Our sensei

Okay, it seems that sensei's illness is now a matter of public awareness, and it's obvious that E2 misses him greatly. First of all, please remember that he isn't gone from us yet, and that he may be well again soon. For those of you who wish to express your concerns, prayers, and well wishes for our friend and mentor, you may add them below, and all who wish to are welcome.

I further propose that we all acknowlege our feelings for our sick friend by typing

/me misses sensei

in the open space of your homenode. Please keep him in your hearts and minds. Thanks.

/me misses sensei.

c'mon, ye God or gods... please bring him safely back soon.

To see my more emotional addition, go here.

For sensei's response, go here.

The first time I "met" sensei in the chatterbox, he was helping someone out. He helped me out too, when I was just beginning.

I miss his calm voice, always patient with the newbies, and always helpful. He rarely seemed to get annoyed with noders who were driving everyone else up the wall (though maybe he'll read this and say, I really came off like that? What is this girl smoking?).

I don't know why, but just seeing his name at the top of the Other Noders list was somehow comforting to me as a newbie. I felt like there was someone I could ask questions to, and not get laughed at.

/me misses sensei too.

/me misses sensei too

Yeah man - get well and get back here. We all miss your voice of seasoned reason, and seasoned recipes too.

Ahh... sensei - supremely patient, always helpful, respected and adored by all who knew him.

/me misses sensei too.
The nodegel is not the same without you.

Come back and share more of your knowledge and wisdom.

Especially on Japanese food.

/me misses sensei too.

To be honest, the only direct interaction I ever had with him was when he placed one of my nodes on the Page Of Cool. He sent me a /msg telling me, and I sent one thanking him for telling me. (I was wary. It was right after the flood of Stop thanking me for C!ing your writeup! nodes)

But not for putting it there? he wanted to know.
Oh yes, definitely for putting it there. I guess you're not one of the people that hate getting thank yous for C!'s and such'
Oh, no. Politeness is always in order, it rotates the cogs that keep the nodegel fresh'

I liked that, I like the way he stated very simply without saying it that E2 is a community, and a microcosm of real world, and should work with civility as such.

Even so, this having been my only interaction with him, he was always around, and he has that funky dai un on his homenode. And reading his nodes, (not just the recipes,) I find myself wanting to softlink Some things Sensei has tried to teach me to each of them. And (like I'm one to talk about this) the catbox frivolity can still use some sake or moshi or whatever it is he's always handing out in the midst of chaos.

I miss sensei, he's in my thoughts, I can only hope the best for him.

/me misses Sensei.

I only talked to him a few times, but there was so much wisdom and friendliness in even the manner in which he sent his /msgs. I could tell I would never get to experience as much of the person behind them as I would like.

I can't possibly put my feelings into words at finding out about this.

/me misses sensei.

He's just this completely unfaseable guy who never ever gets angry or personal or side tracked. You can always count on him to be friendly and to the point. It makes for an astounding intellect.

His Japanese poetry nodes are a boon for the ages - these are his own translations, you know. I never would have known any of this stuff if it wasn't for him. Domo arigato, sensei.

It's so good to have him around - like a security net. Always there to tell you when you had a typo, well in advance of the downvoting vultures. Always there to bounce an idea off or to intervene in a catbox argument with a calm remark or a zany joke that would diffuse the situation and make everyone instantly realise how silly they're being. Always there to offer sound noding advice.

I won't speak of him in the past tense. I won't, I won't, I won't.

/me misses sensei.

The nodegel ain't the same without him. We want to read new messages from Dai-Un on his homenode. We want more brilliant edlogs. We want more sensei.

Update: Well, now that this has been Ching!ed and upvoted, I feel the need to add some content that would deserve both the Ching! and the votes. So here's this:

As far as I can tell, sensei is not just the most beloved noder on E2 -- he is the most venerated noder on E2. Dem bones and dannye (I use them as examples just because I've read some of the stuff they've written about him) consider sensei to be one of E2's secret treasures -- he doesn't call a lot of attention to himself, but his presence and his hard work have encouraged poor noders to improve and turned drive-by noders into more permanent additions to the nodegel. And sensei's good will, wisdom, and knowledge will eventually wear down my culinary ineptitude and get me to try to cook some of those Japanese food recipes he nodes so well.

