Inside the house ran the corridor in the middle and the rooms were located on both sides of the corridor. According to my recollections, on the ground floor were facilities such as a kitchen and rooms for the administrator, the Fencing Club, the Boxing Club, and the Sumo Club, and the second floor was occupied by the Judo Club, The Kendo Club, the Wrestling Club and the Karate Club. Our Karate Club occupied four rooms, 20 mat size room each, in a corner of the second floor. The dormitory was named the Star Gazing House, but the Karate Club hoisted in the corridor a signboard “Takku Juku” (Studio of Takushoku University Karate), which used to be hung at the old dormitory. It was a solid wood root planed into a plank. It was a grand signboard on which letters “Takku Juku” were written in Chinese ink. The over-enthusiastic attitudes of the Karate Club members sometimes attracted criticisms from members of other athletic clubs. We hoisted the signboard as an embodiment of our spirit that although we were residents of the dormitory, but at the same time we were the members of the Karate Club with a long-standing tradition. The minds of human beings are a strange thing. Just by hoisting the signboard, the pride and self-control that we were the members of the Karate Club was brought about within ourselves.
This was how our life at a dormitory that was full of Karate training day in and day out started.

Morning, Afternoon and Evening Training

A Day at Takku Juku
For the purpose of making them strong, it was compulsory for all first year students of the Karate Club to live in the dormitory. When we were the first year students, we all lived at home. Therefore we could have a moment of relaxation once we came home. From that viewpoint, the first year students after the establishment of the dormitory were miserable. From the moment they got up in the morning till they went to bed at night, the first year students were incessantly chased by the seniors for training and housekeeping. The lecture time was the only moment when they could find a rest. The first year students were beaten hard by the seniors in the training, which I had also experienced. In addition, the early morning training was commenced once the dormitory was established. The morning training was the hardest thing for the first year students.

Our days at Takku Juku started at 6 am. We were woken up at about 5:30 am. We washed our faces still half asleep, which would wake us up finally. We headed for the dojo whilst members of the other clubs were still asleep in bed. In winter, when it was quite dark with the sun still behind the horizon, we walked to the dojo crushing the frost on the ground. The chill in the morning was hard for our bodies to take, but once the training began, steam started pouring from our bodies and in more or less than half an hour, our dogi*27 became soaking wet with sweat.

We had breakfast after the morning training. The seniors who had no lectures would go back to bed and sleep, hearing the bell of the commencement of lectures coming from the university building. The juniors would go to attend lectures, so that they could escape from the tedious duty of looking after the seniors.

When a junior declared, “I am going to the lecture”, seniors could not say anything against it. As to the juniors, they would doze during the lecture, trying to recover from fatigue and make up for a lack of sleep.

From 2 or 3 pm in the afternoon, we had an afternoon training for at least two hours. In between the training, we attended lectures. As a student, we had to pass at least the minimal units of subjects, otherwise we would be in trouble later, and no one wanted to become a fifth or sixth year student.

After dinner from about 6:30 pm till about 8:30 to 9:00 pm, we had an evening training. Graduates seniors would come to the evening training to give us violent physical treatment in the name of instruction. The training method varied from time to time, but usually the first year students came forward first and trained. Many repetitions of basic techniques are required for the body to acquire them. To this end, a method of 1000 gyaku zuki (reverse punch) or 1000 mae geri (front kick) is adopted. The main purpose of training is not just to punch or kick, but to train the parts of the body that are used to make a stance strong, to rotate the hips, to generate a fast speed, etc, so that a maximum power and impact of contact can be achieved. If the correct and fast blocks, strikes, punches and kicks are not acquired, the techniques will be weak even though they may look similar to the correct and fast techniques. But the weak techniques which cannot generate a strong impact are useless. Not only in Karate but also in everything it is hard to change the techniques that have once been acquired by the body. Our future rests in the acquisition of the accurate basics. What I am today and why I am called Shoji who is strict about the basics is due to the fact that I was taught strictly the correct basics during my student days. This is due to the morning, afternoon and evening training at Takku Juku where we were blessed with great teachers.

Although I had to overcome sleepiness and quite often wondered at that time why I had to do such a hard thing, when I think back, I must admit that I was again a blessed person.

Emergence of a Rival
Since the dormitory was established, a new member of the same year as us joined the Karate Club. “S”, a graduate of a teachers college, entered Takushoku University as a third year student after having taught as a teacher for a year, as he had a dream for many years to go overseas. He, who knew nobody in Tokyo, was said to have joined the Karate Club because he could live in the dormitory. He had already trained in Karate and obtained a black belt from another style, but at the Karate Club of Takushoku University he was treated as a first year student. Therefore, for the whole year even though he was a third year student, he had to live as a first year student like other first year students. The difference in styles certainly attributed to differences in fine points of techniques. He seemed to have struggled to make changes to his Karate. Zenkutsu dachi (fore stance) was an example. Besides, what was unfortunate to him was, as the style of the Karate that he had done was the same as that of a university in Kansai*28 which was an arch rival of Takushoku University, all our aggressive fighting spirit was directed towards him. As days continued on for him as such, one day he said to me in a sad tone on the roof of the university building “I am thinking about going back home”. He had a deep sign of trouble on his face as if he, once a teacher, was struggling to assimilate himself to the feudal nature of the Karate Club. I wanted to say to him.

“All you need to do is to get yourself accustomed. You are not the sort of a person who would give up because of hard training. The tiresome nature of senior – junior relationships – that’s what has been bothering you. You will get used to it. It is just a matter of time. Your aim is to go to South America, using the university as a springboard. Karate is the means that you train yourself physically and mentally for that purpose. You should not be bothered with the trivial matters”. But I swallowed those words of mine, because I was also troubled with the feudal aspects of the Karate Club.

“S”, after having made the decision to go back home, went to see Miyazawa Senpai*29 for his advice. Miyazawa Senpai was a member of another club. He was eloquent and the winner of an intra-university speech contest with his rather strange theme “The spirit of Takushoku University meets with Christianity”. He is working as a journalist now. Miyazawa Senpai scolded “S” and preached to him about the spirit of Takushoku University and how different Takushoku University was to other universities. Giving no time for “S” to explain, Miyazawa Senpai made him rescind his decision.

Aft