Fu-Rin-Ka-Zan (and does anyone know where the off-button is?)

 

And so begins the shugyo blog on my road preparing for iaido 7th Dan.  Why now, I hear you ask along with the other voices in my head, some telling me to put my toaster in the fridge at 3:27 every day. Well I am currently writing this while in Japan for a week training with Ishido Sensei (and today, on Sunday, with Yoshimura Sensei) and this short period of intense training makes a clear mark of my starting my prepatory training.

To be honest the last year or so I have been quite lazy with my own training. We now have quite a full dojo with a perfect number of students and each iai class generally has two or three levels in it. For about a year now I have been pushing our guys to learn Shinden Ryu from scratch and I have tried to ensure that everyone understands the basic form of every kata in accordance with Ishido Sensei 's teaching. We are now working through Okuden Tachiwaza, it has been quite a slog (I don't know how they put up with me). There is also a section of the dojo preparing for their forthcoming grading so there is also a focus on Seitei at the same time. We also have a relative beginner or two so each class requires quite a bit of supervision especially given the limited space available. This requires a lot of sacrifice for all of our dojo's highest grades.

I have been busy helping the training in Poland as well along with a few other fine teachers. Watching the Polish guys develop has been a rewarding study in itself if not a highly challenging one. They have done extremely well at a European level and every time they win something I have to think hard about how to up my coaching to be useful to their ever ascending level.

So the result of this circa 18 months of teaching is a pretty improvement in what my eyes can see but my body is knackered...

Now I have to train to be able to do what I teach, to walk the talk and other overused clichés. And this is why I am now in Japan by myself. The last few days I would have to say has been a glorious learning experience, both for my technical knowledge, my knees and my ability to creatively use sticking plasters. I arrived last Wednesday so I had a bit of time to settle in before the evening Jodo practise. I spent all of Thursday daytime training in the dojo by myself as Sensei slowly drove me through the harder parts of Shoden and Chuden (the latter of which I can't remember experiencing any easy parts). It was during the Chuden part that Sensei introduced me to the concept of Ohyo (応用). It turned out that I had trained this aspect before but didn't realise exactly the concept I was focusing on.

Ohyo means "application". It is quite different to Riai which means the logic of the form. It is probably best to understand it via the way it is used in training. More so in koryu one learns the basic or kihon of a form. In this part of the training, moves are often exaggerated and constructed in a way that makes the performance of the form as physically challenging as possible. By this I don't mean that it would require huge amounts of dexterity, rather it requires the most physical movement aiming for the smallest targets. As one progresses it becomes necessary to practically apply the form. In order to do this effectively and efficiently, certain compromises should be made to the basic form. This might include things like only using the hands to maximise sayabiki where in the kihon the hips might have been used. Moreover small variations in the application in the form are studied. This might include variations in the distance and position of the enemy, what the enemy is doing, variations in timing etc. I should point out here that this is different to the well known concept of kaewaza (variations of the form). One could be concentrating on the most basic and orthodox version of a form but through training in Ohyo one learns how to practically and skillfully apply the technique.

I can't explain much more about Ohyo without visual references but suffice to say that Chuden has quite a lot of opportunities to train Ohyo (especially Ukigumo, Oroshi and Iwanami). After a day of this I started to realise that knees rely on muscles around them...

On Friday I had the morning and afternoon session with Sensei by himself again although as he was busy he ran me through the Okuden Suwariwaza and the points he wanted me to focus on. Again the difference between the Kihon and the Ohyo came up. The Okuden forms are quite short and simple at first glance but it is the Ohyo of the forms which presents the challenge. Again I should emphasis that this is also different to the kotsu (secret or knack) of the form. Ohyo is a way to put the kotsu into practice as an application. Of particular difficulty is the Ohyo of Towaki which I discovered by sticking the point of my new iaito into my forearm. At this point I realised the importance of carrying a tenugui in one's keikogi as an impressive spray of blood went across the floor. One plaster and a box of tissues later I was back into practise with no one the wiser (probably including me who is sure to do this again some day).  During these sessions I worked up to Towaki only and then went back to my hotel for a welcome break.

