We were very fortunate to have Endo Seishiro Sensei come and teach for us last weekend at the Chinese international school. While this was not the first time that he had come to Hong Kong, (he had come 20 years before) but this was his first seminar. Our dojo has planted a flag for Endo Sensei for a number of years now, ever since my Sensei resigned from the Hong Kong Aikido Association to teach the Endo style.
It was a good opportunity to see and feel him in person, and Endo Sensei taught the very basics because so many people who attended the seminar from Hong Kong and other locations practiced in a different way to him. Unlike many Japanese he did not mince words and had harsh things to say about what some of the Shihan were teaching in other dojos and in Japan and some of our black belts who had joined our dojo having studied under different teachers before moving to Hong Kong. Hopefully this can become an annual event in the future and a fixture on his calendar.
As a director of our dojo, I have the lucky opportunity to have dinner with him and Tominaga Sensei at the China club over a private dinner and the man can really drink! He polished off 1 bottle of white wine and three bottles of Huadiao Chinese wine and was still able to teach coherently the following morning. And he would become increasingly vocal and funny as he drank. This to me is confirmation the Aikido that he teaches is life enhancing for even though he is in his 70s, he still looks like a much younger man. Whereas we have had so many cases of senior teachers passing away in their 50s and 60s, despite still being physically active to the end.
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