KENDO’S HACHIDAN

by Phillip Starr

Quite a while back, I sent out a Youtube clip which featured two separate Japanese kendo (fencing) instructors, both of whom were striving to achieve the coveted hachidan (8th grade black belt, the highest grade in kendo as well as iaido) in their particular art. It’s a long clip, following the stories of both instructors – but it is really a great inspiration as well.

The national test for hachidan in Japan is extremely demanding and is broken into three phases. It is said that over 90% of the applicants are washed out during the first phase. Of the more than 700 kendoists who entered the test, only something like 140 made it through the first phase.

The second phase washes out many more and the third phase, which consists of a written exam, weeds out the few finalists. In the end, only something like 10 or less applicants passed the final part of the test.

The older of the two was a Mr. Miyamoto, age 73. This was his 24th attempt at passing the test. He said that if, for some reason, he should fail to make the grade this time, he’d return the next year and try yet again!

The other applicant was only 48 years old and had taken the test only something like a half-dozen times. Like Miyamoto, he said that if he failed the test this year he’d be back next year…

I think what impressed me the most was the spirit that both men displayed; the thought of giving up and throwing in the towel never crossed their minds. You’d think that a man who is 73 years old would just shake his head and forget about it…but not Mr. Miyamoto. He had a dream and he wasn’t about to give up on it. He was determined to keep trying until he succeeded.

He also firmly believed that as long as a martial arts practitioner kept training regularly, he/she would continue to improve. This is a very different view than that often heard in the west where we’re told that after a certain age we should relax and “take it easy.”

And bear in mind that Miyamoto had failed the test TWENTY-THREE TIMES PREVIOUSLY!!! He was a very highly skilled kendo practitioner, but he apparently just had the bad luck to be paired with others who were slightly better…or whatever. The point is that he never gave up…even after failing the exam every year for 23 years straight!

I recall a beginning student I had some years back. He was a very nice fellow, very amiable and he trained hard. But…he didn’t like to practice forms and because of that, he didn’t practice them at home – which is absolutely essential for anyone who desires to develop real skill.

When test time rolled around he was determined to take the exam along with his classmates. I warned him that I thought he needed more work (actually a LOT more work) on his basic form, but he was insistent on testing with his comrades. And he did.

And I failed him. His form was terrible. Actually, it was about five klicks below that. And he looked at me and said, “If I don’t pass, I’ll quit.”

And that’s a really bad thing to say to any teacher. Ever. So I told him to do whatever he felt he needed to do, but he wasn’t passing the test.

So he quit. And never came back (which was probably a good idea).

If nothing else, he left me with a valuable story to tell my students; that his is a perfect example of what NOT to be. Mr. Miyamoto is on one end of the spectrum and this student is on the other.

It’s not just about passing or failing tests, you see. It’s about spirit – perseverance, dedication, and belief in oneself. Like Gen. George Patton said, “Success is how high you bounce when you hit bottom.”