Hello, I am a Sensei …. and I'm an elitist. So are you and we both should act like it.
What? Why? Huh? Isn’t that term “unpopular” these days, having a bit of a bad connotation?
Why would I want to be “one of those”.
Well, think about this for a moment. In the US the estimate is that there are only 100,000 Judo players in a country with 330 million people. However, those estimates also indicate that only about 25,000 of those are registered with either the USJA, USJF, or USA Judo. Since most Judo clubs are competitive or give rank (and not just a group that trains for fun and never ranks within Judo organizations or that competes) then that 100,000 could largely be overstated (or the majority of those players inactive) since registering to fight in a tournament or compete in kata generally requires registered rank (and membership in a organization) for a sanctioned event; not to mention that if you are promoted you’d probably like for it to be recognized and have a certificate to hang on your wall.
In Canada according to one report, there are no more than maybe 1,000 players for kendo, iaido, and jodo/jojutsu combined in a country of 38 million. The information has it that if you look at koryu jojutsu alone then it might be as few as 100 or so and I would expect that in the US, koryu art forms would be about the same.
A simple web search shows that worldwide there are approximately 1 million Kodokan Judo players in 130 different countries/regions. That calculates out to about 7,700 per region (understanding that some regions are very small such as comparing Luxembourg to the US) so those numbers are variable.
So basically, those people who train in martial arts whether competitive or koryu, are an elite. There just aren’t many of them and they are training in a field of knowledge that is extensive, deep, ancient, and difficult to stay focused on and to make real progress in. That's an elite group of people and we ought to acknowledge it and act like it.
This acknowledgement however, means something different than what you might think when you normally hear the term. Think about some examples of what have you been conditioned (by society) to viscerally think when you hear the word "elite". A fraternity or sorority that is highly exclusive in picking their members to the point of looking at the brand name in the collar of your shirt. A social group that's difficult (very) to get into with an application process that has so many hurdles that you seemingly have to be born into it as a legacy. Or the governmental and financial elite that you can’t join unless your parents are professional politicians, and your family has money that goes back to before the American revolution.
Even small towns have a group of elites such as the one I came from where the farmers and ranchers owned all the land having been there for the last couple of centuries and that was before including the professionals (pharmacist, doctor, dentist, attorney) who had large incomes and who all socialized together, hung out at the country club, and wrote the big checks to the church. Their kids were “special” and no matter what your accomplishments in school or athletics were, you were never really accepted into their group.
In the case of martial arts, we’re only talking about a few thousand or tens of thousands out of hundreds of millions (or billions if you consider the population of the planet). So, if martial artists don’t hang out at the country club, then what do they do?
Well for one, they work with each other in training, learning, and preserving physical (and philosophical) knowledge that can be centuries old. They look out for each other, teach each other, learn from each other, and while doing so pledge to “pay it forward”. So, should we refer to ourselves as “Bushido Elites”? And if so, what makes us different?
Bushido Elites give each other a hand up, work with each other, and willingly and eagerly share the knowledge with those who wish to learn.
What do Bushido Elites not do? They don't pick and choose and exclude as they wish, they don't say show me your membership card in the Daughters of the American Revolution, or where is your fathers balance sheet, or your sheep skin from the exclusive universities in an “approved” profession. Advertising, enrolling, teaching, guiding, making it easy to participate, welcoming new students into the fold (if they want to learn and grow).
That is exactly the opposite of what the elites do, which is to make it difficult to find, apply to, and join. They are secretive in how the process of application and maintaining membership works and in general are being exclusionary, having unwritten rules of membership.
The Bushido Elite on the other hand simply means there are few of you and so you must work hard to not allow it to disappear; even if that translates to committing to more personal time than originally thought to teach and run the dojo and putting in personal funds to maintain the group. You are welcome if you do the work and wash your gi on a regular basis.
Differentiating between true Bushido/Budo and role-playing becomes more and more difficult and popular culture has warped the view of martial arts to the point to which things such as “Sport Karate” has taken over and many other martial arts (should I be saying “former martial arts”) are nothing more than performance art that no longer contains the martial spirit or the philosophical underpinnings that gave it intrinsic value.
For all of this, I now always make mention (when discussing training or speaking to prospective students) that what we do indeed “is” an elite activity and will set them apart from others. For those who are truly interested, it becomes the closing argument in their decision to improve their body, mind and spirit and become more than what they are.
L.F. Wilkinson Kancho
The Aikibudokan
Houston, TX
May 3, 2022