When some of my friends and I decided to publish one of Homma Sensei's many books, we did not know that we embarked on a long journey. The high point of the road, was Homma's Sensei's visit to Hungary. Instead of going through the days hour by hour, I would like to give a general impression what Homma Sensei's visit meant for us.

Gaku Homma Sensei's visit to Hungary, as with many things in one's life, was the work of a many coincidences. When we successfully published his book, I sent the mandatory copies to the publisher, but I completely forgot to send Homma Sensei's copies. So when the book arrived at Nippon Kan, they were a couple of month to late. Yet, it seemed that they were exactly right for Homma Sensei's traveling schedule. He wished to meet us in person and thank you for the Hungarian translation personally.

To be honest, we did not know why he would like to come. I mean, not only was it impossible to organize a seminar in such a short notice with sufficient participants, but we were told that this is an unofficial visit anyway. Based on that, we had no idea why would Homma Sensei want to come to us, to 2 or 3 dozen aikidokas. Usually such visits are always, at least from my point of view, business ventures: a sensei comes and teaches for X amount and goes home. Not that I do not understand that the flight tickets are expensive or the hotels are not free. Neither is it that I do not wish to pay, quite the contrary, sacrifices make achievements even more precious. But never ever (actually there was one exception), was I told by a martial instructor that "I am nearby, I visit you people for a day or two, to see who you are." I understand that live is hard, and there is no free lunch, but I think this is where aikido should differ. So until now, no one came "just" to visit us. Therefore our surprise and perplexity was soon mingled with a slight suspicion: why is Homma Sensei coming? But in the end we did not question our fortune, and our curiosity took over, and we began our modest preparation.

During the first day I noticed that I have a very different Sensei at hand than usually. Small things that catch one's eyes. Like when "great martial instructors arrive" they give you their travel bags or push they trolley (not that one would not offer to take them anyway) and answer usually everything with thank you and yes and do not really care about the person being there. They do not (or should not) ask if there was a problem waiting for them, etc. Well, Homma Sensei did not fit that mold. We were continuously surprised by the sheer straightforwardness and openness of his personality. Everyone was surprised and very happy that they could ask questions and receive answers, real answers with understandable reasoning for the western mind. We not only learnt techniques and their history (which in itself is a very interesting and very precious knowledge in itself), but we learnt a lot about the founder and his vision. This vision connected with Nippon Kan's example how to do it impressed many people. It made us think.

Some time ago we were wondering with some friends about the martial arts instructors in general. Nearly all of them teach and talk about the positive impact of martial arts on the character. Yet, most of them, while kind people, sportsman or instructors making a living out of their knowledge. There would be no problem with it as such, if martial arts would not promise so much more. I mean sportsman have to win. For example could a swimmer stop and wait for his friend who is last, just because he wants to be kind or make sure nothing is wrong with his friend? Most certainly not, it would be the end of his career as swimmer. Yet swimming, as many sports, steel the character, or so we are told. But have you seen a (insert any sport practitioner / martial artist here) leaving the mat, because it does not make sense to face an injured opponent? If you did, you saw the famous exception to the rule. So, we can conclude, that the instructors teach winning, not a martial art or sportsman like behavior. But there are special cases. Some martial arts put the morality as a goal or at least on par with the physical. Take Aikido for example it promises so much more than self-defense and health. One could at least expect, that Aikido instructors are examples by having the determination and the behavior, reflecting their convictions (in none religious sense) of what they teach. I met many Aikido instructors. Some were kind, some were good instructors, some good drinking buddies, or all but they all could easily pass as any other martial arts or some as a sport instructor. Homma Sensei proved to be that special kind of instructor for us in those short few days. He reminded us to keep Humanity in Aikido, because it is at least as important as developing our techniques. This idea, the Founder's vision, was explained so well, that even jiu-jitsukas and karaktekas were discussing it afterwards. If different martial art styles can train together in harmony and discuss it afterwards, I think one can say that there was a good Aikido. We felt is, we saw it, and practiced it.

With Homma Sensei's visit we found something which we thought was lost long ago, but it turned out it is not. That would be our summary of the events, which is still making waves.

A special thanks to Emily who organized everything for us, and is waiting for my article patiently. We sincerely hope that to Homma Sensei will come, but next time with Emily.

Akos Szederjei, August 6, 2007