SAMURAI IN THE CLASSROOM: FIRST GLIMMER

 Samurai In The Classroom

Two hundred American educators unbuckle their seatbelts. We’ve just heard the signal clearing us to pull our bags from the overhead bins. After 11 hours in the air we’ve finally landed at Narita International Airport for a 20 day introduction to the people, schools, and culture of Japan. 

My first trip to Japan (in 2005) was under the auspices of The Japan Fulbright Foundation*. While the itinerary of our experience was built on the precision of the Japanese mind, it was also on that trip I had the honor and pleasure of a home stay with Miyuki Hadano and her family. What an extraordinary way to learn about Japan! My Home Stay with the Hadano family ignited my desire to return to Japan to view the land my grandparents walked in Niimi Okayama before they left for California in 1906. Each day added more fuel to that fire. 

*(more about Japan Fulbright later). 

In 2006 The Japanese Ministry of Education asked me to engineer an International Student Science Exchange asking me to select 5 top high school science students for a 10 day trip to Nara Japan where they would conduct biological studies with students from one of Japan’s Super Science High Schools. Together we took a train to the coast to study Marine Biology on the Sea of Japan.  Before long we were looking at the last few days of our science expedition. Along the way  my students became interested in taking home an iconic souvenir of their visit, a samurai sword. I feared their sword quest was for the wrong reason, imagining the boys in a mock samurai sword fight in the airport terminal.  I agreed to their souvenir sword idea only if they conscientiously read Bushido: the codes, philosophies, practices, and principles of the samurai culture which conveniently I had downloaded onto my smart phone. 

The next day we met Akiko Murakami, it was our last full day in Nara and it was late, all the shops were closed but my students, having read Bushido, had not yet found their souvenir samurai swords. As we walked the quiet streets of Nara, Kaze-no Sumika was the only shop where the lights were still on.  I was sure there were no swords at this high end clothing store but my students were getting desperate so I knocked.

Coming to the door, Akiko glanced at my students grouped on the street as I explained their quest. A glimmer in her eye shown as she stepped out the door: “Let me take you to the Sword maker’s house.” In the 15 minute walk Akiko came to know my students but it was late and the sword-maker was not home. Walking us back, she learned that our last stop the next day was the Nara National Museum. She split off from the kids to ask to join us. She’d taken so much time out of her busy day for a group of strangers, what kindness. Akiko, unknown to me, would be a turning point opening  unimagined doors each time I returned to Japan.

Though in the busy-ness of pre retirement life, those two experiences set a-stir in me the gravitational energy for my book, Samurai In The Classroom.  It would take nearly a decade but its early elements: 1) Akiko Murakami, 2) the samurai in my family history, and the 3) kindness of the Japanese people would 

Shortening the story...

Years later Akiko and her American fiancee visited and spent a few days as my guests on her first trip to the US.  She came to mind later as I planned my 2015 Ancestral Trip* to Japan.  I sent Akiko an email asking if she knew how I might start my Japan journey with a home stay. I dreamed that I could find a homestay headquarters in Nara and from their take shorter trips to Okayama and Hiroshima.

Turns out her father, Yoshio Murakami (left) knows Yuji Tanaka of Asuka Village whose family operates a Home Stay that I’ll make my base of operations.  Yoshio and Akiko (right) pick me up at the Nara train station and drive me to Asuka Village for my stay with the Tanaka family. That night the Murakamis and I are guests in the Tanaka home where I get to know both families who showed a keen interest in my quest to find my Japanese ancestors. I shared my mother’s story with them: “My mother Tamaki Ishihara told me just three things about her Japanese ancestors shortly before she passed away. 1. Jotaro Ishihara, her father, was born in Niimi, Okayama. 2. He went to Ueno Elementary school in Niimi, and 3. His grandfather was a Samurai.” That’s all of what I had to begin my ancestral quest. Over dinner I also mentioned that I dreamed of taking home a Samurai Sword for my son Jason. A gift from across the generations from Tommie’s great grandfather to her grandson. I thought Jason should carry forward the honor of his Japanese family.

In two days, I was heading to Niimi with those 3 little tidbits and a very abbreviated family tree I’d made for my mother.

Akiko (left), Takako and Yuji Tanaka who is making a Japanese version of my family tree.

Samurai In The Classroom. 

