Miyahara Sensei's 80th Birthday party at Pasadena Kendo Dojo in 2001
At the end of my first year of Kendo in 2001, a classmate of
mine asked me why I decided to stop going to practice. I told him that I
can't seem to find the motivation to continue it at that time. I had made
a short-term goal to learn enough to defend myself and I felt like I had
accomplished that goal. I don't mean it in the way of defending myself
well against a Sensei. I felt confident enough that I could defend myself against a random average trouble-maker I might crosss paths with.
My second reason was that I had always wanted to learn break-dancing when I was
younger but never had an opportunity to do so until that moment. So I veered away
from Kendo for a few years.
Photo by Eileen Dong taken at my Shodan Shinsa in October 2004.
Miyahara
Sensei convinced me to come back for one year in 2004. It was a coincidence that a huge group of new beginners came probably because the film called "The Last Samurai" had just came out. In October of that year, I earned 1st Dan. After the year ended I left Kendo once again. I
went back into break-dancing for several years. My Kendo achievement up to there were all short-term goals. It's easier for a younger
person to make more short-term goals.
It wasn’t until 2008 that I began to think about long-term
goals. I got married. I started investing in the
stock market. My wife and I bought our first house in 2009. It was then that I started
to realize how much I missed Kendo. Kendo was a topic that often flowed into
my conversations with friends and family.
Miyahara Sensei and I at the 2010 San Fernando Valley Kendo Dojo Christmas party
Photo by Eileen Dong
One day my wife said, "why don't you go back?" At the beginning of 2010 I came back to our dojo. In April 2011, I passed the 2
nd
Dan exam. Miyahara Sensei has been doing Kendo for 80 years. That shows us that Kendo should definitely be
a long-term goal. It keeps me mentally and physically sharp with a minimal amount of injury from practice. It is a practical art in many ways because it
improves my everyday life outside of practice.
During my work-day, I think about my posture, my voice, and my
breathing. I think about dangerous
obstacles that I have to avoid around the workshop and how to improve my work. I think of distance between my car and the
car in front of me for maintaining safety when I drive. I think
of ways to make my life and the lives of those around me safer and hopefully better. I am constantly training my mind to sense incoming
danger so that I can handle life’s challenges more confidently.
Miyahara Sensei's 90th Birthday party at Saladang Song in May 2011
(Back row from left to right: Kaneshiro Sensei, Greg Tria, Sean Barley, Bailey Sensei, Roger Fachini, Nguyen Dong with Andrey Kostin behind, Leo Sukisassiyan. Front row: Miyahara Sensei, Yuho Matsuo)
Being a part of the San Fernando Kendo Dojo gives me a sense of being a part of a good community. It encourages me to meet new people and maintain good relationships. Kendo is interesting to me because age, sex,
size, weight, and athleticism isn’t as important as knowledge and
experience. A person of lower rank has a chance to win a against a person of higher rank.
Although most people tend to think of Kendo more as a sport today, I still
think of it as an art form. To be great
at any discipline takes a lot of discipline and patience.
There’s no path to greatness with only short-term goals. The short-term goals must serve towards
accomplishing a long-term goal. Kendo to me, is the instrument that serves my long-term goal to become a better
person. These are the reasons that motivate me to be a part of Kendo for the long run.
- Nguyen Dong
