Following on from 'have a cup of tea' I decided to test my new found perception.
I approached Sensei and said 'please may I learn Kendo' 'why so said Sensei' ' I heard that is the most dangerous because a samurai sword can cut a person in two, so I want to test my fear and muga mushin (awareness and stillness, mind permeating body). 'hmm I do not feel you are ready' I pleaded with him several times.
Suddenly-- wham --- he hit me hard on the top of the head, the shock was so great, he had never hit me or anyway hurt me, he was tough but fair. He growled and made a terrible face, I ran out of the Zen-do. It was winter and got dark early, a quick cut home was across a cemetery, I would not do that in the dark, I did however.
When I got home my beautiful late Jewish Mother said 'Oh my God what's that bump on your head 'I said I asked Sensei to teach me Kendo, Japanese sword fighting' She said ' why don't you learn a trade, make money, marry a Jewish girl, have a family, be somebody' I just went to bed.
What happened next took place over the following three weeks; as I came out of my house to go to school Sensei jumped at me, he caught me like this coming from the Dojo, from football training, nearly everywhere, he was stalking me like a Ninja. I even locked my bedroom door put string to the handle with some cans on so if he came in the cans would rattle. I was so wound up that my Mother said she would ask him to stop and I said it will be over soon its part of the training, so I thought.
Then one day as I was walking down a hill by the side of a park, I felt like a presence, a strong feeling of being followed, I turned round quickly and there he was coming towards me in a Ninja stance. I said in a very rude way 'Oh no you don't you so and so(impolite words). He said 'Good you to feel me, you sensed without hearing, seeing, touching and now you see a Katana (Samurai sword) comes so fast as by a master or advanced student, you could not see it only feel it'
After that I developed a sharp sense and I was difficult to be thrown or be frightened'.
Unfortunately Sensei went back home and when I said I wanted to follow him he said 'Your destiny is here, you can teach now if you come to my country I will cut your head off' Just before he left I had a serious accident, he said if you want to walk again you must use 'Yamatadoshi' I think it means Ki(Chi), sometimes translated as original Samurai Ki energy or spirit. I did and I recovered.
I was walking up a slight hill to the High Road and my Judo gi (Judo kit) in a towel and it was like a bundle, and was coming back from judo training, several of the lads and I were already doing Judo with a school master and Black belt Frank W Nash from the Budokwai(large Judo club in Victoria, later moved to South Kensington) and I was alone, when a voice with Japanese accent said 'you do Judo' I turned round as the voice went right through me so to speak and I was looking an old man. He asked where I trained and I told him, in a friends basement. He turned up a few says late, he wore a red / pink belt and we thought a beginner. Try as we may we could not move or throw him, once he said to me and at other times when he easily threw me ' Oh the tatami must slippery, who put the banana peel there' and would go into fits of real belly laughter.
He took over from Mr Nash who recognized who he was. When Sensei visited the Budokwai one day(the only time)the high grade Japanese master there fell(the late Gunji Koizumi) to his knees and said Sensei and something in Japanese I never went to the Budokwai again.
SHACK
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