Well that was quite a lull wasn’t it? I guess I haven’t been
actually that busy with training for a while and the time I have spent in the
dojo has been mostly about helping others. Our dojo suddenly seems full of
newish people, space is in demand and I generally default into the helping
position when it gets congested.
I would like to share one point though that was conveyed to
me by Murakami Sensei during his visit to Wroclaw recently. As I may have
mentioned, this was the first time for me to meet him and his dojo members and
it was a very enjoyable few days. What comes across very clear from Murakami
Sensei is that very little of what he does he does simply because someone has
told him so. It is very obvious that he is no stranger to hard and vigorous
training and everything he demonstrates he does so with an air of something
very well grounded in. He does iaido and jodo as it works for him, a lot of
which I’m sure is because he has applied himself so hard to learning but the
outward appearance isn’t that he has great difficulty doing anything that he
demonstrates.
One thing which stuck with me was his very interesting
explanation of ochiburi and how it makes it much easier to do. I would like to
start this explanation with a premise concerning a particular point within the
ochiburi action and if you don’t already do it this way then this post might
not be very helpful. That premise is that between the point from the arm being
stretched out to the right to the point where it brings the sword close to the
head that the grip should relax so that the potential to do tenouchi is
created. I realise that the absence of this premise is that the right hand
holds the sword very stiffly maintaining an elevated kensen throughout this
action. I don’t personally believe that that way of doing it is natural or
necessary if the physical action of chiburi is to shake the blood from the
sword (regardless of whether that literal interpretation is practical or not).
What has always been a difficulty for me though is
maintaining some semblance of kissaki control during this action, typically
with the kissaki waving to the left and right so that it goes behind my head
and then back to the outside as the grip starts to engage. Through the
transition from the position of the right arm being outstretched to holding the
sword near the temple the following conditions must be maintained (or so I have
been taught):
1.The kensen must not drop below horizontal
2.The kensen should not waiver to the left and
right but should remain at roughly the same relative position to the hand
3.The grip should relax so that tenouchi can be
used to actually make the chiburi cutting action
Murakami explained that the seiteigata method of doing this
was to ensure the the kensen projects out to the side when the right arm is
outstretched, essentially meaning that the right hand grip doesn’t change from
the end of the kirioroshi.He further
outlined that it was koryu methodology that required the kensen going straight
back but seitei should have the sword kept out to the side (see images below).
The images above don’t of course show the final position by
the side of the head with the tsukagashira towards the front of the right eye
but I’m sure you get the meaning.
Anyway, by actively making the kensen adjust from an oblique
position to a straighter position during the movement from outstretched to the
temple this tends to keep the kensen in a much tighter control that is, it is
easier to control the position by actively moving it rather than trying to keep
it relatively still. Simple though this revelation was it fairly well fixed a
problem that didn’t seem to be going away. Such is life with long arms and a
long sword.
I think now even in shoden I will try to provide a small
part of this movement even though I try to keep the movement more fluid.
I don’t believe it is explicitly written in the ZNKR seitei
manual that ochiburi must be performed like this, it sounds like something
transmitted orally and learned through good training which is the thing that is
so obvious with Murakami Sensei, he appears like a keiko workhorse.
Shortly after this seminar Murakami Sensei with his brother
won the All Japan Jodo Championships for 7th dan, an acclaim which I
think must be well deserved. There were some aspects of his technical
methodology in both iaido and jodo which I had not come across before and even
where it was slightly counter to my study lineage it was all worth trying,
incorporating and finding useful aspects for one’s own technique. His compact
but devastating hikiotoshi demonstrated to me how important it was to keep
one’s body angle at 90 degrees for as long as possible so that the hip twist is
still taking place during the contact period between jo and tachi.
Anyway, a new blog entry is waiting for my fingertips….
Well, I guess the title gives away the content of this
posting then. Let’s leap straight to the finale, I passed my 6th dan
Jodo examination a couple of Sundays back at the European Jodo Championships in
Brussels along with my partner Harry and one other candidate, Chantal from
France. The seminar was led by three Japanese sensei:
-Tominaga Sensei, Hanshi 8th dan
-Kurogo Sensei, Hanshi 8th dan
-Arai Sensei, Kyoshi 8th dan
It was a fairly interesting seminar for me as I had already
been to three previous main seminars with 8th dans at them and so to
see how each explained the latest emphases was going to be insightful.
