Living as a deshi of a true budo requires dedication. The rewards are immense, though. You can be a live-in deshi (uchi) or a deshi that doesn’t live in the dojo (soto) while you follow this path. Either way, the process doesn’t have to be all sacrifice. You can have fun and camaraderie, too.
Each tablet a deshi
Full throttle during Yamada Sensei’s class.
Teaching a beginner
Anika watching the little ones
Smile at the camera
Aleksey
(All photographs Copyright © Javier Domínguez, 2014)
The priority in our uchi deshi life at Hombu was training, from morning to evening. When there was no training, we did the chores. We had to do our own work such as going to the post office to send the mail, driving, and many other tasks like these.