The Junior - Senior relationship

[SaiFightsMS]

I was reading this in Black Belt magazine and I wondered what everyone thought. Does your dojo have a sempai - kohai relationship system? And how does it work?

 

Seniors and Juniors

 

by Dave Lowry

 

Sempai and kohai are Japanese terms frequently used by non-Japanese martial artists. They translate approximately as “senior” and “junior.” The operative word in that sentence is “approximately” because sempai and kohai do not have completely adequate counterparts in English. That’s probably because in the West, we do not have social situations like those that created the whole sempai-kohai relationship. Martial artists who use the terms need to know about their social context so they can give some thought to perhaps not using them at all.

 

Sempai and kohai have come primarily from the educational system in Japan, especially its universities. Surely they have been used elsewhere—they are heard not infrequently in the business world— but in common parlance they refer to one’s upper or lower classmates at school. If I entered a Japanese university a year after you, I would always be your kohai and you would always be my sempai. We both might graduate and eventually I might be the CEO of a huge conglomerate, and you might be far below me in the company’s hierarchy. No matter, you would still be my sempai.

 

In modern dojo, particularly in Japan, these titles are applied the same way. (This is no coincidence. Modern budo’s strongest organizations, particularly before World War II, were at universities, so it’s natural that the terminology would find its way into kendo, karate, etc.) If I joined the dojo on June 6 of this year and you joined on June 7, I would be your sempai, always. If I quit practicing the next day and you stayed with it for the next half-century, even though I am inactive, I would technically still your sempai. These terms denote seniority; they do not imply anything about skill level or title. the surface, it’s that simple.

 

When the budo are transported outside Jap however, it isn’t simple at all. When students Kansas or New Jersey start using the terms, all kinds of misunderstandings can arise:

 

• They may assume sempai and kohai are ancient terms used by the samurai. They aren’t. People implement them to give an authentic or traditional ring to their school are in error.

 

“If the sempai-kohai relationship is important at your dojo fine. But remember that it’s no as simple as it seems and that no matter what your title, everyone is supposed to b learning. “

 

• They may assume these are formal terms of address. With few exceptions, they are not. Bob might be your sempai at the dojo, but you would not normally address him as “sempai” the way you would use the title of sensei. For example, if I asked you who is standing over there, you might say, “That’s my biology teacher!’ But if we then approached he you wouldn’t say, “Teacher, I’d like you to meet friend!’

 

• They may believe the sempai-kohai relations is analogous to that of a fraternal organization that bullying, hazing or making life miserable for juniors is a time-honored tradition. Unfortunately even some Japanese have made this mistake. Juniors in university budo clubs have been severely hazed, even beaten. In extreme situations, there have been deaths. Budoka who engage in this sort of brutality are not following an ancient code of the samurai. For the samurai, the group was only as strong as its weakest link. It

 

was a consideration for every man to have trust and faith in his comrade.

 

Lives were on the line. The karetaka that indulges in this sort of sadism is

 

actually following the traditions of the modern Japanese university where

 

machismo and other such adolescent silliness is a sad part if life.

 

They may believe that the sempai is necessarily senior in technical skill or

 

ability. Not so. Nearly every large dojo in Japan has one or more sempai-

 

guys who stopped serious training years before but who still come in now

 

and then. Often they think they have a right to tell juniors what to do and

 

Japanese society often tolerates this. I know just such a fellow who comes to

 

the Aikikai Hombu in Tokyo, a big talker who hasn’t taken a serious fall or

 

worked up a good sweat in a decade. It’s embarrassing and irritating for the

 

junior-any of whom could kick the seniors behind into the middle of next

 

week- but they smile politely and endure it. You should. Too.

 

If the sempai-kohai relationship is important at your dojo, fine. But

 

remember that it’s not as simple as it seems and that no matter what your

 

title, everyone is supposed to be learning.

 

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