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

Part 9 - Shihan

The presence of Sensei who was physically small but always cast a sharp eye on our training was a big encouragement to us.

Old boy senpais came and trained with us and talked about Karate. In particular, Nakayama Sensei (Mr. Masatoshi Nakayama, the present Chief Instructor of the Japan Karate Association) came everyday or at least three or four days a week to teach us. The presence of Sensei who was physically small but always cast a sharp eye on our training was a big encouragement to us. Besides, the presence of the high ranked senpai was a great joy to black belts – but quite often we thought the joy was a hard thing to take. Whilst the instruction by Nakayama Sensei was continuing, another senpai who admired the enthusiastic Nakayama Sensei asked me one day.

“What a lucky group of people you are. It may not be necessary to check with you, but you have been paying Nakayama Sensei for his instruction, haven’t you?”

“No, we have not.”

“What. You idiots!”

I was scolded terribly by the graduate senior and at the same time I was surprised and bewildered. I had never thought about it. I always thought that it was customarily natural for juniors to be taught by seniors. Besides, both seniors and juniors had their own enthusiasm. We had been receiving the teaching from our seniors, simply assuming without thinking deeply that seniors would not think of receiving payments from their juniors. Therefore, even in the case of Nakayama Sensei, I had never thought particularly about paying him. Then, I had this caution from the senior. As we had been relying on the good will of Nakayama Sensei, we were dismayed at our lack of attention. We quickly managed to secure instruction fees from the club till and took it to Nakayama Sensei. When we submitted it to him, explaining what it was for, he told us off.

“If you think that I am teaching you for such a reason, you are absolutely wrong. If you have time to worry about such a thing, make your Karate stronger.”

Although we were scolded by Nakayama Sensei, we felt fresh. The joyous feeling that is brought about through the interaction of the teacher’s enthusiasm to make his students stronger and the students’ willingness to become stronger can only be understood by those who have undergone the physically hard training that is almost self torturing.

Life at the Dormitory

Comradeship
The day in and day out training sessions and university lectures are not everything in the life at a dormitory. There is the moment for youth in our life and there are gatherings of a group of people of similar ages who want to trouble their minds with everything, which everybody experiences at a certain stage in life.

The never drying-up energy and oomph of young people was twirling in the 20 mat size room.

It was unforgettable that towards the end of a day, we sat in a circle on the tatami mats under the reddish light bulb and talked about various matters. Sometimes we had serious discussions about our rather immature and lousy theories on literature throughout the night, or sometimes we read “Study of Virtue” by Ikutaro Nishida, which would put us to sleep after reading a few pages. The never drying-up energy and oomph of young people was twirling in the 20 mat size room.

Each room existed like an independent castle and it would be understandable for the strange comradeship to come about among those who shared the room. There was a member called “S” in my room, who was two years under me. He was from Kyushu and the money for his university fees was sent to him from his home twice a month. Every time when the money arrived, two “Nouveau riche Buns”, a local product from his town, were delivered to our room. Each bun was as big as a baby face and inside the bun was marron, signifying gold. It was a luxurious sweet at that time. When we were talking excitedly over the buns, “S” said rather hesitantly.

“As my mother has sent me a message for my aunt in Fuchu, could I have permission to go out to take the message. I will get back before tomorrow’s morning training”

“Do you want to go now?”

Although I was surprised, I understood why “S” was behaving hesitantly. I repented that we had consumed the buns. It was a rare chance for us to eat such a good quality sweet and also it came to our mind that his home might send us buns again. So, I swallowed my answer “No” together with the buns and looked at my colleagues and decided to break the regulations and gave him a nod.

As his night outing continued regularly, we started wondering about “S”, as there was something strange with him. The single-minded member whose nickname was “Yari” (equivalent to castle in the chess game*translator’s notes) due to his never-retreating fighting style said

“He must be involved with something. We must find out what it is. It must be a woman.”

“He is a square guy. He won’t be involved with any trouble. Just leave him alone.” said a member who entered the university at the age of 25 or 26 years and was always urging every one of us to read the Condition of Marriage by Van den Del.

...we were a bunch of people who all wanted to fall in love with women.

Various opinions were eagerly expressed by us, as we were a bunch of people who all wanted to fall in love with women. We wondered whether his girlfriend was a bar girl or a girl from an ordinary family. What all eight of us who shared the room had in common was a sense of the comradeship that we should not let any outsider know that we had broken the regulations. Whether for good or for bad it was our inclination to build our own castle named Takku Juku within the Star Gazing House which was inhabited by a group of members of the athletic clubs and to further stick together among the members in the same room, and we had to find out what was going on with “S” before it came to the knowledge of the seniors.

One evening with a beautiful moon I took him out to the lakeside. Whilst I was probing how to start asking whether he was involved with a girl, “S” sensed what I was trying to say and he offered to explain.

“I am repaying debts that my elder brother incurred in Tokyo. My parents send the repayment money by instalment for me to take them to Fuchu. They could send them directly to Fuchu, but my old man says it would be courteous for me to hand deliver the money on a designated day every month.”

“S” scratched his head. He must have been uncomfortable to tell me this shameful side of his family.

“I’m sorry to hear that. But there is nothing we can do to help you with such a large amount of money”

I folded my arms at the front and looked up the starry skies with a serious face. I had a strange feeling of relief and felt the love of his parents who, although in such a financial situation, were managing to send us the Nouveau riche Buns. I thought we should change the name of the bun from now on to “Debt Bun” and we should receive only one, not two of them.

Soon after I graduated, I don’t know the reason, but “S” left university and went home. It is a nostalgic memory and I wonder how he is now. To be continued...

Read our Tribute to Shoji Sensei from November 2003

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