![]() ![]() (See Old School for a fine-grained analysis of such oaths). In many schools, one gives a kishomon (blood-oath), that gives a few general conditions for entry. #Sensei vs senpai manualAnd if it’s not working out, the senior members of the school (and rarely, the shihan) help the new member to re-calibrate to properly blend in.Ī question could be raised: shouldn’t the school have a rule book, a behavioral manual that is handed to the student upon entry? Well, there may be, but only in the most general of terms. So how does one ‘calibrate’ these somewhat overlapping, slightly conflicting designations of seniority? Kan (勘) ‘intuition,’ something based on cultural knowledge, an observation of the way the dojo head treats each individual, and the way that the person in question integrates himself or herself within the dojo culture. It’s even more complex, because one’s certification ( shoden, chuden, okuden, or mokuroku, menkyo, inka, to call up two ‘sequences’ of rank) all plays into this. ![]() In terms of years of training in Toda-ha Buko-ryu, I believe he was somewhere among the middle-to-senior members of the Nakano Dojo, but in another sense, he was the most junior member of the dojo at the moment of his entry. He moved to Japan, and when this proved to be long-term, he officially joined the Nakano Dojo of Kent Sorensen sensei, soke-dairi of the ryu, becoming his student. A perfect example of the complexity is shown by one of my former students, GM, who began training in Toda-ha Buko-ryu at the Athens Hokusei Dojo. There are two aspects to seniority: who joined the ryuha first is the most obvious form of seniority the second is who joined a specific dojo first, because, led by different shihan, dojo can have different cultures, and different hierarchies within which a guest from another dojo, a ‘semi-outsider,’ must fit. Let us speak, specifically, about the role of seniority within koryu bujutsu. ![]() Within that same martial culture exists some of the best aspects of humanity, and that, too, is fostered in part, by a natural system of seniority. Particularly when talking about martial culture, which concerns violence first-and-foremost, one can easily focus on the worst. But let us leave such discussions for another time. I could easily write at length about the problems that such a system can foster the Japanese high school and university club systems are rife with abuse, and the horrifying level of atrocities the Japanese committed in World War II, turning areas of China into an open-air Auschwitz, were fueled, in large part, by the perceived impossibility of defying one’s seniors’ demands. Senpai have authority simply by being there first. This still applies within Japanese martial arts today. They had leaders, to be sure, but within their bands, seniority (both age and entry into the group) carried considerable weight. Even after the central Yamato government coalesced through building a conscript military, there were warrior bands in the frontier areas that eventually developed into the bushi. Skill and valor gained one accolades, and age and past actions gained one authority. For thousands of years, villages and hunter-gatherers protected themselves, and they organized using the same hierarchical systems that kept the rest of their society intact. ![]() Rather, the people with the most skill (of any age) were treasured and respected for their utility and elders were respected for their knowledge, their history and their authority as elders. Martial arts rooted in a locale, be it a village, a hunter-gatherer band, or a faction in a city, often did not have ranks, in the sense that we imagine it. Phil and Nobuko wanted to pay proper respect to the school they were visiting, and in proper Japanese fashion, asked, “Who is the instructor.” The older men looked puzzled, conferred with each other and pointing to one man, said, “Probably him. Several decades ago, my friends Phil & Nobuko Relnick, high ranking members of Shinto Muso-ryu and Tenshin Shoden Katori Shinto-ryu were traveling in Portugal. ![]()
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