REGISTRATION PARIS TAIKAI 2015
From Shiro Kuma's Blog by kumablog
PARIS TAIKAI – REGISTRATION OPEN
JULY 11th, 12th, 13th, 2015
With Pedro, Peter, Sven & Arnaud
… … …The Ura Side of Bujinkan Sakkijutsu
From Bujinkan Santa Monica by Michael
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| 金龍の舞 kinryu no mai, 浅草寺 Sensō-ji, Tokyo. photo by Michael Glenn |
For members of Rojodojo, I made a video: Bujinkan Japan Training Report: Kinryu Edition Because...
Yesterday, I went to see 金龍の舞 kinryu no mai. Dance of the golden dragon. This is a rare sight… the sensoji temple also has the name 金龍山 kinryuzan. According to legend. the fisherman who founded the place saw a golden dragon swoop down out of the sky and create a forest in one night.
Eight guys carry the dragon and the 9th guy carries a lotus flower. This is symbolic of the dragon's dual nature. Although the dragon is fierce while attacking, it also protects.
Hatsumi Sensei has been saying the same thing for many years. In fact, on Tuesday night, he showed us this dual nature against his attackers. During one throw, he said he was trying to protect, but those who do not accept it defeat themselves.
He also shared what he called the ura side of 殺気術 sakkijutsu. This exposes the dual nature of sakki and requires a feeling of sutemi. Hatsumi Sensei used a baseball analogy where instead of going for a home run, you bunt.
When you bunt in baseball, you receive a fast moving ball and deaden it with your bat to slow it down. Your opponents chase a slow rolling ball while the runners advance at fast speed. It's a way of controlling the tempo of an attack.
Hatsumi Sensei said 勝負 shoubu, victory or defeat, is already decided before the fight begins. Then everything moves in slow motion for the opponent. He cannot stop it from happening. All he can do is witness his own demise.
This may come as a shock or surprise. And that is what defeats the attacker rather than any physical technique. Soke said he is like the monkey who puts his hand in the jar to grab the food, but then can't pull his fist out.
This is why Soke told us to release, or set ourselves free from 技術 gijutsu or the technical qualities of fighting. Technical skills are like the monkey trap. Soke said,
People think that they perform techniques with their own power, but they don't know that it's the kami that drive their bodies.If you move with your own intention, then you can't use the power of kami.
And this power, this ura side of sakki, allows you to dissipate any attack. Imagine the arrows turning to flowers before Siddhartha. What Soke did in one class this week was cause his attacker to defeat himself by trying to help the attacker or even protect him.
Hatsumi Sensei told us this was for the "jugodan" test. When I became a 15th dan, I began to feel Soke's warning that the jugodans are constantly taking the sakki test. Anytime, anywhere. It does not only exist in the dojo. This is why we need to discover the ura of sakkijutsu that Hatsumi Sensei was teaching at Ayase.
The Golden Dragon (kinryuu son 金龍尊) is often mentioned in the Suvarna- prabhasa-sutra "Golden Light Sutra". This is where the idea of the 四天王 shitenno comes from. Soke has referenced this with 4 Japanese shihan and also used it as a nickname for some European shihan.
These four kings are supposed to protect the head of the kingdom. But only if the ruler is just. This is why Soke tells us to only teach people with a good heart. If you do not have a good heart you will never be able to harness the power of the ura side of Bujinkan Sakkijutsu.
悟光護心 Gokou Goshin
From Kasumi An Study Center 霞庵 スタディセンター by Kasumi An Study Center
Kannon Sama drawn for my friend Jess with the characters Go Kou.
悟光護心 Gokou Goshin
Many of my Bujinkan friends have asked me to write on the topic of this year`s theme of the Bujinkan dojo as written by Grand Master Hatsumi. First and foremost, perhaps this is better not thought of as a theme for the year, but more of a guiding principle for your martial arts and indeed life. The characters, as written, are Enlighten, Light, Protect, and Heart. Short and succinct but deep and profound as many of life`s simple things are. It reminds me of the Heart Sutra. It is said that in the heart sutra, the whole of Buddhism, it`s essence, is boiled down to a mere 260 chinese characters or 16 english sentences.
