Living is learning. Learning is living.
Being grateful for what was.
Herewith I send many thanks to Shimizu Sensei, for setting up his aikido school, for inspiring his teachers and bringing us all together within Tendoryu.
2019 became a special year for me. On the one hand celebrating 50th anniversary of Tendoryu and on the other hand saying farewell to Jos Vanroy (†).
Jos was an outstanding Tendoryu aikido trainer. In 1979 he started his aikido practices. Eight years later he chose to follow Shimizu Sensei in Tendoryu. Beyond aikido he was a master in Iaido and Jodo.
Trying to ‘escape’ the competition attitude within a local Jujutsu club and looking for the mystical aikido harmony which I heard about, I found a school in Oldenburg, North Germany in 1995. I hadn’t yet any clue about different aikido schools. During my very first lessons I drove mad about myself – not able to perform the simple looking movements, nevertheless I took the lifelong challenge with aikido.
Very soon I started with participating aikido weekend seminars and in 1996 I already met the trainer Jos Vanroy. He impressed me with his clear aikido movements, calmness, humour and figurative explanations. Immediately he became my role model for Tendoryu.
Then I moved to South Germany in times of low internet utilization. It was not possible to find a Tendoryu dojo in my new environment. Therefore, I continued practicing aikido in dojos of Ki-Aikido and Aikikai for a short while.
My first impressive meeting with Shimizu Sensei was at a seminar in Rüsselsheim (2002?), Germany. When I curiously observed the aikido of this well-known Japanese person, the thought: “Wow, he moves like Jos!” hit me. I know, in fact it was the way around. I discovered one important source of Jos’s inspirations and aikido developments. It was here, where I met people of dojos ‘near’ to my city, like the dojo led by Hans Hohenadel (†) and this brought me back to Tendoryu, which felt like coming home.
One of my dreams – to practice in Jos’s dojo became true when I emigrated to The Netherlands. I moved to the Dutch city Roermond, which is 1-hour drive away from Genk in Belgium. This allowed me to follow Jos’s weekly lessons for almost 10 years. Our trainers like Ludo Peters followed Jos’s lessons, too. Luckily, they taught us in our Dutch home dojo the same subjects, which kept us all in sync. More than seventy seminars I have participated were led by Jos. Summing up my major aikido experiences I am very influenced, coloured and designed by Jos.
Together we travelled to seminars with Shimizu Sensei at various places in Europe and Japan. Jos became a great mentor and a valuable friend in addition. He supported me to become a trainer.
Beyond thousand details Jos taught me to maintain the beginners mind (soshin) and to look continuously for universal principles. My latest lesson is to accept Jos’s very last choice in life.
Being content with what is.
Today I’m the first women in The Netherlands graduated with the third Dan Tendoryu Aikido. That means, it’s my duty and honour passing on the Aikido experiences and taking responsibility for applying budo principles.
Open for what will be.
Now I’m looking forward to more women exploring the ai-ki-path marked with higher graduations and discovering their own benefit.
Daniela Gaschler from Roermond, NL, 3.Dan Tendoryu Aikido, 1995
