In the first week of September, last month, Desi Springer and I presented a 5-day Bowspring training in Tokyo. It was our fifth year in a row to teach the Bowspring method in Japan under the sponsorship of Mr. Kenta Nakano, who has been practicing Bowspring since taking a Sridaiva yoga workshop with us in San Francisco in 2013.
Kenta-san has taken trainings with us every few months for the last 5 years, and is now bringing the Bowspring method into an increasing number of his 22 yoga studios in Japan! It is also news worthy that Kenta-san is close to completing his testing to become our first global certified Bowspring teacher!
This year’s training in Tokyo was very special because Kenta-san and over 70 students of our Japanese Bowspring community welcomed 15 visiting Chinese Bowspring teachers including teacher Yali from Xi’an, China. This was the first time that the Chinese and the Japanese Bowspring communities have met in person to practice and learn together. Thankfully, we had two outstanding translators for Japanese and Mandarin and – Akiko Sano and Vicky Zhang, who have worked with us in the past and who have a good understanding of our alignment and philosophy.
The Japanese and Chinese students could not understand the other’s language, so their minds would tune out the other translator’s sounds and would only focus on the words that they knew. Although, both translators could be heard speaking full voice to the 85+ students in the room, there were no complaints of poor acoustics or problems with the simultaneous translation from English into two different languages. Remarkably, both groups of students were completely synced in the rhythm of movement of their katas. They would breath together and flow as a singular murmuration of arms, legs and torsos moving in the Seed Kata, the basic postural sequence that we primarily focused on in the training.
Despite not understanding each other’s language, Chinese and Japanese students were able to effectively teach each other Bowspring poses and sequences with only using sign language and body language. This is good evidence that the consistency of our method in terms of the set sequence of detailed alignment actions in any pose allows the Bowspring method to be shared at a high level of integrity throughout our global community.
For many Chinese and Japanese today there is still a lasting animosity between the two nationalities stemming from the horrific Sino-Japanese war (1937 -1945). The Nanking massacre in 1937, in which the invading Imperial Japanese Army slaughtered tens of thousands of Chinese civilians in the country’s capital and surrounding area, is one of the most horrible crimes against humanity in world history. Some historians and witnesses estimate that including disarmed soldiers, over 200,000 were murdered and tens of thousands of women raped in Nanking.
This and other horrific events of the 20th century are still alive in the Zeitgeist and national memory of the two countries. However, the young generations, particularly the peace-oriented yoga students in Japan and China, only want harmony and cooperation between the two countries and its people.In this spirit, the Japanese Bowspring students warmly welcomed the Chinese students to the training, and there was authentic kindness and mutual respect between the two groups.
In every class of the Tokyo training, the meaningfulness of the moment was high so each group – Japanese, Chinese, and Americans (the 2 of us) – wanted to show our best. Studentship in Japan is typically outstanding, but the Japanese students went to a new level of excellence this time as they were particularly inspired by the energetic strength and willful enthusiasm of the Chinese students. On the other hand, the Chinese were very impressed with the refined sensitivity and astounding mindfulness of the Japanese Bowspring students. The two diverse groups brought out the best virtues in each other. The gentle, more introverted Japanese became more outwardly fiery and Yang in their practice, while the more extroverted, rough and tough Chinese students became more Yin and softer with their Bowspring practice. Combining the best of Chinese and Japanese studentship qualities makes for an incomparable blend of integrity, mindfulness and graceful sensitivity in the flowing practice of the Bowspring.
In spite of the marked differences between the Japanese and Chinese cultures, there is more that is similar between them. Both modern societies share a common collective mindset to individually excel in life to help bring greater happiness to their families and to expand the greater good of their countries. They both have a tremendous work ethic and are willing to self-sacrifice for the success of their identified group.
As the heart of our Asian Bowspring community, our Chinese and Japanese students continually seek the newest bio-mechanical technologies, breathing techniques and mind training practices to take their lives to higher levels of health and harmony. It is hopeful for the world that there are expanding numbers of Chinese and Japanese yoga students who ardently seek self-development in terms of their spirituality, human virtues, and artistic creativity for the betterment of others and the planet.Below is a short video (< 2 minutes) that shows a little taste of the training in Tokyo this year. Desi-sensei teaches Ayumi Hoshino, a popular Japanese yoga teacher who has been studying Bowspring for 4 years, a pose and kata on the wall which she has only seen Desi demonstrate once before. Although Ayumi-san is unsure how to exactly perform the exercise on the wall, she carefully follows Akiko-san’s translation of Desi-sensei’s instruction and maintains her fundamental Bowspring alignments. Note that the Chinese translator, Vicky Zhang, is giving instructions in Mandarin at the same time that Akiko-san is instructing in Japanese. Also, note the Chinese students gathered in the background diligently observing. The Bowspring method is revolutionary, but big changes in the alignment paradigm of modern postural yoga won’t happen overnight. However, we are seeing the yoga world in China and Japan open wider and wider to embracing the Bowspring alignment. Some of the most popular and financially successful yoga teachers and studios in China, namely Teacher Yali and Yama Yoga Studio, and in Japan – Kenta Nakano with his 20+ yoga studios – are now fully embracing the Bowspring method. Yali Laoshi (teacher) and Kenta-sensei (teacher) are both committing themselves to becoming the first students in their countries to be certified to teach the Bowspring for trainings so the method is assured to only grow in Asia.
