Selected articles from Issue 1
August 2000
HILO SEISHIKAN AIKIDO KICKS OFF!
As the ancient saying goes, “even a journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step.” We have started our journey and taken that first step! Our club will officially be in operation as of Monday, August 14, 2000. We are all very excited and looking forward to developing the finest martial arts club anywhere!
Our club’s name was chosen in consultation with the Reverend Daien Soga of Puna Hongwanji. The “Sei” means “makoto” which is righteousness, truth, sincerity. The “Shi” means “kokorozashi” which means will, intention, ambition. “Kan” means place or building. Hilo Seishikan Aikido then, is the place to come to develop the will to be honest, sincere, and righteous through our training in aikido. We have also named our aikido “O-shima-ryu Aikido,” which means simply, “Big Island Style Aikido.” Aikido itself, is a relatively new and modern budo. The founder of aikido, Morihei Uyeshiba-sensei, began its development in the 1920’s. The word “aikido” may be translated to mean “the way of harmony with ki.”
The focus of our aikido will be on “self-defense.” The self-defense we will focus on is a “total self-defense,” including mental, emotional, psychological, in addition to physical self-defense. Our practice sessions will be primarily based on defending yourself in the case of a physical attack, but we will use this to also instill other important aspects of self-defense in life. By learning to fall without getting injured, one learns to protect himself against injury in many different real life situations. Training hard and getting in physical shape helps defend oneself against injury and illness. Extending ki, focusing and gaining awareness, makes it possible for one to defend himself in many lifetime situations—driving, playing, eating, fighting, studying, working—just about everything! Discipline, learning to do that which you “should” do and not necessarily that which you “want” to do, helps to defend oneself against making wrong decisions.
We are an independent school of aikido, and as such we can include in our practice any art or exercise that we feel will be beneficial to our students regardless of its source. All of our focus is on our students. It is our goal to instill self-confidence by teaching our students to “defend” themselves in all aspects of life. To this end, we will teach and practice whatever we deem to be beneficial to our students.
There will be no competition in our aikido. We do not believe that competition spurs the kind of results we plan to see in our students. There are winners and losers in competition. In Hilo Seishikan Aikido everyone is a winner!
SCHEDULE OF CLASSES
The following is the schedule of the Hilo Seishikan Aikido:
Mondays
5:00-6:30 pm Advanced Aikido (Roy Yonemori-sensei)
6:30-7:30 pm Open Aikido (Stephen Adams-sensei)
Wednesdays
5:00-6:00 pm Open Aikido (Carrie Yonemori-sensei)
6:00-7:00 pm Youth Aikido (Ruth Walker-sensei)
Fridays
6:00-7:00 pm Youth Aikido (Ruth Walker-sensei)
Saturdays
6:30-8:00 am Open Aikido (Sadami Yamamoto-sensei)
WHAT IS TAYORI?
When you saw the name of this newsletter, you probably were wondering, “Tayori? Now what does that word mean”? Thinking of a name for this newsletter of Hilo Seishikan Aikido was a difficult task which required much thought. To come up with a name, we looked through books, checked out the internet, and talked with some people. We finally saw the word “tayori” in a Japanese-English dictionary and later check it out with some Japanese speaking people. One of them was Mr. George Yamamoto, an aikido pioneer in Hilo, and a former Japanese language interpreter in the U.S. Army. We were able to confirm the meaning of the word to be “news, tidings, correspondence, letter.” We liked the meaning for use as a name for our newsletter. At any rate, we hope to keep you informed of our club’s activities, doings, and happenings by the printing and distributing of “Tayori” amongst our members. Please look forward to future issues!
Anyone having suggestions or information for us to use is hereby invited to come forward with them. We will be very happy to consider any suggestions for improvement or news items.
HILO SEISHIKAN AIKIDO STAFF
We are starting out our club with a staff of some thirteen black belts. They are listed below:
Chief Instructor: Roy Yonemori
Assistant Chief Instructor: Steve Adams
Instructors: Leilani Pakele
Ruth Walker
Sadami Yamamoto
Carrie Yonemori
Assistant Instructors: Glenn Kahana
Robert Kamau
Dennis Marshall
Ray Yuson
Kaimana Colobong
Nicholas Kodani
Joy Ogawa
We have a fine staff of instructors who are well-versed in the art of aikido, and very experienced in its instruction. These instructors are all very enthusiastic and want to do well by their students. We are very proud and appreciative of every single one of them!