Those of us who train with Demura Shihan, whether students for many years or beginners, refer to him simply as "Sensei". We know that this is what we call our teacher - many of us also know that it is a term, or title, of respect that applies in a wide range of professions in Japan.  It is used as a title for all teachers, public schoolteachers as well as university professors.  Teachers       experienced in a wide range of arts, martial and otherwise, are referred to as sensei. Medical doctors are called sensei. Lawyers are called sensei. In this country, we almost always hear the term in connection with a martial arts instructor.
What does it mean to be a "sensei?"  Who is a sensei? And how can you recognize one when you've found him (or her)? Many students of Karate-Do and other arts know that "sensei" is    comprised of two kanji or written characters, -  Sen means literally, "before". Sei is the character that means "life. The meaning is someone who has walked along the Way before you. That     person may now show you the path. The literal translation does not, however, give us the full meaning. Writer Dave Lowry gave the following comparison in an article in Furyu: The Budo Journal - 
My own thinking is that a sensei is very much like another kind of person who is              responsible for important matters. A person who, like the sensei seems to be from another age, a person of rare and unique gifts. The sensei, it seems to me, is very much like a  vintner. A vintner is the person who produces wine. He is the one who is responsible for it, from the planting of the grape vines, all the way until the raw wine is poured into casks to age. The vintner is the talented individual who can look at a particular hillside or a handful of soil and can tell you which kinds of grapes will grow best there, what kind of yield you can expect. He knows when the grapes need to be pruned. He makes vital decisions throughout the growing season, to fertilize, to spray for bugs. He must decide when to pick them in the fall, to wait for a few more days to let them fully ripen or to pick now and beat out the rain that can adversely affect the whole harvest.
The vintner is responsible for the blend of grapes that go into fermentation tanks. He must add the sugars if they're needed, to begin the fermentation process. In short, he is the guy

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