As I haven’t really detailed my Jodo training what with my
Iaido 6th dan taking centre stage for so long I ought to outline
what I have done during 2012 to push my Jodo further:
Villingen Seminar
We had two and a half days with Ishido Sensei, assisted by
Hayashi Sensei, in Villingen this year. I now find these smaller seminars far
more beneficial than the larger summer events as there are fewer people that
attend (just) and they generally have a higher distribution of grades in
attendance. To request, Ishido Sensei spent the first half day holding a senior
session with the 5th dans and above to cement the important points
for seitei. I will summarise what the majority of these are later.
Japan
Harry and I had one week in Kawasaki regularly training with
Ishido Sensei. This only allowed us one evening’s training with the Shinbukan students
and very little feedback. I did however try to identify what the students their
exhibited as part of their Jodo and I guess I would have to say that it was to
do with effortlessness. Soft and efficient technique seems to be mainstay of
the training and one didn’t feel like they were being intimidated when they
trained. Everyone focussed on improving themselves and not at the expense of
their partner. We also had the fortune of attending the 30th
Kanagawa Ken Taikai and the 1st Commemorative Yano Sensei taikai
which was extremely enjoyable and has been detailed in another post.
Eindhoven Seminar
Ishido Sensei once again insisted on a total of a five-day
seminar rather than the six and this worked out quite nicely. I had a good
opportunity to train with Janet Griffiths as well who was about to go to Japan
to try her 6th dan (which she passed – well done Jan!). Shoji
Sensei, Miyagi-ken’s new 8th dan took a large part of the seminar
and went over the salient points of what was considered important to the ZNKR
Jodobu. As well as doing lots of training with Harry I had some opportunity to
also do some nice training with Margherita from Italy, Catja from Switzerland
(sorry for the bad spelling all) and many others. This enforced training with
people one hasn’t trained with before is extremely useful and insightful.
British Kendo
Association Summer Seminar
Otake Sensei, kyoshi 8th dan from Kanagawa led
the seminar this year. I have to say right now that he is one of my favourite
Jodo teachers. He is the perennial student and an absolute technician. His
enthusiasm and studiousness is infectious and you get to feel like he shares
everything he knows. One never feels ashamed to ask him any question regardless
how stupid and he is generally always able to answer. On the last day he gave
the “soon to be grading” group a run for their money and put them through the
mincer – very useful it was too.
And so back to Brussels. I tried my best to participate
although I was nursing a very sore back and neck that had locked up in the last
couple of days (from lying on my sofa of all things). We did a bit of tandoku
dosa on the first afternoon followed by a quick run through the salient points
of Seiteigata. The referees seminar consisted merely of practice and going
through the 3-man team procedure.
The next day was the taikai starting with the team event. It
is wonderful to see how the various participating countries have moved up to
similar levels as everyone else nowadays. There are no foregone conclusions and
the veteran countries of the earlier years are constantly stressed into doing
their utmost best to beat relatively newer countries which have no leaders
above 4th or 5th dan.
I was delighted to see the UK team come second to the host
country, Belgium, and I am sure it was a close thing. The team was led by
Aurelien Nacrour (Taisho), with Daniel Silk as Chuken and Jo Hirst as Senpo.
The individuals took up the afternoon and after a long wait
the 5th dan division started. Both Harry and I won our individual
pools which meant we wouldn’t meet before the final…and then surprise,we both made it through to the final. As the
finals were run at the end of the day, Harry chose Catja as her uchidachi and I
chose Aurelien. The fight took place and I was unfortunately aware that I was
using a little bit too much strength in the final strikes as I am apt to do in
finals. The flags went up and Harry won 2-1. I looked at Aurelien and we both
grinned like cats. This was the first time Harry had won a European Jodo Taikai
(she had previously only won a bronze and that was in a taikai with only about
3 people). I was so delighted with her. I had lost and yet somehow I had also
won. I can say with all honesty that this was the best result to me. I had won
lots of taikai before and the feeling of elation was fleeting, lasting only
about 5 seconds as one is walking off. For Harry though I am sure this was a
big thing and so it was a big thing for me too…just before our 6th
dan exam too!
We had a bit of time in the afternoon to practice before the
grading as we were doing the okuridashi system. This meant:
1.Harry tachi’d me.
2.I tachi’d Chantal.
3.Chantal tachi’d Len.
4.Len tachi’d Harry.
Poor Harry, she had to stay on the longest before it was her
time to do the jo. After the 6th dan candidates I tachi’d for Chris
Buxton who was the sole 7th dan candidate. Funnily enough I was
feeling much better about that embu than my own.
My thanks to George Valkov for recording our taikai as well as our gradings.
