The Path of the Warrior

Meditations on the warrior's path A blog for writings about the arts of war, including the various Japanese martial arts.

[hacked-wtsdz]

Every time I read or watch Lord of the Rings I can’t help but think about how Tolkien had survived one of the bloodiest, most cruel, most dirtiest and darkest wars in human history, came back and wrote this:

“The world is indeed full of peril, and in it there are many dark places; but still there is much that is fair, and though in all lands love is now mingled with grief, it grows perhaps the greater.”

And this:

"'I wish it need not have happened in my time,' said Frodo.

'So do I,' said Gandalf, 'and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.'"

And this:

"I do not love the bright sword for its sharpness, nor the arrow for its swiftness, nor the warrior for his glory. I love only that which they defend."

And this:

“Many that live deserve death and some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be so eager to deal out death in judgement. For even the wise cannot see all ends."

And this:

“True courage is about knowing not when to take a life, but when to spare one.”

And clearly they were all written partly because he survived the war, because of what he’d seen and done and learned. But at the same time the unwillingness to lose faith, the courage and strength that this man had to believe in these things after going through hell! It makes the nihilists look so cheap, so uninteresting! People who’ve went through concentration camps and wars believe in humanity anyway, isn’t that proof that hope and love exist? And many, many, many of them did not return or returned broken and cruel and traumatised to the point when no faith in others was possible for them, and nobody can blame them. But there were many who refused to lose faith and hope. They have seen some of the worst that life has to offer and came back believing that we shouldn’t be eager to deal out death in judgement and should love only that which the sword defends.

No matter how many people say that humanity is horrible and undeserving of love, and life is dark and worthless, and love doesn’t exist I remember this and have hope anyway. Because there were people who have actually had all reason to believe in the worst and still believed in the good, so the good must be real. The good is real, even despite the evil, and we must trust in it.

[thepathofthewarrior]

In The Dojo: a guide to the rituals and etiquette of the Japanese martial arts by Dave Lowry

If the traditions and history of the practice and study of Japanese martial arts are interesting to you, I think you'll enjoy this book.

Dave Lowry has written a number of books on Japanese martial arts. His general style seems to be a collection of related essays; I believe many of which originated as columns in various magazines. Regardless of their original source, this book follows that pattern, with the unifying theme in this case being given in the book's title.

[thepathofthewarrior]

The Shihogiri Kata of Aiki Toho Iaido

This is an exploration of the details of the shihogiri kata, beginning with the differences between what I am being taught and what Michael Russ documents in his text Aikido Toho Iai (Maidenhead: Meyer & Meyer Sport, 2006. trans from the German Aikido Toho Iai - Aikido und Schwertkunst).

It should be noted that I undertake this comparison not in the spirit of correction, but in the spirit of better learning about the kata, of which I am but a beginning student. Since I refer to Russ’ book ---- with my teacher’s permission --- as a refresher and reference on the various kata, it is also important for me to understand how Russ’ teaching differs from what I am being taught (which I call the “present teaching”). The other reason for this, of course, is that by documenting the “present teaching” I both solidify it in my own mind, and invite correction of any misunderstanding I may have blundered into.

If you have wandered into this post with no knowledge of Japanese swordsmanship, I apologize in advance for using Japanese terminology without necessarily translating it. While in most cases there are equivalent European terms, they are scarcely less unfamiliar to a general audience than the Japanese, and are equally unfamiliar to most iaidoka

Step One

Begin in an upright, relaxed position

Step Two

Russ: First, make a step to your left and turn the Mine of the sword counterclockwise to the outside with your left hand. Without pausing, close your feet, sliding the right foot to the left. Grasp the handle the very moment your feet are closed. Do not put your right foot flat on the floor but slide it about shoulder width to your right. This is a feint to provoke an attack from your opponent.

Present Teaching: Extend the left foot forward, releasing the blade.Step forward with the right foot into an irimi (half) step while grasping the tsuka with an over-rotated grip.

Here we see a significant difference between the two teachings; the present teaching is simplified and omits the entire feint.

