Just ask his friends, family members or fellow Tae Kwon Do students - Jarod Barndollar is not your typical teenager. On a daily basis, Jarod faces trials and tribulations that most teens would find unfathomable, while fighting a rare condition called Adrenoleukodystrophy (ALD), also known as "Lorenzo's Oil Disease."

Imagine the heartache he and his family faced when told that Jarod, at a very tender age, would not live to see his teen years. Try to envision the thought that every day spent must be guarded and cherished, as if each day will be his last.

Add to those thoughts the reality that Jarod would lose his eyesight, hearing and nearly all motor functions before his tenth birthday, if he would even be lucky enough to reach that milestone.

Now, take all of those somber images and give them a swift, hard punch in the face. That's exactly what Jarod has been doing for the past eight years of his life.

Jarod, a 17-year-old Cincinnati resident, studies Tae Kwon Do at eastern Cincinnati's Tiger's Lair Martial Arts, while also attending school at the Ohio State School For the Blind in Columbus, Oh. Jarod is the first to cringe at the thought of being called "special." He would prefer to be termed "unique" or "exceptional," if termed at all. But, ask those in the medical field, and they would be quicker to use the designations "miraculous" or "anomalous."

By taking up Tae Kwon Do training years ago, Jarod and his parents invested in the hope and dream that he could keep his ailing condition at bay by strengthening his mind while keeping his body solid and flexible - areas that are incrementally destroyed by ALD. It seemed to be an unorthodox and unproven approach at the time, but today, Jarod has medical specialists around the country baffled as to how he has managed to hold onto his life for so long.

Jarod's rare condition affects only males and is genetic (passed only by female "carriers"), causing the loss of the fatty covering (myelin) on nerve fibers within the brain and progressive degeneration of his adrenal gland. In Jarod's case, his system is missing the key enzyme that degrades fatty acids that would normally be found in his blood's plasma and bodily tissues. The enzyme deficiency that prevents the breakdown of the fatty acids is still not fully known. This deficiency then leads to an accumulation of fatty acids in the brain, which contributes to the gradual loss of myelin.

Many physicians around the U.S. are very hesitant to officially discuss ALD because it is a controversial and mostly quizzical topic in the medical field. New York-based Hunter's Hope Foundation, established in 1997 by Buffalo Bills quarterback Jim Kelly, specializes in educating the public about diseases similar to ALD. According to an education councelor at Hunter's Hope, an exceptional child like Jarod would have been diagnosed with ALD at age five, with a life expectancy of 2-5 years beyond that, while suffering through ALD's countless debilitating symptoms.

In the organization's collective opinion, the fact that Jarod is able to stand upright and walk is almost unheard of. Representatives at United Leukodystrophy Foundation (ULF) in Sycamore, Ill., concur with this thought. According to ULF, for a child to live more than a few years beyond their date of diagnosis is extremely rare, to the extent of being unbelievable. The fact that he is also kicking, punching and jumping is even more unusual. Even though his eyesight and hearing capabilities hover at less than 25 percent and his ability to balance himself is less than ideal, Jarod is still able to successfully complete a 60-minute Tae Kwon Do class with energy to spare.

"We are extremely proud of the work our school has done with Jarod since he came to us years ago," said 4th Dan James Howard, chief instructor of Tiger's Lair Martial Arts. "I have personally witnessed Jarod progress through his medical condition, and can easily say I have never known anyone with so much determination and inner strength."

Upon officially presenting Jarod with his black belt recently, Mr. Howard gave him the nickname "Rocky" and had the name professionally embroidered on the belt. What better nickname than that of the underdog boxer, portrayed by Sylvester Stallone, who continually overcame long odds to achieve what seemed to be unattainable goals?

"Jarod has lived up to his nickname in every sense, and I can't think of anyone who is more deserving of it," Howard said. "One tenet of Tae Kwon Do is the development of a student's indomitable spirit, and in that regard Jarod excels beyond belief."

Jarod's martial art classmates agree with Mr. Howard as well. Gary Branam, a former training partner at Tiger's Lair, was working with Jarod one-on-one in class recently during a sparring session, when Jarod fired a punch that caught Branam square in the jaw. Although stunned, Branam was more impressed than anything with Jarod's deceiving sense of power and accuracy.

"After class, I talked to Jarod's mom and joked that he drilled me in the face with a punch… and she took that as a bad thing," Branam recalls. "I tried to explain to her that Jarod was doing exactly what he was taught, and that I was just caught way off guard. He hits so much harder than he realizes, and we make sure he knows he's making good use of his skills."

And it is these same skills that he uses every day to fight back against his internal aggressor - ALD.

Katsu Kaishu consummate samurai, streetwise denizen of Downtown Edo, founder of the Japanese navy, statesman par excellence and always the outsider, historian and prolific writer, faithful retainer of the Tokugawa Shogun and mentor of men who would overthrow him - was among the most remarkable of the numerous heroes of the Meiji Restoration.

