Dec 31, 2020
This article summarizes the year 2020 with a brief description about our end of year routine.
When 2019 ended, the members of Aiki Ishin-ryu had expected the year 2020 to be a time of significant change. Our participation to an event of ITBF were planned in April, along which we also planned to practice martial arts with our fellows abroad; 2020 was meant to be a year of worldwide intermingling. However, there came this terrible pandemic. All of our schedules went down the drain, leaving us with uncertain future. Thankfully, we are somehow managing to continue our trainings, so we decided to share our story here as a record.
Before the pandemic began, we had several months to practise normally. In February, we held Shinnen-kai (新年会: New Year Party) where members from various classes could have interesting talks together. Soon after the party, the news of deadly pandemic in China started to appear in the headlines of broadcasts and we were forced to alter our classes to more hygienic style. Nevertheless, the speed of infection continued to increase as Japanese travelers started to come back to Japan from all over the world. Eventually, we were left with no choice but to temporarily close our dojo from April to May. While the dojo was being closed, we started to seriously look at the risk of Japanese martial arts becoming forgotten and lost. In order to preserve our skills and techniques, we began to redesign our training methods for practitioners at home.
In Summer, the restrictions on sport facilities such as our dojo loosened gradually and we could finally reopen our classes. Despite the difficulty of keeping the severe rules of Tokyo metropolitan, we were able to safely train with tons of support from our members. The joy of practising turned out to be clearly priceless for our body and mind. It was also fun to adjust our sense of motion which totally became dull during home trainings.
As we got used to the new lifestyle, we held the Kyu exams with safety measures. Also, we renewed our websites with helps of several members and introduced Sofu-jutsu. Fortunately, all of our members were careful enough that none of our members nor their families were infected. We appreciate the great effort that everyone had spent to let our classes available.
When Winter arrived, the number of infections increased sharply. We had to again revise our rules and call out for more caution. It is such a great feat that the number of cases in our dojo stayed 0 thanks to every member's strong sense of responsibility.
At the end of the year came our annual event Oosoji (大掃除: cleaning day). This event is meant to be the opportunity to inspect all the tools and facilities at dojo, as well as to remember the respects towards all people who helped our classes be open. Normally, many members would join this event and enjoy the feeling of refreshment after cleaning; but due to the pandemic, we limited the participants to the minimum number this year.
After Oosoji, we decorated our dojo with traditional new year charms of good luck, offered Sake (酒: Japanese rice wine), salt, Sekihan (赤飯: red rice), Surume (するめ: dried cuttlefish) & water to our Kamidana (神棚: altar), and placed Morishio (盛り塩: pile of salt) in the suitable positions in dojo.
Overall, the year 2020 had been full of unexpected events, but we surely achieved our best and realized fine quality of trainings. We would like to thank all the support that helped us come this far. May the great luck be with you all and Happy New Year!
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