Gilda Bruckman was Kanai Sensei’s student 1972-2004

I first met Kanai Sensei in April 1972 when I joined New England Aikikai in Central Square, Cambridge. For the next 32 years I was his student, and he was my only teacher.

He had a wealth of talents and skills—some visible and easily observed and others less frequently seen. On the mat he was endlessly awe-inspiring. He was also a masterful artist with pen and brush.

As some of his students came to know, Kanai Sensei also had a deep understanding of anatomy. This made him uniquely valuable to students who sustained all the variety of physical mishaps that come with practicing a martial art. He knew by looking and feeling what was misplaced, bruised, separated, or torn. He knew what treatments were effective, when a doctor should be consulted, and when a student could safely return to practice. 

This deep medical knowledge—all of which he acquired on his own—he combined with his artistic talents.  The result was that he could spontaneously illustrate a problem that was otherwise impossible to visualize or understand.

I once came to him with an odd protrusion of a bone in my right wrist. It wasn’t very painful, but I wondered if I had somehow damaged my wrist doing nikkyo.  Sensei examined it and tried to explain what it was. He determined that because of where the protrusion was, it wasn’t particularly significant. But he explained that there were a lot of connective tissues and bones in the wrist (eight, actually), and if the pain had been in a different area, it would have been more concerning. Having reached the end of his verbal facility, he then took out a pen and paper and proceeded to illustrate what the inside of my wrist looked like. In no time he produced the most deft, confident anatomical illustration—but for him it was just another language, one in which he was completely fluent. 

This fluency was manifested in his aikido first and foremost. I am only one of many of Kanai Sensei’s students who had the experience of being thrown by him at a uniquely memorable moment. I had no idea how I came to leave my feet and land with never-before-experienced grace. It wasn’t so much an out-of-the-body experience as a “no-body” experience. For those who experienced it, it was the rare embodiment of blending that is the essence of Aikido—and the essence of Kanai Sensei’s gifts.