Not satisfied with torturing myself in the day only I then accompanied Sensei to the class he leads in Tsurumi. It was a nice big dojo, very warm with a good floor. Sensei let me alone to train a while and I was happy to do some Seitei practise. I was getting very tired by now and only had enough energy to go through the forms quite limply. At one point I started Mae, extremely relaxed and slow and then found the sword whipping out into nukitsuke. "Ah, that was good" said Sensei as he passed by. He recognised the softness being turned into sharpness and he described to me the feeling that this should have. He said, imagine sitting in a very hot bath where you don't want to move around or create waves of hotter water which would hurt. Instead you move very smothly and slowly as if not creating any turbulence. I repeated this and became aware of the effort put into my legs but how relaxed my arms were. It was much easier to track the positions of my hands while doing it this way. I will need to check with Sensei but I am guessing that with tactility is what initiates and amplifies Jo-Ha-Kyu.

Anyway I managed to get through this evening training without stabbing myself through the head so we went back to the dojo for the Friday night training. It was a nice class with only Aurelian,  Jane and Morishima Sensei. Watching him reminded me of how keeping a low and deep posture creates core body tension which develops power. After training he told me that I should worry less about techniques and focus on the heart of the delivery. By this he said, he meant that one must focus on the enemy, which should of course be oneself (should be easy to beat in my case), and it should be visually evident to anyone watching that you have utterly killed your opponent by the way the form is performed. I understand pretty much what he means but it is difficult for me to agree that my technique is anywhere near good enough. This week had so far been a lesson in a) how much I still had to learn and b) how unfit my body was to do the forms well.

Anyway I finally got home after midnight from one of the longest training days I had ever had. I have to say it was one of the most enlightening. Certainly my tourniquet skills have improved considerably.

Saturday was open training day in the dojo so I went along in the morning to do some Seitei training with a little revisit of Towaki in the afternoon. Sensei got Inari San to demonstrate Towaki from Eishin Ryu and she showed beautifully how to maintain movement as per the Ohyo of the form.  After a tour-de-force of standing Ukenagashi we left (and went for dinner and drinks with Yoshimura Sensei and Otake Sensei).

I now sit here on Sunday in the Tokyo City Truck Cooperative meeting room writing this after a 2 hour training session with Yoshimura Sensei in Tokyo. I bumped into Dillan Lin who now lives in Tokyo while in the dojo and we all did Seitei.  Yoshimura Sensei asked me to do a 12 form Seitei embu and I started to realise that smaller audiences present more stress than large ones. Breath control especially goes out the window slightly. At the end of everyone’s embu he explained to everyone the importance of koryu practice. He said that all of the seitei forms come originally from koryu and that koryu puts the taste into seitei. Without it it will be simply just movements.

So now I sit here at the airport finishing this off. I had all day Monday and Tuesday morning at the dojo working through koryu forms again. On Monday, Ski Journal journalists turned up to photo Sensei and get some more details for the koryu articles which are being published from his resource. I helped with the photos for Kabezoi so maybe my fifteen seconds of fame are not far away. Actually he showed a lot of detail around footwork and application for the standing forms so I was very glad to be present and record some of this stuff. It especially made Moniri a lot easier to understand. Of special interest was the explanation that the form is performed realising the possibility of an overhead obstruction; it wasn’t necessarily a given that one would hit the obstruction but one had to perform the kata in a certain way just in case.

Once this had finished and they had left after lunch, I then worked further on my Towaki and “how to avoid putting a sword through my arm” technique. I then had about two hours rest before coming back to the dojo for normal iai training. Sensei explained how the tsuka should rotate within the hand exactly 180° in Ukenagashi so that the tsukagashira replaces the position where the blade was previously and brings it onto the centre. This then avoids the left arm obscuring the vision (the same applies for Kesagiri and Sogiri). I tried this and it made the cut quite short but much sharper.

