We had a lot of fun with Sensei Stan that week. The three of us share the same sense of humour, and there was a lot of joking and laughing, but a lot of respect also. Sensei Stan met my students. He trains every day, so it was natural for him to want to come to the dojo. It was equally natural for me to ask him to teach while he was there, and he was happy to oblige. We had a few private classes as well, including one on knife defences that took place at my office with just four of us!
The JKA open seminar was a great success. Sensei Tommy McGrane was delighted to have a JKA legend in Ireland and to spend some time just talking with him. In my naivety of Irish politics I had sent invitations to many clubs – and this was to get me in trouble later – but I genuinely just wanted as many people as possible to get to train with Sensei Stan while he was in Ireland.
And plenty of people did come and train with him. Everyone who attended loved the seminar, and many people wanted to know if Sensei Stan would return. I had to explain that he didn’t travel to Europe very often, and that we were only able to get him to take a vacation in Ireland because he had an obligation in Scotland the week before.
After a few days staying at my home, we took a trip south to Cork. Sensei Stan wanted to travel and see some of Ireland, so we took him to see some of the local sights: we stayed at Garry’s house in Midleton for a couple of days and then brought him to Bandon to visit my home town and dojo. Sensei Ray was thrilled to get to meet a man he had admired from afar for many years. He too invited Sensei Stan to teach at his dojo. When Sensei Stan agreed, Sensei Ray let JKA clubs and other clubs in the surrounding area know that there was a rare opportunity to train with the great Stan Schmidt, and again quite a few people were delighted with this opportunity and came to train. Sensei Stan seemed genuinely surprised that so many people knew who he was and wanted to train with him, and he certainly impressed everyone with his knowledge and teaching.
Spending the whole week with Sensei Stan was a fantastic experience, but naturally there were times when it was hard work to try to keep him entertained. Looking after house guests can be stressful at the best of times, even more so when the guest is a VIP. Of course, this was more pressure that we put on ourselves than anything that Sensei Stan did, but there were times when we were happy to have a break if he said he was going to lie down for a rest.
One afternoon in Garry’s house he went for such a rest. I had spent some time the previous day teaching him how to juggle, and the juggling balls were still out. Garry and I started trying to juggle six balls between us, which was something I had seen done in Scotland. We became completely giddy at how bad we were at it, while also trying to stifle our laughter in case Sensei Stan woke up! It was the perfect stress relief, so when Sensei Stan finally woke we were re-energised and ready to go training.
All too quickly, the week flew by and we had to bring Sensei Stan back to the airport. Before he left, he invited Garry and I to come to South Africa the following year to stay with him and do some training. We were determined to take him up on the offer.
A few weeks later I found myself having to answer allegations that I was ‘bringing foreign instructors to Ireland and running seminars’ to the national governing body at a meeting at which Kanazawa Sensei himself was present. I explained my relationship with Sensei Stan and everything that had transpired. I told Kanazawa Sensei that my loyalty was to him and that he would be my sensei always. But I also said that I had an obligation to my students to get the best karate instruction for myself and for them that I could, and it would have been wrong of me not to have jumped at the chance to train with Sensei Stan. Once Kanazawa Sensei heard my explanation and was assured that I had done nothing wrong, he was happy with my responses, so the complaint against me was withdrawn.
A week after this I was in Scotland at Sensei Jim Palmer’s house with Kanazawa Sensei, and someone asked him about a particular move in Kanku-Dai. Kanazawa Sensei was explaining why he does the move one way, and also how the JKA does it differently and why. Then he turned to me and asked me with a smile, ‘How does Stan Schmidt do this move?’ I told him that Sensei Stan does it the same way that he does, because he says it makes more sense. I knew from this brief conversation that he was letting me know that he had no problem with my friendship with Sensei Stan.
