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AOL: That's the secret, just disappear? YY: Yeah...of course, when I joined, there was nobody under me at that time. There was just Arikawa Sensei, Tamura Sensei and myself, and Noro once in a while, but I was the youngest so I had to do everything. The toughest job then, for me it's easiest, was to clean the shower room and the toilet, there are two toilets, Japanese style. Because it takes a long time to clean them, it's a good excuse to be late for the class (laughter). So I volunteered to do that. Also you could catch a little bit of extra sleep. I was in the toilet, so nobody bothered me, and it was a good excuse to be late 10 minutes, 15 minutes. AOL: When we met the older instructors, Osawa Sensei, Tada Sensei, Arikawa Sensei, they each have a lot of individuality, how were they then? What was it like at that time? Where they the same? YY: Of course. Tada Sensei never changed. I see his demonstrations on videos. He never changed. I think that someone who has changed a lot is Arikawa Sensei, from bad to good. He was wild, mean. AOL: Was it scary? YY: Yes. It was scary to take his ukemi, he used to scratch. AOL: It seems like there was always a special relationship with Osawa Sensei? YY: Yes. I was his favorite uke. He always liked me. Believe it or not I was a good uke. I was very flexible and very skinny. He had a big, sort of leading movement, difficult to follow. His technique needed a good uke. He looked better. Of course, everybody needs a good uke to look better. Except Arikawa Sensei doesn't need a good uke. It doesn't matter...you have no choice (laughter)! AOL: How was it like with Tohei Sensei? YY: To take his ukemi...was a bit difficult for some people. I used to take ukemi for him a sometimes in his private lessons because I spoke English. Not real good, but at that time at least, he had trouble communicating because of his pidgin English. But many American people came to take private lessons with him, so I had to take ukemi. AOL: What happened with Tohei Sensei? YY: Well, I'll tell you what. Unfortunately, what's happened has happened, but he was an incredible person. Strong personality, good uke, manly, you know, big heart. Completely opposite from Doshu's personality. Doshu is more like quiet, low key. You could talk to Tohei Sensei about everything. He loved to drink. He was kind of an idol. As far as I'm concerned he was. You know, when you're young you get impressed. The guy went to Hawaii and came back with a nice new Hawaiian shirt, smells of good cologne and can drink scotch like water. I was like, "God", you know? Always surrounded by women, you know? We were young, had no money, so he really impressed us. AOL: How did it happen that you started teaching? YY: It's because I spoke a bit of English already. That's how I ended up teaching. At that time there were many American military bases around Tokyo. That's another reason I couldn't attend the evening classes. I was responsible for teaching at two bases. I had to leave the dojo at 4 or 5 o'clock to go there. They were about an hour away by train. By that time all of the students had finished their daily work. That was a good time. I would go to the officer's club after class, drink a nice Scotch. Which, of course, was impossible to get in Japan at that time. Scotch? Forget it! But there you could drink Scotch like water. I was teaching classes at the University as well, so all the collage kids wanted to come with me to help me! Then, I don't know how it happened, but me and Kanai made a team. We went together to Yokohama every weekend. AOL: Yokohama? Was that where the American dojo was? YY: Yes. It was on a military base. AOL: How did the Americans in the military know about Aikido. YY: Well, I don't know exactly, but again, there was information from Tohei Sensei's connections in Hawaii. It was about that time that people started knowing more about Aikido, the Americans were there, and some military people had come to Hombu dojo. At that time, that was a big income for Hombu dojo. When I would go out and teach, I would charge by the lesson, collect money, and go back to headquarters. That was big money. I still remember. At that time, the dollar was strong because of the Japanese economy. The yen we nothing. I think back then, when I joined the dojo, monthly dues were about 500 yen. 500 yen at that time was pretty good. I remember a bowl of ramen was about 25 yen or something. When I charged the GI's, I collected 2,500 yen per person for one class! So, with 10 or 15 people in a class that was big money. Almost the average collage graduates monthly salary I would get in one night. That was good for the dojo. AOL: Did you become good friends with the other uchi deshi at that time? YY: Yeah. I had no problems. I got along with everybody. We were all poor. We didn't have much of a chance to go out. Once in a while, someone would invite us, some member would invite the uchi deshi, to go out together. But mostly, everyone is out teaching, so we didn't have too much time to get together. There was no way to get together to buy food and drink like there is today. There was no way we could do it ourselves. When we did go out together, somebody would sponsor us, invite us. I was pretty much good friends with Noro. We hung around a lot together. Later, Kanai Sensei and I got close when we were teaching at the military base. Like I said, we were a good team together. To be continued. [...Back] |