Budo: the Way of Halting Conflict
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| The Cover of Budo: the Way of Halting Conflict |
This nice video was sent to me by a gentleman by the name of Rick Hotton. A very nice man, and if you watch this tape you will see that he is a very skillful karate instructor too. I was quite impressed with both. After watching the film I emailed Rick and asked him for some feedback on my first thoughts of the tape. For me, I have done a fair bit of research on the themes and ideas of “budo” and “bushido” and was curious about the ambitious project of trying to summarize such broad topics in under 30 minutes. This is his response:
As for your questions concerning the project. Yes, the program was intended, to a large extent, to be a “budo primer” and not necessarily a technical essay on the quantifiable attributes or history of budo. Perhaps my main motivation was to expose a side of the martial arts that perhaps gets very little press today, but what I believe to be the sustaining quality for the long-term practitioner. I am also a firm believer that examples speak louder than words, so I chose to let the interviews and personal experiences convey the spirit of the program and for the accompanying script to point the viewer in the appropriate direction - like all good teachers. The intention of the project was to air the program on cable access channels in various regions throughout the United States in order to hopefully strike a chord in the viewer and re-ignite an interest in traditional martial arts. That is why the program length is 28:30 min. I had this crazed ambition that I would communicate a spirit that would resonate with the viewer and change the public perception of the martial arts from glorified violence to venues for self-discovery. Perhaps it is delusional, or just the mindset of a good old seasoned karateka! But I cannot help but feel that if more people understood this aspect of the training, that they would be more inclined to participate and well...that would be a good thing - Of course I have my own personal interest and that is that I could give back to something that has given me so much - also a good thing.
The film takes us through three different disciplines in the martial arts: karate, kyudo, and aikido. It was quite interesting to listen to each of the respective instructors talk about their ideas about their training and approach to the martial arts. None of their eyes glazed over, no one was talking nonsense, each one of these gentlemen made sense. Well done.
Yes, this tape is a “budo primer”, and not meant for those of you who have been around the martial arts block a few times. But this is a nice tape to use with beginning students, to introduce some of the “sense” and the aesthetic of the martial arts. I think this tape would be great for school kids who want to learn about different ways of looking at the world. It has some quiet moments too as the narrator talks, but that is standard fare for school focussed material, and broadcast material too I guess.
This tape is also “idea-focussed” rather than worshiping the Japanese forever for cooking up budo in the first place. That was nice. I liked that about this tape. I liked that quite a bit. But then again, I have always been a sucker for material that focuses on students, tries to teach them something new and interesting, and does so with a sense of mutual respect for the recipient.
If you are in Florida and looking for a good karate teacher you should go and find this man. His students on the tape looked pretty good too, by the way. Here is his web site address. I am delighted to have this tape. It is good stuff and great educational material.
Here is the web site. Go and pay Rick Hotton a visit.
Mark Groenewold
Kanazawa, Japan
February, 2003
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