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A Door Opens
Later we begin to perform Tekki Shodan kata. Then
we started kumite, at which point I stood to the side
to watch the others perform. I thought it was best
not to get involved with this. If I did kumite, it
might raise the bad feelings that surrounded my departure
from the U.S. Chito-Ryu Karate Federation years ago.
 The
clinic participants pose with a picture of O-Sensei,
whose karate Dometrich-Hanshi has dedicated his life
to.
One student caught my eye, not because he was
great at what he was doing, but because
he reminded me of so many other young karateka whose
only intention was to hit something – an arm,
a leg, wherever he could – whether or not it
was an effective target.
Dometrich-Hanshi must have been watching him as well,
because he asked if I could help him. I tried to help
without taking part in the kumite but I found this
was impossible. I needed to gauge for myself what he
was doing by actually engaging him in sparring. It
was then that I realized it was not kumite that
Hanshi offered me, but an open door. He
trusted me with this task, as he did of old, and I
responded by helping the student as best I could.
After class was over, we took many pictures. As I
stood posing with Dometrich-Hanshi and Okusan, I was
flooded by many strong feelings.
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