Kaishu's protégé was Sakamoto Ryoma, a key player in the overthrow of the Tokugawa Shogunate. Surely Ryoma would agree that he owes his historical greatness to Kaishu, whom Ryoma considered "the greatest man in Japan." Ryoma was an outlaw and leader of a band of young rebels. Kaishu was the commissioner of the shogun's navy, who took the young rebels under his wing at his private naval academy in Kobe, teaching them the naval sciences and maritime skills required to build a modern navy. Kaishu also imparted to Ryoma his extensive knowledge of the Western world, including American democracy, the Bill of Rights, and the workings of the joint stock corporation.

Kaishu was one of the most enlightened men of his time, not only in Japan but in the world. The American educator E. Warren Clark, a great admirer of Kaishu who knew him personally, called Kaishu "the Bismark of Japan," for his role in unifying the Japanese nation in the dangerous aftermath of the fall of the Tokugawa. Like Ryoma, Kaishu was an adept swordsman who never drew his blade on an adversary, despite numerous attempts on his life. Indeed the two men lived in dangerous times. "I've been shot at by an enemy about twenty times in all," Kaishu once said. "I have one scar on my leg, one on my head, and two on my side." Kaishu's defiance of death sprung from his reverence for life. "I despise killing, and have never killed a man. I used to keep [my sword] tied so tightly to the scabbard, that I couldn't draw the blade even if I wanted to."

Katsu Kaishu, who would become the most powerful man in the Tokugawa Shogunate, was born in Edo in January 1823, the only son of an impoverished petty samurai. The Tokugawa had ruled Japan peacefully for over two centuries. To ensure their supremacy over some 260 feudal domains, the Tokugawa had strictly enforced a policy of national isolation since 1635. But the end of the halcyon era was fast approaching, as the social, political and economic structures of the outside world were undergoing major changes. The nineteenth century heralded the age of European and North American capitalism, and with it rapid developments in science, industry and technology. The development of the steamship in the early part of the century served the expansionist purposes of the Western powers. Colonization of Asian countries by European powers surged. In 1818 Great Britain subjugated much of India. Through the Treaty of Nanking, which ended the first Opium War in 1842, the British acquired Hong Kong. The Western encroachment reached Japan in 1853,when Commodore Matthew Perry of the United States Navy led a squadron of heavily armed warships into the bay off the shogun's capital, forcing an end to Japanese isolation and inciting fifteen years of bloody turmoil across the island nation.

Until Perry's arrival, pursuers of foreign knowledge existed outside the mainstream of Japanese society. Kaishu was an outsider, both by nature and circumstance. But when his sword master urged him to discontinue fencing to devote himself to the study of Dutch, with the objective to learn Western military science, the young outsider balked. That it was frowned upon for a direct retainer of the shogun to study Dutch had little, if any, impact on Kaishu. He was innately inquisitive of things strange to him. He was also filled with a burgeoning self-confidence. But the idea of learning a foreign language seemed to him preposterous. He had never been exposed to foreign culture, except Chinese literature. It wasn't until age eighteen that he first saw a map of the world. "I was wonderstruck," he recalled decades later, adding that he had now determined to travel the globe.

Kaishu's wonderment was perfectly natural. His entire world still consisted of a small, isolated island nation. But his determination to travel abroad was strengthened by his discovery of strange script engraved on the barrel of a cannon in the compounds of Edo Castle. The cannon had been presented to Edo by the Netherlands, and Kaishu correctly surmised that the engraving was in Dutch. Thus far he had only heard about "those foreigners, the Dutch," who lived in a small, confined community in the distant Nagasaki. "Those foreigners" had occasionally fluttered through his mind as mere phantasm, the stuff of youthful imagination. But now, for the first time, he saw in his mind∂s eye, however vaguely, the people who had manufactured the cannon, and who had engraved in their own language the inscription upon its barrel. Those undecipherable letters of the alphabet, written horizontally rather than vertically, served as cold evidence of the actual existence of people who communicated in a language completely different from his own, but who until now had only existed as so much hearsay. Since these foreigners were human beings like himself, why shouldn't he be able to learn their language? And once he had learned their language, he would be able to read their books, learn how to manufacture and operate their cannon and realize his aspiration to travel the world.

In the face of Perry's demands, the shogunate conducted a national survey, calling for solutions to the foreign threat. The shogunate received hundreds of responses, the majority of which, broadly speaking, represented either of two conflicting viewpoints. On one side were those who proposed opening the country to foreigners. Their opponents advocated preserving the centuries-old policy of exclusionism. But neither side offered a constructive means for realizing their proposals. In contrast, the memorial submitted by one unknown samurai was clear, brilliant, progressive, and included concrete advice for the future of Japan. In his memorial Kaishu pointed out that Perry had been able to enter Edo Bay unimpeded only because Japan did not have a navy to defend itself. He urged the shogunate to recruit men for a navy. He dared to propose that the military government break age-old tradition and go beyond birthright to recruit men of ability, rather than the sons of the social elite and certainly there was nobody in all of Edo more poignantly aware of this necessity than this impoverished, brilliant young man from the lower echelons of samurai society. Kaishu advised that the shogunate lift its ban on the construction of warships needed for national defense; that it manufacture Western-style cannon and rifles; that it reform the military according to modern Western standards, and establish military academies. Pointing out the great technological advances being achieved in Europe and the Untied States, Kaishu challenged the narrow-minded traditionalists who opposed the adoption of Western military technology and systems.