29. SOUTH AFRICA 2002
In February 2002 Garry and I travelled to South Africa. Sensei Stan had invited us to stay with him, and this was too good an opportunity to refuse. It meant that we could get up early each morning with Sensei Stan and train with him at his home dojo, unless of course we were going to the SA-JKA Honbu Dojo with him to train in the Early Birds, but it also meant that we spent a lot of time together during the day throughout the two weeks.
Our first morning training in the Early Birds was tough. I had warned Garry about the altitude and lack of oxygen, but when you train in an intense class with intense people there is no holding back or pacing yourself. And the Early Birds was always intense. Sensei Stan started the class that morning with lots of partner-work drills. Then we moved on to sparring. We sparred with different rhythms, starting slow and relaxed, increasing to a medium tempo, and then full speed. Finally, we worked on competition-style sparring. We had several rounds of each type. It was exhausting. Finally Sensei Stan called the class to a halt – but our relief was short-lived. He got all the students to sit down in a large circle; then he called Garry and me out and had us stand on one side, while he picked five guys from the South African kumite team to stand on the other side.
‘This is an initiation to welcome us to the Early Birds class,’ I thought. I felt slightly annoyed about this, as I had had an initiation of my own when I visited before, but at the same time I didn’t really want to leave Garry to have to face it by himself.
Garry went out first. He had to fight each of the South Africans one after another, with no rest. Control was a relative thing, and no-one complained about a little blood in the Early Birds. Garry fought well: he certainly didn’t give anyone the impression that he was a pushover. When he finished he was told to wash the blood off his face. One of the other guys went with him to clean his face too.
While Garry was gone, I had to face the same five fighters. It was very difficult because I was short of breath due to the lack of both oxygen and recovery between fights. The locals had the advantage of only having to fight once each – and they were used to the thin air. At one point I was swept to the floor, but as my opponent stepped in to punch me, I kicked upwards and caught him on the cheek. This gave me time to get back on my feet and continue with the fight.
Again, once we had finished a couple of us were sent to clean ourselves up. Despite the cuts and bruises, I should stress that there was no animosity or ill feeling in any of the fights. They were just tough fights, and tough fighters. Karate was taken seriously in the Early Birds.
When I returned from the bathroom, I was just in time to see Garry finish performing a kata, and then Sensei Stan asked him to demonstrate some bunkai. It was only then that I realised that this was not an initiation at all – it was a grading examination! But how could it be a grading? I wondered. We were not even part of their organisation. I had no more time to dwell on that question before I was called out and asked to nominate a kata to perform. When I finished the kata, I too was asked to demonstrate some applications and then we all lined up, Garry beside me.
‘What was that about?’ he whispered out of the corner of his mouth. ‘An initiation?’
‘No!’ I hissed back. ‘That was more like a grading.’
In the meantime, Sensei Stan had called all the 6th and 7th Dans into a corner where they were huddled in conversation. I knew then that my hunch was right and that it had been a grading examination. They were deciding whether or not to pass us – and we didn’t even know what grade we had just been tested for! And then Sensei Stan walked down the line and spoke quietly to us.
‘I know that you are both SKIF students, and you are both 3rd Dan and wi
ll be testing later this year for 4th Dan, but I wanted you to feel part of our family in SA-JKA as well. We believe that you are already at 4th Dan level, but it would not be appropriate for us to award you a higher grade than you have at SKIF. Would you like to accept 3rd Dan from us? It will not take anything from your current grades in your own organisation.’
What could we say? We were hardly going to refuse one of the foremost Shotokan instructors in the world. In any case, we knew it was an honour to have been graded by him in this way, and it would have been wrong to appear ungrateful. So we nodded, while Sensei Stan grinned at us. He knew that he had sprung this on us without warning and that we were dumbfounded. He then announced that we had just been tested for JKA 3rd Dan, and that the Shihan-Kai (group of masters) had unanimously approved us to pass. The whole class applauded, and continued to congratulate us enthusiastically in the changing room afterwards.
