Doumukai or Doumukai Not. There is no "try."

Here is a picture from the Doumukai Dojo. It's mostly just to give a little life to this blog. Some eyecandy. We checked out Iida Sensei's Doumukai Dojo. He teaches at the Ootsu Jr. High and also at the Navy base. A contact (and hopefully new friend) recommended it from http://www.aikiweb.com .

Iida Sensei definitely knows his stuff. He related a story about a terrible accident that left him paralyzed from the neck down. Finally after seven months in the hospital he was able to move again. He's missing a kidney and part of his stomach (he showed us his scars). He said he's physically very weak and that it's helped his aikido out a lot. In some of the more dynamic demonstrations I could see his power over his own center and the center of his "uke."

In the words of one of his students ("...3 years of training, 5 times a week..."), who seemed to know everything, "Iida Sensei is the best." I asked him if he's trained with any other sensei and he said he's visited Honbu Dojo twice and during travels visited a couple of other dojo. But really, he's only trained with Iida Sensei. Hmmmm... He also explained that Iida used to be part of Aikikai but got tired of the politics and quit the organization and went out on his own. He also said Hattori Sensei (who also uses the gymnasium at the base) used to be Iida's student and then left to train (and pay for rank) at Honbu only to return and badmouth Iida. Like I said, he seemed to know everything and was happy to share.

Sensei came by a couple of times to demonstrate the "unbendable arm" and also let me do a little kokyuho. He would first do a very stiff demonstration and say "American Aikido" and then do it naturally and say, "See? So soft!" I wasn't sure what to say. My original sensei, who has never been to Japan to train, never felt stiff and choppy.

Iida Sensei seemed like jolly old soul. He smiled and laughed a lot and was very amiable. He spent several moments with us to talk. Doing Aikido is definitely part of his being. I think his class is best for someone that starts with him and can finish with him. It seems like it would be difficult to just jump in and start training. Many of his students first meet him on base and then continue during the other nights at the jr. high.

Noriko really liked the pace of his class because it was slow and relaxed. A new person started last night and he was treated very tenderly.

I'll put Doumakai on my list and move on. We still have two or three dojo to check out.