In many philosophies it is said that, at first, the Master speaks but in the end falls silent and in this silence, a transmission occurs. Words become no longer necessary. In the silence, in the space between master and student, communication happens. In the course of twenty years living and training in Japan with Hatsumi Sensei, it seems that he too, at one time kicking and striking like a tiger and leaping and spinning like a dragon, he has now become more and more subtle, graceful in movement. One could say softer, smaller and even delicate, yet heavy with that which can not be weighed. At one time his poems of the gokui (極意ーinner secrets) long and flowing become more and more abbreviated, condensed. Yet this compactness and simplicity, like a zen painting, adds weight and beauty. For me, these four characters, Go Kou Go Shin, remind me of the longer poem Sensei often says before class. Chihayaburu Kami no Oshie wa toko shie ni tadashiki kokoro mi wo mamoru ran. 千早ぶる神の教えは永遠に正しき心身を守るらん.
A poem which can be translated roughly as `the teachings of the divine forever protect the pure (correct) heart.` And as Takamatsu Sensei once told Hatsumi Sensei, `it is only the pure heart of man that has a connection to the divine`. Go Kou Go Shin, you understand? With age, the long poem becomes compacted, and boiled down to its essence, like a fine wine or fine whiskey takes many years in the barrel. And as Sensei approaches his 85th year, his teaching are becoming more and more elegant, seemingly simple yet heavy with experience and wisdom.
In an ancient Indian text, it says that in the center of the body. there is a little shrine surrounded by a wall with eleven windows. Hidden within this shrine is a lotus blossom. And within the lotus blossom is a tiny tiny room. Spark. Most seek outward for enlightenment. But perhaps it is something that already exists within us. It just needs to be uncovered, discovered, dug up. You must be like an archeologist. This is what we do in our training, whatever training you do. We strive to understand ourselves and uncover this treasure. The tears and sweat of our training act to soften the ground and wash away the unnecessary, the dirt, and give us a glimpse into ourselves, our hearts, this treasure within – Nin Po. (忍宝ーtreasure of nin) (Nin=perseverance). In training we are plowing the field of our hearts. Plowing is simply creating space (ku- 空間）in the ground for life to more easily thrive. Training plows our hearts, giving room for the spark in your heart to catch and burn bright in the vastness of space inside us. Like the sun which gives freely of itself to all beings and makes all life possible on the earth. Burning bright in the vastness of space, the sun creates and protects all life without bias on earth. The sun does not care the color of your skin, or the beliefs you hold. It shines unbiasedly on all life. All colors, all religions, all countries. No Borders.**
And the sun asks nothing in return. It burns itself to give you life on earth. The sun never sends you a bill and the sun never negotiates prices and times with you. It never says `I gave you 24 hours of sunlight yesterday so today you work for me for 12 hours`. The sun always burns 24 hours a day for us. Without the sun, all life on the earth perishes. Without a sun, there is no life. There is also a sun in you, (hikari 光、or also pronounced kou). Uncovered and free, it too, will also create wondrous life and protect those upon which it`s rays shine.
In training, at the upper levels, just as there is the Satsujin Ken and Katsujin Ken, the killing sword and sword of life, we must train on how to bring the opponent to life. The killing aspect of martial arts is easy, even children can kill trained men. Once this killing aspect is mastered, one must then turn the other way, to change directions. 180 degrees. Now you must learn how to create and support life. By losing, as Sensei says, the intention of attacking and killing, we give opportunities for our opponent to live, to maybe experience a blossoming. Moving with compassion and the heart of the gokui (inner teaching) Amo issun no tama mushi, we gently envelop the opponent to protect not only ourselves but also to protect them, even from themselves. If we move from fear and anger, we kill and stop life, But if we build an awareness in ourselves, we can move with compassion and thus truly protect life allowing the next to flower. As Sensei has said, `there is no opponent, the opponent is ourselves`.