Within the first few years after the arrival of Perry, all of Kaishu's proposals were adopted by the shogunate. In January 1855, Kaishu was recruited into government service. In Japanese chronology this corresponded to the second year of the Era of Stable Government, to which purpose Kaishu dedicated the remaining forty-four years of his life. In September, Kaishu sailed to Nagasaki, as one of a select group of thirty-seven Tokugawa retainers to study at the new Nagasaki Naval Academy, where he remained for two and a half years.

In January 1860 Katsu Kaishu commanded the famed Kanrin Maru, a tiny triple-masted schooner, on the first authorized overseas voyage in the history of the Tokugawa Shogunate. Captain Katsu and Company were bound for San Francisco. They preceded the Japanese delegation dispatched to Washington aboard the U.S. steam frigate Powhatan to ratify Japan∂s first commercial treaty. After the arrival of the Powhatan, they would return to Japan to report the safe arrival of the delegation. But more significantly for Captain Katsu and Company was the opportunity to demonstrate the maritime skills they had acquired under their Dutch instructors at Nagasaki, "for," as Kaishu emphasized, "the glory of the Japanese Navy."

Kaishu remained in San Francisco for nearly two months, observing American society, culture and technology. He contrasted American society to that of feudal Japan, where a person was born into one of four castes - warrior, peasant, artisan, merchant - and, for the most part, remained in that caste for life. Of particular interest to Kaishu, who was determined to modernize and indeed democratize his own nation, were certain aspects of American democracy. "There is no distinction between soldier, peasant, artisan or merchant. Any man can be engaged in commerce," he observed. "Even a high-ranking officer is free to set up business once he resigns or retires."

Generally, the samurai, who received a stipend from their feudal lord, looked down upon the men of the merchant class, and considered business for monetary profit a base occupation. "Usually people walking through town do not wear swords, regardless of whether they are soldiers, merchants or government officials," while in Japan it was a samurai's strict obligation to be armed at all times. Kaishu also observed the peculiar relationship between men and women in American society. "A man accompanied by his wife will always hold her hand as he walks." The immense cultural and social gaps notwithstanding, Kaishu, the outsider among his countrymen, was pleased with the Americans. "I had not expected the Americans to express such delight at our arrival to San Francisco, nor for all the people of the city, from the government officials on down, to make such great efforts to treat us so well."

In 1862, Kaishu was appointed vice-commissioner of the Tokugawa Navy. He established his naval academy in Kobe in 1863, with the help of his right-hand man, Sakamoto Ryoma. The following year Kaishu was promoted to the post of navy commissioner, and received the honorary title Awa-no-Kami, Protector of the Province of Awa. In October 1864, Kaishu, who had thus far enjoyed the ear of the shogun, was recalled to Edo, dismissed from his post and placed under house arrest for harboring known enemies of the Tokugawa. His naval academy was closed down, and his generous stipend reduced to a bare minimum.

In 1866 the shogun's forces suffered a series of humiliating defeats at the hands of the revolutionary Choshu Army. Kaishu was subsequently reinstated to his former post by Tokugawa Yoshinobu, Head of the House of Tokugawa, who in the following December would become the fifteenth and last Tokugawa Shogun. Lord Yoshinobu did not like Kaishu, just as Kaishu did not like Lord Yoshinobu. Kaishu was a maverick within the government, who had broken age-old tradition and even law by imparting his expertise to enemies of the shogunate; who openly criticized his less talented colleagues at Edo for their inability, if not blind refusal, to realize that the years, and perhaps even days, of Tokugawa rule were numbered; who in the Grand Hall at Edo Castle had braved punishment and even death by advising then-Shogun Tokugawa Iemochi to abdicate; and who was now recalled to service because Yoshinobu and his aides knew that Kaishu was the only man in all of Edo who wielded both the respect and trust of the revolutionaries.

In August 1866, Navy Commissioner Katsu Kaishu was dispatched to Miyajima - Island of the Shrine - in the domain of Hiroshima to meet representatives of Choshu. Before departing he told Lord Yoshinobu, "I'll have things settled with the Choshu men within one month. If I'm not back by then, you can assume that they've cut off my head." Kaishu was aware of the grave danger to his life as an emissary of the Tokugawa, but nevertheless traveled alone, without a single bodyguard. Shortly after successfully negotiating a peace with Choshu, the outsider resigned his post, due to irreconcilable differences with the powers that were, and returned to his home in Edo.

In October 1867, Shogun Tokugawa Yoshinobu announced his abdication and the restoration of power to the emperor. But diehard oppositionists within the Tokugawa camp were determined to fight the forces of the new imperial government. The leaders of the new imperial government were equally determined to annihilate the remnants of the Tokugawa, to ensure that it would never rise again. Civil war broke out near Kyoto in January 1868. Although the imperial forces, led by Saigo Kichinosuke of Satsuma, were greatly outnumbered, they routed the army of the former shogun in just three days. The new government's leaders now demanded that Yoshinobu commit ritual suicide, and set March 15 as the date fifty thousand imperial troops would lay siege to Edo Castle, and, in so doing, subject the entire city to the flames of war.