When he gets back, he's gonna be so embarrassed by this stuff. "Man, they all think I'm some kinda saint?! Time for me to start noding about my dick!" Then he's gonna nuke us back to the stone age, just you watch. :)

It is generally my habit to eschew sentimentality when speaking directly to or about people. But I miss Sensei too. My dealings with him were unfortunately limited, but I always found him to be the model of human compassion and gentle guidance. When I was a new noder here, Sensei was helpful, friendly and supportive and I have not forgotten that, although with the obvious impact he's had on so many of the noders here, perhaps he has. I don't think it at all presumptious of me to say that he was kind and supportive to me because he is kind and supportive to everyone; nevertheless, his encouragement and friendly criticisms meant a lot to me. When dealing on a one-to-one basis with noders, especially new noders, I have consciously attempted to emulate Sensei.

I will never have his patience or gentle good nature, but my interactions with him have made me want to try to be a nicer person. I do not know if I believe in a God or any Gods, nevertheless, Sensei will be in my prayers.

a poem by Dem Bones

take care, over there
and remember where
you came from;

take flight
((angel-like))
with second sight and wisdom.

/me misses sensei very much. get well & come back soon friend.

Very rarely have I had an experience with a person in my life where I could look up to that person as a mentor, or a father figure.

Sensei has been an example of the kind of self control, understanding, and literary skill that I aspire to every day.

Dialogue misses sensei

Come back soon, bungou.

I never really spoke with sensei, being a new noder. However, today, in between some end-of-semester work that I've been doing, I read what people have been writing about him. Then I did a search on him, and read twenty of thirty of his writeups.

To quote The Matrix, WOW! The editor logs were creative, not just a list of things killed and cooled. The other writing showed real insight too. It's weird to think that you can know someone without ever actually meeting that person, but I can honestly say that I did. Sensei is one of the most eloquent and gifted writers I've encountered in my life.

I'm not one to jump on a convenient bandwagon or to write a 'me too' writeup on a node that seems to be attracting cools. I didn't post this until my thoughts were in order beyond any possible doubt.

Sensei, you have my best wishes for a speedy recovery. I've never met you, I've never even communicated with you in any one-on-one manner, which I have with many other noders, but I honestly feel that I know you. I want to know you better. Your name here means, as far as I can recall, something between teacher, elder and mentor. Although I may never meet you, you've been all of those to me. You have my best wishes for a long and happy life. You've been there for many of us on Everything2. And, by extension, through keeping many of my friends on this site, you've been there for me.

/me misses sensei.

I was having a small dilemma regarding the daylogs recently, and my first thought was to msg sensei.

Then I remembered.

IainB misses sensei.

sensei was the first person to make me feel welcome here. He /msg'd me and told me that one of my nodes was good. It felt better than any ching, or any upvote could be.

I've never seen him lose patience with anyone, I've never seen him give criticism that wasn't constructive, and I've never seen him be less than helpful. When I'm talking to newbies or offering suggestions or corrections, I try to emulate his approach -- but I don't do it as well as he does.

And as for his nodes ... well, you don't want to hear me talk about them, just go read them. It'll take you a while, but it will be time well spent.

I hope he's feeling better, and I hope he'll be back with us soon.

/me misses sensei.

Our first interaction happened when I read his writeup on the Tao Te Ching. It wasn't terribly complimentary, which got me rather pissed, so I immediately assailed him in the chatterbox. It was the beginning of a debate that would soon jump over into email and span several days, culminating ultimately in the realization that I had bitten off far more than I could chew. But, despite his superior knowledge and understanding of the topic at hand, I never once felt like I was at a disadvantage, that I was being belittled or mocked. I wasn't incorrect, he explained, I was just a different view, an alternate way of looking at and doing things. It is that acceptance, I think, that makes him, in my eyes, such a perfect addition to E2.


Stick around, Sensei. /me misses you.

/me misses sensei

I miss him dispensing advice and teaching with unflagging good grace and humor. I miss his recipe nodes, which I've learned not to read before lunch.

I'd like to close with a haiku:

The nodegel cries out
For our kind gentle teacher
Get well soon, sensei

A Modest Proposal:

Do some thoughtful noding -- something that calls for extra effort in thought, research, exploring all sides of an issue -- and dedicate it to sensei's health.

In Jewish history, when a great rabbi (rabbi = teacher = sensei) had fallen ill, it was customary for his students to offer a few weeks or months from their own lifespans in order to extend the rabbi's life.

Would you do so? Then node with great care, great love, and great dedication, because you will be noding for sensei until he can do so himself.

To sensei's health!

