ASHLAND —
As a native of Kentucky, Tom Berry is serious about staying true to his roots in Japan.
A 1974 graduate of Paul Blazer High School, Berry’s interest in martial arts began with a judo class by Captain Bledsoe at the local Salvation Army, and later from Bob Duncan at the YMCA. Berry said he suspects he signed up for the first classes after he saw someone doing karate on TV.
“My dad (Dutch Berry) was the captain of every team. He was a great athlete ... and I did not get that gene,” Berry said with a smile and shake of the head, explaining martial arts held more appeal to him than traditional team sports. By 17, he had earned his first black belt in judo, and the interest in personal combat and defense skills continued with different forms of karate while he was at the University of Kentucky studying recreation and park administration.
Berry said he had earned a brown belt in karate around the time he met and began training with Ariff Mehter, who introduced him to the art of aikido. “He knew he was leaving so he trained me to be an instructor,” Berry said, explaining Mehter Sensei was a local chemical engineer who decided to enroll in medical school at 50.
As he advanced in aikido, Berry was most fortunate to align himself with perhaps the most respected family in the art, working with the direct descendants of Morihei Ueshiba, who is most often referred to as “the founder,” Kaiso, or sensei, “Great Teacher.”
“We’ve got a pretty rich heritage directly from the founder of aikido,” Berry said with notable reverence for “the founder,” as well as his own instructors, Sensei Yoshimoto Yamada and Sensei Mitsanari Kanai, who were Ueshiba’s live-in students.
Even though he now holds one of the highest ranks as a black belt an instructor who serves as “dojo cho” at aikido of Ashland, Berry says he is far from finished with his own education.
“You don’t finish and say, ‘Now I’m done. I am a teacher.’ My rank still comes through the founder’s grandson and I am now a fifth-degree black belt and authorized instructor, but I am always learning. Aikido comes from a samurai art. Samurai means to serve and as an instructor you are in service to your students. It’s a responsibility,” he said.
Berry’s students tend to be “patient people,” he said, explaining none receive higher belts simply for putting in a certain amount of time at the dojo.
“Many who want to learn it do not want to train. They want tricks ... and aikido is not a trick,” Berry said. “If you just want to learn how to beat people up this isn’t necessarily for you.”
Aikido students work and advance under a different set of rules, Berry said, and there are no tournaments to help them measure their skills. While aikido isn’t especially easy to define, the instructor said it provides an individual with the physical and mental means to “blend” in the case of a confrontation and throw or pin an opponent “or convince them they don’t want to continue.” It is a style that relies heavily upon throws and joint locks, with the practitioner blending with the motion of the attacker and redirecting the force of the attack rather than opposing it directly, often using minimal physical force.
Berry does not teach children’s classes and his youngest students are 12. He teaches two classes on Monday, Wednesday and Friday evenings with “training on the harder side of medium” at Aikido of Ashland at 5405 Roberts Drive. For more information, visit aikidoofashland.com or call (606) 923-4563.
TIM PRESTON can be reached at tpreston@dailyindependent.com.
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The Japanese connection
Blazer grad has rich heritage in aikido
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