The results went up. Harry, Chantal and I had passed and so
had Chris Buxton! The dojo went a bit mad. It was fantastic. Chris has been
trying on and off for 7th Jodo since around 2003 (I think Papendal
was his first try). Although I train a lot with Chris and helped him prepare
for 7th dan I think this is the first or second time only that I had
tachi’d him for his grading so it was a great honour for me to see him pass; I
don’t mean that with conceit, I am sincerely pleased that he passed and know
that he did it on his own steam.
Fay Goodman also passed 5th dan which was great
to see as she has also been going to European seminars this past couple of
years to get extra training at Ishido Sensei’s seminars.
And so, menjo’s were awarded, tears were shed (i.e. the
menjo registration fee was over 100 Euros!) and thanks were given.
Where to go with this? I haven’t yet decided what I want the
6th dan to mean for me and how I want to recreate myself with this.
I have done it with my Iaido 6th dan but I’m not sure about my Jodo.
I certainly want to be more consistent in my Jodo and I want the catches in
Kuritsuke, Kurihanashi and Taiatari to be more reliable. I realise that Rai
Uchi has its own very unique challenge regarding sharp timing but other than
that I don’t feel an Achilles Heel in my seiteijodo – that’s not to say of course that they couldn’t all be improved,
I’m just reflecting that most people have a least favourite seitei iaido form,
I don’t have the same thing for Jodo.
Key Findings
I don’t want to pretend to have reached some form of
enlightenment from this experience, just as I have with the rest of the Shugyo
blog, I merely want to reflect and share some of the things I have learned
along the way. I guess for Jodo, the majority of the key points are very
general and don’t refer to any particular grade; the quality and quantity with
which one applies these points though of course becomes more critical as one
progresses up the grades.
In no particular order:
Ma-ai
(distance)
Ishido Sensei stressed this as
being a factor not considered strongly enough amongst the European students on
more than one occasion this year.In
particular, Seiteigata has very strict definitions of what the distance is
between Shi and Uchi through every point of the kata. How this is created is
important as well as how it is then further utilised, for example:
-With two-step cutting distances it is important
that the Uchidachi doesn’t lift the sword on the first step but waits until the
second step is well underway before lifting and cutting.
-With one-step cutting distances, the lifting of
the sword and cutting commences almost simultaneously and should be executed
without delay (or without sukima – opening).
At these one-step cutting
distances it is important to check that neither side should be able to hit each
other without moving. However, if they are too far away then they are not in issoku-ittou-no-maai (one-step cutting distance) therefore the
approach should bring the Uchidachi right up to the very danger limit. Both
sides should sense a danger within this proximity akin to standing on the very
edge of a cliff. Without this critical sense of danger there is no longer any
point in the Uchidachi stopping as they do in Seitei – this is the very meaning
of the pause – to exude, exhibit and sense this danger zone.
There are two other factors of
distance which are important in Seiteigata, those being Chijimeru and Nobasu which
respectively mean “to shorten” and “to lengthen”. More than is realised, these
two actions happen in nearly every kata but they are more easily identified in
Katas 3 and 12, Hissage and Ran Ai.
In Hissage, from the initial awase distance, the action of the Shijo
as the Uchidachi moves into Jodan Kamae is to lengthen (nobasu) the distance between them thus creating a brief pause
during which the Uchidachi has to recalculate and re-establish their
distance.While the word “Hissage” means
to carry in one’s hands, I believe that the name is a play on words as the
individual characters that make up the name mean to “draw back” which is the
ultimate action of the Shijo at the aforementioned point.
In Ran Ai, after the initial encounter from which
the Uchidachi draws the sword up and back and the Shijo steps back to
hikiotoshi, the next action of the Shijo is to suddenly and drastically shorten
(chijimeru) the distance thus forcing
the Uchidachi to arrest their forward movement and make a shorter cut. Again
this sudden change of distance along with the action of seme causes the Uchidachi to pause briefly in jodan kamae allowing
the Shijo to execute their next technique (the outside kuritsuke).
The importance and the effect of these two actions
are often overlooked as the exponent focusses on what to do with the stick
rather than considering what to do with their feet.
Ma
(timing)
It would be inappropriate for me to say at my level
that I have a consistent understanding of what overall the timing of the katas
should be. I am certain that the individual levels of the exponents, the kind
of training they are doing and their individual physical criteria and feeling
all play a part in dictating the katas timing. Certainly at 6th dan
level it was clearly expressed to us that clear and steady timing of the katas
was important rather than focussing on speed.