I've enjoyed all of the writeups under this node very much, alternating between sadness and laughter. Where else could you possibly find a get well card like this but on E2? It's certainly unique. So, I've been cutting and pasting the entire node into HTML formatted emails and have been sending them to sensei twice a day (as more write-ups have been added). I'm sure he will enjoy them all immensely.

Please also see Sensei And Stuff

The first C! I ever recieved on a writeup came from sensei. I remember feeling so elated that somebody thought I had written well. Immediately, I sent a rather gushing thank you note to him over the chatterbox. His reply was slightly amused by my excitement, but I remember very fondly him saying to keep writing things the way I did. That little note of encouragement really made my day. Hell, It's one of the things (besides Evil Catullus constantly telling me that he'd moved up another level) that's fueled my passion for this fascinating community of thoughts.

/me misses sensei

You are a true mentor, and a person worth looking up to.

Sensei is like.. E2's father figure. He's the only guy (or girl) I know on here who just doesn't get pissed off at anyone or anything, or at least keeps cool and doesn't show it. Every node of his I've seen is informative or insightful in some way; he doesn't flame or post heavily opnionated/political material. And I just plain like the guy. He's helpful and patient, and I guess this gives me a chance to tell him (when he comes back and read's this node ;)).

/me misses sensei

At the risk of adding to a GTKY node, I would still like to add that I too misses Sensei and other friends here on E2.

Hmm ... Perhaps E2 should partition its nodespace into GTKY side and BOK side. Perhaps a GTKY flag (similar to the C! flag) that can be set by the noder and/or by the editor/gods.

Sensei, you have inspired me in Node your homework!, amused me with Ack! Summer Is Almost Over And I Forgot To Shave The Cat!, and taught me much (and made me very hungry) in your nodes about Japanese food and culture. Every node of yours I have read is a veritable work of art. As I have begun my explorations of E2, I have learned to stop and read anything written by you. Arigato gozaimasu, Sensei!

Being relatively new here, I am sad to say I have never had the opportunity to interact with you. I look forward to the day when you return and I can do such a thing. May you recover speedily and easily, and may the trees smile upon your brow!

/me misses Sensei

I've been lucky enough to get 2 replies to /msgs from sensei during his extended leave. Now that I'm on holiday for Christmas I have a bit more time to node, and so, as sensei seems to like them so much I will be noding more recipes. It won't be the same without him to C! them though.

Sensei, please don't hurry back. Take the time to recover fully. Breathe deep. Marvel at your surroundings. As you do so, we will be breathing over your shoulder. I'm the one with the nicotine smelling breath

/me misses sensei

Without Sensei's guidance, I wouldn't still be on everything, and I would still be a l33t d00d. It all started one morning long ago, after a bad test grade and during my depression (which relatively wasn't that bad, more typical teen angst than anything). I came onto everything in a destructive state of mind, and started bashing nodes, trying to create trouble in the nodegel. I wanted to break something, and everything seemed an easy target. I left feeling better, but not for a reason I would have guessed: sensei and knifegirl both /msg'ed me, and rather than being outraged, as most would have been, they were understanding. Sensei agreed: there was a lot of bad noding on everything, but rants were not the way to make it better. They gently nuked my nodes, and a feeling of peace, corny as it may sound, swept over me. It didn't just affect my noding (I actually left everything2 for a while to concentrate elsewhere) but also the rest of my life: I became more understanding, I waited before acting. People noticed: I've been elected to my Church advisory board, and am no longer depressed. But does anyone know that it was all due to 2 people, one of whom was the ever understanding sensei, whom I've never met, never seen, never even heard their voice? Sensei was right: these relationships are not virtual at all, but very real.

/me misses sensei

I try to live life without regrets.

I've made mistakes, but I don't regret them - they've helped me to grow.
I've lost loves, but I don't regret loving them - now I'm more cautious, but when I love, I love stronger.
I've hurt others, but don't regret that because it's allowed our relationships to blossom and change.
In all things in my life, I try not to regret what I do, because what I do is what makes me who I am.

But I do have one regret.

I regret not having met sensei.
I regret not having had my life enriched by his experiences.
I regret that I never had a chance to share in his wonderful chatterbox chatter, or his advice to newbies.

But along with regret, I have hope.

I hope to meet sensei some day.
To share in his wisdom,
To be blessed by his presence.

Can you miss someone without having met them?
I don't know - but if you can, then I miss sensei.

Get well soon.

I will admit, I have never spoken to sensei - be it in the catbox, or in person.

However, sensei's writeups are great. He has lots of informative nodes, many regarding food and food items. I followed the directions in his How To Cook The Perfect Steak node, and came out with a really tasty steak.

