COLDS AND THEIR BENEFITS

 　Let's talk about Seitai.  Seitai here refers to the Seitai of Haruchika Noguchi and the Seitai of the Institute of Body Education (身体教育研究所). However, people who study Seitai vary from one to another, from those who say, "I don't take medicine, so I am a Seitai person" to those in the practice who say, "Who care about health". I think that's fine. Simply not taking medication is a contribution to society in the sense that it does not increase unnecessary medical costs, but in the eyes of the world, it is an antisocial presence. It's a strange world. Anyway, let's move on from the question of why seitai practitioners do not take medicine to the question of experience and education.

　For example, if you read Noguchi's book, "COLDS AND THEIR BENEFITS," it says that when a person catches a cold, develops a fever and sweats, and then successfully passes through the period body temperature goes lower than normal, the body is refreshed. Many people understand this as just a health method, but from an educational standpoint, it suggests something really important. In other words, it is a model of how we assimilate our experiences. Let's say a cold is exogenous, like the flu for example. So the human body and the virus collide. The fever occurs on the borderline. The epidemiological mechanism of fever can be explained in many ways, but when a person experiences something, there is a chance to encounter with others. The "other" can be a virus or a new environment, or a human being. Some might say that this is too much anthropomorphizing viruses and bacteria, but if you think of a person as a unified entity, this is not anthropomorphizing or anything, it's just natural. The definition of "experience is born as an encounter with others" is not so far off the mark.

　The question is, "How do we assimilate our experiences? According to Noguchi, when you catch a cold, it is natural to go through the process of fever, low temperature, and return to normal temperature, and after this process, you become a new body. The same is true for relaxation, hypersensitivity, and excretion in the case of the Katsugen Undo (活元運動). In other words, a "new body" means a body that has assimilated the experience. If you think about it that way, medication can be an obstacle to this process of assimilation. Yes, person of Seitai  is not someone who does not take medication, but someone who can quietly look at the process of assimilation that is happening within him or her.

　When you think about it, the difficulty of "experiential learning" also comes to light. If experientialism is just a field approach, it may end up confusing the learners. I worked for five years at the Japan Center of an American college program as I wrote about in another article, and looking back now, a lot of my work was spent as a counselor to take part in the assimilation process of students who are confused and stuck in the foreign culture.

Translated with a help of "www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)"

Originally written in Japanese  as「なぜ身体教育なのか 2」on 2012/9/29

he said/she said argument 水掛論

There is a theory that the "Mizukake （水掛論）" comes from the Kyogen play "Mizukake Muko ,"  In English, the word "mizukake" is said to be "he said/she said argument”. It's quite obvious and understandable. The reason why people get into arguments is because they believe that they are right, and they believe that they can persuade the other person with their words.

In this respect, the theory of Taiheki （体癖論）is built on the premise that people cannot understand each other. The theory of Taiheki divides individuals shaped by the direction of their sensitivity into 10 types. People naturally judge things based on their own standards, and believe that these judgments are universal. It maybe true that if we don't believe that, it is difficult for us to survive. However, in the theory of Taiheki, ten standards are set. In other words, at its starting point, a standard or universality that can be shared by all of humanity are not set. It starts from the exact opposite, realism. Of course, before that, there is the basic premise that everyone is alive.

In the early days of Taiheki theory, it is said that people sometimes used animal metaphors to describe these types of people, such as a giraffe and a raccoon. The big question is whether giraffes and raccoons can understand each other. In fact, unless you go to a zoo, giraffes and raccoons, two different species, will never live together. However, humans live together as the same species. This is where it gets really tricky, but also really interesting.

There is a concept in biology called the Umwelt(
environment in English) proposed by a German bio-philosopher named Uexküll. he said that all animals live in a perceptual world that is unique to their species. That's right, each animal sees the world differently and lives in a different world. The theory of Taiheki is similar to this. The problem is that humans believe that we all live in the same world. Or we've been led to believe that we have to live according to a uniform standard that has been socially formed.