Having heard that my mother’s great grandfather was a samurai, Akiko’s father, Yoshio Murakami, now retired from Sakura City Hall begins working on a secret plan for me to meet Gassan Sadatoshi, one of the most esteemed sword makers in Japan. Yoshio knew I’d be in Niimi and Hiroshima for about a week. Upon my return from I was astonished to learn that Yoshio had arranged a rare visit with Gassan Sadatoshi for the following day.  

Sadatoshi lives in Sakura City not far from Nara where he has a well established world class sword making studio and school. 

Sword making in his family is so extraordinary, that his father Sadaichi has been designated a Japanese: National Living Treasure.  

 

In 2015, Yoshio Murakami had arranged for our small group to visit with Gassan Sadatoshi in 2015. I felt honored and humbled to chat with him through the Akiko my friend and interpreter. Samurai In the Classroom was inspired at this meeting.  “Swords are not for fighting.”  --Gassan Sadatoshi told us during that wonderful visit.  His words came as an epiphany that samurai swords were now objets d’art.

Over tea and pastries we talked into the afternoon. As we sat he presented a beautiful short sword he had recently finished.  I told Gassan about Bushido in the Classroom, my thinking as a teacher in California public schools. Samurai tenets I believe are the fabric of my classroom teaching beyond science content: of honor, serenity, compassion, calmness, fairness, justice, sincerity, responsibility, frugality, politeness, modesty, loyalty, harmony, tranquility, courage, respect, honesty and duty. I wish my students to aspire to these attributes and I embed them in the teaching in my classes.

The concept of Bushido in the Classroom had precipitated in the 10 years following my Japan Fulbright trips in 2005/2006 and the idea sparked an interest in Sadatoshi. I shared my dream of writing Modern Bushido in the Classroom, as a curriculum project. For most people the words Bushido and Samurai conjure war and violence, but I’ve come to realize that these are mostly media images that sell movies.  The percentage of time  Samurai historically spent in battle was less than 5% of their time according to one estimate. The rest of the time a Samurai’s life was consumed with family, calligraphy, art, poetry and leading by example the tenets of honor, respect, courage, honesty, sincerity and compassion.

[][][][][][] edit The Gassan Tradition by Morihiro Ogawa.

Of all the books I’ve encountered about Japan, I treasure this one the most because it was a gift from the Master Swordsmith Gassan Sadatoshi. 

Sadatoshi’s father Gassan Sadaichi holds the title Living National Treasure: Important Intangible Cultural Property.

Sadaichi-san was making swords when General Douglas McArthur, commander of the Allied Occupational Forces ruled that: “the Japanese sword, as lethal weapons, be prohibited not only in production but also in individual possession.” Thus began a very dark age in the art of making Japanese swords. The prohibition deprived them a means of living and was finally repealed in 1954 after 9 years  but not before large numbers of craftsmen went out of business or were forced into crafting kitchen knives. By the time the Japanese economy turned upward in 1960 Japanese swords gained increasing interest as art objects. 

In 2016, Patricia found the Samurai Museum in Shinjuku was only a 3 minute walk from our home base at the APA Shinjuku Kabukicho Tower. A college student signed us in and began a tour through the museum’s many rooms and displays. He asked: “What brings you to the Samurai Museum?” When I replied that I had just met my Kobayakawa cousins he suddenly braked, immediately excused himself saying he’d be back shortly. Instead, the owner of the museum rushed in, introduced himself saying he’d personally conduct the rest of the tour. At the next exhibit he began with some excitement by saying that the Kobayakawa’s were a very large Samurai clan in the history of Japan. 

Much later as we exited I had an epiphany: “This is how to conduct a VIP museum tour.” But this one felt intimate and personal. So Jason, Leandra, Samantha and Cameron, when you go to the Shinjuku Samurai Museum, make a reservation, let them know in the Remarks section that you are a Kobayakawa descendent and that your father’s, grandfather’s, grandfather Jouemon Kobayakawa 小早川城右衛門, was samurai. 

Click HERE for reservation. You’ll get a VIS Very Important Samurai VIP tour.

小早川承太郎   Jotaro Kobayakawa, my grandfather

小早川喜多郎   Kitaro Kobayakawa, my great grandfather

小早川城右衛門    Jouemon Kobayakawa, great great grandfather samurai

Records from Sakai Kodo, priest at ___ Temple near Niimi