Alexander C. Bennett has two PHDs in Human Studies and Sciences from the University of
Canterbury and Kyoto University.
He holds the ranks of 7th dan Kyoshi in Kendo, 5th dan in Iaido and Naginata, 3rd Dan in
Jukendo and Tankendo.
He is professor at Kansai University of both Kendo and Japanese Culture and History, vice
president of the International Naginata Federation, Member of the international committee of the
All Japan Kendo Federation, director at the Japanese Academy of Budo, cofounder of the
Kendo World Magazine, and author of several books in English and Japanese.
This series starts with Alex's first visit to Japan, his first encounter with Kendo,
and what put him on the tracks that lead him where he is now, 30 years later.
Season 1, Episode 2 - A year of tough Kendo training leading to an epiphany
... but my gut feeling is that perhaps he did see something in me because the way that
he handled me, in retrospect, he was pretty clever about it.
I have a cheeky personality.
You know even in high school I was a bit of a cheeky young lad, and I think he sort of liked that.
So he knew that he could push me on certain things and have a bit of a laugh at the same time.
And he never really pushed me until about six months after I'd been in the club and
then one day he just went to town on me.
He just thrashed me, killed me.
And that was the experience, that actually was, in many ways, the Epiphany that Budo is just something else.
It's a different world, it really is a way of life, a philosophy.
There's so much there, there's so much depth.
He was waiting for that chance, I think, and he chose it perfectly.
If he had done that, you know it was a really really tough hard training and he just, basically,
cleaned the floor with me like a mop, right?
And allegorically killed me many times over.
And if he had done that earlier there's no way I would have, I would have stuck around.
It's like: "No no no this is, this is wrong!"
"This is not why I do sports!" for example.
But he waited, he waited, he waited and he built it up.
And then one day he chose the moment, and to tell me that: "Well actually, this is not a sport."
"This is a Budo and, therefore, to really understand what you were doing, you're
going to have to go through this...
Well let's just say baptism by fire." as it were.
And so that seems to answer your question.
I think he saw something in me and he, but he also knew that, not because I'm not Japanese,
it's not something that should be taken for granted...
It's just certain things that have to be gone through first to make me feel comfortable
about what was going to happen.
But yeah he treated me like everybody else in the club.
You know with the same kind of discipline and scowling and you know all the rest of it.
But he was, I think, he was a clever enough instructor and an experienced enough instructor
to know how to introduce a student like me, who knows very little, well knew very little,
about Japan or the language into this hardcore aspect of Budo.
So, yeah, I think he saw something in me.
If he didn't see something, well he probably wouldn't have bothered.
As you know, being a budoka, it's just a lifelong adventure isn't it?
And you know there are times you do get disillusioned with, with Budo, and all the politics, and
the crap that happens.
But there are certain things that go: "Ah! This is why I'm here."
And so I've had... You know it's a roller coaster ride, but that's what life is, right?
And what…
It was a series of events throughout my life: my late teens, my twenties, my thirties, now my forties...
There's a series of events that just, sort of, connect everything which has kept me going.
And you know, I've been very fortunate, I guess, in my position: being a foreigner who
is actually really serious about it.
You get a lot of attention from people.
Some of it is unwanted, but some of it is very valuable.
And I guess after my year at high school in Japan, well after the incident with my
sensei, about six months into, you know, doing Kendo, where he just beat the crap out of
me, in the nicest possible way but it was horrendous,
and then I, sort of, just, he really took me to this zone, this...
Can you say?
It was almost like a religious experience, I can't think of any better way of saying it.
It just suddenly made me realize that: "Hey! Just do it. Just let go."
And then you get this incredible sense of freedom.
But to get over that threshold, it's the hard bit.
Because it's scary and it's painful but then you just...
Just when you go over it you realize: "Hey I can..."
"What was i holding back for? This is..."
"This is like I'm floating in the zone, like in a flow state.""
And everything, at that point, everything that, you know, I feared, suddenly wasn't
scary anymore and it was just a perfect kind of...
It didn't last for long but it was about 45 minutes of hell, but the hell actually was only about 20 minutes.
And then suddenly I went into a different world and, and...
So that was my first taste of all just the real hardcore aspect of Budo.
If I'd been doing something similar like hard training on soccer I would have stopped, had
a break, had a few drinks, reset and then got back into it.
But you can't do that when you're doing a martial arts training.
So you just go and go and go and go until you drop.
And when you drop you get back up again and you get pushed down, and you go back
up again and just keep going.
And so hopefully, you know, the sensei says: "Enough!"
"Good."
Ok.
So that was my first like...
Like I said, after six months, that sort of made me realize that there's so much more to
this and so I became hooked.
After that I just became addicted to the pre-training dread, heavy stomach: "Oh god here we go."
"What's going to happen today?"
And then the post-training euphoria.
So it's like hell and heaven all in one day, every day.
And, you know, I became addicted to that.
I guess there are kind of really polar opposites of emotion that flow through your body, through
your mind every day at training.
It's just really, it's like it almost cleanses you in many ways and...
But when I went back to New Zealand after a year, admittedly, it's like: "Ah pfioouu."
"I don't have to do Kendo today."
In the next episode, Alex will tell us what happened after he returned to New Zealand
and how he managed to get back to Japan and resume Kendo training,
as well as how he helped establish the International Naginata Federation.
So I got my Shodan, yeah!
So I can show my friends my Shodan.
"Why don't you start a club?
Yeah, why not?"
I thought stupidly, you know, in my naive 18 year old.
So for me it was a purely physical exercise and it will....
And you'll probably laugh at this ...
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