When I first visited the honbu dojo I was quite surprised at the almost shabby state of Sensei’s floor – a real patchwork quilt of potholes and duc tape. Bruised, cracked and bandaged, I remember thinking that it reminded me of an aged and beaten opponent. And, with all its war wounds I’d sometimes wonder what stories it might have to tell.
I’ve heard about visitors to the honbu dojo who have intentionally tried to put a foot through Sensei’s floor. I don’t know if I can believe such stories, but accidents do happen, and the dojo floor has seen its fair share of them.
To look at it, it’s certainly not what you’d expect from a world famous dojo. But thinking about it, it couldn’t be a more fitting home for traditional karate – humility and simplicity.
Armed with little more than hammers and chisels, the students of the honbu dojo today tried to resusitate the old wooden floor before Sensei returns from his travels abroad. And, I have to say; carpentry is harder work than it looks. The job’s not done yet but it’s getting their slowly and I think everyone is looking forward to the feeling of smooth timber under our feet.
Part of me does wonder though if Sensei won’t miss his little boobie traps – tape that constantly trips and tests us challenging our suriashi. In class the famous words “don’t lift your heels” seems to be regularly followed by the sound of stumbling. And, while Sensei knowingly glides around the floor like on ice, for the rest of us, there’s nothing like gummy patches of tape to challenge one’s ability to stick, without getting stuck.
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A cherished dojo tradition...after all those months where you had to learn where to step or stand and move without finding a protruding nail head, a splinter that escaped the gaffer tape that also hid the proverbial sinkholes.
Thank you for sharing your experience at the Honbu dojo. For those of us who have not had the privilege to travel to Okinawa or meet Higaonna Sensei its a way to feel a little closer to him and to have an idea of how every day life is over there. I would like to read more about it... Keep writing please!
One of the halls I train in is a church hall with a splintered floor which we have to scrape clean each week before lessons. (That's not a typo- I do mean scrape clean!) It has so many spelks sticking out of the floor it's a real hazard. Plus tonight we found a nail head sticking up about 5mm... It does keep you focused and you try and ignore the spelks in your feet but to be honest I'd rather have smooth timber too...
:-)
The floor of the dojo in which I train is about to cave in in parts. One of these days I'm going to throw someone and they are going to disappear through the floor! It all adds to the character though. Who wants to train in a clinical environment anyway?! I want a dojo not a gym hall.
I enjoyed the simplicity of your post and your observations. It's a shame the 'character' of Honbu dojo's floor will be replaced. It would be like losing an old friend.
Keep it soft for your feet!
rotatory sander anyone?
@Jorge Morales-Santo Domingo, Littlefair &
Neal Martin: Thanks for giving me a little perspective on things. I think we're probably doing pretty doing well by the sound of the dojos you guys are training in.
It may be a bit of a minefield of tape and sticky bits but everyone's been pretty good at covering up any potentially dangerous parts - splinters and the like. The floor's pretty safe to train on in that regard.
I do hope you guys take care of those feet of yours. A humble training environment is good up to a point...
@Anonymous: Thanks and I'll try and keep posting as often as I can. It's always nice to hear that I'm able to give people a bit of a sense of what it's like training here.
@Kerry: I don't think the dojo floor's lost any of its old charm. If anything, it's only growing more quirky and interesting. We're replacing the broken floor boards piece by piece. Our individual contributions - small imperfect squares of lighter coloured timber - just seem to add extra character and personality. As we've all had a hand in its reconstruction, it's almost like we're all now part of the floor, so to speak.
@Mathieu: Rotatory sander would be handy. Short of that maybe we can just stick some sand paper on our feet and suriashi the the place to a smooth polish ;)
At our dojo, we have these big foam squares. When it gets especially hot (We call them Okinawan nights) these air bubbles form and some of them are quite large. I had the unfortunate luck of being right on top of one of them over the weekend. It certainly does make for challenging footwork when you don't have a smooth surface to work with.
Surely the old floor will be missed and maybe mourned, but what better place to appreciate the cycles of rebirth and rebuilding than Japan! I remember reading that for a certain famous temple in Japan, it is ritually destroyed and rebuilt every few years. I'd love to hear how your sensei reacts after the construction.
I am very inspired by the short intro you made to your site about moving to Japan with such conviction. I am trying to move to Japan myself right now and would love to hear a little more about your experience and if you had any suggestions for a kindred spirit of the martial arts. My name is Zac and my email is gunther_k33@hotmail.com. Please contact me if you have the time.
So different to usual tatamis here in Spain...Still some people train on wooden floors, but usual competition-like floors are clearly winning the battle.
Most of your texts are a very nice reading. Congratulations !