Re-discovering the heart of the beginner!

During May/June 2007 two members of the club went to become uchideshi for five weeks at Kobayashi dojo in Tokyo. Here are some of their accounts.

 

On May 16 we, Uwe Rosebrock and Karlo Gataric left for Japan to arrive on May 17, to become uchideshi at Kobayashi Dojo Tokorozawa/Tokyo. Firstly our warmest thank you goes to the Kobayashi family to allow us and welcome us to the dojo. The experience was truly (and is at the time of writing) eye opening in so many ways. 

The Kobayashi Dojo is one of the few still accepting uchideshi to live and train in the dojo, where they fit into the demands of the sempai-kohei relationship. While Japan has become a modern society, traditions are deeply rooted and carried forward, in some areas of society more than in others. Being a live-in student is certainly on the more traditional side despite the modern environment.

The schedule of training and tasks is clearly layed out and must be followed. More detail and the challenges affiliated with the schedule are described in more detail in the weekly breakdown starting here.

It is a privilege to be accepted in the first place and the Kobayashi family is very generous in many ways, considering all the mistakes and mishaps to the Japanese society tolerated by our hosts,  which are likely missed by  us 'westerners'.

The gaijin (strangers) are almost always treated very friendly and are welcomed with great interest (and sometimes still with curiousity). Aikido practice most of the time poses  a challenge by itself, to both sides not only because of the different average body height.

Most practioners  train  regularly  in  several dojos in their area, one of them is the Tokorozawa Dojo where we stayed and Hiroaki sensei (Fuku-Dojocho) lives. The other major dojo is the Kodaira dojo, which is also the original dojo Kobayashi Dojo was established and where dojocho lives. While the Tokorozawa dojo has been rebuild some years ago including the mats, the Kodaira dojo is close to its original makeup including the original  straw  tatamies compressed over almost 40 years through continuous everyday training.

Following we will try to pick some of  the contexts which we believe represent an insight  into some of our  experiences and  dominant  impressions (which will change over time I am sure).