Way to Master the Art

武道芸道の修行方法は，まずもって師を真似ることから始まる。ただ受動的に教えてもらうのではなく，自ら能動的に見て真似るのである。盗むと言っても良い。師の存在そのものが教えである。その師の教えに従い，ひたすらに真似る。師の技に近づくために，自己の身体と対話しながら，工夫と努力を重ねる。安易な自己流は工夫とは言わない。あくまで師を真似る。ひたすらに真似る。気がつけばいずれ，師の技が我が身のものになる。そしてそれはすでに師の技ではなく，自己の技である。それは結果的に師を越えているかもしれないし，越えていないかもしれない。しかし，そんなことはどうでもよい。

The first step to learn martial and performing arts is to start copying one's own master. It is not to be given a lesson passively, but to see and copy the master spontaneously. It can be said that it is to steal the arts of the master. That is, the existence of the master itself is a lesson. A disciple entirely copy his or her master, according to what the master does and says. He or she makes efforts and devices while dialoguing with his or her own body in order to approach the master's art. It is not said to be a device that a facile self-taught manner is. Disciples should insistently fit themselves into the master. They should entirely continue to do that. Sometime they happen to find that the master's art becomes their own one. In other words, that has not been the master's but their own art. Consequently, it may get superior to the master's art, or may not. But, that is not significant.