The services of Katsu Kaishu were once again indispensable to the Tokugawa. Kaishu desperately wanted to avoid a civil war, which he feared would incite foreign agression. But he was nevertheless bound by his duty as a direct retainer of the Tokugawa to serve in the best interest of his liege lord, Tokugawa Yoshinobu. In March 1868, with a formidable fleet of twelve warships at his disposal, this son of a petty samurai was the most powerful man in Edo. And as head of the Tokugawa army, he was determined to burn Edo Castle rather than relinquish it in battle, and to wage a bloody civil war against Saigo∂s forces. When Kaishu was informed of the imperial government's plans for imminent attack, he immediately sent a letter to Saigo. In this letter Kaishu wrote that the retainers of the Tokugawa were an inseparable part of the new Japanese nation. Instead of fighting with one another, those of the new government and the old must cooperate in order to deal with the very real threat of the foreign powers, whose legations in Japan anxiously watched the great revolution which had consumed the Japanese nation for these past fifteen years.

Saigo replied with a set of conditions, including the peaceful surrender of Edo Castle, which must be met if the House of Tokugawa was to be allowed to survive, Yoshinobu's life spared, and war avoided. At an historic meeting with Saigo on March 14, one day before the planned attack, Kaishu accepted Saigo's conditions, and went down in history as the man who not only saved the lives and property of Edo's one million inhabitants, but also the entire Japanese nation.

Copyright©2002 Romulus Hillsborough This article originally appeared in the Summer 2002 issue of Tokyo Journal.

Some commercial martial arts schools maintain very high martial art standards and produce high caliber, dedicated martial artists. Unfortunately, others put their profit motives ahead of their martial art standards. Such martial businesses will often employ trite tactics to attract and keep their students. Moreover, such “schools” will generally set standards that have mass appeal, or that are easily attainable over time, in order to ensure their financial stability. Ironically those strategies merely devalue the martial art experience, by diluting or trivializing it, and they will ultimately loose long-term student due to disappointment and demoralization. This treatise will examine some of the divergences between martial arts and commercial perspectives.

If a school dedicates itself to the systematic delivery of a quality curriculum, with high standards, it will most inevitably produce black belts. More importantly, it will produce dedicated, quality martial artists who practice the art because they revel in its substance and not because they are pursuing an adornment for their waist. If a school defines the black belt as a student’s goal, why would a student continue to practice and train after reaching black belt as the goal has been met?

To continue striving at an activity, after one’s goal is accomplished, brings a demoralizing sense of futility and redundancy. Small wonder then that so many schools find that their students often leave upon, or shortly after, attaining their black belt. The seeds for their departure were planted on the day that their instructor identified their goal as being the achievement of the black belt! In so doing, the instructor had done both the school and the student a phenomenal disservice.

Aristotle said: “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act, but a habit". In order to produce martial artists, capable of performing physical and mental feats at the level of art, they must habitually push themselves and practice at the limits of their abilities. That will inevitably not appeal to everyone and it will result in a certain level of attrition, which must be accepted as a normal part of human endeavour. Lowering standards in order to retain clientele relegates a martial arts school to the unenviable status of “McDojo” and is a contravention of the most fundamental tenets or philosophies of any credible martial art.

The high standards of physical fitness and technical proficiency normally required by a martial art are not easily attainable by everyone. Martial businesses that put profit priorities ahead of martial art standards may choose to award rank advancements based on floor time versus on technical proficiency. That not only make a mockery of the art, but it also demoralizes those students who’ve learned the required course materials and voluntarily maintained high standards. Also, the students that are granted promotions, primarily based on floor time, are robbed of the sense of accomplishment that is earned from overcoming difficulties while striving to attain a challenging goal. Therefore, promotions based on anything but real progress will have an overall detrimental effect on the student population’s moral and ultimately on the school’s reputation.

To best understand why promotions must be correlated to actual progress one need only consider analogous situations. How many of us would willingly fly on an airplane piloted by someone who was given a pilot’s license for merely showing up at class? Or, how many of us would be willing to submit to surgery at the hands of someone who was given a surgical diploma for time spent in class versus for having demonstrated an understanding of the requisite course material and the technical ability to operate? Why then should it be considered acceptable to promote martial artists as a function of anything but legitimate progress or proficiency?

No amount of gimmickry can consistently and successfully sell a mediocre product. Martial Arts schools seeking commercial success would do well to remember that. The very best marketing tool that one can have when selling a product is having a good product. Therefore the best way to attain commercial viability as a martial arts school is to consistently offer a good martial art program and to maintain high standards. The few clients that are lost due to the rigors of those standards will be more than offset by the influx of students resulting from the reputation the school will ultimately gain from its excellence.

Abraham Lincoln once said, "If I was given eight hours to chop down a tree. I would spend seven hours sharpening my ax." Clearly the message is that when faced with a task preparation is paramount. So too is the case for martial arts instructors or school owners; if great attention is paid to preparation of the school’s product the remainder will take care of itself or at the very least it will require little further effort.

