Editorials from "Hakama" Magazine

The first issue of "Hakama" was published in December 1995, as a bimonthly publication intended for the New Zealand aikido community, regardless of dojo affiliation, Aikikai, Ki Society, Yoshinkan, Iwama, or whatever.

The final issue appeared in March 2005. Circulation was small, and it seemed that some dojos simply passed a single copy around amongst their members rather than encouraging individuals to subscribe. This was disappointing, but far more so was the lack of feedback in the form of articles on Kiwi dojos for publication at no charge, or letters to the editor. My pleas for material to publish resulted in only 10 features on different dojos, and three letters to the editor in the whole 10-year period! We had a handful of international subscribers who seemed to be more enthusiastic than the locals.

Even so, I enjoyed putting the magazine together (with layout help from Tony Schaufelberger) and only gave up when other demands on my time made me conclude that the effort involved was disproportionate to the results, and that maybe, after all, not many people were interested.

These comments are by way of background to the republishing, in this blog, of some of my editorials from "Hakama" which I think are still relevant and may (hopefully) be of interest. I would certainly welcome any comments.

Here is the editorial from the first issue (Sept/Oct, 1995):

Dedicated to Aikido in New Zealand

Aikido has come a long way in New Zealand since my wife, Hisae and I started the first dojo back in 1965. However there are still many people who have never heard of the art, and it is partly with them in mind that we have launched this modest publication.

It is also our hope that Hakama will help to bring aikido students throughout the country closer together and provide a forum for an exchange of views. To this end we invite contributions from one and all.

New publications such as this often start with ambitious announcements, only to close down within a short period and subsequently lay the blame on lack of support, so we will not make too many promises in this first issue, recognising that the future of Hakama will depend mainly on our own efforts.

In is also usual to issue a disclaimer to the effect that opinions expressed in the publication are not necessarily those of the publishers, but the chances are that most of the opinions herein will be our own, until such time as our readers take up the invitation to submit their views, and we make no apology for holding firm opinions on some subjects.

One such topic is brutality in the dojo and, despite the unfortunate existence of many precedents throughout the aikido world, we reject this completely and will be campaigning against it in these pages. Use of excessive force, whether or not it results in injury, cannot be excused under the guise of hard training, or blamed on bad ukemi.

To my mind there is a clear trade-off when one decides to pursue aikido, the Way of Harmony, rather than any of the numerous other martial arts, and that is the renunciation both of force and the competitive attitude, in order to seek the deeper meaning of the art. You can't have it both ways.

In offering this new publication for New Zealand aikido enthusiasts we should also like to acknowledge the many instructors whose efforts during the 15 years that we were in Japan, and since, are largely responsible for the popularity of aikido today. I bow to them and hope that we will have the opportunity to feature them and their dojos in future issues.