Transcending Limits

第8話 Aikido Instructor Steven Seagal

Now, about the light music club. I joined a copy band of ARB, a senpai of mine, though we're actually in the same year since I entered while he was still active. I was playing bass again, but I quit halfway through. It wasn't a guitar, you see. I started working cleaning as a part-time job. What stands out in my memory is cleaning the fluorescent lights at a pachinko parlor overnight. The surface of the lights was brown from all the cigarette smoke as patrons smoked while playing. It was tough work on a stepladder. With the money I earned, I went to a soapland with a coworker.

That year, there were significant events like the pro-democracy movement in South Korea and the terrorist act where a Korean Air passenger plane was bombed by North Korean operatives mid-flight. With the money I earned from my part-time job, I took a solo trip to South Korea. I met a medical student on the ferry, and we explored Busan together. At the youth hostel, I also got to know people who had just returned from India and students from the Korean Language Department at Tenri University. We had shochu and spicy hotpot together.

Now, around this time, there was a significant event that would later have a major impact on my life. I was at a video rental store looking for an action movie when I stumbled upon it: "Above the Law," starring Steven Seagal.

According to Warner Home Video's profile of Seagal, "The new action hero, playing Detective Nico, is Steven Seagal, who, after training in judo, kendo, and aikido in Japan, became an expert in Eastern martial arts. He also has a history of active service as a special operative for the CIA."

Furthermore, quoting from Wikipedia:

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At the age of 7, Nico Toscani, a young man who had devoted himself to intensive training in aikido, which had left a deep impression on him, went to Japan due to family circumstances. He was scouted by Nelson Fox, a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) agent, and went to Vietnam as a special operative. However, repulsed by the brutal torture being conducted there, he left the CIA after knocking down Zeegan, a colleague who enjoyed torture.

Carrying emotional scars, Nico returned to the United States and became a formidable detective known for his strong arm in the crime-ridden city of Chicago. While searching for his missing cousin, he became entangled in a major incident. Nico, who had been on a stakeout at a meatpacking plant during a drug deal, arrested the smugglers after an intense gunfight.

However, the confiscated items turned out to be plastic explosive C4, not drugs. Furthermore, the two key figures among the arrested smugglers claimed to be participants in the witness protection program and were released by the FBI. Enraged, Nico, along with his partner, Detective Jackson, continued the investigation.

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"This is it!" I thought. When I got home and watched it, it began with photos of him from when he was a baby, followed by his profile introduction. The background music was also fantastic, and my anticipation swelled in my chest.

The end of the profile concluded with, "To realize my dream of practicing aikido, I went to Japan," and then the main story started. I had expected him to start with scenes of him as an instructor training his students.

However, he suddenly appeared as an instructor, clapping his hands in front of the shrine, and proceeded to demonstrate a self-defense technique in front of his students. The technique was for protecting oneself from an assailant with a knife. I was astonished, thinking, "Ah!"

This was a technique called "irimi nage," but it looked like something straight out of Western professional wrestling, and I, who had thought of aikido as a light self-defense art that women practiced, was shocked.

And his fluent Japanese as he explained the technique to his students! I became a fan in an instant. I've probably watched this movie over a hundred times. I regret not going to observe the aikido club at the university, let alone the main dojo of Osaka Aikido in Suita Station, which was just two stops away from Kandai Station on the Hankyu train line. There was also the Tenshindojo where Seagal served as the head instructor, which was at Juso Station.

Since I quit the light music club, I should have started aikido training. It was such a missed opportunity.

Meanwhile, at home, there was a guitar copying contest for Hirokuni Korekata. Around this time, I also came to know Mike Stern, and I was deeply immersed in copying his guitar playing. With my friend, Tahara, we often went to Mt. Rokko using his car. He seemed to have a fondness for unmarked police cars and would drive with the red light flashing.