Suio Ryu Koden Embu Taikai, Katsujinken Setsuninto and the Rest of the Universe – Part 1

So this was to be my final blog post for 2012, it got delayed quite a bit with all the stuff going on at the end of 2012 and beginning of 2013 and by February I decided that it would be best broken up into several sections so here goes part 1…

I expect this will probably be my final blog post for 2012 so it’s going to be a long one. I just got back from the 20^th Anniversary of Tenshinkan Dojo, Warsaw which saw the first Suio Ryu Koden Embu Taikai in Europe. I was invited by Marcin Wojtacik along with:

·         Robert Rodriguez Sensei: (Suio Ryu)Iaido 7^th dan, Jodo 6^th dan

·         Patrik DeMuynck Sensei: (Tamiya Ryu) Iaido 7^th dan, Jodo 6^th dan

·         Takao Momiyama Sensei: (Muso Shinden Ryu) Iaido 7^th dan, Jodo 7^th dan

·         Neil Kemp Sensei: (Muso Jikiden Eishin Ryu) Roshukai Iaido

·         Philipe Merlier Sensei: (Muso Shinden Ryu) Iaido 6^th dan

·         Henry Schubert Sensei: (Muso Jikiden Eishin Ryu) Iaido 5^th dan, Jodo 5^th dan

·         Jose Martinez Aberco Sensei: (Suio Ryu) Iaido 5^th dan

This for me was a complete delight; I get on well with these EKF teachers and had never met Neil Kemp before although I had heard a lot of good things about him. For those that don’t know him, Neil heads the UK Roshukai group, a group of dojos who were under the tutelage of the late Iwata Norikazu Sensei learning the Tosa-ha branch of Muso Jikiden Eishin Ryu Iaido. Robert had through his presence brought a massive contingent of the Spanish Iaido group as well as many students from Versailles. They all seemed very excited and glad to be here.

On Day 1 the event was divided into those who wanted to do koryu (dividing into Muso Shinden Ryu, Muso Jikiden Eishin Ryu with Neil and Henry working together, Tamiya Ryu and Suio Ryu) and those wishing to do seitei (mainly people taking a dan grading that day). Given that there were some 33 people in this group and I had been asked to lead this group I asked Jose for some help to which he obliged. We ran through three katas at a time showing the important points and addressing questions. BY rotating ten people out at a time we managed to get through a lot of actual kata practice. We tried to emphasise the importance of correct footwork –this seemed to stick with some people and not with others. We did a bit of a grading rehearsal and then the grading was on us.

The results were quite mixed but I could see that nearly all the panellists were fairly consistent in their marking. The shodans and nidans were not much of a problem with them all passing, the sandans passed three out of five but only four out of thirteen yondans passed (31%). It reminded me of the article by Peter West, The 4^th Dan Barrier in Iaido which I will represent for you here, it is an excellent read:

In my opinion to pass 4th dan an applicant must show ALL of the following:

• There should be no technical errors in the Seitei performance. (By technical errors I mean those details describing the correct actions of the reiho and kata as laid down by the ZNKR. The document for this has been ably and expertly translated by Chris Mansfield and copies are readily available. This project has been of enormous benefit to our Iaido. All members should obtain a copy.)
• There should be no errors in the reiho
• The first cut of the first kata must be strong, well timed and decisive. (In 1995 Sagawa Sensei made the point that the first cut is the most important. If it fails, then anything that follows has no meaning. In competition he said that if two performances are so similar it is impossible to judge between them, then the effectiveness of the first cut should be the deciding point.)
• Shisei should be strong, focussed and well balanced. (shisei does not only mean having good posture physically, but the correct state of mind)
• Kigurai should be demonstrated from the first moment you are seen approaching the shinza jo to your manner after leaving.
• The performance should demonstrate Jo-ha kyu in all actions, kan kyu in the kata, ma and maai should be correct as demonstrated by metsuke and how far you travel between cuts for the timing you choose.
• The performance should demonstrate aji, fukaku
• There should be no suki that could be entered by a person of at least similar grade.
• This is the first grade at which the performance should consistently appear as though it would work in a real situation. (The applicant should not look as though they are trying to correctly remember a sequence of movements, but are performing naturally and realistically, performing effective cuts and strikes to deal with the situation of the Riai of the kata while remaining in control and not looking overly aggressive, rushed or as if taken by surprise.)

This may all sound a tall order, but is it really too much to expect after a minimum of 7 years training? I really don’t think so. And, as I have said, this is only my opinion. Other examiners may have different criteria. That said, I feel confident that all of us who have sat on grading panels in the UK have similar requirements. I know people have passed that I have thought should not, and vice versa. For this reason, to eliminate the inevitable variations of specific expectations of the different examiners, grading panels increase in size for higher grades.

You might reasonably ask then, what you should do if you are one of the unfortunate people who have failed 4th dan on more than one occasion.

