TAYORI
Selected Articles from Issue 4
November 2000
RANK TESTING FALL
2000
The fall rank testing of Hilo Seishikan Aikido has
just been completed and we would like to congratulate all those who
tested. Even the heavy rains couldn’t
dampen our spirits, as most of our members participated in testing.
The club instructors met following the rank testing
on Monday evening, November 13, and reviewed the testing and the test
requirements. They were very pleased
with the performance of the test arts.
Everyone felt that the students displayed much more than is visible in
regular practice sessions. They also
felt that the students had generally performed even better than they had
expected! There were also arts
identified as the ones needing to be worked on, and these will be reviewed in
the various classes in the near future.
The students were individually graded and evaluated by the members of
the testing board. The tests and
procedures were also evaluated and a few minor changes will be made prior to
the next testing.
Now that the testing is over, we need to focus on
where we are at and to set our sights on moving on ahead. We have the finest set of instructors that
one can hope to have.
NOW WHAT?
Okay, so the rank testing is pau. Now what?
This question was asked of some of our instructors, and their responses
are reported here:
Adams-sensei:
“You all showed understanding of the basic movements of the arts. Now, we need to polish certain fundamental
movements to make the waza more effective.
Congratulations to all of you for a job well done!”
Kahana-sensei:
“Keep up the level of aikido that was displayed tonight. Extension of ki was shown very well.”
Yamamoto-sensei:
“They did good work in the testing and the practicing for the test. Now we need to work on putting in more
feeling into performance of the arts.”
Walker-sensei:
We were proud of our students’ achievements after watching their
performance at our first rank testing.
However, a serious reminder!
Your hard work to improve begins now!
There’s always room for every one of us to improve.”
Kamau-sensei:
“Practice in class with as much effort as they put in during the test.”
C. Yonemori-sensei:
“Performance during the testing was really good. Now, we have to practice with this same
level of intensity and desire. We also
need to think about and set our goals for the immediate future and long-range
also. Keep up the good work
everyone!”
“HILO SEISHIKAN AIKIDO”
At the rank testing on Monday, November 13, we had
for the first time placed a kanji (Chinese writing) of our club’s name on the
shomen. Reverand Daien Soga of the Puna
Hongwanji was kind enough to take up his brush and do the kanji for us. The result is really beautiful! We had the writing mounted and framed for
use on the shomen. We will be having
smaller copies made for individual classes to use, too.
The character of the kanji literally spell out the
“Seishikan” in our club’s name. The
first character spells out “Sei” and refers to “righteousness, sincerity,
truthfulness.” The “Shi” refers to the
“will or determination.” The final
character is “Kan” which means “place.”
In other words, Seishikan means the place to develop the will and
determination to be righteous, truthful, and sincere. We feel that this will help us to become the kind of people we
would like to become. The writing
placed on the shomen then serves as a reminder for all of us to strive to be
this kind of people.
We would like to express our thanks to Reverand Soga
for his kindness and thoughfulness in helping us out. Thank you!
RIGHTEOUSNESS, SINCERITY, TRUTHFULNESS
Righteousness – Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
Sincerity – Be sincere in all that you do
and say. Mean what you say and do to
and for others.
Truthfulness – Be honest and truthful to
others and to yourself. To thine own
self, be true. Look yourself in the
eye.
Back to:
HILO
SEISHIKAN AIKIDO
O-Shima Ryu
Hilo, Hawai`I
Questions, comments, etc.