** Perhaps you might remember when Hatsumi Sensei first went overseas, he remarked, `I am UFO, I am borderless`. To become borderless, we must continually watch ourselves and throw away the unnecessary. to see thru beliefs, to understand that we have been indoctrinated by our by our cultures, education, religions, politics, ect.. Seeing thru them, can you realize the connectedness and power of supreme nature?
…Manga, Hokusai, Hatsumi
From Shiro Kuma's Blog by kumablog
When I was young, I spent my free time drawing Chinese ink sketches and listening to classical music (when I was not training on the mats).
I loved, and still love, black and white drawings without colors. And one of my dreams was to get a copy of “Manga”, the famous books of drawings by Hokusai, the Japanese woodblock printer. But these books were not published at a price I could afford at that time. They are now available at amazon.com (1). Albrecht Durer (2) and Hokusai (3) were my favorites.
Hokusai lived in the 18th and 19th century (1760 – 1849) so he died nearly 20 years before Meiji. These books are a testimony of pre-Meiji Japan and depict the life of the people at that time.
Hokusai created the “Manga” in 1811 at age 51, half a century before Meiji (4). And as far as I know, he realized these drawing to teach his students how to draw like him. Remember that these drawings were sculpted on woodblocks by an army of apprentices.
This first manga is a collection of thousands of drawings depicting the daily life of the Japanese people.
In Japanese 漫画 “manga” means drawing (cartoon picture) but I prefer to see it as 万画 “manga” (10000 sketches or images).
This is the origin of the word “manga” used by millions of teenagers and young adults today. The funny thing is that the majority do not know where this word is coming from.
So when I received the two volumes last week, I began to look into them and search for budo related drawings. The image on this blog is the reason why I decided to write this article. Let’s do some archeological history on sword fighting.
On the page, you see two pairs of fighters. The upper ones (5) and the lower ones have their hands regrouped like you would in modern iaidō. Which is typical from peace time period and switch from Tachi to katana. I don’t think Hokusai knew a lot about warfare, but he drew what he was watching. So we should consider this like a photography.
This brings one observation: 50 years before Meiji, the system of holding the Tsuka with hands out together was already in use. One of my former sword teacher told me that the close grip was developed during peace time when there were no Yoroi anymore. This grip was faster and more precise than the regular Tachi grip with hands apart.
Another remarkable point is that both groups of fighters have their legs in Gyaku unlike what was the habit with Yoroi fighting. This is also what is taught today in iaidô and often in battodô (right hand and left foot forward). With a Yoroi this is nearly impossible as you have to use the weight of the Yoroi in the hitting process. But in Keikogi and katana, the distance being smaller it makes sense.
This beautiful drawing by Hokusai is not what is taught in the Bujinkan where we are dealing more with the Kamakura and Muromachi type of fighting. But it depicts exactly the ways of the sword during the Edo period.
Hatsumi sensei is like Hokusai, he copies natural movement because everything is about moving according to the situation. There is no dogma, as long as it works.
Hatsumi sensei is like Hokusai drawing these 10000 sketches, his books and videos are like a modern manga that he gave us to be inspired and find natural movement.
Natural movement exists by itself, it appears without thinking. Like Hokusai, we simply have to watch it unfold in front of our eyes.
Hokusai and Hatsumi sensei are painters, they do not teach techniques, they show that life is like that, something natural that you see. This is the true meaning of “Shikin Haramitsu Daikomyō”.
“Life is like that” or 活然 is pronounced “Katsushika”, and it is Hokusai first name.
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1. Manga also exist in other languages.
2. About Albrecht Durer
3. About Hokusai life
4. About Kokusai Manga
5. the two fighters are in a wrong position on the page. The sword of the black fighter is the same one crossing the sword of the left fighter. They are positioned like that in the book even though he should be above the left fighter.
