Interview with Someya Sensei

The following interview was conducted by Christian Petroccello in Someya Dojo in April 2007. Reproduced and translated from Spanish with permission. Translation by P.Casciani, copyright 2015. Feel free to share, but please do so with appropriate credit...

Christian: How did you start in martial arts?

Someya Sensei: I started very young, training sword. When I was 18 I trained in Kendo, and I had a back problem so I stopped training. From then until I was 26 I did not do anything, and then I joined Bujinkan. 

Christian: Why did you start Bujinkan?

Someya Sensei: Since I was little I had read many books by Hatsumi Sensei, because he was very famous in Noda Shi, so I had great admiration for Soke and for Ninjutsu. (Someya Sensei shows us a 1963 magazine called Shoden Sandan, which has many articles by Soke, with technical photos and weapons)

When I read this article I was only 10 years old, I liked it a lot and I wanted to practice Ninjutsu. Not long after, my grandfather took me to meet Hatsumi Sensei and introduced us. I was still very young to practice real Ninjutsu, Hasumi Sensei was very famous on TV and magazines, so in order to be able to train with him I had to wait a good while and have patience.

At 26 I had an accident involving my wrist and I went to hospital, Hatsumi Sensei looked after me. After he cared after my wrist, we talked and he mentioned I could start training.

Christian: What was the first feeling you had when you met Hatsumi?

Someya Sensei:  When I was in primary school, my grandfather was a teacher at the school and at the time he invited Soke to school. When I met him he seemed a very big person, huge. 

Christian: When and where was your Sakki Test?

Someya Sensei:  My Sakki test was at this same dojo (Someya Sensei’s own dojo ) The test was more or less 25 years ago, that very same day Stephen Hayes and Shiraishi san were tested as well. The first one to have a go was Hayes and he was very frightened. 

Other Japanese Shihans were seated on one side, and Doron Navon, Jack Hoban and Bud Malstron and other 3 foreigners were there.

Many people when they do the sakki test feel a pressure from behind their head, on my case I felt a pressure from the front, heart height. Then I felt backwards and ended up underneath Soke. Some people move sideways, seems they must feel being hit on the side of their heads (Smiles, he says it as a joke).

Christian: How long ago did you start teaching classes?

Someya Sensei : Around 25 years ago approximately.

Christian: What do you try to transmit your students through Budo? 

Someya Sensei:  I try to transmit the original basis, from Kihon, so that the original cornerstones are not lost. As it’s 9 original schools, they must be transmitted one by one from their basis so that they are understood.

Christian: How’s your personal training?

Someya Sensei:  I train regularly with Soke at his classes, and after that I try to use the dojo space to practice and improve on what I saw with Soke. Training has leveled up continuously, so I always try to follow the level of growth from soke’s teachings.  

Christian: Did training used to be tougher? 

Someya Sensei:  Formerly we were all younger, so we trained harder, now everyone has aged so trainings are done softer, with a deeper feeling. For example, on these pictures (Someya Sensei shows an old picture where Soke is 30 years old) you can see that Hatsumi Sensei has very low posture, it shows he has a youngster’s vigour. With time his body has matured, and has transformed in what everyone now knows, something magnificent.  

Christian: How do you see Bujinkan in the future?

Someya Sensei: Just as people and things transform throughout time, just the same will happen with Bujinkan . I will also be changing in the future, getting better, so I will also be different in the future. There are very few Japanese people who train in Bujinkan, some are now finishing their jobs, retiring, and they wish to be in their homes, and you also have those who can dedicate themselves to be present and learn with Soke.

It’s up to each and every one the level of understanding.Everyone wants to know who the next Soke will be. But no one does. The same one will continue for now . In the future, it is not known who will be the next Soke, maybe some will follow the next Soke and others won’t, there will be people who have a very Japanese old way of thinking who may not think the same way than the next Soke and start their own school, as there will also be many who share and follow the next Soke.

There are more foreign people living in Japan and training in Bujinkan than Japanese people training in Bujinkan.For people who don’t train with the right Shihan, it’s possible they may never learn the essence of Bujinkan, the right path.

Christian: What do you think is right for the foreigners that come once a year?

Someya Sensei:  Because of their jobs, many people only have a short time to come to Japan, but in Bujinkan, there are many techniques, and there’s simple not enough time to see them all, just to learn a few. Nowadays, Hatsumi Sensei no longer travels abroad to teach seminars. This also forces people more to come to Japan and that they can learn the essence of Bujinkan. 

Christian: Hatsumi Sensei sometimes says that it’s more important to learn the feeling than the techniques.

Someya Sensei:  It’s different for Japanese people than for foreigners. First you have to learn Kihon, technique by technique till you can appreciate the feeling of each technique and of each school.When people come from abroad, they learn some feelings, then they want to put all the techniques within the same feeling. For example, this is the Kukishinden Ryu year (2007), then, some people will learn a few techniques when coming to Japan, and then they think that feeling is for all the levels in Kukishinden Ryu.

Christian: For this year’s Kukishinden ryu theme, Soke painted Kuki Taisho on the kakemono next to the kamidana, as a feeling. Last year it was Ikken Hasso, Biken Ishun and Shizen Shigoku , and every year something special. Now he’s explaining Kukishinden Ryu and while teaching he uses various concepts from previous themes. Is he connecting each teaching this way?

Someya Sensei:  When the year finishes, you’re supposed to have understood the theme, to be able to go on to the next theme. Each theme acts like a step in a ladder for you to keep on ascending. I now have been training in Bujikan for 30 years. Since I started, it has remained the same, each moment was a step to keep on going forward, to grow a bit more.

Since the beginning, Hatsumi Sensei kept rapidly changing his concepts and ways of training. Now, with time, I have a better understanding of things past.

With kind thanks to Shidoshi Manji from Brazil, who helped translating from Japanese to Portuguese.