Ohio Tombo Bujinkan Dojo

No Monday class this coming week due to the Memorial Day holiday.

Thanks to Shihan Dustin Mowery (seen here causing me great pain in multiple places 😁) for a great Koto Ryu class last night!

“You must prove your rank.”
宗家Nagato
( April 13th 2024 )

If you understand, you understand.
If you don’t, you don’t.
It’s quite simple.

“It is not a matter of whether the degree ranks have value or not. Any perceived value is totally subjective anyway. Value is in the mind of the beholder. What is important here is to know the facts of just how the degree licenses are given out. It is also true that the time has come for certain people to feel embarrassed if they are satisfied with certificates of rank that were based solely on the premature hopes that those persons would someday develop skills worthy of the title they carry. Many highly-skilled Bujinkan Dōjō instructors are now moving out into the world. A person may claim that he has such-and-such a rank, but I can say that even though the rank is issued under my authority, it cannot be right. After that, it is up to the individual. It is up to his own effort to succeed or fail.
I do not even think about such things as the Bujinkan Dōjō reputation being disgraced because of my actions. The whole world is our training hall, so of course when certain students stumble or fail the whole world will see the Bujinkan tempering process in operation. If critics want to call that a disgrace, there is nothing that I can do about it.”
宗家Hatsumi

In the Bujinkan, rank has never been a single-dimensional measurement. It’s not purely for technical skill and understanding, and it’s not purely symbolic - it’s contextual, relational, deeply personal and often not following conventional norms thus at times, controversial to the misunderstood.

段位は終点ではなく、問いである。
Dan-i wa shūten de wa naku, toi de aru.
“Rank is not an endpoint, but a question.”

Practitioners must come to realise that Rank is not for just one thing - it is given for many things, and not always just for what they want to believe it’s for.

Some examples:

技術の評価 (Gijutsu no hyōka)
– evaluation of technical ability
信頼の証 (Shinrai no akashi)
– a sign of trust
貢献への感謝 (Kōken e no kansha)
– gratitude for contribution
関係性の表現 (Kankeisei no hyōgen)
– expression of relationship
成長の節目 (Seichō no fushime)
– a milestone in one’s path

At times, rank is also given if a teacher falls ill, and is forced to take action quickly for the sake of the Ryûha and lineage’s continuance.

Because of this, no two people with the same rank have necessarily arrived there for the same reasons, but often through very different “currents” along the same river.

Please think well.

南虎

Another great day of training.
www.tombodojo.com

Yesterday, the Robert F. Johnson dojo families got together for a seminar. It was a good reminder of how far-reaching one life can be. This picture is from 23 years ago as we quite literally followed in Johnson-sensei's footsteps on our Budo path. It's tempting to say that we are still following in his footsteps, but I don't think that's what he would have wanted. Instead, I think it is better to remember what Matsuo Basho said: “Do not seek the traces of the ancients; seek that which the ancients sought.” (古人の跡を求めず、古人が求めたる所を求めよ)

Bufu Ikkan.

It’s a great day of training and camaraderie. Bufu Ikkan!