…In Bujinkan Ninpo, We Live or Die with 空 Ku
From Bujinkan Santa Monica by Michael
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| Shide at 稲荷神社, 南柏 Minami Kashiwa. photo by Michael Glenn |
Before you report me to the authorities, make sure you read all I have to say about that night.
Life and death can flip in an instant. They both exist in the same moment. What separates the two?
One moment you are full of life. You were born, grew up, and live with the choices you make every day. You have dreams and goals for your future. But all of your history and all of your future can be taken from you right now.
Life. Death. One and the same.
In our Bujinkan training, we have strategies to deal with this. I previously wrote about one of these that Hatsumi Sensei calls 過去現在未来之術 Kako Genzai Mirai no Jutsu. This is an art of existing in the moment between life and death.
Life or death only happens in the present moment which is ephemeral and very small. In fact, it is a moment of zero. It is like a 要 kaname of life and death.
That night I killed somebody symbolically. Hatsumi Sensei asked me to give the godan test. The guy never saw it coming, and I killed him with my sword cut. But it was also a moment in which I existed. That same moment of life or death. And I killed myself along with my victim.
Hatsumi Sensei commented, “In ninpo taijutsu you have to become 重いで空 omoide ku, heavy with emptiness.” But he also changed the meaning by using 思いで空 omoide ku, which means thinking, imagining, or feeling emptiness. Empty your mind of life or death in this moment of zero.
If you want to know more, you can watch the latest video I made about 過去現在未来 Kako Genzai Mirai. In the video, I also show how to find the pivot point on your sword.
Failure Is Good!
From Shiro Kuma's Blog by kumablog
Everything we learn in the Bujinkan is ura and omote. The same goes in life. As we want to be successful in life or on the mats, we are often faced with failure.
The technique doesn’t work, the project, didn’t succeed. A warrior knows that failure is inevitable, but he does his best to survive. Because in a fight death is always a possibility we have to train for in order to avoid recklessness. How is it done? By training hard and sincerely.
People often lose heart when things are not going the way they expected; they shouldn’t. Failure is the omote of success.
All successful people in life have failed many times before becoming successful. In first grade, Thomas Edison was kicked out of school because his teachers thought he was retarded! Churchill twice failed at entering the Royal Military Academy of Sandhurst. Henry Ford went bankrupt five times. And the list is endless.
These men became famous because they all had one common quality: Resilience doubled with courage.
We do learn from success, but the lessons don’t stick with us as long as the ones learned when we failed. Failure is indeed your best teacher as long as you never give up. Sensei illustrated that when he translated his famous “Bufu Ikkan” into “Keep going!” at the first American Taikai.
As a person, a group, or inside an organization, we are trained to aim for success but we must admit that failure teaches more than success does.
This apparent paradox is easy to understand. If you are always successful how do you expect to continue improving? After a long period of achievement, the person or entity loses the vision that made it possible. In contrast, repeated failures create more knowledge than repeated success. Failure, when it is not destroying your life, is the sure path to becoming more successful.
We need success, and the “keep going” attitude is the solution to finding it.
In order to be successful in the future, you always have to bear in mind, your errors of the past.
For this to work you need to develop a few qualities. They are resilience, courage, hard work, persistence, commitment.
Edison had difficulties inventing the light bulb. To a journalist asking how he felt about failing 1000 times? He answered beautifully: “I didn’t fail 1000 times. The light bulb was an invention with 1000 steps.”
The same goes with your taijutsu. When you learn a new waza, you do it wrong. The angle is wrong, the speed and the rhythm are incorrect, there is too much strength involved, etc. But at some point after repeatedly failing, you have it. Success is a question of attitude and hard work.
In the dojo, we open and close the training session with “Shikin Haramitsu Daikomyō”. It means that whatever is happening to us, there is always something positive that we can learn from the experience.
