise on the quality of the chief instructors.
At one point, Sensei asks how many people would like to become the head instructor and I raise my hand in the air together with a few other happy and hopeful karate practitioners. A single one puts half a finger in the air (can you do that?) and says he doesn't know if he can figure it out. But from various sides there are assurances that there is, of course, help to be had. After a lively discussion, we go to Ryuha's dojo.
In the dojo, as expected, Kimu Sensei announces that we will be training Koryu Naihanchi Shodan and Nidan. The three Koryu Naihanchi were originally one kata – and a beginner's kata. But it was difficult and that's why Itosu developed the Anko Pinan kata, Sensei says. For the next two hours, we walk sideways in kibadachi, on the balls of our toes, of course, twisting our shoulders and hips in circular motions. We learn about tachi-ai, closing ki circuits by connecting ki points. And we also learn that "one stroke - one kill" has several meanings.
On the surface (omote) it obviously means killing your opponent in the first blow. In a slightly more perceptive (ura) it means killing oneself in order to be reborn as something new – and hopefully better. And today it also means doing things right the first time. Because as Sensei says, it's about being good to yourself and using your time optimally. Make it easy for yourself - do it right the first time.
From 19-20 there is self-training and the 14 participants train without a single word being said. The concentration in the room is so thick that you can almost touch it. When it gets to 8 p.m., there is a half-hour lunch break, after which we start on a group task. I am with Jan and Søren and the task is "What does the optimal annual training cycle look like for you and the others?"
We are all 1 kyu/1.dan and that is naturally the frame of reference our assignment is written in. And we are from the same club and therefore part of the discussion naturally turns to our shared experiences in the club. As the clock approaches the delivery time at 11 p.m., Søren collects our presentation in an email together with a picture of the snobs Fritz and Poul and a picture of an (unfortunately) old and tired Bertrand Russel. I try to talk Søren out of it because I don't feel quite sure that Sensei appreciates that kind of humor.
But it turns out that Søren knows Kimu Sensei better than I do, because at the morning meeting Sensei acknowledges the email with a big grin. After a brief review of the submitted assignments, Sensei tackles another round of questions. He reviews the Dan degrees that were invented in the last century and compares them to the original and ancient Bujutsu Densho degrees. Densho degrees usually denote not just one skill in a subject, such as the Dan degrees, but the entire palette of traditional martial arts. The Densho degrees also contain not only a technical curriculum (Ryuha) but also a philosophical and spiritual level (Ryugi). Sensei also says that among the Masters in Japan, everything up to Menkyo is considered beginner degrees equivalent to white belt...
We go to the dojo and after a rehearsal of yesterday's Koryu Naihanchi Shodan we are asked to line up in a circle. Then Sensei walks around all of us while waving his arms and saying like a chicken – “Gok goook… gok!” – much to the amusement of all. Afterwards, of course, it is our turn and one by one we are sent out on the chicken's walk around the circle. There is a lot of laughing and, as others have already noticed, some of the participants may have more chicken in their bones than others (See the article in 5.-7. dan: Black Belt Summer Convention 2011 – the new meeting with the old.). After that, everyone is quite relaxed and ready to learn again. Then Sensei Koryu introduces Naihanchi Nidan. It starts with "the rooster freeing itself from the grip of the snake", as Sensei describes it. And there is probably also someone with a pig, but we have to look for that ourselves. For the next few hours we go sideways again, back and forth... As it is 12 o'clock on Saturday we stop to get ready for the X-mas camp. When later in the day we train the pinan katas, under Martin Renshi's expert guidance, I can feel that I now use my body differently than before we trained Koryu Naihanchi.
When I get home late in the evening, I tell my good friend Nanna about the weekend's experiences. Nanna can recognize the rooster, the snake and the pig. “Could it be the animals chasing each other in the middle of the Buddhist Samsara also called the Circle of Life? In short, the rooster represents desire, the snake hate and the pig ignorance. According to some Buddhist teachings, these three marriages lead to evil and suffering. Could it be that part of the Ura meaning of these kata is that one kills these qualities in oneself?”.
I don't know, but it sounds like a good question for the next theme camp.