The most interesting part of Seitai theory lies in the pursuit of how these originally incomprehensible people can synchronize with each other and how they can overcome the world of Taiheki that confines them. The world of Seitai is about cultivating the ability to enjoy this discrepancy between oneself and others. Bothersome?
Be aware , we are living in bothersome world.

Why did I start thinking about this "Mizukake-ron"?
Because I am in the middle of it.

This is a translation of 「水掛論」https://dohokids.blogspot.com/2021/12/blog-post.html   

Translation was done with a help of DeepL https://www.deepl.com/translator.

Comments and feedback on this translation are welcome.

Is Keiko possible on ZOOM?

３ヶ月にわたるZOOM稽古終了。

充足感よりも、欲求不満感ーライブ稽古への渇望感がより強く残るものだった。英語力不足も深刻だ。

以下は、先月書いた「ZOOMで稽古は可能か？」の英訳版。まずはGoogle翻訳に下訳をお願いしてみた。昔に比べると随分マシになっているとはいえ、そのままでは使えない。元の文章で主語が曖昧になっているせいでもある。手を入れることでだいぶreadableな英語になった気はする。間違い、改善点があればご教示願いたい。

ちなみに、今回のお相手だったLina Gómezさんのプロフィールへのリンクを貼っておきます。

https://www.goethe.de/ins/jp/ja/sta/kyo/res/sti/s20/lgo.html

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Is Keiko possible with ZOOM？

Bring the iPad on a tripod to a small keiko room and launch ZOOM. Translation app is ready on the screen of my iPhone. The scenery is not as beautiful as it should be when the electronic devices are  brought into the keiko room. I was negative about the keiko using ZOOM, but I decided to try it for the first time.

The student is a dancer and choreographer from Colombia who lives in Berlin. She  was supposed to be enjoying  Kyoto life now with the Artist Residency Program sponsored by Goethe-Institute. But the Corona turmoil forced to change her plan to the Online Residency Program. Isn't it a vocabulary contradiction?

Is it possible to do our keiko with ZOOM?
The conclusion I have reached after two months of trial and error is that if some prerequisites were met, it might be possible. 

Prerequisite # 1  Student  has a mutual experience .
Lina, my student this time, is from a university called PUC in Sao Paulo. There, she participated in Toshi Tanaka's class.  In the first place, she came to me with Toshi's introduction. As long as her works she showed me, a part of movements used in her dance seemed  inspired by the movement she experienced at Toshi's class.  In any case, I can't think of to do practice online without her experience with Toshi. She said she was interested in "air", so we started our keiko  "focusing on what we can't see."

Prerequisite # 2 Multiple people on both sides.
At  first, I tried it one-on-one, but I soon realized that it was no good. Face to face over the screen does not work well. We decided to ask each other for a partner for each side. The style is that there are two people here and two people over there. This makes it look like a keiko scene. Demonstrate on this side and have them do it over there. Just having a checker makes it different. I was surprised that Lina was able to call on friends who are former students of Toshi in Berlin. 

Prerequisite # 3 There should be a possibility that one day you can practice in a real place
There is no guarantee that we will be able to practice together in a real place in the future. However, we cannot do it without assuming it. The feeling of itching in the shoes is too strong. In other words, keiko cannot be completed online alone. Our keiko will be completed when we will meet in a real space.

It seems it's a better idea to carry a real body over here rather than practicing at ZOOM, even if she needs a period of self-isolation after her arrival . But we should  do what we can do under given conditions at this point.

why body education? III

[Colds and their Benefits]

 Noguchi wrote a book called "Colds and their Benefits" a half century ago. I think this book describes his philosophy well. Simplifying what written in the book in one sentence, "you catch colds because you need. And going through a pass-through process, you will be refreshed."  Sound good, doesn't it?  And many people understood and still understand Seitai as a natural healing art. I do not say this recognition of Seitai is wrong. But if you read the book carefully, you will find that this is the book on education. Over 30 years ago, I was working at an american college program in Kyoto as mentioned in part I of this essay.  Many students were experiencing what I called "culture shock fever" when they came into a new culture and this is what exactly happened to me in my intercultural experience. This phenomena can be explained easily as an adjustment phase one goes through. It interests me a lot  and eventually led me to the world of  Seitai.
 Now I have got to the starting point.
 (to be continued)

why body education? II

[Noguchi Haruchika]