Be happy to be failing, it means you are still learning.
Here are a few quotes* that you will like:
“Failing is one of the greatest arts in the world. One fails toward success.” Charles Kettering
“I can accept failure, everyone fails at something. But I can’t accept not trying.” Michael Jordan
“Success is often achieved by those who don’t know that failure is inevitable.” Coco Chanel
“Failure is the key to success; each mistake teaches us something.” Morihei Ueshiba
* from http://www.brainyquote.com/
…Happy Birthday Blog!
From Shiro Kuma's Blog by kumablog
Dear followers,
I just received a message from WordPress, today is the 7th Anniversary of our blog!
Over the course of 2555 days, you have visited the blog 439645 times! This is an average of 172 visits per day!
Throughout the period going from 2010 to 2014, we shared 338 posts with the Bujinkan community which gives a ratio of about 1300 visits per post. And you participated to the success of this blog with roughly 500 comments. Thank you!
Thank you for your unlimited support during all these years.
This blog was created for two reasons: 1) to force me to remember what I was learning on a regular basis in Japan; 2) to share Hatsumi Sensei’s vision of Budo with a maximum of Bujinkan members in our community. Both objectives have reached their goal. And many posts have been translated or simply copied on many Bujinkan websites. Versions in French, Italian, Rusian, German, Portuguese are available online.
Soon (it is a matter of a few weeks now), we are going to move to the next level as I am publishing these posts in their chronological order in an eBook format. I rewrote, adapted and corrected all articles. An annex has been added to give even more detail to what I explain in the texts and that needed clarification. After each chapter, some pictures taken during the same period in Japan or when giving seminars in the world make a nice break. The pictures are not artistic but represent the strength and diversity of our community.
The first volume of the “Bujinkan Chronicles” series will cover the period February 2008 – May 2010. It contains more than 50 chapters, I hope you will love it.
In a few months, I will also launch a new project called “Babel Project” where anyone in the community will be able to translate part of the eBooks in their language. I will explain it very soon.
Once again thank you for your support and spreading of Sensei’s vision in the world.
Funnily enough, this anniversary falls at the same date the new Honbu is opening in Japan.
From now on, your Honbu and your blog have the same Anniversary date!*
Did you check out my first eBook?
http://www.amazon.com/Spirit-Movement-Become-True-Student-ebook/dp/B00PUKZY9C/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1424540255&sr=8-1&keywords=spirit+of+movement
* Thank you, Jim for your comments
…The Invisible Barrier of 銛盤手裏剣 Senban Shuriken
From Bujinkan Santa Monica by Michael
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| Wall and Trees 鎮護堂 Chingo dou, Asakusa, Japan. Photo by Michael Glenn |
As you know, Hatsumi Sensei often uses wordplay to expose different truths. And he wrote senban for us with different kanji that reveal a secret. But first let me tell you why you should care.
There are invisible barriers in our training. Here is one you may not know about:
As a Bujinkan student, you may come to stand on the edge of your own humanity, look down to the light side, and the dark side. And there you will find yourself. You might love or hate what you see. That’s a terrible beauty of training.
When I was young, I was not smart. I secretly ordered some senban shuriken through the mail because my parents would never have allowed me to possess ninja weapons. I had to wait everyday by the mailbox to get the mail before my parents did.
When my shuriken arrived, I quickly removed them from the package to test them out. I chose a tree in the yard for a target. I had no idea what I was doing.
I was poor in ability and aim, but the big mistake was my choice of a target. The tree stood in front of a stone wall. Every time I missed, the senban slammed into the wall.
Within 15 minutes, the metal points were dull and bent.
Now, 30 years later, I see many students make the same mistakes I did. One of the biggest and worst mistakes is like choosing a bad shuriken target. You choose the wrong reason for your training.
I made that mistake too. It was difficult to fix. I almost didn’t recover.
Why do you train? Do you even know? Have you chosen a bad reason or target?
