Winter Training

It's been so far an intense winter in the bay area. While the rain has been welcome it has lead to floo

ding and extreme damage. And it has been cold! During my second stay in Japan, I experienced what was referred to as kangaiko, best translated as winter training. The evening classes started early, with a group run to a mountain shrine(Kamikurasan), dojo practice was extended past its normal end time. And morning practice, which started at 6:30aqm, started early I believe at 6am LAnd if memory serves me this was an extended period of a week to 10days. If you attended everyday, you received a special certificate.

As you can imagine, the training was brisk and intense. My winter training was in 1975. Up until that time, none of the dojo shihan had ever received a winter training certificate. That year both Anno and Yanase senseis received their first. So the training was very spirited. After I returned from Japan and started teaching in Santa Cruz, I taught both the Phys Ed beginning Aikido classes and the club classes. Winter of 1976 I held a version locally of the Winter training in Japan at the Shingu dojo. It was held on the UC Santa Cruz campus. Mornings we would run around the track area around the original Field House. Then special early classes. And of course we still held the evening training. Linda Holiday sensei has continued this tradition in Santa Cruz since. Quite an accomplishment.

The photo above in NOT a winter training photo. At the Shingu dojo we welcomed in the New Year with a New Years Eve training. Then Hikitsuchi sensei and I went to the Hayatama Shrine to pray to the kami. We then drove through the moutains to the Homgu grand shrine. And the intent was to drive to the Nachi grand shrine, but it got so late we didn't make it. Sensei told me I would need to go to Nachi on my own time later, which I did. There was the Kumano river, which separated Wakayama Prefecture from Mie Prefecture. The water came from the mountains and was basically melting snow. I believe New Years day of the year, the dojo had a special practice. Hikitsuchi sensei, Anno, Yanase senseis and I jogged from Hikitsuchi sensei's house to the river.  The Aikido group, which was quite large, then gathered for 500 bokken cuts, after which we all went into the freezing Kumano River. BRRRRR!!

So our recent weather has conjured up memories of those now ancient days of yore. I guess in looking back, what might be the purpose of those practices, and how might they have meaning in today's Aikido practice? Osensei talked about Masaka Agatsu, ie true winning is victory over self, or as I would now phrase it, Victory over the 'I". We often times let outer circumstances dictate who we are. And we oftentimes settle almost habitually for lesser versions of our selves. The extreme training hardships of training in winter Japan meant that I at that time had to focus, bring a good version of myself to the training, and ideally bring that practice into other phases of my life. Working ideally to bring that better version of myself to what is currently going on in life is a challenge, in some ways the circumstances we are facing in our current lives, are not so stark as facing the cold and getting to the dojo. What was stressed in Shingu was that Aikido was not just keiko or training, but shugyo or personal development on ALL levels. So as we face the challenges of bringing the Aikido message to all levels of our lives, I hope some of this personal history will help.