Awarded “Outstanding Cultural Organization” 50th Anniversary Southern California Japanese Chamber of Commerce – Recipient of the Brody Multi-Cultural Arts Grant 1988 Aikido Center of Los Angeles, 1211 N. Main Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012 – Tel: (323) 225-1424 – www.aikidocenterla.com The Aikido Center of Los Angeles The Aiki Dojo Direct Affiliation: Aikikai Foundation – Aikido World Headquarters Los Angeles Sword and Swordsmanship Society Kenshinkai The Furuya Foundation August 2017 Volume XXXVI Number 8 In This Issue… picious symbol because the butterfly has the power to re-create life. The samurai warri- Message From the Teacher ors, in an ancient age, admired the butter- by David Ito .…..….....….....Page 1 fly’s ability to make such a dramatic life Overcoming Adversity change from a caterpillar into another by David Ito ....……...…......Page 2 “higher” being of existence which paralleled the samurai’s ethic of transformation – Responsibility through training, through enlightenment, by Santiago Almaraz …..…..Page 3 and through life. The Way of Barbecue by Ken Watanabe …............Page 4 Today, we too have this power of transfor- mation through education and personal Volunteering at Obon .......Page 5 training and through the personal effort to Jutsu or Do want to better our lives. We too can be like by Rev. Kensho Furuya .…..Page 7 Message From the Teacher the butterfly. Class Schedule ...……....…Page 8 by David Ito, Aikido Chief Instructor In addition, the butterfly represents “new Dojo Map ………….…..…Page 8 The other day, someone asked me, “What is the life” – the dream of warriors on the real bat- meaning of training in Aikido?” I said, almost tlefield many hundreds of years ago. accidentally, “Change.” Simply put, we come into the dojo as one person and we leave quite a In this issue, all the articles are written along the Upcoming Events different and better person. same topic of “change.” I wish I could say that I plan a theme every month, but it really comes August 2-4th: Just the other day, I read a Daily Message post about almost serendipitously. I only see the Karita Sensei visit by Furuya Sensei which succinctly explains this theme unfold once I start to format the newslet- idea of personal transformation. ter. My article is about looking at adversity with August 26th: idea of “How can I use this to make me better.” Intensive seminar On June 5, 2004, Sensei wrote: Watanabe Sensei’s article is about using ordi- August 26th: nary everyday things as a vehicle to train one’s Shodan exam An armor-smith tsuba made about the mid- self. Almaraz Sensei’s article shows us how 1500’s with the design motif of a butterfly. taking responsibility enables us to learn. Fi- September 4th: nally, Sensei’s article is about the difference Dojo closed: Labor Day The butterfly is a beautiful, delicate creature between jutsu and do and how that impacts who but it hardly seems appropriate to grace the we are and how we train as martial artists. September 30th: guard of a courageous warrior. Yet, the but- Intensive seminar terfly design, especially on older sword Like the butterfly, we also need to undergo a guards made during the long periods of civil process of change in order to reach our higher October 29th: war in Japan were very popular among state of existence. Training in Aikido is that Children’s class Halloween Party samurai warriors. process of change. Every day we come to the October 28th: dojo as one person, put in the time training and, Intensive seminar In this case, the butterfly is not utilized for hopefully, we leave a much better person. its delicacy or colorful wings – it is an aus- What is Aikido training all about? Change. Aikido Center of Los Angeles www.Aikidocenterla.comwww.Aikidocenterla.com Overcoming Adversity alley in front of the dojo was messed up over night by all vagrants by David Ito, Aikido Chief Instructor that passed through there. Most times, we had to be quick, but not in a hurried sense and we had to be efficient because time was usu- Twenty or so years ago, when I was only shodan, Furuya Sensei ally short so none could be wasted. I remember thinking, “If a stu- conscripted me to teach morning dent shows up before I am finished, I classes at 6:30 AM a couple times a am going to get in so much trouble.” I week. I say conscripted because I did- couldn’t waste time thinking or sulk- n’t volunteer. He asked me, “What ing, I would have gotten in trouble for time do you start school?” Since I did- wasting time and doing a bad job n’t have any morning classes, I was which compelled me to be diligent and volunteered to teach morning class. to think ahead. The worst part was that I wasn’t a morning person which made it so hard My years spent training under Sensei in the beginning. were hard but looking back it was really good for a young person with no Just getting to the dojo was like a form direction in life. Those of us who ap- of torture as traffic moved at a snail’s prenticed under Sensei learned quickly pace as I worried that I would be late and early on that we had to be ready and suffer Sensei’s wrath. for anything which required us to not only to be diligent but organized too. I The drive into the dojo was no differ- truly believe that this type of strenuous ent. I only lived 15 miles from the and seemingly unreasonable “no ex- dojo, but in order to get to the dojo cuse” type of training forced us to not before 6:00 AM, I had to be dressed give in to adversity and to have the and ready to leave my house by 5:00 mindset to find a way around any and AM. Notice I used the word “before” all problems. I think this “no-mind” because Sensei had this hidden inner type of thinking helped many of us to alarm clock that would go off if he improve beyond what we knew we thought you were too late even if you were capable of and what we thought thought you were early. So arriving as was possible too. early as you can was in your best in- terest. Therefore, even the drive to the Most think that Aikido training only dojo had to be systematized and well Minamoto no Tametomo by Kikuchi Yosai. occurs on the mat or only in the dojo. thought out. Those were the days be- As we can see from the paragraphs fore GPS, IPhones or Google maps. All We can see in Kikuchi Yosai’s depiction of above, the training in Aikido can take we had was this book called a Thomas Minamoto no Tametomo that his right arm is much place in every part of one’s life. From Guide that you could use to look up larger and slightly shorter compared to his left arm this idea, we can posit then that Aikido addresses or streets, but it didn’t tell which is thinner and somewhat longer. training is learning how to overcome you how to get there. Once you left adversity which we can use as a means home, you were essentially blind and could only rely on what you to overcome ourselves and improve our lives. could see and the traffic reports every 10 minutes on local AM radio stations. In Aikido, one of the things we strive to do is align our energy with our partner’s energy sometime during the technique. This All of my planning and packing had to be done ahead of time be- “alignment” enables us to use their energy and then redirect it. cause I knew that I couldn’t waste any time that early in the morn- ing. As I drove, I had to figure out the traffic situation and I would In life, it is said that, “We reap what we sow.” When confronted have to adjust my route accordingly in my head because there was with adversity, there is a tendency to inadvertently view the chal- no time to stop and think. The traffic was almost always bad and I lenges of life from the darker side and view it as something nega- usually took a mixture of different freeways and surface streets tive or bad. This only allows us to align our energies with things because there was no way I was going to be late and suffer Sen- that are negative or bad. Along this same train of thought, if this is sei’s wrath. true then we only need to see the brighter side of something in or- der to align with the positive side of things. How we choose to see Compound the drive with Sensei rebuking me for how I opened the things allows us to align with that energy and use it to influence dojo which made the whole ordeal was agonizing. We were re- the outcome. quired to be there well before the class began in order to uchimizu or wash down the front of the dojo and clean up in order to prop- Continued on page 6... erly open the dojo for the day. These tasks could take as little as 15 minutes or as much as 30 minutes depending on how much the Page 2 Aikido Center of Los Angeles www.Aikidocenterla.com Responsibility accolades or accomplishments and when it is a good time to pro- by Santiago Garcia Almaraz mote them or hold them back? Chief Instructor, Aikido Kodokai When I met and began to follow my The other day, I was reading a book teacher, Reverend Kensho Furuya, about swordsmanship called The Spirit times were very different.