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
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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.
Thank you.
Elizabeth A. Lynn, Secretary, Birankai International
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