In June 1853, Commodore Matthew Perry of the United States Navy led a squadron of four heavily armed warships into Sagami Bay, to the Port of Uraga, just south of the shogun's capital at Edo. What the Americans found was a technologically backward, though intricately complicated, island nation, under the rule of the House of Tokugawa, that had been isolated from the rest of the world for two and a half centuries.

Whether or not the Americans realized the far-reaching effects of their gunboat diplomacy, they now set into motion a coup de theatre which fifteen years hence would transform the conglomerate of some 260 feudal domains into a single, unified country. When the fifteenth and last shogun, Yoshinobu Tokugawa, abdicated his rule and restored the emperor to his ancient seat of power in November 1867, Japan was well on its way to becoming an industrialized nation, rapidly modernizing and Westernizing in a unique Japanese sense.

Quite a transformation in just fifteen years, and much of the credit goes to a lower ranking samurai from the Tosa domain named Sakamoto Ryoma. When Ryoma fled his native Tosa in spring 1862, he was a "nobody." Although he was a renowned swordsman who had served as head of an elite fencing academy in Edo, and was also a leader of the young samurai in Tosa who advocated the radical slogans Expelling the Barbarians, Imperial Reverence and Toppling the Shogunate, in the eyes of the power that were he was a "nobody." He had never held an official post, and he never would. When in the following October the "nobody" met Katsu Kaishu, the enlightened commissioner of the shogun's navy, it might have been with intent to assassinate him. But, of course, Ryoma did not kill Kaishu. Instead, this champion of samurai who would overthrow the shogunate and expel the barbarians became the devoted follower of the elite shogunal official. Kaishu opened Ryoma's eyes to the futility of trying to defend against a foreign onslaught without first developing a powerful navy; and to this end Japan desperately needed Western technology and expertise.

Ryoma now worked with Kaishu, whom he called "the greatest man in Japan," to establish a naval academy in Kobe, where he and his comrades studied the naval arts and sciences under their revered mentor. But certain of his hotheaded comrades called Ryoma a turncoat for siding with the enemy, which, of course, was not true. As if to belie the false accusation, in the following June Ryoma vowed, in a letter to his sister, to "clean up Japan once and for all." What he was talking about was overthrowing the military government, which Kaishu loyally served.

Earlier in the same month, ships of the United States and France had shelled the radical Choshu domain in retaliation for Choshu's having recently fired upon foreign ships passing through Shimonoseki Strait. News of the attack deeply troubled Ryoma, who was concerned about possible designs among the Western powers, particularly France and England, to colonize Japan as the latter had China. When Ryoma learned that the foreign ships that had bombarded Choshu were subsequently repaired at a Tokugawa shipyard in Edo, he was fighting mad. "It is really too bad that Choshu started a war last month by shelling foreign ships," he wrote his sister. "This does not benefit Japan at all. But what really disgusts me is that the ships they shot up in Choshu are being repaired at Edo, and when they're fixed will head right back to Choshu to fight again. This is all because corrupt officials in Edo are in league with the barbarians." But, now, through the good offices of Katsu Kaishu, Ryoma too was in league with some very powerful men. "Although those corrupt shogunal officials have a great deal of power now, I'm going to get the help of two or three daimyo and enlist likeminded men so we can start thinking more about the good of Japan, and not only the Imperial Court. Then, I'll get together with my friends in Edo (you know, Tokugawa retainers, daimyo and so on) to go after those wicked officials and cut them down."

Ryoma was not opposed to boasting, and he had a big ego, declaring to his sister: "It's a shame that there aren't more men like me around the country." For all his boasting, however, Ryoma was also a realist. "I don't expect that I'll be around too long. But I'm not about to die like any average person either. I'm only prepared to die when big changes finally come, when even if I continue to live I will no longer be of any use to the country. But since I'm fairly shifty, I'm not likely to die so easily. But seriously, although I was born a mere potato digger in Tosa, a nobody, I'm destined to bring about great changes in the nation. But I'm definitely not going to get puffed up about it. Quite the contrary! I'm going to keep my nose to the ground, like a clam in the mud. So don't worry about me!"

It seems that Ryoma was also an incredible visionary who foresaw his own destination. Four years later the "nobody" from Tosa forced the peaceful abdication of Shogun Tokugawa Yoshinobu, and the restoration of the emperor to power - the event that historians call the Meiji Restoration.

But how could Ryoma - who had plunged from the status of "nobody," to that of outlaw, and one of the most wanted men on a long list of Tokugawa enemies - be of sufficient consequence to force the abdication of the generalissimo of the 267-year-old samurai government? And what were his reasons for doing so, even at the risk of his own life? To answer the second question first, and to put it quite simply, Ryoma was a lover of freedom - the freedom to act, the freedom to think, and the freedom to be. These were the ideals that drove Ryoma on his dangerous quest for freedom - which, of course, was nothing less than the salvation of Japan. But the greatest obstacle to this freedom, and to the salvation of Japan from foreign subjugation, was the antiquated Tokugawa system, with its hundreds of feudal domains and suppressive class structure, which men like Katsu Kaishu and Sakamoto Ryoma meant to replace with a representative form of government styled after the great Western powers, and based on a free-class society and open commerce with the rest of the world.

