Kawaraban No. 79

10/2009

by Waka Sensei

Unfortunately I am not quite sure, who said the following words: „If we want to live in a peaceful world without bloodshed we have to make much more efforts than with bloodshed.”

Those words exactly reflect my Aikido principle.

Twelve Aikido students from Serbia came to Japan to attend the world seminar in October. According to their reports there is war in Serbia and the other countries of former Yugoslavia for about fifty years, and during almost all periods they made miserable experiences.

Those students seriously intend to change their fatherland by Aikido. We as Japanese should be quite surprised hearing this.  If the spirit of Aikido would have taken root in the countries of former Yugoslavia, wouldn’t it not been possible to avoid this miserable war? It is very impressing when they tell you this with an earnest look.

Helping your fatherland with Aikido … Aikido is necessary just because they went through such sad experience. Hearing this, I am not quite sure whether we Japanese should not take much more efforts.

This year took place successfully the 40th anniversary of the establishment of Tendoryu Aikido, and the world seminar became a further important stepping stone. Shimizu Sensei for the first time made the experience of a meeting of all Tendoryu students from all over the world, and this opportunity to participate in the development of Tendoryu Aikido was a chance to realize our dream. Aikido is no Budo art, where people get hurt. Many people, Tendoryu students with different nationalities and different languages, came together in a single Dojo and practiced.

Of course we cannot change the world, but we can change the hearts of the people. One week was really short; People from various countries gathered in Japan, and I wish that it were a valuable experience for the whole life for every single one of the many participants.