Step Three

Russ: Slide to the right and draw your sword over your head. Turn the Mine outward to protect yourself. Place the left foot to the right. Bend your knees for balance. Grasp the sword with both hands and lift it over the center of your head. This is called Jodan no Kamae.

Present Teaching: Shift your weight to your right foot while drawing the sword into a deflection parry, with the blade rotated to deflect the strike with the mune. As your feet come together, grasp the handle with both hands as the sword rotates behind you into Jodan no Kamae. Your knees should be bent.

Essentially no difference in the teachings.

Step Four

Without quoting Russ, both teachings follow with a shomen uchi cut to gedan, delivered by strongly advancing the right foot and finishing with the feet together as the cut completes.

Step Five

Raise the blade to your left shoulder, with the mune against the shoulder (hasso no kamae).

Russ’ illustration shows the swordsman looking immediately to the right with the blade in hasso, which may be slightly earlier than the present teaching. Otherwise the two teachings are the same.

Step Six

Russ: Now turn to your right in order to perform Kiriage. Pivot 90 on your left foot and step to your right in to a deep horse riding stance. It is important to align the edge of the blade before cutting. Perform the Kiriage while stepping to your right into Kibidachi.. Use the force of your body weight, shifting from your left to your right. Make sure you do not use the strength of your arms for cutting, but move your body’s center of gravity instead.

Present Teaching: Extend the right foot back and slightly to the right, Look to the right and align the blade for kiriage.Pivot from your left to your right, shifting your weight as you cut kiriage, ending in front stance facing about 150 (deg) from the starting direction.

Here the teachings are different, although sharing a fundamental concept of weight transfer during the execution of kiriage. Russ shows the cut completing in kibidachi (horse riding stance) facing about 90 (deg) from the starting position, while the present teaching rotates through a balanced stance to end with the weight more on the right foot, and the body rotated farther to the right.

Step Seven

Russ: Use the momentum of your sword to pivot on your right foot 180(deg) to the rear when the cut reaches its highest point. Close your feet and bend your knees for balance. Swing your sword in a circular motion over your head without stopping even for a split second.

Present Teaching: As the blade finishes kiriage, pivot under the blade on your right foot, coming into jodan no kamae facing 90(deg) to the left of the original line, with your feet together and legs bent.

If I understand Russ correctly, he is teaching a flow of the blade above and around  the head as the body pivots into jodan. This move is taught in the present teaching, but not at this point in this kata. Instead, the present teaching pivots under the sword, achieving the same result with less motion. This may represent a stylistic variation between two lines of descent, or may be a refinement of the kata. I tend toward the latter explanation, as it aligns the pivoting motion more closely with various pivots “under the access point” in aikido.

Step Nine and Ten

This step begins a series of flowing movements that begin by extending the left foot diagonally back while cutting kesagiri (scarf cut) from your right to your left, flowing into jodan tsuki as step ten. I will not detail them here because there does not appear to be a significant difference between the two teachings.

Step Eleven

Russ teaches the following shomen uchi as similar to the initial shomen uchi, cutting through almost to the floor with the knees bent. The present teaching halts the strike with the blade parallel to the ground (chudan no kamae), with the knees deeply bent.

Step Twelve

Russ has the swordsman stepping back with the left foot and raising the blade into slowly into seigan and then down into gedan no kamae.

The present teaching drops the blade into gedan no kamae as the left foot steps back.

So both teachings end this step in the same place, but Russ starts from a deeper cut into gedan, and executes the “ready position” of seigan no kamae before preparing to end the kata.

Chiburi and Osame

Russ and the present teaching both now transition in to the Suio Ryu chiburi and osame. Again, I will step lightly over the details, as there does not seem to be anything of significance different in the two teachings.

Other References

Nishio-sensei demo of shiho giri I think this is a fairly old set of videos, which suggests that Russ’ take on the kata is based on an older teaching

Shihogiri Demonstrated by Takashi Kuroki (5th dan in Toho Iaido) in Poznan (Poland) 15.04.2012  This appears to be a version pretty consistent with the “present teaching”.