The aspect of timing which I have learned is a) of
utmost importance and b) often overlooked is: timing with regard to one’s opponent. We have often been told of
late that as individuals we are doing the techniques very well but we are not
doing them in accordance to what the opponent is doing. Kuritsuke is a good
example: moving too late is generally unheard of but moving too early provides
the Uchidachi an opportunity to change directions and cut to where the Shijo is
moving to.
The Japanese term is “aite o ishiki suru” that is “to be aware of one’s opponent”. This
doesn’t of course merely realise that they are there and thundering towards you
but that you are actively and carefully monitoring their position and movement.
Ultimately in Jodo, the timing of the Shijo’s movements are, and I don’t like
to use this word, dictated by the timing of the Uchidachi. The reason why I
don’t like to use this word is that it can be wrongfully equated to mean that
the Uchidachi controls the Shijo’s timing – I don’t mean this. The subtle
nuance I mean to communicate is that the Shijo’s timing is dependent on various
aspects of the Uchidachi’s timing….I think I might have laboured this point a
lot now.
On the side of the Uchidachi there are equally
important factors to consider. In a two-step cut, revealing ones intention by
lifting the sword too early leaves an easy opening for the Shijo to evade or
counterattack. The timing should be set to the very limit of unexpectedness
just like the distance mentioned before. The term “giri giri made” is often used to describe both timing and distance
and means “to the very edge” or “to the very last moment”.
Furthermore, it should be considered that in long
katas the general rhythm of the form is dictated by the Uchidachi and it is
important that one’s form does not become too “busy”. This is best understood
through an example in either Kasumi, Midare Dome or Ran Ai when the Uchidachi
has to step back into hasso kamae to make a new attack. Without the tiniest
brief pause or change of pace it looks like the Uchidachi has pre-empted the
next attack and hasn’t taken the time to check distance and the availability of
the target. While physically stopping (“tome”)
is not advanced Jodo, a moment of re-establishing one’s position and
accumulating intent (“tame”) provides
a good tempo to the form. My own teacher does this very well, on receiving, for
example, a Tai Atari he moves back regaining his balance and for just a split
second he is at a two-step cutting distance to the Shijo during which a
split-second decision is made and he returns for the next cut. It is very
perturbing for the Shijo.
Ashi
Sabaki (footwork)
It’s very strange and I’m sure most people don’t
notice it but if one were to measure the amount of time that the average 8th
dan spends explaining and demonstrating footwork compared to how much time they
spend on the action of the stick itself I am sure the proportions would be
around 5:1 in favour of footwork. Yet, we spend so much time worrying about and
correcting the jo and taikai shinpan strain their eyes to look to make sure the
jo has landed in the right place……
The Seitei manual makes it very clear about the
correct positioning of the feet and how they relate to the angle of the hips
and thereby the shoulders and upper body. There are only a few foot positions
but they have to be clearly distinguished and correctly executed. Blurring one
to another is out as is moving outside of the carefully described limits on
angles and weight distribution.
Of much interest of late was a teaching from Otake
Sensei who emphasised that in Yaya Hanmi (for honte no kamae for example) that
the weight in the rear foot should be distributed to the ball of the foot so
that the rear heel can ever so slightly be lifted from the floor (and by that I
mean by about 1mm). Furthermore, when moving forwards from a static position,
the distribution of weight should be so that 55-60% of the weight is on the
front foot. Just like Seitei iai as well, rotation of the feet is best done on
the balls of the feet and not the heels. The effect of this is that as the hips
turn the weight doesn’t sink down as it can tend to do when rotating on the
heels.
Dai-Kyo-Soku-Kei(large, strong, fast, smooth)
This covers a multitude of technical points really
but I guess with regard to the Jo it has the following relevance:
-When striking actions are made they should be
delivered with a feeling of largeness. This has the effect of relaxing key
muscles and allowing the functional ones to work unhindered. The effect on the
jo is that strikes are made with a smooth arc and accelerate through their
movement while maintaining a good level of accuracy.
-When thrusting actions are made they should be
delivered with a smooth acceleration thus ensuring that the leg and body movement
plays an integral part of the thrust instead of merely providing a firm base
from which only the arms are used.
-When catches are made (kuritsuke, kurihanashi,
taiatari) the body should be relaxed in the preparatory movement so that the jo
remains fixed to the body and should only be lifted as the body gets into its
evaded position.
-The power of strikes and thrusts should be
primarily generated from the lower body; the upper body is merely an instrument
through which this power is transmitted.
