kendo guide blog - sensei beating student

[turboyoshi]

I check out Imafuji sensei's Kendo Guide blog and recently read an article that rather surprised me. I'm referring to a this question a student submitted.

Am I the only one who thinks this sensei acted criminally when he struck his student with a shinai? I'll admit we may not know the whole story, and even the kendo culture and what is acceptable in student-teacher relationships may be different in Mexico but I'm shocked that Imafuji's response was so mild and even tolerant. I wanted to send him an email expressing my disappointment and asking him to reconsider his response to the student. I tried to submit a comment on his site but kept getting an error. the way I read it, this is a violent sensei who probably feels entitled to abuse his students. If anyone has personal knowledge of the situation and could enlighten me, I'd like to hear it or even a reasonable explanation would do.

[ender84567]

Depends, I think there is more to the story, he said it was his fault, and the sensei hit him once, armored or not is unclear? what exactly did he do to piss the sensei off? also no clear. I wouldn't jump to any conclusions without knowing the whole deal, but like I said I have a feeling there is more to it than what was written.

[turboyoshi]

I agree we don't know the whole story. The student said he was struck as he was walking away. You also have to keep in mind the student said he was new to kendo. Even if we assume the student was disrespectful, that is no excuse for a violent response.

[EndureForte]

I feel some important details have been left out of this story. It would be great if someone could dig up the rest of this...

I'd do it myself but I'm.....sick. Yeah, that's its. Cough. Cough.

[Josh Reyer]

I think Mr. Imafuji's response was right on the money. He's got one side of the story, very vague and with no details, he didn't see what happened, and he has no idea if this student was exaggerating or not. It would extremely irresponsible for him to jump to the conclusion that you did, that what the sensei did was criminal, and so advise this person. So he gave the best, most sensible advice; try to talk to your sensei, and go from there.

I suppose it's something of a selection bias, reflecting only a small percentage of the kendo/iaido praciticing population, but I'm surprised at the number of questions people ask of an Internet forum like this, or a Q&A type forum on Mr. Imafuji's site, rather than asking their teacher. I could see it if this was a student who'd noticed a pattern of behavior, had spoken to their teacher, but were still unsure if that environment was a healthy one. Here you have one incident with one student, who rather than talking to their teacher directly, goes to a complete stranger (if a well-reputed complete stranger) on the Internet.

Edit to add: Not that I think turboyoshi is being irresponsible. Only that Mr. Imafuji, in his particular position, would be irresponsible to respond that way. The lines are drawn a little more broadly for us disinterested kibbitzers.

[ender84567]

I think Mr. Imafuji's

>snert< I dont know why but the idea of someone referring to 'hiro-sensei' as 'mr. imafuji' is just hilarious :-P I guess I'm just too used to his yasashi teaching style to think of him that way.