Summer Gasshuku

A week ago we had a wonderful Gasshuku. As Chuck-san said, it had an Okugyo kind of feel as we dealt with some of the deep spiritual aspects of Aikido. On Friday night, Sensei talked about the Kototama and its dimensions: O (groundedness), A (expansiveness), U (centeredness), E (decisiveness), and I (the boss). Then on Saturday and Sunday mornings, we began each keiko with chanting the kototama. For us Westerners living in a Judeo-Christian society, chanting in a small group may seem – for lack of a better term – weird. And it is understandable. To get a better appreciation, I recommend spending some time at the Zen Mountain Monastery. You can take their “Introduction to Zen Training Retreat,” which is held once every month and lasts an entire weekend. Here you can experience the chanting and the kototama in its proper context. Because when you have about a hundred Buddhist monks and lay practitioners chanting in a large meditation hall, the sounds and the energy in those sounds resonate throughout the entire zendo. Four years ago I went to the Monastery for an Aikido and Zen Intensive Retreat led by Gleason Sensei. This retreat was the precursor and became the model of the Okugyo retreats. And as I meditated and chanted along with the monks and lay practitioners, to me the chanting “made sense.” It felt right. The feeling I had from that experience was incredible. Now I can understand how each individual sound of the kototama would spark a certain unique feeling in my body. And when we study the kototama at the dojo, I have a better appreciation of what Sensei is elaborating about. For those of you who have come to the dojo regularly or have partaken in chanting during the Zen meditation group sessions, the Okugyo retreats, or our special New Year’s keiko, it will be rather difficult for you to fully appreciate the kototama, and the chanting will continue to feel “weird” if you have never experienced it before in a proper Buddhist and larger setting like the Zen Mountain Monastery. Even if you have read Gleason Sensei’s book several times, you cannot reproduce that feeling.

Also during the Gasshuku, Sensei talked about the concepts of kanagi (the physical realm), sagaso (the spatial realm), and futonorito (the mergence of the two realms). (I hope I got the spelling correct.) These concepts are very hard to understand intellectually and require an advanced ukemi for one’s own body to comprehend. As for me, I noticed that these concepts have apparently been around all along, but I have not been fully aware of them until Sensei was spelling it out recently this past couple of months. Even for me, I am only beginning to grasp what Sensei has been discussing as he used me as his uke during this Gasshuku. So for those who were there, I don’t know how helpful or illustrative my ukemi was for your benefit.

Since these concepts are difficult for most of us to comprehend both mentally and physically, I would like to offer these video clips as visual points of reference. I tried to find good clips of Senseis who best embody each individual trait of kanagi, sagaso, and futonorito. So here they are…

Top Video: Kanagi – Hiroshi Isoyama Shihan. Postwar Iwama deshi and Air Self-Defense Force instructor. He should be called “Mr. Kanagi.” This dude is freakin’ brutal. All power, no grace.

Middle Video: Sagaso – Yoshinobu Takeda Shihan. Highest student of Seigo Yamaguchi Shihan. Also is Lia Suzuki Sensei’s main teacher after studying under Gleason Sensei (see my Santa Barbara Invasion article). He is the polar opposite of Isoyama Sensei. Notice how Takeda Sensei’s touch is very light and soft.

Bottom Video: Futonorito – Seigo Yamaguchi Shihan. William Gleason Sensei’s main teacher in Japan. This is the person that our Shobu lineage is derived from. In my opinion, Yamaguchi Sensei is the epitome of futonorito and the I dimension.





During our June Gasshuku, we were honored to have our friends from Canada – Jim Sensei, his daughter Michelle, and Rob – as our guests. Michelle-san and Rob-san were promoted to Ikkyu this past February. So congratulations to them on their accomplishment and best of luck to them as they prepare for Shodan. Jim Sensei, Michelle, and Rob practice Yoshinkan Aikido, an older style of Aikido established by Gozo Shioda Shihan, who was a Kobukan uchi deshi of O Sensei during the pre-WWII era. If you watch Shioda Sensei at work, his style is reminiscent of O Sensei during his aiki budo days when he was transitioning from aikijujutsu to aikido. As Rob-san told us, Yoshinkan is about 95% kanagi.

In tribute to our Canadian friends, here is a nice documentary of Shioda Sensei. It’s in Japanese, so perhaps Chuck-san can translate it for us. We are always delighted to have Rob-san and his friends over, and they and the rest of their colleagues are always welcome to our dojo.

Here is the website of their dojo: www.seikokan.com

Gassho.

-Andre (“Muketsu”)