Pictures Worth A Thousand...Memories

[sensei8]

Pictures are worth a thousand words. But what if there were no pictures of any media to chronicle ones MA journey? Would it be a tragic thing?

I use to have many picture albums as well as boxes of all sizes chronicling my MA journey. I use to. But one nasty divorce later they were all gone via one big bonfire.

The Shindokan Hombu use to have a whole entire room dedicated to everything Shindokan, especially the journeys of our Soke and Dai-Soke, but that was then...this is now. Our San Dai-Soke took each photo, video file, and the like to Nanjo Okinawa when he decided to betray the entire student body. It was his right because he was San Dai-Soke and that meant that he owned everything within the walls of the old Hombu, not just in a figurative sense, but in the literal sense.

Memories are all that remain, however, their nothing more than fading as the sands of our hourglass is slowly emptied in front of our faces.

We can have all of the memories back from our San Dai-Soke is we allow him to return to the new Hombu...if we allow him to be reinstated as the San Dai-Soke...if we return to him the full authority that a Soke-type does possess.

But I can't...we can't...and we don't...I don't!! Besides, our Legal team drafted quite a binding set of By-Laws that erases the existence of any Soke type, and/or the recreating possibilities of a Soke type forever.

What would you do??

[Lupin1]

Pictures are worth a thousand words. But what if there were no pictures of any media to chronicle ones MA journey? Would it be a tragic thing?

I don't take many pictures anyway, so it probably wouldn't bug me that much. I'm not a big picture person. That said, when I first restarted martial arts I went through all our old albums to find pictures of me in my gi when I was little. It's fun to see them and post them for my friends to see. Last night my instructor's instructor came and visited us and since I had a picture with me, him and my instructor from when I was 8 I had us re-create that picture last night and posted the two side by side on Facebook. It was fun to see how the people and the dojo changed and stayed the same over those 17 years. But I don't think it would bug me too much if I didn't have those pictures. I'd still have the memories.

Now if I were planning on preserving memories for future generations who might want to study our dojo and the way we did things (doubt it), then pictures would be very valuable and old pictures are always fun to look at and analyze and imagine with. But again-- I don't think my life or my training would be any worse off without them.

[Dobbersky]

Yeah we have photo's I'm looking at filming the complete Syllabus too especially the kata

[DWx]

It's an unfortunate that you no longer have any of the old photos as that's a little bit of history lost. Have you asked around current and past students to see if anyone had any copies? Or if they are lost forever, start new memories and make your own history. Take photos in classes and any events you hold. My instructor routinely takes class photos and grading photos every year and whenever we hold or attend a special event like a tournament or seminar, out comes the camera. If you're looking to have a new collection of memorabilia, yourself and the other high grades could donate things to build it back up. Stuff like Bob sensei's first belt or someone else's 9th kyu certificate from 40 years ago etc.

If you're feeling nostalgic, another nice thing to have might be some sort of book that the longtime students can write down memories of Shindokan related things. Like that time ... visited the dojo. The photos are lost but the memories don't have to be.

Also, if you have some free time on your hands, now might be a good time to start filming Shindokan. Videos of yourself or others performing your kata as they should be, examples of set sparring, free sparring, people doing tameshiwari, 10 min lessons from yourself on a particular subject. Then not only can you make these videos available for the student body to access whenever they want, you can preserve Shindokan for the future.

[bushido_man96]

That's unfortunate, Bob. Pictures are great for memories of where we came from, and they mean a lot to us. They really can say a lot.

What I would do if I were you, is start anew with photographs you have now, and begin photographing new events and classes, taking pictures of those important to the hombu NOW, and build your memories up again.

I do recall that you should have a picture of a couple rather dapper individuals that could adorn your hombu walls......

[evergrey]

This is why I sneak photos of my Shihan whenever I can, even though he regularly threatens to break my camera, or break me.

[Wastelander]

I feel that even if you don't, personally, find much value in photographs, you should still take pictures and record video in your dojo. Just because you don't find value in them doesn't mean you won't change your mind later in life, and who knows how many of your students might find value in them? I see martial arts instructors on Facebook posting old photos, video clips and magazine articles that people thought were lost, only to spark up conversations and reminiscent thoughts associated with those things.

It's definitely terrible that you lost all of those photographs! I hope some of the other members of your style have copies so that you can at least partially rebuild the collection, and I would definitely scan all of the photos you have so they can be saved digitally. I think that bushido_man96's suggestion is also spot-on! Start taking photos and recording videos now so that you can add to your style's history through images that will last longer than memories.

[sensei8]

Thanks to all, and you've all made some great suggestions; many that I will entertain across the board.

I'm not against any type of venue, no, it was our Soke and Dai-Soke who weren't that concerned with them because..."I don't care about pictures, I only care about your karate-do!!" He'd let the picture/video happen as long as it doesn't interfere with anything happening on the floor. I've seen him throw camera's outside because they weren't respectful of his floor.

[bushido_man96]

You could look at hiring an independent photographer for a day, have them come to the Hombu and other dojos, and do some picture taking while in classes, or seminars, or what not.

You could also do a photo album of your school. Whenever someone signs up for classes, take a photo, put it a book. Then take a photo after every grading. Kind of a recording of their journey. Kind of like a photo record of your students.

[ninjanurse]

I keep an on line "album" of pictures for my students to see and encourage them to do the same. Parents can contribute as well by emailing me photos or posting themselves. I include events, gradings, and class time-even post a few videos from time to time. Also, we encourage all students to keep a notebook/scrapbook full of notes, pictures, certificates, whatever is significant to their training and martial arts journey.