[thepathofthewarrior]

Book Review: Forging Japanese Knives for Beginners

Ernst G. Siebeneicher and Jurgen Rosinski. Forging Japanese Knives for Beginners. Atglen PA: Schiffer, 2013. ISBN 978-0-7643-4556-2.

While it seems odd for a book originally in German to be discussing the smithing of Japanese knives, this is an excellent little book on the subject beginning with smelting the iron and finishing with two nice examples of different traditional Japanese knives -- a tanto and a hocho.

Following a short historical introduction, Siebeneicher and Rosinski describe the construction and operation of a bloomery furnace and the selection of steel from the resulting bloom. This is then followed by chapters on the tanto and hocho, and discussion of care of the resulting blades, safety, and the tools used.

All and all, it’s a nice overview of the process, starting earlier than most smiths do. My one quibble with the text is that while the products are very Japanese, the processes are basically European. Since the text, at least in this edition, is aimed at English-speakers (and the original was aimed at a German audience), this isn’t a bad choice. As a result of that choice, most of the processes are ones that as an American smith are either already in my skill set or not far from them. 

This allows the focus of the work to be on what is being forged, and it’s clear that the authors have a reasonable familiarity with both the techniques of a (European) smith and with the traditional Japanese blades.

The section on the tanto covers many of the techniques that go into the larger weapons, including a brief discussion of steel composition and differential hardening (the latter of which produces the distinctive hamon). The fittings are also described, including the construction of the habaki and fitting of the handle and sheath (although the subject of wrapping the handle is omitted).

The second knife project is a Japanese kitchen knife, and here the discussion includes background on the different types of kitchen knives and some nice tidbits about Japanese-style smithwork, including how a hard steel edge is added to a mild steel body. The authors also include a discussion of traditional hocho handles and sharpening the kitchen knife.

In a way, the title of this book is a little misleading; I don’t think a complete novice could take this book and produce the knives described without quite a bit of trial and error. Someone wanting to learn about Japanese smithwork may be a little disappointed, although there is enough here to be worth the reading. But even a modestly competent smith will find enough here to give them a nice set of projects to work on. I liked the book, and have pulled it out several times to re-read sections. If you’re a European-style smith with an interest in expanding your repertoire, this is a very nice little book.

[thepathofthewarrior]

Old and New Ranking Systems in the Japanese Martial Arts

Most students of Japanese-based martial arts are familiar with the various colored belts that mark rankings, and the concept of a “black belt” as an expert martial artist has made its way into popular culture. But the “kyu/dan” structure of martial arts ranking, marked by those colored belts, is relatively new to Japanese martial arts, for all that it has become the de facto standard. The older schools used a very different system, that essentially focused on licenses to teach — rankings below that not necessarily being a major focus.

Historical background for the “koryu”

The concept of the old schools, koryu bujutsu, sometimes ko budo; and new schools, gendai budo, in Japanese martial arts has both philosophical and historical foundations, with a very specific cutoff. To be a kyoryu, an art must have been founded before the Meji Restoration (1868) and continued in lineage since that time.  In this case “lineage” is a fairly specific and documented transmission of the “ownership” of the art.

The Ryu as a martial and social institution

In this use, -ryu is a suffix related to ryūha, the full word meaning “school” (Skoss). It is not strictly related to the martial arts, but defines concept of a (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ry%C5%AB_(school)) school in the same sense that the Hudson River School defines a particular style of painting.

But in the martial arts tradition, a ryu defines a style of fighting, but is much more than that. It defines a “school” of techniques whose transmission from teacher to teacher is controlled by authorization to teach the system, and this authorization is not, traditionally, given lightly. But a ryu is a relatively small group of people who interact closely, and likely includes a number of them living in the same household[i]. Control of the ryu is passed from the originator or iemoto to successive headmasters (soke), usually but not exclusively within the headmaster’s family. In some cases candidates to take over the ryu were adopted into the soke’s family before being named as his successor  (Lowry, 1998). needs more sources, though

Grading in the koryu traditions

It must be emphasized that permission to teach the skills of a ryu is tightly controlled, and marked by the issuing of teaching licenses, which are specifically formal permission to teach. While not all ryu use the same levels, some of the most common ones were (Hacker, 2017), (Lowry, 1998):

The menkyo shoden, or “license of incomplete transmission” is the lowest teaching grade

The menkyo chuden, “license of middle transmission”

The menkyo okuden “license of deep secrets”

The menkyo niden, “license of hidden transmission”.