Steffen Michaelis joined the morning training on Tuesday morning (he arrived on Saturday) so we did some koryu training together, it was nice having someone else in the dojo to be honest as I was worried Sensei was getting bored with dragging my sorry ass through the forms.

And so, here at the end of this short but very rewarding trip, with inflamed toes, ankles and knees and no shortage of sticking plasters in various places, I now return to foggy shores (ooh, that was nearly poetical) and soggy weather; there is quite a lot of information collated that I now need to work on regularly and share with my dojo cauliflowers. In fact with all this information I foresee another RSI condition around the jaw....

(As a postscript I just also want to thank Lucy, Jane, Aurelien, Steffi, Steffen, Inari-san for being such good company during my stay and providing me with the frequent assistance in the dojo)

 

Steffen demonstrating the benefit of a cattle-based diet and the ability to reach objects on high shelves

The Meaning of Toho

While enjoying my two week training stay in Japan, I thought I would put finger to keyboard and present a brief review of the many things I have learned from Ishido Sensei during this stay. Having three other friends with me for this trip meant I had to do quite a bit of translation but anything that prompts Ishido Sensei to speak more is a good thing. Having to translate it also puts it into a kind of English file format which I hope will remain in fairly good shape for reloading later.

The thing which hit me strongest in this period is Sensei's use of the word "toho".

刀　= to; sword
法   = ho; law

刀法 = sword method

This is also often translated into swordsmanship or sword methodology. The way Ishido Sensei uses it though is more along the lines of efficient and effective use of the sword. He has often used this term before to describe the objective of certain kata e.g. sogiri which have very little logical application as a scenario but instead are for developing one's toho or sword skills.

What seems more obvious now though, as explained by Ishido Sensei, is the importance to develop one's toho; that knowing and running through the shape of the kata is not enough; one has to gradually develop the fundamental cutting parts. This is not described or explained in any particular detail in the seitei manual so I assume that this is something that is taught by teachers on an individual basis (kuden or oral transmission).

I have written articles for the BKA news before which presented a dichotomy of a kata being either a situational one (jokyo) or a sword method one (toho). I also mentioned that most people of a senior grade actually looked at all the kata as toho development routes. If one considers this a bit more deeply, even in more ancient times, the chance that the exact same combative situation would arise as the one that a person had trained in must have been fairly low. It makes more sense that one is training the component parts of the kata rather than the situation the kata presents.

Some of the toho points that were mentioned this week (at least one from Aurelien) include:

1. Ensuring that the sword was turned completely to the side before sayabanare in ichimonji forms such as Seitei Mae to prevent the sword making a "double nukitsuke" i.e. the sword moves in a direction inconsistent to the cut when leaving the saya.
2. That the kissaki should move in an upwards motion when commencing kirioroshi instead of being pulled forwards.
3. That the second oblique cut in Sogiri requires the right hand to be slightly loosened and rotated to ensure that sword is completely on the centre at the end of the cut. 
4. Hikinuki leading to ukenagashi ni kaburi can be achieved by softening the arms as the body turns. 
5. That the small fingers should be properly on the tsuka while drawing the sword up in Nukiuchi with a kirite (cutting grip) so that at the moment of sayabanare the sword should move up and elevate to a near horizontal position immediately.

Etc etc

In the end one can see that toho is something of a science to be studied, learned, trained and mastered if one's iai is to be full rather than just being a collection of various forms. Having this well embedded would surely allow the warrior of times before be able to turn their hand to whatever situation arose, hence achieving tsune ni itte, kyu ni awasu (being in a state of calm, quickly adapting to the situation).

The Wonder of Lists (oh, and some dummy’s guide for taking a grading)

Everyone loves a list, don’t they? It’s like the Readers Digest method for learning anything; reduce a whole group of concepts into lists, numbered or bullet pointed, and it somehow looks more attractive and easier to remember for us. In fact I memorised a list memory-retaining method for sticking some of these following points in my head while I was unable to write them down. Surely the word “listless” refers to the fatigue generated by trying to remember something without the ability to consign it to a list.

