Page 6 - Hiroshi Kato Shihan

Page 6
Brian Heery, Rocky Valley Aikido, USA
Dear family, friends and students of
Hiroshi Kato, my heart goes out to you all
at the passing of such a magnificent spirit
and inspirational human being.
Kato-Sensei’s sharing of his knowledge
and experience of Aikido and of life,
transformed my life and the lives of many
of his students. He was always open to
the truth, to new experiences and was
often playful, on and off the mat.
One day we were walking by a large spider web and he moved his hand in a traditional
kokyu Aikido movement and the spider web flew away from his hand long before his
hand could touch the web. I was amazed and he just smiled beckoned me closer and
then did the kokyu movement again but this time he exhaled loudly blowing the spider
web away with his breath. We both broke out laughing together.
To be in Kato-Sensei’s presence was to be seen. Here is something he shared with me
regarding this seeing.
“Now I think I see people more fully. When I was young, I would just be in there attacking
and not really looking at the person. But now I can really see how they are moving and
what they are doing, so I feel that this is quite different. It is not a matter of looking at
somebody with my eyes; it is a matter of looking at them with my body. Once I start
looking at people with my eyes, I actually stop and everything becomes busy. When you
look , you stop. So it is looking with your body.”
Kato-Sensei was also exceptionally kind, supportive and took special care to protect,
strengthen and inspire women in Aikido. Once when I was travelling to Los Angeles with
Kato-Sensei for a seminar at a large corporation, the head of the corporation after
practice asked Kato-Sensei who his best student was. He answered by naming a woman
in his dojo at Suginami-Aikikai in Ogikubo. He said she understood the principles and
embodied the practice of Aikido best, transforming, strengthening and freeing her body,
spirit and mind through practice.