In the sushi trade and other traditional arts, apprenticeship typically run 15 years or more. The qualities that are called for, starting from the least important, are:

1. Drive - you have to be highly motivated to want to complete the apprenticeship. If you aren't driven, the first menial task will break your will.

2. Persistence - you have to sustain your learning mode 24/7 throughout your apprenticeship. You can't allow any inconsistencies in what you learn and how much you absorb.

3. Unbreakable back - the apprenticeship will test your will every step of the way through menial, dirty, repetitive and seemingly inconsequential tasks. The apprenticeship is meant to weed out those candidates who are weak and unworthy of carrying on the craft.

4. Open eyes - you have to be inquisitive and relentlessly alert to what makes the craft. Why does the master use certain tools, how does he use it. How does he treat the materials and why does he treat them the way that he does. What are the reasons for certain procedures. Why does he do things in a certain order and in no other? It is incumbent upon the apprentice to learn whatever he can, however he can, while the master has no obligation to teach.

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