Today was supposed to be note-making day for Kage Ryu but once more I’ve been distracted by a question. Is your martial art inclusive or exclusive. Are you, as a teacher, inclusive or exclusive.
Lest we become confused I’m going to start with the following definition. Inclusive means to welcome anyone into your art and to want your art to grow. Exclusive means to want only those who are like you, and to want your art to stay small and elite.
This is, I suppose the old Koryu is elitist discussion but I hope to go beyond that quickly. To put it to rest here, a budo can be exclusive because it is considered to be a martial art, a tool of war. The techniques are to be kept secret from potential enemies, students are to study the art and keep their mouths shut.
Whether this is desirable or even possible these days is an open question. Such a school today would never demonstrate, never allow video or textual recording within the shuttered (lest somone peek) dojo, and would have to figure out how to prevent former students from talking about the art. The school would also not be a member of any larger organization, due to the risk of fellow members learning the secrets just by watching how they move. This would be especially risky when young members of the secret art are performing the more general art. I am thinking here of Jodo where one of our senior instructors has a koryu he’s not inclined to teach outside his own group. Fair Dinkum as is said, but I can see the elements of his style in his students as they practice seitei gata. If he were really worried about this on an existential level he would not be in the Kendo Federation.
But the situation brings up the more general discussion of inclusion / exclusion. He is in an… what am I supposed to use instead of hinterland? Outland? An area that is far away from all the rest of the senior jodo people in the federation. That means that when a bunch of judges come “from away” they are presented with a set of students whose default movements are not the same as those of the majority of the judges. I happen to know what the chief judge at these gradings says in his pre-grading chat. He says that it is important to be inclusive, to be men of good will, to grade strictly, according to the book, but to understand that there are more ways than one to swing a stick into someone’s face. I hasten to add that these talks are not necessary, the judges have never indicated that they need to be reminded of this. They are inclusive, as are their own instructors. If they were not inclusive by nature, they would not be in the Kendo Federation. Exclusive types tend to be off on their own where they can dictate what is right and what is wrong without all this inconvenient discussion stuff.
I point out this pre-grading meeting to indicate that a grading panel does get a meeting with the chief judge before a grading and that judge will set the tone for the grading. I have been on panels where we were told what percentage of students were expected to pass. This was not presented as an exclusive way to do things, we were told “of course it is possible that everyone is above the standard and can pass” but we were informed that “in Japan” the percentage is such and such for this rank. Since Japan has a problem with too many bodies in the top ranks, and that they are trying to slow down the flow into those higher ranks, thus creating an exclusive grading atmosphere, the comments were in fact exclusive, if not in theory.
Being a jerk, as I have mentioned before, I simply said (in my head) that Canada is not Japan. Our students get to grade much less often and therefore spend a lot more time between grades. There is also no problem at all with too many bodies at the higher ranks, quite the opposite in fact, they are few and getting old, so the application of a bell curve is inappropriate to the situation. Furthermore, I said to myself in my head, it is good budo to adapt to the situation and not try to force a solution from one war onto the next, that way leads to cavalry charges toward trenches with machine guns. Cue Canadian innovations on the rolling barrage.
Never mind, judges still have permission to judge according to their conscience. When that changes the head judge will simply have rubber stamps to hand out to the other panelists and I can sleep through the gradings.
Organizations can be inclusive or exclusive. The difference is how they treat their membership. An organization can have a constant set of bylaws yet swing from inclusive to exclusive depending on the people forming the administration. From the grassroots this is most apparent in how present that administration is in their lives. Budo administration is present in gradings of course, and in collecting the dues, this is constant to all budo organizations. The money can be inclusive, Aikido grades in my organization used to be $10 a kyu back when I was involved in that stuff, that was pretty painless to get involved, so I’d call it inclusive. Now it is, I believe, a bit more exclusive, with more restricted judging being required. If you have to bring in a judge from somewhere else it’s harder to grade the students. If you used to be able to judge your own students but now cannot, that can, might, create resentment and create a more exclusive feeling to the orgnization.
With a judge coming in from another place there can be different expectations on the students. If a judge “from away” is inclusive he will look at the students and judge them on a dojo basis. If what they are doing is aikido, but not in the style the judge is used to, he will pass students accordingly. If that judge is exclusive, he might just fail everyone and imply “your teacher is crap”.
The “man of good faith” way might be to pass the students (they are good students, they are doing it the way they were taught and so are performing in good faith) but have a quiet word with the instructor after the grading.
What about having a seminar before the grading so that the visiting instructor can fix the problems before the grading? I’d like you to think about this.
What about a judge who flies in from another country altogether, or from a different part of the country and applies the assumptions of the old place to the new? That’s not very inclusive is it? Different places are different situations and an inclusive type would take the time to figure out what’s needed. To apply your own assumptions to a new situation is the definition of prejudice.
But it’s the same organization isn’t it? Not if it’s world wide it isn’t, a thousand years ago I was at an Aikido seminar where I watched Canadian 3rd kyus drop Japanese third dans straight onto their heads. We had always done hip throws in our training, the Japanese had yet to be introduced to them. Same organization, different training curricula. In North America we have small arts like jodo with “hot spots” of largish population and scattered groups in the outlands. Some groups concentrate on koryu, some only do seitei. There is no question that areas have different training priorities. An inclusive view is to understand all these priorities. An exclusive view would be to demand uniformity.
It’s pretty easy to get uniformity out of three students and a sensei, which is where things can end up if there is too much emphasis on exclusivity.
Speaking of sensei, how inclusive are you? Thirty years ago we used to have the occasional student show up in Aikido class and refuse to bow to O-sensei. If I was leading class that day and was asked by a student if he could practice without bowing I’d say “are you respectful of the art and your fellow students”. If the answer was yes I’d say “sit down”. Now, somewhere long ago I wrote something about bowiing and how a potential student might not want to join a class where bowing happens if they don’t want to bow, but that was from the point of view of the student. In short, thinking about bowing might cause thinking about their faith which could cause a personal crisis that they don’t need as a University student. For my part I don’t mind. I’m of the opinion that intent matters more than form. You may expand that beyond this situation if you wish, it applies to a lot of what I do and teach. The problem is usually self correcting anyway. Humans are pack animals, to become a literal “nail that sticks up” every time the rest of the class bows is highly uncomfortable and the nail-student disappears after a while. Or starts to bow, regardless, I’ve never noticed them in class after a couple of weeks.
I should just save everyone time and tell the student to bow or get out? First that thought really bothers me. Seriously, it makes me uncomfortable. But if it doesn’t make you squirm, then consider that if you’re in a public place like a community center or a University you WILL allow them in class. At least in my country. A culture and legal system of inclusivity.
Is this starting to sound political? It’s not. You don’t get to vote for your culture. You don’t get to change legal systems that have been in place for centuries by voting anyone in or out. Not easily and not quickly. Now, if the one you vote in becomes a dictator that’s another story but then you don’t get to vote on it any more.
“There’s none so Scots as the Scots abroad”.
“There’s none so faithful as the converted”
Discuss these statements in terms of their effects on inclusivity or exclusivity in budo.
Because done my coffee.
Seito Bugei Juku 