Muketsu Invades L.A.

Greetings and salutations! I'm having a great time here in Caly. As always, I'm dropping it like it's hot. In addition to seeing the sights, I got the opportunity to train at one of the local dojos. Earlier this (Wednesday) evening, I went to the Aikido Center of Los Angeles, which was formerly headed by Rev. Kensho Furuya Sensei. Furuya Sensei studied under the 2nd Doshu Kisshomaru Ueshiba. You may have seen Furuya Sensei and his dojo in one of the martial arts features shown on The Discovery Channel. He passed away unexpectedly from a heart attack earlier his month. The dojo is currently run by Sensei's senior students as they await instructions from Hombu.

I was not allowed to take pictures of the dojo, so I'll try to describe it as best as I can. The dojo is located in what appeared to be a warehouse building in Little Tokyo. The entrance into the dojo's courtyard is accessible through an alley. The narrow courtyard is landscaped with bamboo, flagstone steps, and Japanese flowers. Upon entering the dojo, the mat was right in front of you with the shomen to your right and stairs on the left leading to the changing room on the far side of the dojo. The walls and surroundings were decorated with calligraphy, photos, and shrines. There were many boxes lying around as the dojo is in the process of moving to a new location. The mat space is rather small, about half the size of the mat at Chicago Aikikai. I had to be extremely careful and mindful of my surroundings when it came to rolls and breakfalls.

The students there were receptive. In tonight's class, there were eight students who trained, four yudansha including myself and four mudansha. The class was run by Ken Watanabe, 5th Dan, who is one of Furuya Sensei's senior students. I noticed, however, that some of their "customs" were different from ours. For example, the hakama - worn by the yudansha students - were black. Furthermore, they don't clap at bowing in and bowing out, and they are particular at the direction nage and uke face during practice. In our dojo, shitachi faces the shomen while uchitachi faces the mirror during weapons class. In taijutsu practice, the orientation of nage and uke is irrelevant. Anyway, after warm-up exercises, we worked on ukemi, first with forward rolls and then backward rolls. Afterwards, we practiced on a few techniques such as tenkan ho, irimi nage, ikkyo, kote gaeshi, kokyu nage, and kokyu tanden ho. It was interesting to feel how their style or approach to technique is different from our style. Unfortunately, it is difficult to describe and elaborate in words.

At the end of class, we thanked our partners and scrubbed the mat. The students were very thankful and honored by our card with our signatures and condolences. It was an intense practice, and I enjoyed my time there. I hope that the Gasshuku back home went well and that all of you are doing well. I'll see you on the mat. Gassho.

-Andre ("Muketsu")