The menkyo kaiden, “license of compete transmission” is the highest possible license, and indicates that the holder has mastered the complete teaching of the system. Depending on the school and the individual, only the designated successor may be given this license (Ariza, 2013), or it may be given more broadly. Sometimes limitations are placed on the holder in terms of number of students they may have, or licenses they may issue.

Prior to the teaching licenses, there are several levels of student certificates:

The okuiri is the lowest formal certificate, but requires fairly significant study, generally four or more years of study. Above this is the mokuroku certificate, which may be one or two levels.  The mokuroku represents registration on the formal rolls of the ryu as a student In some schools, this may be first the “first registration” shomokuroku and then the gomokuroku , collectively representing decades of training under a specific master.

In some cases, an applicant to study in a particular school would be asked to undergo a probationary period, called te hodoki, or untying of hands, before being accepted as a beginning student. Acceptance as a basic student was marked by swearing an oath of allegiance to the ryu, the keppan (Warner & Draeger, 1980, p. 43).

New kid on the block: the advent of kyu/dan grading

In the kyu/dan system, followers of the art are broadly divided into two group, the kyu-graded junior students (the mudansha) and the dan-ranked seniors (yudansha). Kyu grades start at the largest number and decrease towards the ikkyu “1st kyu” which is the highest of the kyu grades. The dan ranks start at shodan (1st dan) and increase from there to the highest rank in the system. Collectively, the holders of the dan ranks are called “black belts” although in some systems the very senior yudansha may wear other colors. The transition from kyu grades to dan ranks is generally taken to indicate basic competence in the full curriculum of the art.

In contrast, to the older menyko system, the kyu/dan system of grading is relatively recent. It first became well known in the martial arts as a result of its adoption (closely based on the then-existing ranking system in go) by Dr. Jigoro Kano as part of the development and codification of judo in the late 1800’s. Various discussions of the reasons for this have been advanced, ranging from commercialization to the needs of a large training establishment.. Regardless of why Dr. Kano created the system, it rapidly became the de facto standard way of ranking in modern martial arts. In fact, at least one source, (Draeger, 1976), asserts that using this system identifies a system as a new system, although there is some evidence to the contrary—Aikido in its early days appears to have used the menkyo  system at least in part (Hacker, 2017), and Shindo Muso Ryu currently awards both kyu/dan and okuiri/mokuroku/menkyo certificates (Shindo Muso Ryu, n.d.).

See notes in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_(rank) on teaching licenses under the dan system

References

Draeger, D. (1976, Apil 1). Ranking Systems in Modern Japanese Martial Arts: Modern vs. Classical. Retrieved November 7, 2020, from Judo Info: Online Dojo: https://judoinfo.com/ranks/

Hacker, M. J. (2017). The Language of Aikido: a practitioner's guide to Japanese characters and terminology. TalkingBudo.com.

Lowry, D. (1998). The Classical Japanese Martial Arts in the West:: Problems in Transmission. Retrieved Novermber 07, 2020, from Koryu.com: The Classical Martial Arts Resource: https://www.koryubooks.com/library/dlowry4.html

Skoss, D. (n.d.). Koryu Bujutsu Glossary. Retrieved 11 07, 2020, from Koryu Com:: https://www.koryubooks.com/library/kb1glossary.pdf

Notes

[i] It was not uncommon for some students to physically live at the school, training essentially full time in exchange for maintaining the dojo. Such students are called in Japanese uchi deshi or kenshūsei (Hacker, 2017, p. 81)