Recently I practised with an old bear of a sensei at a Sunday morning practise that I go to on and off. It turned out that he was actually Ozawa sensei’s sempai, from NittaiDai. Who referred to the big O as “Ozawa-kun”, which I chuckled at……
He also gave me a funny little story about this sempai of his who, at a previous hachidan grading (he is still nanadan I believe) got through the first round, a very big achievement in and of itself. He found out that his next opponent was a uni friend from the same year, so he went over to him and said “let me hit you, I want to pass!”. Apparently the friend considered this for a moment then said “No way. You let me hit you, I want to pass.” Obvioulsy, they couldn’t agree to let each other pass, so they decided on the only possible option, shobu. And proceeded to basically ignore the shinsa they were in (the second round of the hachidan exam…….) and knocked seven bells of shit out of each other instead.
The result?
They both failed. Nice.
The Prisoner’s Dilemma in kendo grading form I guess.