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A young man preparing incense for visitors to the temple of the courageous 47 Ronin.
I go back into the drawer and low and behold, I see the pictures. My heart soars and my eye tear up because I have loved the 47 Ronin for many years. When my son was a young teenager I gave him a very beautifully written and illustrated graphic novel (not bloody just incase parents were wondering). It is by Mike Richardson and illustrated flawlessly by Stan Sakai. I recommend it to anyone curious about the story. If your child is 12 or above it’s a good story about courage, loyalty and patience. I highly recommend it.
Stay away from the Keanu Reeves film (I love him as an actor but the writing for that was way more sci-fi than anything else). The Japanese old school film is great and its on YouTube, but I think it is too slow for modern moviegoers. Last Knight, is a European remake of the Japanese legend. Because it is a European remake, it falls far short of it’s potential. No film, has ever done the actual Ako Incident justice, sadly.
The crazy part is, a few weeks back I had given my belt to a kind friend, Jonny Oh (at the iconic Tiger Claw) who was getting my belt embroidered with the with the word: BANJOKO 7.21.21 on my belt. The numbers reflected the dated I got my belt. The thing was there was a big delay in getting my belt back. My friend Gene Ching explained that part it was because the Venerable Abbot of Shaolin, Shi Yongxin was visiting California. Jonny was overseeing his trip and because of it there would be a delay.
I told Gene, “I think it is the coolest thing that my belt is delayed because the Abbot of Shaolin is in California”. I had no problem being patient. I called Jonny as soon as I learned about the belt being taken to Sengakuji Temple. I reached out to Jonny the next day. He was super apologetic about the delay on my belt. Apparently he had fallen ill with the flu after The Abbot returned to Shaolin.
I explained that there was no apology necessary. Then I explained to him that the belt had been taken to the 47 Ronin Temple, and I wanted to have the 7.21.21. numbers replaced with BANJOKO 47. Jonny let me know that was possible. A gratitude beyond words filled my spiritual heart.
The morning after talking to Jonny, I went to the balcony, sat in the sun and burned incense from the temple. I did yoga and meditated. My focus that day, and this day is on gratitude and patience. I have two incense burners that were gifts to me. I use them often. One from my son, is long ceramic dragon with red eyes named Smaug (the dragon from The Hobbit) . The other is a smaller jade colored dragon I got from my second BJJ student nicknamed Skywalker. (the boy was nicknamed Skywalker). I named that dragon Bruce (after the iconic Bruce Lee).
On December 7th, 2023, my boy DeShawn swooped me over to the Tiger Claw HQ in Fremont, CA, to pick up my belt.
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Jonny Oh President of Tiger Claw, and Adisa Banjoko with his new black belt.
Jonny greeted me with the belt in his hands, and we took a quick picture together. I walked out like a kid who got the big gift he wanted for his birthday. To celebrate, we went to eat at Vinum at New Park Mall. I had tea, veggie tempura, and the saba fish. Then we went to my homey King Kou’s house and caught up with him and Skywalker.
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My Isami black belt straight from Japan! Jiu-jitsu gi by JREAM.
After I got home I put on my JREAM gi with my Heroes Martial Arts patch on the back. Then I put on The Belt from Sengakuji Temple, faced East and prayed. I thanked God for the honor of getting to the goal of achieving a kuro obi (black belt), and I thanked God for all of my teachers and training partners. I then prayed for the souls of the 47 Ronin. I asked that I be able to teach and compete honorably in the future with the same conviction they fought with.
The moral of the story: Sometimes the God/Universe does not give you what you want when you think you want it, so that something greater can be organized for you. If you attempt to force a thing into being, you can get it. However, what you got in a rushed manner, my not have been the best thing. With patience the positive conspiracies of divine order can be left to manifest their own beauty on your behalf. I am grateful to Greg and his wife Sue for getting the Isami belt and taking it to the Sengakuji Temple. I know they did not have to do any of that. I am grateful to Jonny Oh, Gene Ching and everyone at Tiger Claw in Fremont, CA for getting my belt embroidered immaculately.
This experience has expanded and instilled my sense of patience and acceptance of whatever comes to me in the future. I hope you, too, can get a sense of its value the next time you hit the mats or life hits you hard.
Adisa Banjoko is a BJJ black belt, award winning writer, speaker and documentary filmmaker. Adisa has lectured on martial arts history and philosophy at Harvard, Stanford, Brown, Oberlin and many other universities. He founded the ONLINE community, the Resilient Men’s Group to help men heal mentally, emotionally and physically.
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