While Ryoma was painfully aware of the necessity to eliminate the shogunate, the means for revolution eluded him. Having abandoned Tosa, he was a ronin, an outlaw samurai - a status which at once aided and confounded him. Unlike his comrades-in-arms from Choshu, Satsuma and other samurai clans, he was not bound to the service of feudal lord and clan. On the other hand he did not enjoy the financial support and protection of a powerful feudal domain. After much trial and tribulation, and as his first giant step toward realizing his great objective, Ryoma devised a preposterous plan of convincing Satsuma and Choshu to join forces with one another as the only means to topple the shogunate. But Satsuma and Choshu were bitter enemies whose hate for one another surpassed even that hate which they had historically harbored toward the Tokugawa. What's more, the braggart Ryoma had a reputation for exaggerating. When he told his friends of his plan, some initially dismissed it as so much "hot air," while others simply thought he was crazy. But in addition to many other talents, Ryoma, a truly Renaissance man, was endowed with an uncanny power of persuasion. After a year of planning and negotiation, in January 1866, Ryoma, now an indispensable "nobody," successfully brokered a military alliance between Satsuma and Choshu, which more than anything else hastened the collapse of the Tokugawa Shogunate.

Although the shogunate had not yet learned of the secret alliance, Tokugawa police agents strongly suspected that Ryoma was up to no good. On the night after the alliance was sealed in Kyoto, Ryoma was ambushed by a Tokugawa police squad, as he and a samurai of Choshu, who had been assigned as Ryoma's bodyguard, celebrated their great success in a second-story room at Ryoma's favorite inn, the Teradaya, on the outskirts of the Imperial capital. A young maidservant at the inn, named Oryo, had been soaking in a hot bath when she heard the assailants break into the house. Oryo immediately ran from the bathroom stark naked up the dark staircase to warn the two men upstairs. The scene is a very famous one, as is the ensuing battle, during which Ryoma wielded a Smith & Wesson revolver, his bodyguard a lethal spear, to fend off their assailants and escape through the backdoor. Equally famous is the wedding between Ryoma and Oryo, which took place soon after, and their subsequent trip to the hot-spring baths in the Kirishima mountains of Satsuma, which was supposedly the first honeymoon in Japan.

In spring 1867, Ryoma established his Kaientai, Japan's first modern corporation and the precursor to the Mitsubishi. Based in the international port-city of Nagasaki, the Kaientai was a private navy and shipping firm through which Ryoma and his men ran guns for the Choshu and Satsuma revolutionaries.

In the previous June, Ryoma had commanded a warship in a sea-battle off Shimonoseki, in which he aided Choshu's Extraordinary Corps, Japan's first modern militia, comprising both samurai and peasants, in a rout of Tokugawa naval forces. While Ryoma's anti-Tokugawa comrades from Satsuma and Choshu prepared to crush the shogunate by military might, the "nobody" from Tosa devised a plan to avoid bloody civil war and foreign intervention. Ryoma's "Great Plan at Sea," an eight-point plan which he wrote aboard ship, called for the shogun to return the reins of government to the Imperial Court; for the establishment of Upper and Lower Houses of government; for all government measures to be based on public opinion, and decided by councilors comprised of the most able feudal lords, court nobles and the Japanese people at large. Rather than merely saying that Ryoma was once again "blowing hot air," or that he was "crazy," there were now some among his comrades who felt betrayed. These men advocated complete annihilation of the shogunate to assure it would never rise again, and felt that Ryoma was a traitor. But Ryoma convinced one of his more level-headed friends, Goto Shojiro, who was a close aide to Yamanouchi Yodo, the influential Lord of Tosa, to urge Yodo to endorse the plan. Meanwhile, Ryoma continued to run guns for the revolutionaries, because he knew that the only way to convince the shogun to abdicate would be to demonstrate that his only alternative was military annihilation, which, of course, was no alternative at all. Lord Yodo took Goto's advice and sent Ryoma's plan to the shogun, as if it were his own brainchild. Eleven days later, on October 14, 1867, in the Grand Hall of Nijo Castle in Kyoto, as Satsuma and Choshu hastened their final war plans, the shogun announced his abdication before his adversaries had the chance to strike.

With the overthrow of the corrupt and decrepit Tokugawa regime, the "nobody" from Tosa had made good on his vow to "clean up Japan" - although, unfortunately for his country, he would pay for it with his life. Sakamoto Ryoma was assassinated one month later, on November 15, his thirty-second birthday, in the second-story room in the house of a wealthy soy dealer in Kyoto which he used as a hideout.

Equally unfortunate for Ryoma's country was that cleaning up Japan "once and for all" proved to be too long a period of time, even for a genius like Ryoma. This is why, amidst the rampant corruption in Japanese business circles today, many people in Japan have expressed their wish that a leader of Ryoma's caliber would somehow miraculously emerge. A couple years ago executives of 200 Japanese corporations were asked by Asahi Shimbun, an national daily newspaper, the question: "Who from the past millennium of world history would be most useful in overcoming Japan's current financial crisis?" Sakamoto Ryoma received more mention than any other historical figure, topping such giants as Thomas Edison, Leonardo da Vinci, Saigo Takamori, Oda Nobunaga and the founders of NEC and Honda. Evidently many Japanese people today think their country needs a good scrubbing once again.