• Of course, more training is necessary, but if what you are training is incorrect it will do you no good. You need to find out what is wrong with the way you train.
• After teaching at Watchet last year it became all too apparent that many people who do not train kendo, but only iaido or Iaido and Jodo do not do enough suburi. Suburi not only improves cutting efficiency (reducing the need for force and making the movement faster, sharper and less stiff), but improves shisei, breathing, seme, kigurai and many other aspects of the performance.
• Seek help from other teachers. This is not an insult to your own teacher, whose permission or recommendation should be sought. I don’t mean you should abandon your own teacher. Seeking help elsewhere is useful for you both. This can be done at BKA seminars for example, or squad training. Another teacher might explain the same thing differently or change the emphasis so that you better understand what you have already been shown. This is particularly the case if you have access to a Renshi or Kyoshi instructor from time to time. Looking beyond the confines of your own dojo and deepening your understanding in this way is the “Ha” stage of “Shu-ha-ri”. Anyone seriously challenging 4th dan should be seeking knowledge and understanding from all sources and beginning to assimilate different methods.
• Have faith in what you have been taught and in your training. Practice with no thought as to the correctness of your movements, but try to imagine the enemy and deal with the situation using the method in the kata. Use a video camera and review your practice as soon as possible after the session so you can recall what happened, how you felt and connect what you see with the performance itself. Of course you should not be making technical errors. By this I mean that your training should now allow and enable you to perform a kata correctly in this sense without thinking through the various stages and moves. This will allow your movements to flow naturally your own personal interpretation of ma and mai will develop and subsequently so will fukaku.
• Do grading embu practice as often as possible.

At all times maintain a positive attitude. We all have barriers to our progress, and they are often related to a wrong perception, or wrong thinking rather than bad teaching or reaching a competence limit of some kind. When this barrier has to be crossed, and it is different for all people, it can seem insurmountable and frustrating, but generally most people hit one in those 3 years after third dan. Look deeper, train harder and seek further afield for the answers. They are there to be found.

Good luck

Peter West Myoken Dojo

I guess what this means for me is that most cannot pass their 3^rd dan and then carry on coasting at the same speed into their 4^th dan.  At some point one has to engage significantly more with their training and their budo; simple repetition of forms will probably not suffice. This has prompted me to write a more in-depth document for taking iaido gradings in my capacity of Iaido Bucho for the British Kendo Association, not because I claim to know all the in’s and out’s completely but I do know that there is a lot of information out there which relates to this topic which doesn’t always get distributed evenly to all members.

So what else does this mean?

In my humble opinion, and this mirrors heavily on that which Peter wrote, before one even tries for 4^th dan one should be starting the gentle separation from the reliance on one’s teacher to be the single source of knowledge, feedback, criticism. Quite recently at 4^th dan gradings it has become apparent that many of the candidates had insufficient idea or perception of what they were doing in comparison to the standard seitei description. There was lots of evidence of hard practice but not so much in adherence to technical detail. I wonder if any of them had seen themselves on video doing iaido. I don’t mean spending hours delighting oneself with relentless showings of one’s last taikai embu; I mean that, for example, every time someone videos me doing a taikai, grading, embu or just training, I try to watch it very carefully trying to identify: bad habits that have crept in or crept back, good aspects that I want to amplify more and simple compliance or non-compliance with technical standards. Those who have read older posts in this blog may know already that I wasn’t against doing weekly videos of my grading practice and getting home to go through it frame-by-frame and critically appraising the technical correctness and performance of each form. I’m not suggesting that this is anything special, I just think that a serious approach to training, where training opportunities might be limited to a few hours a week, requires a very broad range of training aids to progress oneself.

I would like to unpack that further: simply turning up to the dojo once or twice per week for a couple of hours isn’t going to overcome the natural plateau’s that occur in one’s development. One has to do some kind of “extracurricular activity” and the higher the immediate grade one is aiming for the more is required. Most of us outside of Japan unfortunately don’t have the luxury of having a dojo and a sensei available for nearly every day of the week. I am sometimes ashamed and frustrated that I don’t train more considering how much time my line of teachers have devoted to their training. Some of this is me being lazy, other times I’m enthusiastic to train but I just don’t have the opportunity to have some space and time to do it properly.

End of Part One

Supplementary Post - Dojo Layout and Stepping From ZNKR Seitei Manual

I have quite a sizable article being written right now although it does go on a bit and is being in parallel with a document concerning iaido gradings so it's taking quite a looooooonnnngggg time.

In the meantime I decided to translate page 35 of the ZNKR Seitei Iaido Manual which covers "How to enter and leave the dojo: Direction of stepping and rotation". This wasn't translated in the current English version and I have to be honest, I am not sure of the purpose of this except when we all go and do our 8th dan embu in Hakone. If you watch videos of these embu then you might notice a slightly more elaborate style of entry to the dojo and carrying out reiho. I believe this is in harmony with this diagram shown below.

The link for the PDF of this drawing (which is better quality than the JPEG shown below) should be downloadable here:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/5syj10lqe5m6zv9/Dojo%20layout%20and%20stepping%20orientation.pdf

Any questions, please drop me a message.

A Thanks to Murakami Sensei (and how to make Ochiburi easy)

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 7^th 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….