Todd Fessenden, Broomfield Aikikai
I tested for nidan at Summer Camp in 1995 at Sonoma State University. I fondly remember JD Sandoval Sensei testing alongside me… just beautifully destroying his ukes. Alex Peterson Sensei was an uke for me during my test. He wasn’t wearing a hakama because all of the San Diego Aikikai uchideshi and kenshusei had gotten in trouble with Chiba Sensei and had their hakamas taken away. Alex and I watched the video a few years back and he noted the fire in JD’s test. At the time, it felt like I was on a battlefield of sorts.
Before my earlier Camp test for ikkyu Iseri Sensei told me that teachers bring their best students to test at Camp, to essentially show off their own work. I think Nomura Sensei led the test at that Camp. At this camp Shibata Sensei was leading the testing, and barking out techniques in a way that I could not understand. Chiba Sensei was watching from the side, and my teacher, Iseri Sensei, was on the testing panel. Early on I devised a plan to look to see what JD was doing as each technique was called, as I figured he was most likely to understand Shibata Sensei. It worked pretty well, actually. It was a long test, probably an hour and a half in front of a large and intimidating audience. For better or for worse, I have always been pretty calculating in pacing myself during my tests. It’s not that I don’t want to bring the fire, I just don’t want to burn out! Luckily, I passed my nidan test at Camp. But Iseri Sensei told me I had passed, just barely.
The following day, I was completely fazed and exhausted. The yudansha had a bokken class out in a grassy area, and Chiba Sensei was the instructor. Somewhere around halfway through the class I was doing kiriotoshi with my partner and as we switched roles I noticed that I had my bokken upside down. I am not sure why, but I looked over my shoulder at that moment and I saw Chiba Sensei glaring at me with eagle eyes from about 20 yards away! How was he looking at me at this exact moment? I shrugged it off.
After class we were all walking back to the main training hall and Chiba Sensei was a couple of groups behind me. Suddenly, I heard him yell “Tom!”. I immediately knew he was calling for me but had confused me with Tom Reed because our names were similar and we were both from the same dojo. My 24-year old brain decided that I could ignore it, since it was the wrong name. Then again “Tom!” I knew I was doomed. I heard him ask Pat Belt Sensei “What’s name?” and I heard her say “Todd”. I knew I was screwed. Sensei yelled, even loader, “Todd!” I turned around and walked back to him and Pat. He told me “Your basic body work is sound, but your weapons work is a bit… cloudy.” He then said “Don’t take your weapons work so seriously, think of them as toys, and you have a teacher that is really good at teaching students how to play with toys.” I said “Hai, Sensei, thank you.” and he gave me a supportive head nod.
Iseri Sensei, Pat Belt Sensei and Chiba Sensei
Like many of the things I heard in my early twenties from teachers who were infinitely wiser than me, I didn’t fully understand. I was perplexed. I think now he was just telling me to relax and not be so tense when working with weapons, think of them as toys. I still work on that. I’m still unravelling the mobius strip of genius we were so lucky to be a part of. Chiba Sensei was a once in a hundred-year teacher, at least.
We’re all blessed to have lived in that era.