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| What We Do Just wanted to make clear some of the distinctions in the 3 styles we practice that have been mixed together. Toyama Ryu does NOT; wear a wakizashi, do any cuts other than those in rokudan giri, have any depth to it, or is considered a "Do" art. Botto Do/Jutsu; is simply an organization that has developed a set of Kata and cutting patterns, tests and awards dan ranks based on their own standards, is NOT a style, and is open to any individual or sword group that either wants to learn what the organization teaches and/or participate in their taikais and seminars. Hataya Sensei developed and organized his own "way". He named it "Seizankai" or cutting group. He has a varied amount of experience in many traditional martial arts including Koryu and Gendai arts. He is trying to bring the Japanese spirit of Budo (the positive side of it) back to the people. Thusly we wear waki's, do a big variety of cuts, train in waki cutting and kata, and Lord knows what's on the horizon. As a caveat, this is as I understand it today. I did not know this much last year and hope to know more next year. This is an evolving art form that we do and the sky may be the limit. Bob Elder |
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| Teacher What is a teacher? Or better yet, what is a "True Teacher"? There are a million different types of teachers and levels of understanding in those teachers and motivations for their teaching. Our ideas are this: A "True" teacher is one who reflects what the student is doing and "gives" it back to the student. A true teacher (sensei in our case) will have no ulterior motives. At best they will be interested in the student's growth. How a student takes what a teacher tells him can be a problem. We tend to "see" through convoluted glasses. Our egos are powerful and do not want to be offended. One of our sayings is: "If that steps on your toes your feet are too big!" The sensei's eyes should merely bounce back at the deshi what the deshi is doing. In the performance of kata, most of us get pretty good at one or two things and the heck with the hard stuff. A teacher must be careful to only be a mirror for the student. Anything more (on the sensei's part) indicates hidden motivation. That is unacceptable in our way of thinking and would lead to the type of teachers you get at the shopping center martial arts (and I use the term really lightly) centers. One reason they are so successfull is that most folks do not like to look themselves in the eyes. It makes them nervous. They don't like what they see and as a result fall back on what we are raised with, go shopping, keep all our attention outside of our heads with new gadgets, faster cars, bigger houses and so forth. We are trained by our government and some religions to stay away from any thought processes that allow inward and/or critical thinking that would lead to a better more fulfilling life. In closing, the true teacher constantly faces himself. Students come to that type of person who through love can show them the way. That is what we strive for in our particular sword training. Bob Elder |
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