Shisei
(posture)
I realise that in the west, posture is often
translated into “kamae” but I want to draw a difference between understanding
the technical points of each stances of readiness and what I think is a
slightly different aspect which is the beauty of correct and refined posture.
Firstly, being able to clearly define one kamae from
another is a key point of Jodo, it is very easy to blend them especially as
there exist small margins of allowable difference in each kamae. What one
should aim for though is the action of making a visible change from one kamae
to another rather than it being too fuzzy. Once one is able to make the changes
clear then the next stage of course is to make these transactions smooth and in
the right time with regards to the opponent.
Returning back to the “beauty” of shisei, the
posture should reflect what one should be feeling inside i.e. alertness,
flexibility, mobility and with a certain tension.In general, the lower body contains all the
strength that the body needs and should support the upper body which should
thereby be relaxed and able to produce large expressive movements.
I could of course spend an entire post devoted to
what is said about shisei but I think I should leave this for now.
So, now having written all this out, I am waiting in
an airport lounge at 5:30am after another seminar in Poland, this time led by
Murakami Sensei and I have a whole raft of other points to work on and describe
in time. Anyway, enough for now….
While I
start writing this while zipping along on the bullet train to Kyoto it is quite
likely that it won’t be finished until we are back in the UK so please excuse
me if the post wavers around a bit.
Well, for
those of you that have followed this from the beginning you will know that the
main purpose of the Shugyo blog was to track my progress in training in
preparation for my 6th dan iaido grading. I am glad to say that that
particular preparation has reached a successful conclusion. This of course
isn’t to say that my training stops here of course but that distant objective
and the slow, meandering walk towards it has. I hope that my pre-6th
dan training blog has been useful in some small way regardless as to what grade
or stage you are training at. Doing this has certainly helped me to keep in the
front of my mind what I have done and what I had needed to do. Now where to go
from here….
Firstly,
there is some unfinished business with my 6th dan which I promised
myself I would keep in that drawn out period between coming off the shinsajo
and waiting for the results. I detailed this in my last post but to reaffirm
it, I am determined in the next few months to train my embu to a point where I
am confident that the techniques are more or less correct without actively and
consciously monitoring them. The reason for this is that during the shinsa I
found that I couldn’t think about them at all. That might be something rare to
me but I have discussed it with a few other people and they shared the same
experience – when in the “zone”. That isn’t something though that I want to
spend hours on writing blogs about, it’s a relatively dry and slow progression.
Secondly,
I want to spend a bit of time on those in our dojo who are preparing for gradings
coming up this year. We have quite a few and they are mostly high(ish) grades.
As Ishido Sensei said in Villingen this year, the grade you are is the grade to
which you make other people. I will try to make sure that happens at least
until people get a little bit bored of me hanging around them.
Thirdly,
there is the minor issue of ANOTHER 6th dan grading coming up, that
is Harry’s and mine in about 6 weeks! No blog has been written about this –
what hope do we have? Well, I knew from the outset that a Jodo Shugyo blog
would be a lot harder than an Iai one, the latter being so much more
introspective and reliant on the self. It almost seems like it would require
both people in a Jodo training scenario to write a truly accurate reflection of
a training experience. That’s not to say that I’m not going to write about Jodo
only that it might not be of the same flavour as the 6th dan iai
prep one. Maybe it should only be about tandoku dosa….
Fourthly,
I have my 7th dan grading in 6 years. By that time what do I hope to
achieve:
Consistent
technical correctness.
An
easily recognisable expression of kankyu-kyojaku and jo-ha-kyu.
Iaido
with personality (fukaku) and dignity (hin’i)
A
high, demonstrable level of ability and knowledge of the koryu.
Anyway, I
guess what I’m trying to say is that I still have much to write about and
hopefully many, many more experiences to relate, for example….
Training in Japan
Well as anticipated I am beginning to write this while on the
plane flying back from Japan. Harry and I spent two weeks in the land of the
falling rain which was part training part holiday. We stayed in Kawasaki from a
Tuesday to the following Monday and so were able to get in some good training
hours with Ishido Sensei. Training at Shinbukan comes with so many additional
benefits that a trip to Japan to go there is certainly worth the time, money,
annual leave and risk of deep vein thrombosis. Obviously the first major
benefit is being under the tutelage of Ishido Sensei himself who as well as
being one of the finest exponents of iaido I have ever met (if not THE finest
but that of course is a matter of opinion) he is also an excellent teacher and
coach. By “teacher” I refer to the ability to put one's own expertise into a
'learnable' context. I hope my own definition is clear here, it relies on
someone having a high level of knowledge and personal experience which is
background from which one teaches. Ishido Sensei of course has this knowledge
and experience having learned iaido from his father as a child and having to
date achieved hanshi 8th dan and is (I believe) menkyo kaiden in
both Muso Shinden Ryu as well as Muso Jushin Ryu. In his experience he has also
learned Muso Jikiden Eishin Ryu and another style of standing swordsmanship
whose name escapes me while at this altitude (or having drunk so much sake). He
is also kyoshi 7th dan in Kendo and kyoshi 8th dan in
Jodo – overall an amazing roundness in martial arts.
