松の木

Bonsai  ( Miniature )Japanese Pine Tree

Sakabe Sensei, my Judo teacher, often spoke of the pine tree. He said , "Judokas have to be like a pine tree. So strong and deeply rooted that even a typhoon could not uproot it." For a very long time I thought that Sakabe Sensei was referring to our balance in Judo. That no matter how strong and skilfully the opponent was we could not be thrown. Alas! How shallow my thoughts were! So many years passed, when I realized Sakabe Sensei was referring not only about the physical attributes of a Judoka, but the mental aspects of being strong in our own beliefs, so that we would not stray off our selected paths.
柔道の恩師坂部八段は何時も松の木のことを口にした。かれは、“柔道家は松の木みたいに強く、根を深いもって台風にも倒されないように成らなければならない”。長い間自分は柔道に必要なバランスのことを言ってと思ってた。どんなに相手が強かろうが、技が巧みだろうか投げられない。なんって未熟だったのだろう。年月が流れ、ようやく分かった。坂部先生は柔道家の肉体の事をだけでなく、精神面で自分の信念を迷わずに選んだ道を逸れない事も言ってたのだ。
In Japanese there is term, "Ne wo haru"　根を張るliterally  "set your roots" In any martial asrt I interpret this as getting the Kihon or Basics down. No questioning of why. After all what is all preschooler asked"Why is A an A?" (^^) Questioning comes after you have grasped the basics. 基本は奥が深い。Basics are "deep".
日本語で「根を張る」と言う。武道に関しては基本をを身に付ける事だと思う。疑問を持たずに。保育園児が「なぜＡがＡあの？」と聞くのとの同じ。質問は基本を全うしてかれで良い。
基本は奥が深い。
Take for instance the chudan tsuki or middle punch. You first start off by just throwing in you arms out left and right, right and left. Then as you progress you start employing various muscles of you body to stabilize and make powerful the punch. You then start adding the mysterious tanden and breathing. Hmmm do you breathe out when you punch or do you make short and sharp exhales? Do you tighten the back, stomach and leg muscles in that order or was it the opposite? So you can see a punch is not just a punch. I am no scientist, I cannot write about things like velocity and such but I can tell yo if there is a difference in my tsuki with or without certain elements. So you can see if a simple tsuki is actually not simple, then think of all your other kihon wazas! 長い修行ですね。A very long road of training. (^^)
中段突きを取ってみよう。最初は両腕を交代に突き出すだけ。そのうちに他の筋肉を使い突きを安定させ、強くする。それから丹田と呼吸を追加する。付くとき息を吐く？それとも短く鋭く吐く？
背中、お腹、足の筋肉を絞める？それとも逆の順番？突きはただの突きではない。自分は学者ではないなら専門的に突進力とかは説明できない。しかし突きの違いは分かる。突きがそうだあるように他の基本技を考えてたら修行の道は長い。本当に長い。
Back to the pine tree. As mentioned above, Kihon is not simple.Then think of he mental perseverance that is required to grasp the kihon. Often times we seek the easier path or what appears to be more economical and start stripping various kihons from our curriculum. Are we doing ourselves a favor? I think not.
Would you prefer to live in a prefab structure or a well engineered and constructed structure made of solid materials? Sure a prefab would be up in a blink of an eye.  It also disappears in a blink of an eye in face of a typhoon. I always wondered why many of the houses  in Okinawa were made of solid concrete. After my first typhoon I understood.
松の木に戻ろう。上記で書いたように基本は単純ではない。基本を全うする精神力を考えてもらいたい。元楽な道、合理的な道で基本を減らす。これで良いのか？プレハブ建築と確り作られた家、どっちに住みたい？プレハブは簡単に崩れる。台風であれば一瞬の内に消える。沖縄の家はなぜコンクリで作られているのかと不思議に思った。初めての台風で理解した。
Ooops nuff rambling for this morning, Got to go search for Yuta aka Michael (Micky)'s dog food! (**:)
I say give him scraps, then we'll have a quasi-vegetarian dog! Hmmmmm not a bad idea.
今朝はこのぐらいにしとこう。雄太の餌を買いに行かねば。家の残り物で充分だと思うが。。。
そうしたら菜食主義犬になれるのに。。。悪くないと思うが。


**Note: Because of its resistance to pollution and salt, it is a popular horticultural tree. In Japan it is widely used as a garden tree both trained as Niwaki and untrained growing as an overstory tree. The trunks and branches are trained from a young age to be elegant and interesting to view. It is one of the classic bonsai subjects, requiring great patience over many years to train properly.  Taken from Wikipedia.
Hmmmm there seems to be a similarity with Martial Arts training.