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The "Other" Martial Artist Instructor
Homma Sensei’s
visit to Budapest
When some of my friends and I decided to publish
one of Homma Sensei's many books, we did not know that we embarked
on a long journey. The high point of the road, was Homma's Sensei's
visit to Hungary. Instead of going through the days hour
by hour, I would like to give a general impression what Homma
Sensei's visit meant for us.
Gaku Homma Sensei's visit to Hungary, as with many things in
one's life, was the work of a many coincidences. When we successfully
published his book, I sent the mandatory copies to the publisher,
but I completely forgot to send Homma Sensei's copies. So when
the book arrived at Nippon Kan, they were a couple of month to
late. Yet, it seemed that they were exactly right for Homma Sensei's
traveling schedule. He wished to meet us in person and thank
you for the Hungarian translation personally.
To be honest, we did not know why he would like to come. I mean,
not only was it impossible to organize a seminar in such a short
notice with sufficient participants, but we were told that this
is an unofficial visit anyway. Based on that, we had no idea
why would Homma Sensei want to come to us, to 2 or 3 dozen aikidokas.
Usually such visits are always, at least from my point of view,
business ventures: a sensei comes and teaches for X amount and
goes home. Not that I do not understand that the flight tickets
are expensive or the hotels are not free. Neither is it that
I do not wish to pay, quite the contrary, sacrifices make achievements
even more precious. But never ever (actually there was one exception),
was I told by a martial instructor that "I am nearby, I visit you people for a day or two, to see who you
are." I understand that live is hard, and there is no free lunch, but
I think this is where aikido should differ. So until now, no one came "just" to
visit us. Therefore our surprise and perplexity was soon mingled with a slight
suspicion: why is Homma Sensei coming? But in the end we did not question
our fortune, and our curiosity took over, and we began our modest preparation.
During the first day I noticed that I have a very different Sensei
at hand than usually. Small things that catch one's eyes. Like
when "great martial
instructors arrive" they give you their travel bags or push they trolley
(not that one would not offer to take them anyway) and answer usually everything
with thank you and yes and do not really care about the person being there.
They do not (or should not) ask if there was a problem waiting for them,
etc. Well, Homma Sensei did not fit that mold. We were continuously surprised
by the sheer straightforwardness and openness of his personality. Everyone
was surprised and very happy that they could ask questions and receive answers,
real answers with understandable reasoning for the western mind. We not only
learnt techniques and their history (which in itself is a very interesting
and very precious knowledge in itself), but we learnt a lot about the founder
and his vision. This vision connected with Nippon Kan's example how to do
it impressed many people. It made us think.
Some time ago we were wondering with some friends about the martial
arts instructors in general. Nearly all of them teach and
talk about the positive impact of martial arts on the character.
Yet, most of them, while kind people, sportsman or instructors
making a living out of their knowledge. There would be no
problem with it as such, if martial arts would not promise
so much more. I mean sportsman have to win. For example could
a swimmer stop and wait for his friend who is last, just
because he wants to be kind or make sure nothing is wrong
with his friend? Most certainly not, it would be the end
of his career as swimmer. Yet swimming, as many sports, steel
the character, or so we are told. But have you seen a (insert
any sport practitioner / martial artist here) leaving the
mat, because it does not make sense to face an injured opponent?
If you did, you saw the famous exception to the rule. So,
we can conclude, that the instructors teach winning, not
a martial art or sportsman like behavior. But there are special
cases. Some martial arts put the morality as a goal or at
least on par with the physical. Take Aikido for example it
promises so much more than self-defense and health. One could
at least expect, that Aikido instructors are examples by
having the determination and the behavior, reflecting their
convictions (in none religious sense) of what they teach.
I met many Aikido instructors. Some were kind, some were
good instructors, some good drinking buddies, or all but
they all could easily pass as any other martial arts or some
as a sport instructor. Homma Sensei proved to be that special
kind of instructor for us in those short few days. He reminded
us to keep Humanity in Aikido, because it is at least as
important as developing our techniques. This idea, the Founder's
vision, was explained so well, that even jiu-jitsukas and
karaktekas were discussing it afterwards. If different martial
art styles can train together in harmony and discuss it afterwards,
I think one can say that there was a good Aikido. We felt
is, we saw it, and practiced it.
With Homma Sensei's visit we found something which we thought was lost long
ago, but it turned out it is not. That would be our summary of the events,
which is still making waves.
A special thanks to Emily who organized everything for us, and is waiting
for my article patiently. We sincerely hope that to Homma Sensei will come,
but next time with Emily.
Ákos Szederjei, August 6, 2007
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