Copyright©2002 Romulus Hillsborough

A Martial Art can be defined as a system of physical and mental techniques developed for self-defense, or as an offense mechanism and may be unarmed or employ the use of weapons. The origin of Martial Arts is controversial but signs of Martial Arts appear in Egyptian, Greek, African, Japanese, Chinese, Thai and other cultures. Hence, any study of Martial Arts is challenged with deciphering between folklore, fact and fiction.

HOOLIGANISM, SPORTS AND ARTS

Hooliganism is the behavior of ruffians that are typified by rowdy, brutal and violent conduct. Sports, though competitive and at times violent, distinguish themselves from hooliganism in that their competitive actives are governed by a set of rules that define the competition in question as well as acceptable behaviour. In addition to having distinct codes of conduct, Martial Arts are distinguished from sports in that they incorporate philosophies, rituals, traditions and intellectual components into their structures. It has been said that martial arts without etiquette are nothing more than street fighting. Its also due to etiquette and self control that Martial Arts practitioners can survive the learning and developmental phases of their training without being hurt or killed.

THE MEANING OF RANK

Many Martial Arts have a system of ranks that are used to indicate relative levels of proficiency or authority or both. Most often these ranks are denoted by a series of color and black belts however these systems are highly dependent on the art, the school and the instructor. Some arts don't have any belts, some arts have only white and black, some arts have white, brown, and black and some arts have a broad range.

INSTRUCTOR VERSUS MENTOR; THE DISTINGUISHING BOND

Most specialized activities can only be mastered under the tutorage of a teacher or instructor; Martial Arts are no exception. Perhaps because Martial Arts often involve the learning of skills that are beyond the realm of the average human experience, the Martial Arts student - teacher relationship is a very special one however. Good Martial Arts instructors are plentiful but some distinguish themselves by becoming the embodiment of their chosen art in addition to achieving technical excellence. Such instructors live their art and generally take a particular interest in furthering it by instilling their passion in their apprentices. A student fortunate enough to find such a tutor will benefit greatly from the partnership because a true mentor gives knowledge freely, is motivated by the students well being, as opposed to his own, and does not let his status inhibit or overwhelm the relationship .

PRIDE VERSUS VANITY; THE UNRELATED COUSINS

A degree of pride is essential in order to motivate a Martial Arts student to perfect technical performance. Conceit and egotism, the cornerstones of vanity, have no place in Martial Arts and will ultimately undermine any "Martial Artist" that endeavors to build an art upon them.

PROMOTION VERSUS PROGRESSION

In most traditional Martial Arts, advancement through the ranks is governed by a clearly defined set of perquisites for promotion. Typically, requirements include a minimum time component, a level of technical proficiency and the attainment of the mental attitude appropriate for the rank in question. Hence, the belt ranks are quality control indicators or progression sign posts .

Some instructors rapidly promote students without adherence to the predefined criteria under the guise or belief that promotion is an incentive to continued performance. That approach relegates belt rank promotions to the status of being a reward, or extrinsic motivator, rather than being an indicator of proficiency. Those instructors may believe that such a method is effective, however there is a significant and growing body of scientific evidence to the contrary.

The effectiveness of using an extrinsic or external reward, such as a belt rank promotion, as motivation to ensure short or long-term performance has been widely studied by behaviorists. Numerous, studies have shown that extrinsic rewards do not produce changes that are permanent. Deci (1971) found that subjects who voluntarily performed a task during an experiment were more likely to continue working on the task, after the experiment concluded, than were subjects that been paid to perform the same task. A token economy is a system in which money-like tokens are given for correct behaviors. Kazdin and Bootzin (1972) provided one of the first major reviews of token economies proving them to be ineffective at producing permanent behavior changes. Hence, in the Martial Arts context, offering a belt rank promotion as a "token" will not motivate a student to continue striving beyond receipt of the promotion. Perhaps even more noteworthy is that Lepper, Greene, and Nisbett (1973) demonstrated that rewarding children with extrinsic rewards can actually reduce their innate interest in something. In that study a group of children who all had an intrinsic interest in drawing were divided into two groups, one that was paid to draw and another that was asked to draw without remuneration. Subsequently, it was found that the children that had been paid suffered a diminished interest in drawing after the study was concluded. Again within the Martial Arts context, using a belt rank promotion as a reward for performing Martial Arts techniques could ultimately decrease the practitioner’s initial interest level. Finally, if teachers bribe students with extrinsic rewards to do something, then what is that saying about the activity? It is telling them that the activity must not be very important if one has to be coerced into doing it; the activity must not be exciting on its own. Kohn (1993) (p.785) describes this concept as follows; "extrinsic rewards turn learning from an end into a means". For these reasons, belt rank promotions should be presented in recognition of a student’s progress and accomplishment rather than as an incentive or a reward.