A few months later I received a package in the post, which contained our two JKA 3rd Dan certificates, signed by both Sugiura Sensei in Japan and Sensei Stan Schmidt. It is the only Dan that I have ever done that was not graded by Kanazawa Sensei. Garry and I used to say we would be excommunicated if Kanazawa Sensei knew about it, but in truth we did nothing wrong; and I view it as an honorary grade from a man that we respect, and who respected us in return. It was only after this ‘grading’ that I felt I had fully earned my 3rd Dan, because this time I certainly had to show my kumite skills and fighting spirit!
It was amazing to stay at Sensei Stan’s house. We got up each morning at 5:30am and had tea or juice with Sensei Stan before going out to his dojo. Although training in the famous Early Birds classes a few mornings each week was a dream come true, we loved our private tuition with Sensei Stan on the other mornings even more. Equally enjoyable was simply sitting around in his house afterwards, talking about karate. Garry and I decided to take full advantage of the situation, and conducted an interview with Sensei Stan – the second one I had done with him, five years after the first. Again, this was later published in Shotokan Karate Magazine.
One morning after training, we mentioned that we were planning on going to visit the Lion Park, a small safari park outside Johannesburg dedicated to lions.
‘Good idea,’ said Sensei Stan. ‘I will call Kevin Richardson.’ Kevin Richardson is famous throughout South Africa and is known as ‘The Lion Man’. He works with all the lions, having raised many of them since birth. The lions accept him as one of the pride. He has featured in many documentaries and news features on lions. What we didn’t know is that he had also trained with Sensei Stan, and had even dated one of Sensei Stan’s daughters years earlier. Although he no longer practised karate, he was still close friends with Sensei Stan.
Kevin himself showed us around the lion park. We saw the lions feeding, and him interacting with them. Of course, we were not allowed inside any enclosures with adult lions, although we could drive around in the main park and see them from inside the car. But he did bring us into one enclosure where there were a couple of young lion cubs. We held and played with a four-month-old cub, which was the size of a large dog. It was as playful as a kitten, and purred like an engine when we stroked it. What an incredible experience.
On our last evening in Johannesburg we trained at the Honbu Dojo as usual. We had made a lot of friends with the students and instructors there, and after class that evening, Sensei Derrick Geyer had a surprise for us. He had organised a party in our honour at the dojo. Everyone had brought food to barbecue and lots to drink. We had thought that there were more people than usual at the class!
Sensei Derrick was the official instructor in charge of the Early Birds membership, and at the party he presented Garry and me with our SA-JKA grading books/licences, which stated that we were 3rd Dans and full members of the Early Birds. This was an honour in itself. The flight from Johannesburg to London on the way home was over ten hours, but Garry and I spent the entire time talking about what a great trip it had been.
A few years later, on Sensei Stan’s seventieth birthday, we sent him a birthday gift. It was comprised of two parts. The first was a nice piece of Waterford Crystal. The second was wrapped separately with a note attached. The note read: To Sensei Stan: After your many, many years of dedication to training and teaching karate, providing inspiration to so many people, we feel that you have finally earned this. OSS! Seamus & Garry. Inside the wrapping was a plain white belt. Sending a gift like this to one of the highest-ranked karate instructors in the world was of course a risk. It was a gift with a double meaning. On the face of it, it was a joke – suggesting that after a lifetime of study he was only worthy of a white belt. But the deeper meaning was the concept of coming full circle – the black belt returning to white, the master becoming the student once more.
Fortunately for us, Sensei Stan both appreciated the joke and understood the deeper meaning. In fact, he even wore the belt to Early Birds training on his birthday. Everyone gasped when they saw him wearing a white belt, and then, with a grin on his face, he read our note. Apparently, some of the younger members of the Early Birds were angry at this point, but the more senior people, like Sensei Stan, immediately saw the humorous side to the gift as well as the deeper meaning, and they laughed.
