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The Road to Karate – A Budoka’s Way To Live
By Hiroshi Shoji. Shihan of the Japan Karate Association.

Part 10 - Wisdom In Life

We hardly see fleas these days.

In our student days, our dormitory was infested with them, probably because it was an old building, inhabited by athletic members whose training clothes were stinky with sweat, which provided good condition for fleas to thrive in. During the university terms, as the dormitory was disinfected with DDT, we did not have trouble with fleas so much. But when the summer break was over, fleas were terrible at the dormitory. The member who returned to the dormitory first needed to be brave enough to sacrifice himself. He first rolled up the ends of his trousers and then entered the room. He would kill the fleas which were starving for blood when they jumped feebly on to his legs. We were surprised at the numbers of fleas. It is hard to spot fleas clinging to the clothes, but it was easy to spot and squash fleas caught in the hair of our legs. This was the wisdom of how to combat fleas, developed by the first returnees to the dormitory.

Another thing that used to annoy us was rashes in the crotch.

the reality was, whether it was a Japanese loincloth or a western loincloth that you were wearing, if you were not careful, you would get rashes in the crotch very quickly.

At the man-only dormitory, in summer time members in every room wore only loincloths. If we saw someone wearing underpants, which was rare, we used to sneer at such a person, saying “Wow, you are wearing a western loincloth. You will get a rash in your crotch”. But, the reality was, whether it was a Japanese loincloth or a western loincloth that you were wearing, if you were not careful, you would get rashes in the crotch very quickly. As we sweat a lot, we got rashes immediately if we did not keep ourselves clean, not because, as it used to be said, rash was a usual thing that the youth would suffer.

“Take Zenkutsu dachi. Mae geri, one, two three…..”

The leg will usually get heavier after about one hundred kicks. Lifting up the knee of the kicking leg will usually become difficult after about 200 kicks and the kicks won’t go high. But, today I am different. Even after 200 kicks, kicks are sharp and zapping the air. I can hear the sound of my kicks. The whipping noise of my Karate gi is sharp. I am getting satisfied with myself. The loudness of the sound that the Karate gi makes will vary depending on the quality and length of the Karate gi. Normally, after about 300 kicks, the kicking leg will become numb. But today, my kicks are zapping much more sharply than others’.

“At last I have become this good” I smiled within myself.

“Shoji, what have you got on your leg?”

I looked at my leg and found the end of my loincloth, soaking wet with the sweat, tangled up with my leg.

“Damn, it was the sound of the wet loincloth.”

How deeply I was disappointed.

There was no wonder why we got rashes if we kept wearing the same loincloths after the training.

There was a member who had written the words “Fighting Spirit” on the front flap of his loincloth. I did not know what he was trying to achieve by that writing on his loincloth, but he always suffered from groin rash. He got the red liquid medicine that stung sharply and a fan ready as if he was asking himself “Are you ready?” and started applying the red liquid medicine very quickly on the rash. At the same time, other members thought it was fun and flapped the fan as fast as they could for him to reduce the stinging pain. Is “Fighting Spirit” a magic word to invigorate the rash? I felt like saying to him – you’re an idiot!

"...If you keep cauterising the rash with the red liquid medicine all the time, your sperms will be killed..."

Scenes of this kind were unfolding everywhere at the dormitory. The member who was always reading the book “the Condition of Marriage” used to threaten us saying “If you keep cauterising the rash with the red liquid medicine all the time, your sperms will be killed and you won’t be able to father any child in the future”. I don’t know if what he warned us was true, but one thing which I can say is true is that those other members have now all become fathers.

Another thing that troubled us was the dialects spoken by the members of the dormitory. As the dormitory was a melting pot of members from different parts of Japan, a mix of various dialects was exchanged. No one tried to speak in standard Japanese. Everybody spoke his dialect with a broad accent as if the dialect was a symbol of the area they were from. We soon worked out some differences in pronunciation. For example the word pronounced “guita” was not a musical instrument “guitar”, but “getta”, wooden clog. But it took us a long while to understand different adjectives used by the members.

After a while a language unique to the dormitory was developed. It has been a while since I started speaking the standard Japanese, so I cannot remember what kind of a language we spoke at the dormitory. For some matter the Tohoku (* translator’s remarks: northern part of Japan) dialect was spoken and for another matter the Kyushu (translator’s remarks: south island) dialect was used. It was a funny hybrid language. We were communicating with one another in a language that was incomprehensible to other people. This was an example of what was brought about by the wisdom of our life at the dormitory.

...the fact that I graduated from university has been an asset to me today.

One of the good points of life at the dormitory is to have a chance to get exposed to naked local flavours. We will influence one another through our local differences. This can be said not only about dormitory life but also about university life. Mutual influence will be one of the particularities that a university will provide us with. Although I have been living my life in karate-do since my graduation from Takushoku University, the fact that I graduated from university has been an asset to me today.

I do not think that the title of being a university graduate is necessary, but the interaction between people who are full of local niceties is a good aspect of a university. Particularly, since I became a member of the dormitory, the importance of human interaction that I have learned has been fostered as a great nourishment within myself as a person and as a karate-ka who trains himself and students. This is one of my treasures, which will be passed on to my juniors and I believe that it will become nourishment for them as well. To be continued...

Read our Tribute to Shoji Sensei from November 2003

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