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Kenji Tomiki Shihan's teachings - art and spirit
About the same time there was some special training with a Daitoryu Aikijujitsu teacher in the small dojo in the Japan Budokan and we joined in immediately. During his demonstration he showed a technique that left an impression on me in particular. He was spread-eagled face up on the tatami with four people holding his ankles and wrists and in an instant these four people were thrown off. We had difficulty believing this because it was difficult enough against just one person in randori practice or a match. It was a very strange spectacle but the talk of all my fellow students was that it didn't appear to be a fake technique. Later I asked Tomiki Shihan about it and his unexpected reply was, "I can do that anytime!". However, straight away I didn't believe him and doubt remained somewhere in my mind.
In July 1979, more than ten years later, the 2nd All Japan Competitive Aikido Meeting was held following on from the previous year. It was organised by the JAA and took place in Shihan's home town of Kakunodate in Akita prefecture. He had only just made a comeback from abdominal surgery in August of the previous year and taught with bandages wrapped around his abdomen. I was nominated as his uke for both days. It was an opportunity for him to show me the technique that I had been shown more than ten years earlier by the Daitoryu teacher. He did it very easily and without effort. Once again, needless to say, I was astonished at the depth of techniques.
I shiver when I recall the morning practice on the second day. During the get-together on the previous evening I drank the delicious local sake until dawn which resulted in a very bad hangover and an intense headache. In addition, I had eaten several bowls of rice with my favourite green soybeans picked from a local field which resulted in a swollen jaw. My physical condition was in the worst state. Well, the practice began and Tomiki Shihan who was unusally excited threw me with a strong and wonderful shomen ate but I felt that it was a cruel technique. Even so the number of breakfalls increased and for some reason the effects of the alcohol disappeared and somehow I managed to finish. He was convalescing at that time and in his physical condition it was a miracle how he could have that sort of endurance. Maybe he knew how long he had left to live because he died five months later.
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