Moving Meditation with Samurai Spirit
Cultural News, February 2005
Kendo pupils go into meditation before they will starts practice at Studio City Kendo Dojo on the campus of Osaka Sangyo University, Los Angeles, in Studio City. (Photo by Fumie Iida)
Pupils of Studio City Kendo Dojo practice every Friday evening under the directorship of Michihiro Nakashima, seventh grade holder of kendo. (Photo by Fumie Iida)
By Fumie Iida
After they knelt and bowed deeply to their masters, they went into a tranquil meditative state. Through this preliminary ceremony, their minds become clear and focused and start to travel to the ancient era of samurai warriors.
On a freezing Friday evening in early January, 20 pupils of the Studio City Kendo Dojo were practicing kendo barefoot in the gym of Osaka Sangyo University, Los Angeles (OSULA). Some pupils were dressed in navy blue hakama uniforms and others in armor that protected their heads, bodies and arms from the cracks of bamboo swords used to hit each other. Their high-spirited yells echo throughout the gym.
“Kendo is a moving meditation. I like doing and trying to unite my body, mind and soul into one through kendo practice,” says Beverly Graf, a student who has been studying kendo for five years, and added that kendo is the most elegant martial art she has ever seen.
The Studio City Kendo Dojo was established in 1992 by Michihiro Nakashima, President of OSULA. Nakashima, 50, who is a seventh grade holder of kendo, has been practicing it since he was 12 years old. He was born in Ohara-cho in Okayama Prefecture. Ohara-cho is a small town amongst the mountains and located right next to Miyamoto-mura, where the great swordsman Musashi Miyamoto of the Edo period was born. “There were no modern sports classes in the town when I was little, so I started to learn kendo and found myself practicing constantly,” Nakashima says.
After Nakashima graduated from Osaka Sangyo University, he took a job at the university. In 1989, he was assigned to work at the university’s Los Angeles branch. During his first three years in the United States, he was not aware that there were people who practiced kendo. That is, until the Southern California Kendo Organization (SCKO) used the OSULA’s gym for a tournament in 1992. In that same year, Nakashima started the kendo dojo. “I was not sure if I would have students or not when I started the dojo,” Nakashima says.
Far from his concern, many students came to the dojo and, to his surprise, most of them were non-Japanese. “Those students were influenced by samurai movies and came to learn kendo,” Nakashima says, “Especially, when the movie ‘The Last Samurai’ was shown in theaters, there were so many people who came here to start learning kendo. Literally, they flooded in here. It’s interesting.”
“There are too many good samurai movies. And ‘Star Wars’, too,” Morgan Samuel, 24, who has been practicing kendo for five years, says. “I started kendo just for my research for my screen play so I could learn kendo and its movements, but I still keep learning it because it’s so cool.”
The Studio City Kendo Dojo belongs to the SCKO which consists of 30 kendo schools in Southern California. The Studio City Kendo Dojo has about 60 students and practices every Friday at 7 p.m. Several students participate in local or regional tournaments that take place three times a year. Some also move forward and compete in the national tournament which takes place once every three years.
Graf, as the vice president of a company that develops motion pictures, says kendo is useful in practical situations. “Tournaments are useful for working through fear because guys are coming to you so close with full speed with a sword. I use it for business; the feeling is the same, like ‘swords’ are coming to you in the business, for example,” Graf says, “If you go through practice, you can go through your life.”
Kendo, the way of the sword, is one of the traditional Japanese martial arts. Its origin can be tracked to the 12th century when the samurai appeared in Japanese history. The samurai warriors of Japan practiced sword techniques as they fought to defend their castles and honor. In modern kendo, students practice with a bamboo sword, or shinai, instead of a real blade.
Nakashima says that sometimes he finds it difficult to convince students that kendo is not a sport, but a marshal art. “I always emphasize not to stick on winning games,” he says, “Kendo is budo, martial art. Even if you succeed in hitting another person with your shinai, it doesn’t mean you win. In kendo, you have to keep good posture before and after hitting the person, and also you have to play decently throughout the game. Kendo is not a sword fight that you see in movies.”
Even when you drink water during practice, Nakashima says that there is a proper way to drink. “This notion comes from respecting others. Samurai warriors respected each other even when they were in a fight,” Nakashima says. He says kendo requires not only its exterior techniques, but also internal lessons as well. Kendo pupil Samuel says “It’s interesting that even when you lose in a game, you still thank for the person you played with like, ‘Thank you for showing me that my skill is deficient; that I need to practice more.”
“When you play a match, sometimes you go violent or mad with each other, but you end with a gracious bow to each other. It’s an amazing thing. In other sports, we tend to forget about this,” Brian Hunphries, who has been practicing kendo for two years, says. Nakashima says that when you are young, you are full of power and play vigorous kendo. However, after the certain age, you understand the real spirit of kendo and play others with your soul. “When you find this true sprit, you enjoy kendo much more,” he says.
“When I was young, sometimes I felt I just wanted to quit practicing kendo because I thought I was making little progress with my kendo skill,” Nakashima says, “But every time I overcame the slump, I felt some progresses that I’d made and they make me keep practicing kendo. So, I want to say to my students to enjoy kendo and continue practicing.”
The Studio City Kendo Dojo is located at OSULA campus, 3921 Laurel Canyon Blvd., Studio City, CA 91604. Those who are interested in learning kendo may contact Nakashima of Osaka Sangyo University, Los Angeles by calling (818) 753-3844.
Fumie Iida is a freelance writer. After graduating from Waseda University, she worked at an advertising agency in Tokyo for five years. She was a staff writer, photographer and assistant sports editor of the El Camino College newspaper Union. She came to the United States in 2002 to study American journalism and public relations. Readers may contact her via e-mail at fumie_la@yahoo.co.jp.