Well, on this flight to Poland (the second time in as many weeks) I thought I would put together another of these lists and talk about what is usually never written down – a summary of all the unwritten “handy hints and tips” about taking a grading. Those of you that have had involvement with being “on the other side of the tablecloth” are surely aware of all the tiny reasons why grading candidates get docked one point or gain another but I’m sure this knowledge should be known equally by those for whom it is more important (and who definitely have some financial stake in it).

I should emphasise here that this whole article is my opinion only, some of it based on what I have heard from other panellists, some of it probably from my own feckin’ humble opinion. It’s not official and if you take note of it I won’t be held responsible for you passing, failing or the increase in number of odd socks. Hopefully though this will all be useful and I look forward to hearing some more good advice from those who read this and have had similar experiences…

1 

1.  Dress for the occasion

I always used to be fond of slightly worn and faded jodogi, like how jeans always look best after a few years of being used to wrangle horses or dig for coal. I have heard in the last few years though that faded jodogi aren’t good for gradings so with this in mind it seems that having blue arms, feet and possibly ears is more favourable than having a keikogi that shows that you have trained hard (or washed your keikogi in pure acid). For training and appearing at seminars one should be smartly dressed anyway. This doesn’t mean buying a new keikogi every year but things like holes in knees should be repaired and the kit should be clean. For the grading itself though, one should be wearing the best of what one has. In this instance, holes in the knees (or in the bicep area of the left arm depending on how you prefer to do tsuka-ate) is not a good thing.

It should be remembered that grading candidates are making a presentation of their iaido and jodo and showing the very best of what they can do. Commitment to your art might also include tying your hair back especially if it keeps getting in your eyes or getting stuck in your saya when you do noto. These are small, cosmetic things but everything counts (having once failed my 6^th dan grading and then being told my hakama was too long I am sensitive to not letting others suffer the same treatment). Realising that not everyone can afford two sets of keikogi or even a decent sword, there’s nothing wrong, or rare, about asking to borrow something from your dojo colleagues (I mean like a hakama with no holes in, not 250 Euros for a new one).

No one is going to pass you solely for having been to the hair stylist before but if you look like you have just come out of the forest from a six-month “getting to know yourself” period then you might not get the best reviews from the panel. Oh, and the steam iron does often come with instructions in case you’re not sure how to use one.

(…incidentally, the bottom of the hakama should be in line with the ankle bone)

2. Arrive early (like one year before)

Why wouldn’t this be an obvious one? Get there early and you have time to get dressed properly, warm up, do some practice, ensure you know where to go and what to do, keep warm, get re-dressed and then get bored of course. Seriously though, it’s important that you are not flustered before the grading and in all the activity to get registered and get to the right place it is possible to lose one’s cool. When everything else is ready though, you can sail over to get your “certain to fall off during the grading” sticky number and then be ready to perform.

As I get older and generally lazier, I am starting to realise how much my performance is affected by how “warmed up” I am. I don’t just mean a minute of jogging, I mean every muscle woken up, exercised, stretched and ready to move. My best iai for example is normally done at the end of our regular 2-hour sessions, not five minutes from the start.

3. The Pre-Grading Seminar

In the BKA and I suspect in many other countries, it is not compulsory to attend the pre-grading seminar to take and pass one’s grading. In these cases one cannot be failed for not attending the pre-grading seminar.  It would, however, be a bit stupid not to. I mean why wouldn’t you? Here is a chance to:

a)      Get a sneak preview of what exactly the grading panel will be looking out for (hint: it will probably be footwork).

b)      Allow the seniors (who will probably be the examiners) a chance to see you perform so that they know you have trained hard and fulfil the “depth of practice” criteria (yes, this is a criteria as one ascends the grades).

c)       Do some training and maybe push your 99% of what is required for the grading to the 103% for what is required.

d)      If you lucky and are told the shitei waza in advance of the grading then you can focus on those kata and make sure that you are doing them to the very best of your ability.