I don't
want to miss out on the chance to waffle on about what I perceive to be the
difference between a teacher and coach so here goes and feel free to fast
forward if you have already been on a BKA coaching course or if you are one of
the 99.999% of people who find this boring. A coach, I feel, is someone who is
able to develop another individual or individuals without resorting to the
need, or having the existence of, a deep level of knowledge and experience. A
coach resorts to a fairly common and consistent set of communication skills to
lead others into their own road of learning. The coach themselves frequently
only need to have a slightly higher level of knowledge than the student
themselves. They need not even have the ability to do what the student is
currently achieving. I often like to refer to a part in the great film
“Chariots of Fire” in which the character played by Ian Holme, obviously not
the most athletic looking person in the world even with the best CGI currently
available (which the film makers didn't have), approaches one of the British
Team athletes with an offer to shave off some vital fractions of a second of
his 100m sprint. This character would not have been able to make even a
slightly impressive attempt at a sprint but through his observation, knowledge
and basic coaching was able to get this athlete to win his race. This is what I
consider to be coaching and it is fairly obvious how it differs from my
definition of teaching. One of the discrete skills in the coaching toolbox is
the ability to put oneself in the shoes of the student and see progression from
their perspective and not to try and lead from a standpoint miles above from
which the student currently exists. Empathy, communication, honesty, patience
and an ability to import skills from other fields are vital to being an
effective coach.
On top of
being an excellent teacher, I find Ishido Sensei quite naturally able to be a
really fine coach as well, this is something quite rare in martial arts to be
honest. He is often able to look at an individual and discern the best method
of performing a technique using that individuals own bodily dimensions and
general ability to move. This sometimes mean that the student does something
slightly differentfrom the rest of
their peers but the end result is that the student can perform a certain
technique around the same level of competence as their colleagues even if they
are built less advantageously.
Anyway,
getting back to the main thread, Shinbukan Dojo's other advantages as a
training venue include the fact that there are a few exceptionally good
students there who are worth observing and trying to emulate and assimilate
their techniques. The dojo sessions are run quite informally and Ishido Sensei
doesn't spend much time addressing the whole group but instead prefers to give
individual feedback. The dojo being quite small means that there are often
around 3-4 students who have to sit out and wait for a space to avail and so
everyone politely rotates after about 15 minutes of training. This gives those
having a rest a time to regenerate some energy and see what others are doing as
well as having a chat with Sensei over a cup of tea. I should add that there is
a very low level of noise, both literal and mental. Everyone quietly gets on
with their own practice, chatter is kept to a comfortable minimum and little
time is wasted.
To this
environment we joined our first training session on Tuesday evening for regular
iaido practice. It was great to see Morishima Sensei turn up as well as Nakada
Sensei. John Honisz-Greens is also training there and it was good to meet up
with him there and later on in the week in Tokyo. There were a lot of new faces
there as well but everyone is very friendly and welcome. We spent a couple of
hours doing Seitei and then gradually moved onto Koryu. The evening went all
too fast and we finished at about 11pm and joined Jane Styles for a drink and a
bite to eat at Fujiya Restaurant.
I will
hereby provide a slight preface to my learning experiences there by saying that
I am not going to relate everything I learned while training there. Firstly,
and most significantly, I have probably already forgotten more than I have
learned and hence the importance of writing everything down as soon as one can.
With our busy schedule and the need to have a beer in the hot rainy season, I
stupidly discarded this sound bit of advice. Secondly, a lot of what was told
to me was for my particular problems and circumstances and might be misleading
if I relate it here as if Sensei was distributing it freely. Thirdly, there
were some points which were extremely insightful but I would not do them any
justice at all if I relate them as my way of communicating them is at best,
third rate compared to how Sensei would explain it. I will instead try to talk
about how the experience of training there affected me and the way I do iaido.
