Interview with Josef Birdsong

By Leah Nelson 

Editor’s note: Josef Birdsong is Chief Instructor of Aikido of Austin in Austin, Texas. An Aikido practitioner for 36 years, he is a 5th Dan and a USAF Shidoin. He holds a master’s degree in Physical Education from the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana. He studied with Akira Tohei Shihan from 1974 until Tohei Sensei’s death in 1999. Birdsong Sensei helped found Aikido of Austin in 1984. This interview was conducted in May 2007 in Austin, Texas. Leah Nelson is a student at Aikido of Austin, and a member of the editorial staff of Aikido Online.

When did you start practicing Aikido?

Feb. 1, 1970, in Sacramento, Calif., with Mr. Tri [Dang Tri], my first instructor.

What attracted you to Aikido initially?

Two things: for the self-defense and for the non-violent philosophy. When I heard about what it was, I liked it because I was playing guitar and I didn’t want to punch anybody and risk hurting my hands.

I thought I might be in situations that I don’t know what’s going to happen. I wanted to overcome that fear. It wasn’t that I wanted to fight, but I didn’t want to be afraid of the unknown. And so that’s what I was looking for, and Aikido has allowed me to not be afraid of the unknown to the degree that I’m not afraid of it now. I don’t think I’m still totally 100-percent not afraid.

It is the unknown, after all.

Yeah, but at the same time, that’s what got me. And … Aikido has a spiritual quality. I had been studying yoga from 1967 until 1980. So consequently I liked that idea: That it was spiritual, that it was about going to enlightenment. That resonated for me.

What influence did your first instructors have on you?

Well, I think the most important thing that I learned from my first instructor, Mr. Tri, was that manners in the dojo -- the etiquette of the dojo, what you were doing -- they weren’t empty. There were reasons for it, and as I’ve grown in Aikido, now I realize that the etiquette is for myself and it’s for others. It’s to show gratitude and compassion and things like that for others. And it also sets my mind in a particular state of mind, and that state of mind, that Aiki state of mind, I think, is important. The etiquette is what helps establish that mindset.

Mr. Tri, even though he taught me basic techniques, he said something like, when we have big guests come in, high-ranking people, “They’ve seen O-Sensei and they’ve seen the best Aikido in the world, so we’re not going to wow them with our Aikido, but more important is how we deport ourselves and how we conduct ourselves.”

So etiquette was important. From what you’ve told me about Tohei Sensei, etiquette was very important to him, as well.

That’s correct. Both Mr. Tri and Tohei Sensei stressed etiquette as a means to deport yourself within the dojo or in someone else’s dojo or in your own life.

When did you start studying under Tohei Sensei?

I first met Tohei Sensei in April of 1974. He, along with Yamada Sensei and Kanai Sensei were traveling with Doshu Kisshomaru Ueshiba, and they were in San Francisco for a black-belt seminar. I was getting ready to go that fall to the University of Illinois for graduate work. I knew that Tohei Sensei was in Chicago, so I worked it out with Mr. Tri to find out who the entourage with Sensei was.

I met Sensei there and I told him that I was going to the university, and that part of the reason I was going there was because there was a club there. A professor, Tai Uno, used to teach there, and one of his students was Darrell Tangman, who is an old friend of mine and still practices Aikido. [Darrell] wasn’t there at the time -- he had graduated and gone off. So, Sensei told us that the club was defunct. I asked him if I could start a club and he said, “You go ahead and try.”

So from the very first time, [Tohei] Sensei always encouraged me to do what I asked him, and that was to do Aikido. He always encouraged me in that sense. He didn’t know me at all. And Mr. Tri had given me the skills and wherewithal in order to feel confident that I could do that.

How would you describe your development in Aikido? You’re 37 years in at this point.

When I first started practicing Aikido I was working on my masters and I was at a time in my work career to decide what I wanted to do in physical education. I’m a physical education teacher, that’s what I’d been doing. Now what am I going to coach? Originally, I thought I would just go back and coach football or baseball. Then when I found Aikido, I thought, “Well, this is something that I could get into and I could actually teach.”