I am painfully aware that on more than one occasion, someone who has failed a grading has asked a panellist why and been told “because you didn’t come to the seminar yesterday”. I am now almost certain that the meaning of this wasn’t

“you didn’t attend so we failed you”

but…

          “you didn’t attend and didn’t get told the important things to focus on and then you didn’t   perform them so we failed you”.

Of course, life happens and sometimes one might be too busy to attend the pre-grading seminar. In that particular case it might be better to consider that now is not the perfect time to take the grading although one should of course be ready to take the grading before attending the pre-grading seminar which leads us onto the contradiction of…. 



4. Be ready to take the grading before attending the event

Yes, I know that this kind of contradicts point 3. but the meaning of this is for you to be as prepared as you can be before the event. Don’t attend the pre-grading seminar with the expectation that you will learn everything you need to pass in that one-day session. Hopefully your own teacher will have got you adequately prepared for the grading. Also hopefully you will have attended a few seminars before your grading and received some useful input from other seniors. Remember, for iaido and jodo this is generally a seitei-based examination. What you do in your dojo is your own business but the examination is based on an international standard and with its occasional “gaps in detail for personal interpretation”, it wouldn’t harm to know what other people, more senior than you, make of these personal interpretations.

 

5. If you can’t do the difficult stuff well then you need more training; if you don’t do the easy stuff well, you’re an idiot

 

I make light of this but it is also incredibly important. Easy stuff like reiho, putting on your hakama the right way, standing in keito shisei etc. requires the minimum of physical fitness, flexibility and skill. It is stuff that you have to learn and then show that you have learnt it. Speaking personally, on the few times I have been on a grading panel if I see someone do something like reiho incorrectly I don’t necessarily make a big thing of it but I do then keep an eye out for other fundamental stuff being done correctly (or not). It wouldn’t surprise me if a. other people think the same way or b. I learnt this from my seniors (and so read a.)

Jodo, whilst having less to do in reiho, has similar easy things that need to be remembered but which require virtually no physical exertion or coordination such as:

a.       Not bringing your feet together at the end of the kata

b.      Not bringing your feet together when you walk back to your start line

c.       Not bringing your feet together when you start a kata

d.      You get the point, I’m sure

 

6. Behave yourself before the grading

By this I don’t mean spend the morning in quiet meditation but before the examination it might be better not to:

a.       Indulge in with wrestling your dojo colleagues like a bunch of piglets.

b.      Get drunk at lunchtime.

c.       Fall asleep in the dojo with your hakama hitched up to your thighs.

d.      Practice your exotic and unique koryu (unique, just like everyone else’s) when you are just about to do 5 seitei shitei waza (or amounts more than 2).

Everyone deals with pre-grading stress in their own way but it is important to display some decorum before you get elevated to your lofty new responsibilities. It is also important not be outside drinking coffee when the grading officials are looking for you.

7. This is your grading and your life force is limited

This is more particular for jodo than iaido. Quite often someone going for, say, 4^th dan will do uchidachi for someone going for, say, 2^nd dan. This of course is done out of nothing but kindness for others, showing willingness to sacrifice one’s own time and effort for the benefit of others.

Unfortunately it says some other things to the grading panel such as:

·         “I am so good at jodo that I can focus on this person’s katas as well as my own”

·         “I don’t need to train with my grading partner that much in preparation for my grading”

·         “I’m going to leave my number attached just to make the grading a little bit more challenging for the panel”

·         “I want you to watch all my mistakes not once but twice, or more, just so you can be sure that I’m doing stuff wrong”

None of the good reasons for partnering someone else before your own grading are as impacting as those above (in my opinion). All gradings should be treated with some seriousness (there are almost certainly people other than you who have contributed something to getting you ready to take your grading) but this seriousness doesn’t shine through if you appear already sweaty and with your number label tsuki’d to death. There are almost certainly other people not taking a grading who can partner someone for theirs.