I firstly
noticed that some of the better students moved with a terrific essence of
stability and precision. On further observation I noted that they have a
slightly deeper posture and therefore lower hip position than what we often
train with and are taught by the senior teachers. By increasing one's stability
then the posture is affected less by the inertia and momentum created by the
sword cutting. To this effect, one needs to cut with slightly less power in
order to achieve the same level of perceived sharpness.One thing which I will relate that Sensei is
constantly trying to embed into all of his students is the importance of the
moving foot to engage with the floor before the major part of the cut
initiates. This of course doesn't mean standing still with the sword hanging
stupidly above one's head. Instead whether cutting while moving forwards or
back, the cutting action is made with body the properly stabilised through both
feet. This applies in both seated and standing kata. Moreover, by keeping the body
low and the stance deep, one is able to move further and faster on standing
techniques as the natural step is made longer. Again this adds to the sharpness
and dynamism of the technique.
On
Wednesday we trained in the morning and then had Jodo in the evening. We
trained on Thursday, Friday night and Saturday morning and afternoon. Quite a
lot of practice I hope. Throughout the sessions Ishido Sensei gave us only
information that we needed at that time in bite-sized portions. He completely
took apart my Oroshi in the most interesting way.
During
this week he was working on improving the sharpness of Inari-san and Harry and
it was very educational for me to listen and watch the points. If I was to try
to outline what the main points were (and repeating much of what I have already
written) in order to create this sharpness I think I would classify them to the
following areas:
1.Stability: The posture (shisei) is maintained
to that which is intended during the various parts of any form. It is not
always necessary to remain dead upright either with the angle of the back or
the neck. However it is important that peripheral movements of the limbs or the
hips or the cutting of the sword do not adversely affect the posture. The back
represents the stable axis or pivot around which the rest of the body moves.
When it moves it moves with purpose and not as a reaction to something else.
2.Moving and positioning of the feet: The feet must be moved into a
position which contributes to the stability explained above. The cuts must be
timed such that the part of the cut which requires most physical power
coincides with the engagement of the moving foot with the floor whether
stepping forwards or backwards. The movement of the feet works most smoothly
when one is thinking about moving the hips. This way the body height remains
uniform and the upper body posture avoids trying to “reach” it's objective too
fast (i.e. bending forwards).
3.Preparation: The timing of the lifting of the
sword and the cut must allow for the appropriate amount of power generation (tame).
This means that the sword should not be lifted to fast but should gradually
accelerated in a non-linear rate so that the timing of the cut is perfectly set
by the stability of the feet.
4.Metsuke – I saw many exampled demonstrated
by Ishido Sensei which showed the metsuke being actually used rather than
something that was merely being controlled. The metsuke was used to determine
the direction of movement and the cut and created purpose in the cutting
action. Without this I think it would be impossible to arrange the preparation
and foot movement correctly. Furthermore by fixing the metsuke to a fixed point
the posture is better maintained.
5.Flexibility – This comes in two “flavours”.
Firstly physical flexibility and relaxation so that the sword can be moved
freely and easily. Sensei always uses the word “yawarakaku” as a kind of
adverb-cum-onomatopoeia connected to furikaburi. This word means softly,
flexibly and is the same Chinese character as the “ju” in judo and jujutsu. The
outcome of this is that sword moves fluidly and one can gradually feel the
increasing of power as the cut builds itself up. The second flavour is
concerned with the direction and nature of the cut, a kind of flexibility of
intention. Sensei showed a few times how it was important to not set one's
direction too early as if the opponent was not moving. Instead one should be
ready to move and change one's cut at any point up to the actual contact by the
sword. This is only possible with physical flexibility, metsuke and appropriate
preparation.
6.Power Control: One of the objectives of continuous
training is to increase the strength and power yield of the muscles which are
used when cutting and braking the sword. As one increases this power, one
should look to “performing” the art to a moderated level. During actual
training though one should carefully work within the boundary between
comfortable stability and that point of pushing the boundaries slightly, maybe
just edging into the area of instability slightly but not so much that it is
destructive to one's technique or stability. One is then able to deliver sharp,
powerful cuts within a framework of good posture, timing and control. I believe
that one of the aspects and meanings of iai is not only to blend and harmonize
with one's surroundings but to also harmonize the internal aspects of movement
so that body movement, foot movement, metsuke, shisei and the speed and power
of cuts are all in balance with each other. Our sensei at the 6th
dan grading advised us to use 80% of our available power during the pre-grading
training and in the grading itself. Ishido Sensei is always urging us to make
sure are cuts are “sharp” (and he says this in a way which seems to mean using
your body strength adequately to make the sword move fast but with stability).