After four years I did get a chance, in my last year with Mr. Tri. In the fall and spring of ’73 and ’74, I helped Mr. Tri teach his university classes. Then I met Tohei Sensei and I told him about going [to the University of Illinois] and I thought “OK, I’ll go and there’s going to be another teacher.” Well, I turned out to be the teacher. I proceeded to start teaching Aikido after four years of being in Aikido. By this time, I’m a second kyu. It’s August.

What’s wonderful and came out of the blue, was that I arrived at the University of Illinois with admission papers, $150, a place to stay and that’s it. I got out-of-state tuition to pay. I hadn’t even thought about that, to tell you the truth. I figured I’ll worry about it when I get out there. I’m accepted, so what are they going to do? Within the first week of arriving, we have a graduate orientation and a department meeting for all the new graduates. During that period, I was talking to the dean of the physical education department and he asked me what I did and I told him I did Aikido. He asked me if I could teach a personal defense class and I said yes I could. And for four years I got free tuition and a salary for being a research assistant for an instructor in the physical education department. So, all of my years of graduate work were free, except for my books that I had to buy. Aikido was perfect for me.

How I proceeded to learn was I was teaching Aikido to the personal defense class -- one-hand grab, ikkyo, nikkyo, shihonage, all the basic stuff, teaching them how to fall down, all that stuff. Then I went up to see Sensei by October and I told him that I was there. I would go to class [in Chicago] on Friday night and Saturday, and then I would take notes on whatever Sensei was teaching, and I would go back [to Champaign-Urbana]. By this time I had re-established the Aikido club and I had a couple of people in that. So I was just teaching whatever I was going through and whatever Sensei was teaching. If it wasn’t appropriate, I wouldn’t [teach it]. Basically, I just felt like I was a conduit for Sensei’s teaching. I wasn’t teaching anything -- I was just re-establishing, reaffirming how it’s done.

The first fifth kyu test that I trained people for, I didn’t have them step forward on iriminage into the throw. I would just have them go around and twist their hips. Then Sensei, very graciously, showed me “and you can also step forward.” He’s telling me what I could do -- showing me that you want to step forward, but you could step forward, too. He was very generous and very gracious to a young teacher.

What has Aikido done for you personally?

Aikido has allowed me to be who I am, wherever I am. I don’t have to put a different hat on when I’m with someone of higher rank or lower rank. I can deport myself. I can use common sense to speak to people of every station. It has allowed me to be who I am better and know me better. It has allowed me to discover a mission in life. O-Sensei says that one of the reasons that we don’t hurt people that attack us is that everyone has a mission in life. I have no right to end or disturb this guy’s life, therefore cutting his mission short. We’re not talking about some goofball trying to shoot me on the street. In our practice is where most of this interaction takes place. It has taught me how to learn. I apply what I’ve learned in Aikido to my guitar lessons. I’ll never master Aikido; there’s always something else to learn. But I realize that I can break music down into smaller parts, into movements, into fronts and back and to approaches that are just as varied in Aikido as it would be in music.

It’s given me self-confidence and a direction. I see a lot of things through the lenses of Aikido. When I’m reading yoga, I’ll go “Well, how does that relate to us?” I’m reading something on pranayama. Prana is ki. Yama means controlling prana. That’s what it means: control life force. So, when I read these things, I go “Oh, yeah, it’s important to breathe in Aikido. And if we breathe correctly, then our techniques are better.”

I’m beginning to see how Aikido can control my mind. I’m not there yet, but I’m beginning to see how it does and it’s helped me a little bit. I’m still as crazy and as wild as I’m ever going to be because I just am that way and that’s how I want to be. I don’t want to be different; I just want to be happy the way I am. Aikido has allowed me to understand who I am and my place in the world -- my world, anyway.

What’s kept you practicing all these years?

What’s kept me going is just the sheer joy of practicing. And I realize that I’ve tightened up and I’m trying to do some other things to loosen myself up.

So physically you’ve tightened up?

