Year: 2010

From Shiro Kuma's Weblog by kumafr

Today we had an amazing demonstration of yoroi kumi uchi by the Sensei , the Japanese shihan and Duncan and Holger. Yoroi kumi uchi is not about doing a technique it is about seizing the opportunities arising in the middle of the fight. At one point today, Duncan lost his helmet and immediately used it as a weapon against his opponent.

Sensei congratulated him and explained that in a fight everything should be used to stay alive. Often martial art practitioners are more interested in looking good in their techniques rather than being in a position of staying alive. This is during the Muromachi period that Japan has developed what has become the martial arts of today. But in that time it was not about being precise, it was about not dying on the balltefield. Too often people think of the Edo period (beginning in 1603) as the best period of Japanese Budô. This is wrong!

Everything has been discovered much earlier during the Muromachi period. Muromachi began in 1333 so the Japanese had nearly 3 centuries to develop the arts of war. Sensei insisted once again today on the goshin (ken, tachi, juo, katana, nukes) being the real “gorin no sho”. If I understood well he will speak about that extensively in his new book due in a few months. Tachi waza is the weapon of the Muromachi together with the use of the yoroi.

Japanese budô and the culture of the katana came shorlty after the peace time of the Edo period. Japan being unified, there were not so many battles anymore and the Japanese warriors stopped wearing the yoroi rendered unnecessary. This is when they developed the blade to be cutting like razor blades as it was possible (without the protection of the yoroi) to cut the opponent instead of stabbing him. Tachi waza doesn’t include cutting only stabbing.

In the yoroi kumi uchi it is obvious. The body can take any blow at short distance (less momentum) the objective being to open uke in order to find a hole in the protection and to stab him in one of the openings created in the action. Therefore our movements do not have to be perfect they have to be created “on the spot” and adapted to what is possible. Sensei insisted a lot today on this aspect of fighting, we do not try to apply a waza we “read” the openings, take the balance and do what we can to stay alive. Once again we are learning survival not kata.

Furthermore, yoroi kumi uchi makes it obvious that speed is not  the priority as our movements are limited by the weight and encumbrance of the yoroi. We move to keep our balance and to take uke’s balance. Whether we a re doing mutô dori, tachi waza or yari waza is just an add-on to our body movements. The dvd on the dkms will be an eye opener for many bujinkan members as it was one for those who were lucky enough to watch it today.

Train with a yoroi in mind and a tachi in your hand and adapt your good looking movements so that they can be of any use in a real fight.

From Shiro Kuma's Weblog by kumafr

Sensei with Peter King

From today’s training at the dkms I really enjoyed one sentence from sôke: “we are not training Japanese budô but  jin no budô, the budô of mankind”. As humans we are all equal and there is no one better than any other one. The kumite of the bujinkan is not only Japanese and it is obvious when you see so many people (around 400 today!) coming from all over the world and joining to train together here in Tokyo. Sensei’s budô is beyond borders and by spreading it in our countries we are actually working to better humanity. Jin budô is the same in every country and the techniques developed in Japan are no different from the ones that developed in the other cultures. This is why the bujinkan is a world budô. When sensei demonstrated the yoroi kumi uchi today he was taking anything that would be possible: helmet, sode, ropes hanging, belt, weapons. And with this in hand he would take the balance of his uke. At the end of the session, Duncan’s yoroi was a wreck. Efficiency is not in the techniquess but in the attitude one has when facing an opponent. As Nagato sensei said once: “it does not have to look good it has to be efficient”. Our budô is beyond the forms. We have to learn the basics and the schools and the weapons in order to create this space where everything is possible. By not finishing the techniques (hanpa) and by using the josei no goshin jutsu, we can adapt our movements without putting any thought within them. Uke attacks and we simply react, taking his balance and crushing him. In sannin dori this ability is necessary and hanpa gives us the possiblity to overcome the intentions of the attacker. In traditional budô everything follow a predefined pattern and creativity disappears behind the veil of the form.

In real fight, this cannot be as we have to be aware of the dangers of the situation. By not finishing a particular technique, we are free to move and deal with a second attacker. In sport there is only one opponent in real fight there are often more than one. Dwelling only on a “Japanese form” is not possible for those who want to survive. The only way to survive is to open up and become creative, by sensing the changes occurring in our environment and by reacting to these influences. Jin no budô is the ultimate level of fighting because it implies our whole being and not a set of technical forms. Jin no budô is freedom and when we can manifest that in the dôjô it changes our perception of reality and allows us to apply it in our daily lives. Bujinkan practitioners for their majority still consider the bujinkan to be another martial art and they only focus on the “martial” and not enough on the “art” part.

Sensei wants us to become creative like an artist not to become a budôka. And this is the objective of such a seminar.

Tomorrow will be another interesting day!