When we
are told by our Japanese sensei's to cut more “naturally” I sincerely don't
believe that anyone is born with a natural sense of how to cut and I am even
more convinced that they mean to use a natural amount of power in the context
of what we can deal with at the current time. The objective should then be to
move that framework up so that each one of our “natural” cuts gets gradually
more fast, powerful and “sharp” without causing problems for the rest of our body.
If we train to push that envelope further to the right then our improvement
should surely be faster.
Jodo
Time!
Sunday
would be an episode of what I would remember as being of pure “jamminess” (for
non-English English speakers this refers often to the kind of luck that goes to
the undeserving – the latter is probably me). Sensei put Harry and me forward
for the 30th Kanagawa-Ken Jodo Taikai which also happened to the 1st
Yano Sensei Memorial Taikai. We were of course both in the 5th dan
division along with Jane and lots of other extremely skilful Jodoka. The event
was a straight knockout and both of us got eliminated on our 2nd
fights 2 flags to 1. I lost against Sanno-san who went on to the win the event
and I was extremely honoured and privileged to be asked to be his Uchidachi for
the rest of the event. We were also asked to judge in the event which was
interesting as lots of the other 5th dans had clearly never judged
before. It was funny to hear Harry's clear annunciation of the commands with
better confidence and clarity than some of the other Japanese judges. Ah well.
It was
interesting to watch all the levels fighting and compare to what we see in
Europe. At this event I believe that nearly all of Yano Sensei's dojo members
were encouraged to take part from the very young through to the more mature.
All performed with great enthusiasm. Given the fact that everyone was
competing, the range of technical skill was quite a lot wider than we would see
at a European Taikai. There were some people who clearly weren't so experienced
or with natural skill (whatever the hell that means) and there were some people
who were absolutely devastatingly good. By that I mean that they were very
consistent with their technique. Watching the 7th dan taikai was
also very interesting as they ranged quite a lot in terms of age (I would guess
from about mid-40's through to late 70's) but they were all consistently
“clean” i.e. they all had good clear technique with little evidence of bad
habits or idiosyncrasies.
Towards
the end there followed a Koryu embu which was interesting. As the 8th
dans got ready to go on, Otake Sensei wandered over and said that he had lost
his Uchidachi who was busy filling out menjo and he needed a partner.....and he
asked me! I thought it was a joke at first but he insisted and so I went on
with three 8th dans and did Tachiotoshi through to Ran Ai. Sadly my
camera ran out of memory before we got to Ran Ai but here is the movie of the
embu....
In
reflection from this embu I got four points of observation:
1.My head often leads a bit too much
(this happens in iai quite a lot too), this is very obvious in the first form
on the embu, Tachiotoshi. My overall shisei would be improved if I could just
keep my neck aligned with my back a bit more.
2.Otake Sensei told me that the
course of the jo is coming round a bit too wide and should be following a
narrower path.Tachiotoshi
3. When under pressure I pull the jo back to do kuritsuke in
4.Ishido Sensei told both Harry and
me afterwards to be careful not to step forwards too much with the left foot
prior to Ai Uchi. He said that it was his bad habit as well and I retorted by
saying that nearly all high grades do this....ah well.
For the
rest of our stay in Japan we travelled to Kyoto and took in the most of the
main temples there, Arashiyama, Nara, Kyoto Station (quite amazing) and Osaka
where we met our old friend Eiko Matsuo. It was very pleasant going to Japan in
the rainy season; while it is hot it isn't too unpleasant (especially with the
wide installation of air conditioning in all public transport and buildings)
and the rain brought something out in the temple and shrine gardens we visited
that I don't think we would have seen if it had been dry weather. To see Japan
this way I think is to see a true aspect of the country and I felt many times
that Akira Kurosawa would have delighted in the deluges of rainfall that we
were in and that he otherwise would have had to create with a big hosepipe.
I
personally think it is important to one's martial arts training to do more than
just hack it in a dojo. Seeing the culture, the history, the religion and the
people all makes up part of what we follow when we do traditional Japanese
martial arts. Even Ishido Sensei insisted on taking us away from the dojo one
afternoon to go to Kamakura (and then go discount market shopping as well).
Breathing out always has to be followed with breathing in. I will follow this
notion up later when I have condensed what I have learned (not that much to be
honest) about Katsujinken Setsuninto...
Anyway, I'm back at home now so don't try to break in unless you want to waste some time.