30. JAPAN 2002
I was sitting with Kanazawa Sensei after T’ai Chi class one morning in April that same year, just a few weeks after returning from South Africa, when I mentioned that I was thinking about going to Japan again soon. He immediately suggested that I should come in August so that I could do my 4th Dan grading there and also to be there for the SKIF All-Japan Championships. I replied that I wasn’t sure about grading, but that I would certainly love to go and watch the All-Japan Championships. He said, ‘No, no. Not watching. You must compete. Special invitation.’
A chance to be a part of the All-Japan Championships was irresistible. I wrote to the national body and was granted permission to attend both the grading and the tournament. I started to make plans for a three-week trip to Japan.
Nobuaki Sensei kindly invited me to stay at his house for the first week of my visit. We got on well together, so I was really looking forward to that.
I later received an email from Murakami Sensei, informing me that there would be a university gasshuku taking place for one week while I was there, and that Kanazawa Sensei had suggested that I should take part in it. A gasshuku is hard training, and the university gasshukus have a reputation for being the toughest of all. I was worried, but I wasn’t being given much choice! I thanked Murakami Sensei and agreed to do it.
I flew from Dublin to London, and got a direct flight from there to Tokyo. When I was sitting on the plane in London, seeing all the Japanese people getting on board, it suddenly hit me that I was really going back to Japan and that I had a tough few weeks ahead. I felt lonely and even a little scared, and wished that I had been able to persuade someone to make the trip with me.
What an amazing trip it turned out to be! Nobuaki Sensei and his wife, Keiko San, took me sightseeing to Naritasan Temple the first day. They made me feel very welcome at their home. Their daughter, Hiyori, was just five years old. She was shy at first, but in no time she was chatting (in Japanese) and playing games with me. I grew very fond of her during that trip. I reminded them that Keiko San had been pregnant with Hiyori when they first visited Ireland.
I went with Nobuaki Sensei to his dojo in Chiba a few times while I stayed with him, and he asked me to teach part of the class. It felt strange teaching karate to Japanese students, but they were mostly children. Nobuaki Sensei kept asking me to teach in English because he wanted to improve his English for teaching in other countries.
After staying at Nobuaki Sensei’s house for a few days, it was time to head into Tokyo for training at the Honbu Dojo. I was told that I had to bring my bag, because we were going on the gasshuku the following morning. We would be staying at Kanazawa Sensei’s house that night, because it was more convenient for getting the bus the next day.
We trained at the Honbu Dojo with Kanazawa Sensei that evening. Most of the other Honbu Dojo instructors were also there. It was a great class, but it was very hot and humid, as Tokyo tends to be at that time of year, so once again we spent half the class trying not to slip on the pools of sweat on the floor. I was delighted that we spent some time working on Gojushiho-Dai in the class, because this was the kata I had been preparing for my grading.
There had been Dan grading examinations a few days earlier, and they presented the diplomas to the successful students at the end of the class. This made me concerned that I had missed the Dan gradings. No-one had said anything to me about when my Dan grading might be on, and it is not considered polite to ask about these things.
After training I was told that we were all going out for a meal to celebrate the successful gradings. At the restaurant Murakami Sensei noticed that I wasn’t drinking beer, and asked me why not. I told him that I don’t really drink. He asked if there is any drink that I like, and I said that I like a little saké sometimes. He immediately ordered saké for me, and Kanazawa Sensei declared that he and I would drink saké together that night at his house.
Nobuaki Sensei drove Kanazawa Sensei and me back to the house after the meal. His house is amazing. It is quite spacious for a house in Tokyo, although may be considered relatively small in some countries. But it is beautifully decorated, and filled with amazing treasures – gifts he had received from people all over the world. True to his word, Kanazawa Sensei opened a bottle of good saké and poured some for the two of us. I was bemused that Nobuaki Sensei was not offered any, but he was still competing at that time, and was discouraged from drinking too much.
A Karate Story Page 13