A BOWL OF BIRAN
Heavenly Gift
The note below is featured on the inside cover of the
2001 USAF WR calendar.
At the 1997 French Summer Camp in Mejannes le Clap, one of
the senior French instructors asked me to give a name to an
international Aikido community whose size was growing
rapidly with each passing year. The community has coming
into being naturally. It has progressed into an
international family with a strong and distinguishable
character through an interchange of instructors from the
USAF Western Region, British Aikikai, and various French
dojos along with their associate members in Greece,
Switzerland, and Germany.
Naming this community was needed partly because of the
European political situation where organizational control is
very rigid surrounding Aikido. It includes control by the
government which tends to kill the free and open flow of the
students-teacher relationship which of the utmost priority
in our Aikido activity. Because of that situation, many
concerned members have been looking for a new direction away
from the current state of confusion and unhappiness there.
They have been looking for a sense of identity in their
Aikido lives.
After two years of careful thought, I chose the name
Birankai. Biran is a Buddhist term meaning a cosmic storm
that occurs in the moment before cosmic order shifts. It is
a force of recovery, spontaneously manifesting itself to
restore order. The storm can be powerful and violent. Yet,
at the same time it is one that heals through cleansing and
purification. In January 2000, I decided to formally start
Birankai, taking advantage of the millennium and Year of the
Dragon. During the USAF Western Region Summer Camp held in
San Diego in June 2000, I appointed Dr. Rikko Varjan to be
first head member of Birankai family.
The bowl shown here encircled by three
patterns, perfectly satisfies my vision of Biran. In the
center, a powerful spiral energy arises out of a mysterious
background of three colours: ash white, deep green and blue.
The second pattern (as if done with a knife or spatula)
surrounds it with smoky brown flower petals that are
beautifully stained with deep green and blue from the
center, like an aura shooting forth the spiral energy. The
pattern reminds me of the effects of amida yasuri (Buddha's
aura), often radiating outward in the work of Japanese tsuba.
The light brown base blends with these three colours again
to appear like a spreading stain. Overall, strong firing and
smoky effects without any obvious glaze work makes it
beautiful mysterious. The bowl's contour is gradually raised
from the base to the outer rim at 40 degrees, simultaneously
expressing expansion and contraction, or forces of
centripetal and centrifugal energy.
I can't be sure of the bowl's origins, but it looks to me to
be Bizen or Tamba pottery of Japan. I had found it sitting
amongst some rubbish in the middle of my garage in the
summer of 1999, just about the same time that I chose the
name Biran. It came with such perfect timing and
coincidence, I first thought. Later, I learned that my wife
found it on top of a garbage can in a neighbourhood alley.
It surely happened to be a gift from Heaven with a blessing
for Birankai.
T.K. Chiba
Chair, USAF Western Region Teaching Committee |
The following
speech was originally delivered at the Birankai
International seminar held at Labaroche, France in April
2001.
Birankai International represents the culmination of a
long-held wish of Chiba Sensei. He has long desired that his
students, who are scattered across the globe, should have a
single organization to support their training.
In the United States, his students have had the benefit of
his presence for 20 years. Under his guidance they have
created a strong organization, the USAF Western Region,
dedicated to practice and to the transmission of the art.
The Western Region organization includes a Teaching
Committee, which Chiba Sensei chairs, a Sub-Teaching
Committee, and an Advisory Council, as well as a strong and
supportive general membership. In the UK, British Aikikai is
directed by Sensei’s senior teachers, formally brought
together into a Technical Committee. Under his supervision,
they have been working diligently for a number of years.
Now, for the first time, Sensei has brought the teachers in
continental Europe together to form a Teaching Committee.
The members of that committee are: Patrick Barthelemy,
Gabriel Valibouze, Didier Hatton (France), and Chris Mooney
(UK). Steve Magson (UK) has been designated to assist Chris
Mooney, although he will not be a member of the committee.
Additionally, Chiba Sensei, Norberto Chiesa (France) and
Daniel Brunner (Switzerland) have formed an Advisory
Committee. Its function will be to advise and assist the
members of the continental Europe Teaching Committee.
These committees, plus others that may be created in the
next few years, are charged with four basic tasks:
- To establish good communication between themselves
and the general members.
- To strengthen the connection between continental
Europe, the UK, and the US.
- To maintain the clear, high standards that Sensei
has developed for teachers.
- To stimulate the growth of the art by providing
strong support for the teacher-student relationship.
The foundation of this work, through which all this comes into being,
is sincere, committed, non-competitive practice. We train
daily in our dojos, at seminars, and in our daily lives. It
is Sensei’s hope, and the hope of all his teachers, that the
creation of Birankai International will ensure the
transmission of Aikido into the future. The very name, "Birankai"
carries inside it that hope: it means, as Sensei has
explained elsewhere, the wind that blows before a great
change: a cosmic wind.
For reasons of legal convenience, Birankai International has
been registered in the US as a nonprofit educational
corporation. It will have three offices: one in California,
one in London, and one in Strasbourg. These offices will
serve their local regions. Because conditions in the regions
differ, the administration of the regions and the
functioning of the Teaching Committees will be autonomous,
but they will work together as required to protect the unity
of Birankai International’s objectives.
This unity of purpose is represented by two pieces of paper.
The first is the Birankai passport, which dojos affiliated
with Birankai International will be able to order from their
offices to distribute to both kyu and dan ranked students.
The passport will enable students to keep a record of their
kyu ranks, dan ranks, and also of their seminars. The second
is the Birankai International dan certificate, which may be
issued for ranks from shodan through rokudan. It is in
English, not Japanese, and in addition to the name of the
student and the signature of the Technical Director of
Birankai, there is a place on it for the name of the
student’s teacher and dojo or other organization.
In the US, students are being asked to make a small donation
when they receive the passport. This will cover the printing
costs, and help raise funds to defray some of Birankai
International’s other expenses. There will be no fee for the
Birankai International dan certificate. It is Chiba Sensei’s
strong feeling that the issuance of the dan certificate,
which symbolizes the teacher-student relationship, should
not be corrupted by financial considerations.
This dan certificate is not in competition with certificates
issued by Aikikai Hombu Dojo. Birankai International is in
no way in opposition to Hombu Dojo. In December 2000, Chiba
Sensei communicated directly with Moriteru Ueshiba, Doshu,
regarding the creation and purposes of Birankai
International Doshu responded immediately, expressing his
understanding and offering his best wishes. Members
affiliated with Birankai International wishing to receive
Hombu Dojo dan certificates may do so, and the Birankai
offices will assist them. Members wishing to receive both
Birankai International and Hombu Dojo certificates may do so
as well.
There is a third way in which Birankai International will
protect the unity of purpose Sensei wishes it to have. That
is in the establishment of shihan title. For many years, the
shihan of the North American Continental Shihankai have been
negotiating with Hombu Dojo to allow for the recognition of
non-Japanese teachers as shihan. In order for Aikido to
truly take root outside Japan, it must develop, support, and
honor teachers native to the countries where it is
practiced. Unfortunately, over time, it has become apparent
that the issuance of shihan title to non-Japanese must be
resolved without the direct assistance of Hombu Dojo.
Therefore, Chiba Sensei has given shihan title to three of
the senior teachers in Birankai International US.
I hope this presentation has answered some of the questions
people may have about Birankai International. For me
personally, the birth of Birankai International is a great
adventure. It has meant a chance to train with strangers and
to re-discover what I already knew: that we are indeed
members of a family, united by our lineage, our trust in one
another, and our training.
|
Boca Aikikai