8. Read the regulations, dammit!

Actually, there are some rules for being a grading panelist (a whole course in the UK) and there are even some rules about being a grading candidate that might be useful to read. For example, many countries don’t allow people to take a grading of ikkyu and above with a bokuto but still some people turn up with one. Usually these rules are on federations’ websites or are available from the grading officer. Just like your first time for diffusing a nuclear bomb, you might want to read the instructions first.

9. Sticky means slowly

Could that be the title of the new Rolling Stone album? Anyway, this generally refers to the fact that most of the parts of katas which require some skilful coordination are trained, demonstrated and performed a bit slower than the simpler movements. A simple downward cut is difficult to do extremely well but is also difficult to completely mess up. This is why generally kirioroshi is done quickly, right? But let’s look at a few example more-complex parts that people make a complete hash of because they try to do it quickly when in fact there is no requirement to do them like that:

a.       Mae: Furikaburi – of the seven grading points for this form, three (although I count four really) are directly referring to or have strong correlations with how furikaburi is performed. Furikaburi is not required to be performed quickly, in fact most teachers want to see some contrast in speeds between furikaburi and “cuttier” bits like nukitsuke and kirioroshi. And yet people love to bring the sword straight up onto the centreline, drop the tip, bring their right arm in front of their eyes. Don’t do it; take your time; get to the choppa (taking all necessary care)!

b.      Hissage/Kasumi/Tachiotoshi/Raiuchi/Midaredome: Gyakute no kamae – when standing like a lemon in awase at the beginning of these forms one should be gripping the jo in a relatively strong gyakute grip. Why some people seem to think that gently pinching the jo between thumb joint and forefinger like picking up a piece of toilet paper stuck to one’s shoe is correct is slightly mysterious. Oh, and right now the grading panel are now looking at you standing there like that wondering what else you are going to do wrong.

c.       Shihogiri: Wakigamae  - no wakigamae, no cigar! There is one requirement of this kamae in this form – that it exists! If you lower the sword into gedan and then turn the body and lift the sword up then you have just skipped one of the vital parts of shihogiri (a bit like driving to work without a leg). It’s not difficult, it doesn’t require speed or athletic prowess, it definitely annoys the panel when it’s not there.

d.      Err, everything: Metsuke – I suspect that Japanese sensei scream about metsuke more because it requires more effort to do it wrong than doing it right. Perhaps I am being too harsh though, the rules are pretty simple:

a.       Look at what you are doing and where you are going

b.      Refer to a.

There are a few variations on where to look in different parts of the kata but generally one looks into the distance during the fight (like, kinda, at the opponent) and looks down at the end of the fight (just to check that their opponent has fallen into a dignified position and isn’t showing their ankles). For seitei iai, when you bow to the sword, you look at the sword as you bow even if you are maintaining some magical 360° spatial awareness. When you are bowing to the shomen you look towards the floor and don’t keep peering forwards like you’re afraid the wall is going to fall on you. When you are walking back to the start line you try to judge your position based on your warrior-special-powers of recognising where on the planet you are, you don’t look down at the start line to make sure that no chipmunks have taken residence there.

e.      Start line – known as the “kaishisen” which means “there is a trapdoor to some crocodiles in front of this line”. Between kata it is enough to return to being close to this line, if you are a bit in front – no problem, if you are bit behind – no problem. Skilled taikai exponents will adjust themselves in relation to the kaishisen so that they don’t step out of the shiaijo area or decapitate a judge (thus potentially costing them a flag). At the beginning and end of the grading though one should be careful to be behind the line. Up to a certain level in iaido (let’s arbitrarily say nidan) it’s not a problem to kneel on the line to do one’s torei, after that though one should check what is fashionable at the moment.

So there you have it. Nine beautifully formed, evenly sized, cream-filled slices of strawberry grading advice.

I am now off to catalogue my spice rack….