I always find difficulties explaining what kind of work I do.  Before I go into this topic, I first try to describe Seitai Kyokai, an organization with which I have been working and Noguchi Haruchika, the founder of the organization. I tried to find what kind of information is available in English. Keywords I put to the Google window are, Seitai, Haruchika Noguchi, Katsugen Undo, etc. Then I found out that you won't get much through these keywords. Information from wikipedia is so limited and also outdated. You might get better results if you search in European languages, such as French, Spanish or German. It is because Noguchi's philosophy and practice have spread in Europe through his students. Seitai Kyokai has a web page < www.seitai.org> . But Google's translation system outputs unreadable English.  Best explanation of Noguchi's works I could have found so far is short descriptions of  Noguchi's translated books in English published by Zenseisha. They should give you some ideas of Noguchi's philosophy. http://www.zensei.co.jp/books/store?genre_id=7 
(to be continued)

why body education? I

[introduction]

A new gadget I recently got is a device called document scanner.  I bought it to reduce the amount of paper stacked in my shelves. It sounds odd to the people who live in spacious houses. But I have been living in a small house in urban Japan.  Also, I turned to the age of 60 and it is supposed to be a good time to review what I have been doing in my life. I scanned many writings I have done before, from FWC journals in 1970's to mini newsletters I had sent out to friends in 1980's and 90's. Scanning itself is not a difficult work to do. But at least you need to check whether scanning is done properly or not. As a result, I had to go through with my eyes what I have written in the past. I come to realize then, I have been running the same track as I was 40 years ago. I have been engaged in the field named Shintai Kyoiku - it is literally means Body Education past 30 years.  It can be translated this way - what is the role of the body in one's learning process and how one can assimilate their experience. See everything started when I came to know of an experimental college based on experiential learning back in 1973.  (to be continued)

学びの原型としての活元運動

　当時、教育を学んでいた私にとって、相互運動くらい興味をそそられる対象はなかった。書物の中の「学ぶ者と教える者の共同作業としての教育」という理念に惹かれていたものの、実際のところ、何をどうすれば、そうなるのか、暗中模索の状態にいた。人間関係を意識と意識の関係としか見ていなかったのだから当然かもしれない。そんな私にとって、二人で行うことで、活元運動が深くなり、しかも、必ずしも、前－受ける人、後－させる人とはならない相互運動を体験することは一大発見だった。相手を動かそうと意識的に力を使えば反発が生まれ、運動も不自然になる。かといって、対等な関係に身を置きながら、相手の中の自発性を妨げることなく誘発することもできる。まさに、理想的な教育形態の雛型を発見したような興奮があった。私にとって、人と人を結ぶ「気」の発見である。

（整体十年　月刊全生　1988年4月号から一部転載）

Katugen Mutual exerecise as a Basic Form of Learning

　As a student of education at the time, there was no subject more intriguing to me than Sogo Undo - mutual movement. Although I was attracted to the idea of "education as a collaboration between learners and teachers" in books, I was still in the dark about how to make it happen.  Perhaps this was inevitable, since I saw human relationships only as relationships between consciousness. It was a great discovery for me to experience mutual Katsugen Undo, where the Katsugen movement deepens when two people work together, and also does not necessarily mean that the person sitting in front is the passive person and the person sitting behind is the active person. If you consciously use force to move the other person, you will create a repulsive action in him, and the movement will become unnatural. On the other hand, we can induce spontaneity in the other person without interfering with it, while keeping ourselves in an equal relationship. It was truly an exciting experience, as if I had discovered a fundamental form of learning in education. For me, it was the discovery of the "ki" that connects people.

（an excerpt from Gekkan Zensei, April 1988）