Soke recently demonstrated 閃万飛低 senban hitei. This was a way of writing senban I had not seen. My translation is not the best, but you may read it as 10,000 flashes flying low. Imagine the flashes from a storm of metal shuriken flying in every direction.
This image can lead us to an enlightened direction. The flash of inspiration (閃き) can appear from 10,000 directions (meaning from anywhere and everywhere). But you may only perceive it by flying low, or training with humility.
If you cannot, you are the target. Your life is like a storm of 10,000 senban. And every shuriken will be aimed at you.
This is one of the invisible barriers of the Bujinkan. To truly understand our art you must erase the self. It seems like that is simple advice. Don’t be a target. Become zero.
But your reason for training appears from your own ego. That means it already is, or will become a barrier to understanding the Bujinkan. You have to let it go.
The problem is not the desire to train. The problem is that no one puts in honest effort to remove these barriers. Most people don’t get past their original motivation and they give up the idea of trying. An then so many Bujinkan students merely half-ass their training. Or they quit.
I see this in every dojo across the Bujinkan. I see it in my own students. I see it in myself.
Real Bujinkan training is not a game. It is not playing ninja. It is hard work.
If you want to to know what I work on in my own training, you can sign up for my weekly training notes: http://eepurl.com/cD5v6
So what is your reason? if you’re going to get serious about training , you have to have your “why” squared away. You have to welcome the storm of shuriken that you will face. And mentally, never give yourself the option to quit.
Hatsumi Sensei explains one ninja senban tactic like this: 心して前万に投げること、大秘なり This big secret is like carefully throwing away all of the bad parts of yourself. Then you will be invisible to the enemy behind a storm of shuriken.
plain Nagamaki
From paart budo buki by buki stolar
Dear Budo friends,here is few pics of plain Nagamaki, it will be several more variations, so this is first
soon more info
…
The Distance Secret for Shaping Kukan
From Bujinkan Santa Monica by Michael
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| Vending Machines, Matsudo photo by Michael Glenn |
She had gotten into a fight with another woman who clawed her face. The scars were deep, and never went away. She never smiled the same after that. This sad story demonstrates the raw savage power of 蝦蛄拳 shako ken
Hatsumi Sensei taught us some secrets hidden within shako ken in a recent Friday night class at the Bujinkan Hombu dojo. He showed us how to use it not just to attack directly, but to shape kukan.
He held the claw up like 刀匿礮姿 tōtoku hyōshi in the space. Most of us can understand the obvious shape that brings to the kukan. The hand and arm project out from one side toward the attacker and you pivot around it as a shield. That is a very important detail that many people have yet to learn. But I email everything I learn first, so get your email here
But Soke was not teaching only about shielding. He kept trying to get us to understand a deeper, more hidden strategy. One that he has tried to teach for years.
Hatsumi Sensei use the word 片方 katahou. This is a way of shaping the kukan to one side or the other depending on the needs of the moment. Sensei said you should,
“Create Distance with one side and then take the other. There’s no need to create technique or throw the opponent. Because you have created the correct distance. Remember this waza of the kukan.”Anyone who has trained much with Hatsumi Sensei will recognize this strategy. He often influences one side of the body to affect the other. And it usually is the opposite from whatever surface technique we might be studying in that moment.
That same night, I think Hatsumi Sensei could tell that I wasn't getting it. He told me,
"I've been teaching this kind of kurai dori for 42 years. Whether only in this fight, or in any of the seasons, I move with that time."To drive home this point he demonstrated on me, and he said,
"There are many ways of holding this. You don't need to grab. You don't need to throw. 空間を梃子 kukan wo teko you use the lever of the kukan. Take it right here. Bring your shoulder down. It's not with the intention of throwing."During the class break, Hatsumi Sensei painted a picture for me of a beautiful woman with long hair covering one side of her face as she looks back at me over her shoulder. When I look back through my memory, I think of my friend and the way her smile became more wistful and hesitant after the damage to her face.