Apart from the arguments above, relating to motivation, there may be other detriments to accelerated or undeserved promotion. Children, in particular, who are promoted too quickly are robbed of the special sense of accomplishment that comes from achieving a hard sought after goal. Furthermore, it may delude them into a false impression of their actual skill level making them dangerous to themselves as well as others. Moreover, and again for children in particular, holding a rank beyond ones means or experience level can be physically and psychologically detrimental in the event that the student is pitted against peers such as in an open competition. The trauma of being overwhelmed by lack of experience, as a result of frivolous promotion, is preventable and reprehensible when it is allowed to occur. Finally, many Martial Arts are very demanding physically and undue stresses may be inflicted due to accelerated promotions. Whereas some instructors may use accelerated promotions under the unfortunate misconception that they are motivating a student, some may be less noble and may be doing so for their own monetary or egotistical benefit. In some cases testing fees or senior belt rank numbers become incentives to an instructor for issuing promotions. This is a reprehensible breach of the ethics of most any true Martial Art and it cannot be condoned or rationalized by any credible means.

In addition to the tenents, protocols, principles and philosophies of their respective art, Martial Arts instructors have many compelling reasons to be methodical and cautious when developing or applying belt rank promotion strategies. If the Martial Arts community and its practitioners are to be well served, its instructors must ensure that promotions will only be granted when the necessary progression has occurred. Anything less is naïve, irresponsible or mercenary.

THE VALUE OF STRUGGLE

On May 29, 1953 Mr. Edmund Hillary and a Nepalese Sherpa, Tenzing Norgay, became the first two humans to reach the summit of Mount Everest, the highest point on earth. To this day, their achievement is regarded as one of man’s notable accomplishments. However, would their effort be held in the same esteem if they had been flown to the summit by helicopter? It is the scale of their struggle that made their accomplishment notable.

Likewise in Martial Arts, it is the scale of the struggle that makes a promotion noteworthy. If a promotion is granted without a corresponding effort or accomplishment, then it is meaningless.

A BLACK BELT; EASY TO WEAR BUT CHALLENGING TO BE

To most junior Martial Artists, the Black Belt is the coveted goal. Ironically, most people who attain the rank will attest to the fact that the Black Belt is more of a beginning than a destination. The Black Belt rank is merely a recognition that the practitioner has persevered sufficiently as to become proficient at the basics or foundation of the art in question. It is through the Black Belt rank that the learning truly begins, as it is the rank that gives the practitioner the opportunity to explore the more esoteric aspect of the art now that technical fundamentals have been acquired. In any case, the rank in itself is meaningless if the practitioner does not become an embodiment of its intent. In most Martial Arts the Black Belt rank indicates a dogged determination however it should not be a symbol of fear but rather one that serves to enthuse, motivate and inspire. Having a Black Belt is fairly easy as compared to the humbling challenge of being a Black Belt.

References:

Deci, Edward (1971). The effect of externally mediated rewards on intrinsic motivation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 18, 105-115.

Kazdin, A. E., & Bootzin, R.R. (1972). The token economy: An evaluative review. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 5, 343-372.

Kohn, A. (1993). Punished By Rewards. New York: Houghton Mifflin Co.

Lepper, M. R., Greene, D., & Nisbett, R. E. (1973). Undermining children's intrinsic interest with extrinsic rewards: A test of the "over justification" hypothesis. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 28, 129-137.

I trained hard and long each day and I found myself admiring those better than I and saying someday, just maybe someday I will be that good. I remember winning my first Shiai back in 64 and feeling special about myself! I remember my Sensei asking me how many times did you practice O Goshi (hip throw) and I would answer: SIR! 45 times, he would say, do it another 45 and I will come check you out.

I remember standing in front of those mirrors for hours and hours practicing my basic punch and doing katas until I thought that I would drop with exhaustion. I remember laying in bed at night practicing my side kick until the foot bent just right and it looked great. I remember testing in front of the honorable Black Belt Board and waiting for 3 months just to find out if I had passed or not!! (Patience)

I could go on and on and on, but what I really want to know and if anyone out there know's, please write me and tell me why is it today that someone with the rank of 2nd or 4th degree black belt can advance on the spot without even having their Gi on, (let alone testing) for it? I have personally seen this happen in so called hall of fames and over the internet; some people are being promoted to 7th and 8th and higher for tremendous amounts of money. THIS MUST CEASE!!!!!! I beg of you, if you are a true Martial Artist, do not expect a higher rank than that of what you know you have earned by blood, sweat and tears!! And most of all, make sure it is being awarded by your true Sensei, the one that put the basics in your life, the one who stood beside you when things were tough.

Today, almost anyone can get a masters rank from some Org. or Fed., or whatever. We must stop this before the community starts laughing at us who claim Martial Arts mastery. Also, there must be only 1 Hall of Fame in the arts. Baseball or football does not have 6 or 76, there is 1 ONE. I would like to propose that all of you who have sponsored halls of fame get together and come up with some positive ideas about this. I also would like to see where it takes at least 3 known Grandmasters to accept an individual into the Hall of Fame.

How many of you agree with me on this?? How does it feel to put 30 or 42 years in the Martial Arts and be on the Hall of Fame stage with a Black Belt of 23 yrs of age or even younger, getting the same glory you are as a Pioneer.

I will sign off now, and if I offended anyone, then the shoe must fit. I do believe I will hear of many of you who believe like I do and we must change this for the sake of our Students, our Children, as well as for the (integrity of the arts.)

Thanks for your time.