Yeah. It’s like a baseball player -- he’s going to be loose for baseball but tight for basketball. Basketball player is going to be loose for basketball but tight for some other activity. Aikido is supposed to loosen you up. I think what has happened is that I’ve armored myself over the years, very subtly. I want to unarmor myself. Stiffening up is another means of protecting yourself and being fearful. It’s not that I’m not fearful when I go practice, especially in the big milieu with 400 people, I don’t know who, so you’re guessing. I’m always cautious about who I’m practicing with and things like that. I think that it’s good to use common sense to make sure that you are equally suited for your partner. Sometimes you’re not. Your partner is just whipping you around and you can’t do anything about it. And that’s all fun for them but it’s not fun for me.

What is your approach to teaching?

One of the things that I feel, and I try to instill this into each student, that this is your course, that this is your path of enlightenment, awakening, awareness. I don’t put the responsibility of teaching on you [the student]; I say to you that what you learn is how much effort you put into it. You can be an innate athlete and have all kinds of ability, but if you’re a jerk to people, your techniques will be jerky and they’ll be mean. My approach is to tell the students that you have to do the studying. I’m going to be here for about 10 percent of your learning. Most of the time it’s going to be with you, so you got to have confidence in yourself that what you can’t do today you will be able to do tomorrow.

I focus on basics, basics, basics. Tohei Sensei, when I asked him “What are advanced techniques?” he goes “Basic techniques but better.” And keep it simple.

I’m trying to tell people, teach people, that this is a long-term project. It’s up to you, you can stay in it as long as you want to. You can go as far as you want to. It’s yours. I’m hoping that you’ll catch afire. I just feel that my teachers lit my candle and now the two of us are burning. Their candles are shorter than mine, and I’m just kind of leaning over and lighting your candle. That’s how I’m approaching it. I’m not approaching it from a technical thing. I want you to be effective. I want your techniques to work. I like mazakatsu. I like the first principle: correct technique, correct attitude, is so important. Correct technique: do all the pieces that you know. And the attitude is a loving attitude.

How has your training and teaching changed over time? You said when you first started teaching you were more of a conduit from Sensei to other students.

Right, just trying to learn what Sensei was teaching, either Mr. Tri or Tohei Sensei. Whatever they were teaching I was trying to follow that.

The first way that I learned was very basic, all basics, stress the basics, keep going over the basics. Don’t worry about the words -- the words will always come when you need the words.

When I first started teaching, I was teaching 10 or 12 techniques for a semester. I teach five techniques now for a semester, if I’m teaching the college class.

One of the things that I’ve done since Sensei has passed is I’m looking at his stuff on video and doing that. He told us to make movements with irimi, tenkan and tenshin, and so I’m exploring how to neutralize and then from that one movement, can I do every technique that I can think of. As a teacher, I’m telling my seniors that now is the time to know 10 or 15 techniques from each of these positions. Everything. If you’re going to turn tenkan, how do you do ikkyo through yonkyo? How do you do all these basics? Can you do koshinage, can you do jujinage? From one basic movement, can you do that?

I think of different basic movements as warm ups. Mr. Tri and Tohei Sensei, because they were pre-Koichi Tohei split, they pretty much look the same to me. Well, then I realized the New York guys don’t step back tenshin; the New England Aikikai, they don’t step back in the same tenshin that we do. They do it differently, sometimes straight back with a punch.

A new thing was this whole idea of sympathetic-parasympathetic. Try to move in such a way that I don’t’ stimulate your flight or fight response. When we’re practicing, I try to move in a way that I’m not going to scare you. I try to keep you holding on to me, guiding you until finally, at the last minute, you realize, boom, “I’m going down.” So, I’m asking people to hold me as tight as they can and I’m trying to find those places. For myself as a teacher I want to study more.

O-Sensei, he was 42 when he started Aikido, and he was 85 when he passed, so he was over 40-something years in Aikido and he changed things. And I change a lot of my approaches now. I’m doing a lot of different kinds of things, watching my hands, more observant.

One other thing as a teacher is that I respect the mistakes that the students make and when they are making a mistake I try to show them within that mistake how right it could be if they were doing something different. That every movement has a technique coordinated to it. There aren’t any wrong moves in Aikido; it’s just sometimes it’s not the technique that we’re doing.