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 Several
years ago, one of my Jukido
students at Brandeis University
gave me a thank you present which
I have continued to enjoy and
share ever since. She made two
signs designed to hang in the
dojo: one with the Japanese
characters for Jukido and one
with the characters for Kokondo.
It was a special present because
we are not the only group at the
university to use our dojo, and I
wanted something permanent that
could stay there all the time and
remind people to respect the room
which was special to me and to
the Kokondo students at Brandeis.
While the rest of the room and
the equipment in it increasingly
show signs of age and wear, those
bright yellow signs with black
calligraphy proudly remain as
shiny and clean as when they were
first hung on the wall. Last
Wednesday during a Jukido class,
we were doing throws by the count
for over an hour without a break.
For the last fifteen minutes we
did speed throws, where each
group of partners had to perform
as many repetitions as possible
of a certain nage waza within a
limited time period. As I watched
each individual’s
techniques, I considered how long
he or she had been practicing
Jukido and also how long it had
been since they first the learned
the throws they executed. In the
case of our white belts, I was
favorably impressed by several
clean osoto-gari and their
overall improved posture and
balance during ogoshi. Yet, I was
not as happy with some of the
higher belts, as their accuracy
was less consistent than I had
hoped it would be. Periodically,
I saw someone execute a great
harai goshi followed by a
miserable seiotoshi, and I
wondered what had we all done
wrong.
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After
the throws, the exhausted students sat down in a
circle to catch their breath, and I was looking
for the right words to motivate them enough to
carry on for another hour with improved accuracy
and safety as we covered self-defense and weapons
kata. As I was thinking, I looked up at the
Kokondo sign and it occurred to me exactly what I
wanted to say to them. The word
“Kokondo” is composed of the three
characters, which several volunteers identified
as “past” (ko), “present”
(kon), and “the way of” (do). Together,
it means “the way of the past and the
present.” Rather than delve further into the
standard translation and interpretation offered
by Sankosho , in this instance I asked the
students to think of a specific throw they had
just practiced and apply it to the meaning of the
Kokondo characters. Most people were very
confused and thought I was off my rocker.
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Nevertheless,
I went on to explain that each of the three
characters within the word Kokondo can have many
meanings and can be used in many different
contexts and combinations, just like the
individual techniques found in kata. I suggested
that each student think about the day they
learned their specific throw, and picture what
they looked like practicing it that day. We will
let that picture be “ko”- the past. Now
I had them think about how the throw felt today,
when they really nailed the kuzushi, tsukuri, and
kake (unbalancing, entrance, and execution)--
which we can call “kon”- the present.
Suddenly, those who had felt frustrated by their
inconsistencies realized how far they come since
they first learned the technique. The white belts
were forced to consider how much they had learned
in only two months of classes, while realizing
how hard the higher belts with years of
experience still needed to work in order to
progress. As the sensei, I had a better idea of
each student’s progress and was reminded of
the areas I needed to concentrate on more to get
everyone ready to learn their next technique and
eventually, test for their next rank.
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Finally,
the last character hanging on the wall,
“do,” served to remind each of us of
the most important lesson of the day. Aside from
serving as the literal connecting word in
Kokondo, “do” represents the individual
and personal path that we are all on in our study
of Kokondo karate and Jukido. While we practice
together, and we each learn and perform the same
kata and techniques, we are all in this system
for our personal reasons. We all sink into slumps
occasionally, especially as one continues an
activity or endeavor for a long time. One of the
tricks of boosting oneself out of such a slump,
whether it is a certain throw, a difficult
movement in a kata, or more seriously, a question
about continuing one’s training, is to let
the Kokondo characters serve as a guide for you.
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Think
back on all of the hard work and time you
invested to learn and improve your techniques.
Picture yourself in the past, as you struggled to
grasp the basics of a technique. Then consider
how much better you have become at it, and how
much more you seem to understand the goal, even
if you have not yet perfected the execution.
Finally, and very importantly, think about how
much more work there is to be done, because as
you continue to master the technique, what you
are really doing is mastering yourself. I think
it is fair to say that one method of identifying
people with character is to look for individuals
who consistently try to improve at something,
always remembering that working towards
perfection is more important than actually
achieving it.
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