Future Goals for Aikido Here

By Tom Huffman

I was transfered for duty at Atsugi Naval Air Facility about 35 miles south of Tokyo in October of 1990.  Within four days of arriving on October fourth, I contacted a man, Satoshi Takamori, who had been one of my first teachers at Sunset Cliffs Aikido in San Diego, Ca.   He was delighted that I called him and told me to meet him at the Yokohama Train station on Monday night.  We had dinner on the top floor of the train station/department store complex and then he took me for about a 15 minute walk.  He took me to the Matsuo Dojo and introduced me to Nishio Sensei.   I don't know for sure if Nishio Sensei remembered me from a seminar in Los Angelos or not, but he indicated I should come on Mondays and Fridays to this dojo. 

The Wednesday of that first week Satoshi told me to meet him at the Yoyogi Uehara train station a little south of the Shinjuku area of South Tokyo. From there, he introduced me to Hitohiro Saito, Morihiro Saito Sensei’s son, who taught Aikido at the Yoyogi Uehara Middle School on Wednesday nights. So within just over a week of arriving in Japan I was introduced to two top teachers. After about two months I became aware of a monthly paper circulated around the Matsuo Dojo which showed Nishio Sensei’s schedule each month. It took some work, but I deciphered it and found that Sensei taught on a circuit of about four dojos during the week and then gave seminars in different locations on some of the weekends. I located those dojos and became a member of the ones reasonably near Yokohama. Sensei was very surprised as I started showing up regularly wherever he was teaching.

On the weekends when Nishio Sensei didn’t have a seminar or special practice I would run up to Iwama, so I could get some practice with Saito Sensei. Saito Sensei always amazed me. Every time I went up there he would show something I had never seen before. Not many of the sempai knew what I was doing when they didn’t see me at their dojos all the time, but when there was a large overnight seminar and I was introduced with three different groups everything became apparent. In the years when I came home on leave from Japan, I was still looking for places to train and what I found was still far short of the quality I was learning. The long term goal never diminished, but rather was reinforced.

I would arrive early often at whatever dojo for practice and Nishio Sensei was always there ahead of me practicing Iaido. I would try to follow what he did with a boken. It was slow, awkward learning at first. It was about two years before I felt that I might be retaining some knowledge. After some time Sensei showed me an old Iai sword that someone had left at Matsuo Dojo and I started using that there. It wouldn’t stay in the scabbard, but it worked for everything else. After about two years he told me I should get my own Iaito. Soon after that he said he wanted to make me Shodan. I made the mistake of asking about a test. He got mad at me and said I would be a Shodan when he made me a Shodan. I have never questioned anything else. I may have delayed that first promotion by maybe six months.

With all those practices I was progressing rapidly. Even though learning Nishio Sensei’s techniques was like starting over, there are so many things happening at once it’s like night and day difference to other senseis' techniques. This also forced me to learn to watch EVERYTHING being done VERY closely, since nothing is explained in English. The first test was about six months after arriving. Nishimoto Sensei had me test for Sankyu one night and he was my uke. How often do you hear of anyone having a 7th Degree act as your uke. I hardly knew what I was doing. I didn’t even know I was being tested, but soon after that Nishio Sensei read a promotion certificate after class.

Learning how to watch everything very closely is a two edged sword. Because of all that practice, I am able to watch everyone closely and tell immediately whether a technique will work with the body relationships that it is executed in. Unfortunately many of the sensei’s I have seen in the States are not seriously determining if their techniques are really working or not. The worst part is when they know it doesn’t work themselves and they don’t make any attempt to determine what would be better. Truth and honesty suffer in these conditions. It becomes glaringly evident when the students try to do techniques that aren’t working, and they get promoted doing those same techniques. This is the sorry state of affairs that George Ledyard wrote an article about. Fortunately for me and my students, after the first year in Japan, I got a video camera and Nishio Sensei never had any problem with me taping classes. I now have enough tape of him showing techniques that it will take about five years of classes three times a week before we will ever have to repeat the set.

Students are determined by generations from the founder, who is the first generation. The old masters who were direct students of O’Sensei were or are (for the few who are left) the second generation. Their students are the third generation. My students would be the fourth generation, but I plan to eventually let Nishio Sensei teach the class via a large screen TV and I will merely be the interpreter and guide. When there is someone available who understands Japanese better than I, then we will all learn more. I believe this will make my students a 3.5 generation instead of just fourth generation. I think it is such a shame that we have lost so much of Saito Sensei because there weren’t tapes made of so much of his teaching. Do not take that statement to mean that he didn’t leave knowledge with his students. He did. Hitohiro Saito is VERY capable. However, people who see the few tapes and CD’s of Saito Sensei will only have a smattering of the volume of his knowledge. O’Sensei was not only a genius, he was a generator of geniuses. That is why the few films of O’Sensei are so valuable. Tapes and films are so far beyond notebooks and journals it’s a joke.

I realize that the statement at the top of the page sounds ludicrous. Only time will tell for me to back-it-up. I’m confident that the thoughts in my head and the existence of so much tape of Nishio Sensei executing techniques will bring this about. It will also verify how many great sempai students there are still teaching in Japan. I hope to bring some of those teachers and many great Iwama / Takemusu Aiki teachers to Florida to give seminars at some point in the future. I'm more excited about what I'm teaching and discovering now than when I first started. COME CATCH SOME OF THE EXCITEMENT!!


To Contact  Sensei  Huffman:

Phone: 352-332-8695
Cell: 352-494-7816
E-mail:  
sensei@aikidoofgainesville.com

New Practice Times (1.5hr. classes)

Sundays..............................Weapons.......................................................2:00-3:30pm
Sundays .............................Empty Hand...................................................4:00-5:30pm
Sundays .............................Advanced Empty Hand...................................6:00-7:30pm
 ................. (Must pass 3rd proficiency test to participate in advanced class)
Mondays & Fridays............ Aikido After Noon.........................................1:00-2:30pm
Mondays............................Empty Hand....................................................7:30-9:00pm
Tuesdays & Thursdays....... Aikido for Kids................................................4:00-5:30pm
Wednesdays .....................Empty Hand......................................................7:30-9:00pm Thursdays.........................Open(Weapons Take-aways, test practice, etc.)..7:30-9:00pm
Mondays & Wednesdays ...Iaido (Japanese Sword $10 per class)................6:15-7:15pm 

 


Future Here page Copyright © Aikido of Gainesville as of  May, 2010