While looking through sensei's writeups, you will find lots of interesting stuff - many dealing with Japanese cuisine. His work is painfully accurate, and very informative. It's the type of stuff that doesn't drone on forever. You don't get tired of reading sensei-nodes. Be careful, though. You might even trip over a bit of wisdom here and there.

So while sensei and I don't know one another (and chances are, he doesn't know I even exist), I still feel it necessary to express my best wishes for him. He may not have spoken directly to me, but he speaks to everyone through his writings.

And he sure knows how to cook!

• Accipiter misses sensei.

/me misses sensei

This may seem strange coming from someone who is new to E2.

I don't know sensei and we certainly have never interacted and yet after reading A Message From sensei I am left emotionally moved.

I myself am surprised at the extent of the sadness that I am currently experiencing...

There are very few people in the world whose hearts are truly as kind and sincere as sensei's so obviously is, and knowing that I will never get to speak to this particular extraordinary fellow brings a certain amount of grief to my own heart.

I truly feel for those of you who did interact with this man, and hope that you will find peace within yourselves.

Peace out to you sensei...

As a newbie I had only just picked up on the magnitude of the loss of Sensei's constant presence in e2 when I was suddenly elated to see his name appear briefly a few days ago in the Other users nodelet with a sweet /msg about having 600 /msgs to get through in the Chatterbox.

I have an image of him diligently plugging away at all those /msgs, cup of tea at hand, feeling better and soon to return.

May it be so.

Addendum
Sadly, I later learned (as stated on his homenode) that "recent "last seen" dates are just Jinmyo checking sensei's msgs for him."

Today, while mining the depths of aged superdocs, I stumbled upon and read a node I'd forgotten about. The dim world of my tiny, windowless office dissolved around me. Alone at my dark desk, lit only by the phosphor glow of monitors, I wept for a man I barely knew and never met. And I felt no shame.

It's been more than a year since last I've heard any word of his condition and I doubt I'll ever know more than "he was here, and now he is gone." Although I'm not sure he knew, his advice, his actions are largely responsible for the type of noder I've become. His influence is responsible for the change in my style of writing and my approach to other users. Without his kind, and I imagine soft, words I likely would not have become an admin.

And yet, those are relatively small things in the scope of my world. What may seem incredulous to him and others is how much effect he had on my life outside E2. I feel that I've become a calmer, more rational, and better person. As clichéd as it seems I've attempted to live my life by his standard, as I knew it. Sometimes I've succeeded, other times I've failed. Failure though, is a necessary path to success.

Do I miss sensei? Yes, I miss talking with him. I miss listening to him. I miss learning from him. Do I miss HIM though?

No.

I will not miss him until he's forgotten. I realize that seems like a paradox, but every time I think of him, he is with me, in spirit if not in form. I hear his words as I imagine he would speak them, and his memory guides me down the path to wisdom.

Good journey friend, You will be remembered.

This is a poem about a man known to us here on Everything2 as 'sensei'. When I first arrived at the site, he was known to all as a departed hero - a voice of serenity and understanding on an internet where people were experimenting with new ways of interaction, expression and identity - and sometimes, as these things do, it would get messy. Sensei would be there as needed, to dispense wise words and delicious mochi.

His last writeup, A message from sensei, was posted a few months before I first joined, and it must have been one of the first things I read when I came here. In those days you would see '/me misses sensei' everywhere.

It is sort of a love letter to the people of Everything2, in which he tells us that he is 64, and very ill, and has moved back to Japan to take care of inheritances and intangibles. It was written as a response to 'Our sensei', Everything2's love letter to him, to which I append this poem, all these years later. This is our sensei.

When our sensei laid down his toil
And shuffled off this electric coil;
When Our Sensei passed into myth
What was it that he left us with?

Returning home to far Japan
(The story's home, if not the man)
A dying leader points the way
(Death stalks us all, it's true to say)

Patience, kindness, wisdom show
But if I lie here, who's to know?
Like Castaneda, Bokonon too
Did he point the way towards the true?

Were slanted facts or outright lies
A way to open up our eyes?
Or just a way to get away
And keep attached minds well at bay?

He left us sad, but full of hope
That even senseiless, we'd cope.
And maybe it was strictly true
He did the things he said he'd do?

When words are all you know of me
Can I be who I want to be?
Should you believe my history?
In virtual worlds, what's honesty?

Is any of us who we say?
Or is identity always play?
Perhaps you'd feel wronged if I lied -
Is that your right? I can't decide.