Stuart Allison is a Ninpo Martial artist who lives with his wife, Rachel, and their two children in Brighton.
“We have two very small children who wake
me early every morning with, “Daddy, it’s time to get up.” So each morning is
blessed with breakfast time with the kids. Then I take my oldest to nursery or some
days I get to spend time with my youngest son at home.
I’m
the Headmaster of the Shin Jin Dojo in Brighton, an Amatsu Tatara martial arts
school. It teaches Jujitsu martial art
and Ninpo, the philosophical codes, moral and ethics upon which it rests.
It’s a
traditional Japanese school, so when I’m outside the Dojo, I’m Stuart, but
inside, I’m Sensei Stuart, which is the honorific Japanese title for teacher. I
love the fact that there is this cultural distinction as it takes us into a
whole different realm and, in some ways, I think it gives people the chance to
step outside themselves.
I
work together with five full-time teachers and three part-time staff and we
have about 500 students.
The
school is like an extended family and my relationship with my staff is like an
older uncle, very sort of Ninjaesque if you like. I say to the guys, “I’m not
the boss. I don’t have a job for anybody, but there is a vocation here if you
want to dedicate yourself to it.”
Many
people see me running the school and think, "that must be nice, to do a bit of
martial arts teaching and then go home." I would love to spend more time on the
mats teaching, but I seem to spend a lot more time on administration. I worked it
out once, for every one hour that I teach there must be 3 – 4 hours of
administration for the school. A lot of the time, at the moment, I’m going in
and out of the classes and teaching the teachers. Or if they’ve got a
particularly difficult area, a new concept, or a new part of the syllabus that
we’re teaching, I’ll go in and set the classes and then all the instructors
will follow the lead.
The
school follows Grand Master Tanemura’s art and curriculum. I have been his
student for 24 years and I still feel like a beginner. Sensei Tanemura has
given all his students the task of bridging the gap between east and west to help,
almost translate, this martial art, Ninpo-jujitsu, to western minds and to
different age groups.
Grand Master Tanemura
is a unique man. He is of Samurai descent and he’s not bowed down to fashion
and any sort of pressure from commercialism. He’s stayed really strict and true
to what he wants this martial art to be. He espouses the ethos of the
traditional martial arts and, in my mind, fulfills all those preconceptions of
what an old martial artist ought to be, very kind, very sweet and very strict.
I don’t teach
people to fight because that’s not what Sensei does. I teach people to defend
themselves. That’s a massive subject, which touches on the physical, the
mental, the emotional, and spiritual, for want of a better word.
The physical
side of defence is about self-protection of the body. The body houses the mind,
the emotions and the spirit, so by nature, the Jujitsu art, Ninpo art, is about
protecting these four realms of the human being. Then you have the psychology
of defence; where are you first attacked?
You’re first attacked in the mind and the vehicle that is used for that
is a person’s language, how they stand, or how they intimidate. Then you have
the inner workings of that situation, how you respond emotionally to that
stimulus. And then you have the spiritual realm, again, for want of a better
word, where you’re called upon to dig deep down within you and discover
resources that you might not have thought that you had. This is where the
challenge comes in, because you’re right out of your comfort zone in a
self-defence situation.
Sensei
Tanemura also talks about the traits of a Ninja. At the introductory level,
Sensei says a Ninpo martial artist must be honest with himself. He must begin
to question himself; did I really do my best? Did I do everything that I could
have done? Was I as kind as I could have been? Was I as patient as I could have
been? Then Sensei says that we have to
have an enquiring mind, to be passionate about learning. When you have a
passion about learning, you’re saying to yourself, “I don’t know everything.” The
more you learn, the more you’ve got to give and share. The last basic trait of a Ninpo martial artist is
effort. Without effort nothing ever grows.
This martial art takes time and
patience to learn but what you gain from that is so much more than just knowing
a few fancy moves or self-defence tricks. You know, if there was some way I
could not call this martial arts, I would, because, so much has jumped on the
bandwagon of “martial arts” and this is completely different.
I’m at the Dojo most of the time and the pay off for having mornings with the kids is that I’m
not with them for many an evening. But on two nights, I finish early so I’m
usually home by about 9.0’clock. Those
are the best evenings and I rush home to be with them. I get to bath the
children and to climb into bed with them and read them stories and that’s a
really lovely time.
We say our
little prayers for the day; what are we thankful for and we remind ourselves whom
we love and who loves us. That’s how I’m starting to teach my children about
appreciation. I’ll quite often
meditate to sleep with them. That has a very lovely calming effect on them and
then I’ll get up and have a bit of an evening with my wife."
