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Be Like A Butterfly!

From Shiro Kuma by kumablog

FB_IMG_1511541272692During Friday’s class, I asked Sensei to write: “It is not about fighting, it is about controlling.” What I got was “Chochō Hanami Maai” or “Butterfly, flowers, distance.” (1)
Since then I tried to see the link between my request and his answer. During the Sunday class, he spoke about the butterfly. It helps to shed some light on the hidden meaning of this cryptic calligraphy. Sensei said that we should move like a butterfly and don’t give any feedback to the opponent. When you don’t use strength, the adversary cannot react and wonders what is happening to him. This activation of his mental process slows him down and allows us to take the advantage. Uke of Hatsumi sensei and Senō sensei, I felt no physical contact at all on my arm and body. The way they touch you is similar to the touch of a butterfly. There is nothing to feel, and as Tezuka San put it “it is like fighting alone.”
Sensei often defines his art as “the martial art of distance.” I finally understood it yesterday. Distance is not limited to our leg movements. It also implies the quality of the contact between Uke and Tori. A butterfly landing on a flower will not bend the flower. In this allegory of Chochō Hanami Maai, we have to become the butterfly. Uke is the flower, and the distance is the quality of the strength or the lack of it that we apply to the movement.
Demonstrating this with Adonis Mitrou from Greece, he asked him to explain what he felt. Thinking for a moment, Adonis came up with a Gyokko Ryū concept. “Kokū no Naka ni no Kūkan,” or to find the emptiness in the centre of space. (2)
Sensei welcomed this interpretation. It was showing the connection between his body flow and the Gyokko Ryū. This concept is central to the understanding of this essential Bujinkan fighting system. The quality of your control is what matters. It is your ability to find the perfect distance between you and the opponent. Like the butterfly landing on the flower.
I miss the old days where training was only about the mechanical aspects of technique. But I have to admit that this more profound approach to Taijutsu is much more fulfilling. The butterfly attitude is far more complicated. But the results are beyond your wildest dreams.
It is very high-level Budō. It explains why Sensei said that the 50 years of the Bujinkan arts, led us to get the real essence of Budō.
Kantan desu. (3)
Everything is easy when you become a butterfly, so I wish you a happy flight. Ganbatte!
_______________________
1 – 胡蝶, 花実, 間合い, butterfly, flowers, distance
2 – 虚空の中にの空間, the emptiness in the centre of space
3 – Kantan desu: 簡単, simple; easy; uncomplicated
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Tatakai Wa Janai

From Shiro Kuma by kumablog

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Chochō, Hanami, Maai: 胡蝶, 花実, 間合い

The more I train here, and the more I am lost.

Today, during Senō sensei’s class, I partnered with my friend Michael Glenn (Santa Monica dōjō). We were lost. How those who come here once or twice in their life can understand the Bujinkan arts. Yesterday night, Hatsumi Sensei’s class was another moment of solitude. Sensei is hardly moving and stops you without applying any force.
As his Uke, I felt like I am suspended in mid-air alone, unable to continue the attack. Sensei is like a ghost, holding with a tiny point of contact. In fact, it is as if he is not there. One thing for sure, he is not fighting you. Uke is the only one fighting. He is fighting gravity, balance, tensions because it feels like there is nothing in front of him.
To “help us” understand, Sensei repeated many times “Waza Janai,” there is no technique. (1) And he was right. Writing these lines, I have a hard time explaining the unexplainable. You have to feel it for yourself to begin to get it; there is nothing to understand. It is beyond the technical realm. Sensei moves in such a perfect way that the only thing you get is a feeling of powerlessness.
In the past, it was easy to explain what he was doing because we had the support of the Waza. Now it is mission impossible.
Sōke’s central teaching yesterday is to get to control the opponent by controlling the situation. It is about full awareness.
Last year, this year, and next year, we are studying the art of Mutō Dori. That is a very high-level approach to the concept of Mutō Dori.
He summarized it when he said:: “Tatakai Wa Janai”, there is no fighting. (2) He added it was only about control. To control without intention, and without technique, is the Mutō Dori level we have to study this year. I never suspected something so tricky. Once again, the only chance you have to understand it is to be Sensei’s Uke. I am lucky to have felt it, even though I am far from being able to do it myself.
During the calligraphy session, I asked for “It is not about fighting, it is about controlling.” And he wrote “Chochō Hanami, Maai,” or “butterfly, flowers. The distance”. That is the picture illustrating this post. (3)
I still have to get the hidden meaning behind this cryptic kōan. That will be the subject of another post if I can fathom what he meant.
_____________________________
  1. Waza Janai: 技じゃない
  2. Tatakai Wa Janai: 戦いわじゃない. Tatakai: battle; fight; struggle; conflict
  3. Chochō Hanami, Maai: 胡蝶, 花実, 間合い

 

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A Pointed Attack

From Bujinkan Santa Monica by Michael

shrine to 蔵王権現 Zaō gongen. photo by Michael Glenn
At a Friday night class in the Bujinkan Honbu Dojo, Hatsumi Sensei's opponents cut in at him with a sword, and he literally pointed their cuts away! It looked bizarre. But there is a foundation for why and how this works.

Earlier that afternoon in Japan I visited a mountain shrine to the Shugendō deity 蔵王権現 Zaō gongen. The Meiji government had abolished such shrines, but this one was still hidden in the shade of the forest. Probably too small to bother with.

Through the broken sunlight, I spotted the stone monument. A bleached white object caught my eye at the base of the mossy grey stone. Someone still active in the shamanistic practice of Shugendō had laid a lone antler and a skull on the rock.

Zaō gongen is often portrayed forming the 刀剣印 tōken-in sword mudra by his hip. This mudra is a wrathful hand gesture for conquering evil. I did not expect that later that evening I would see an active variant of this mudra used in combat.

When the attacker came in, Hatsumi Sensei would point and his attention would be caught. Then Soke would redirect it. This is a method for shaping the kukan. You must understand that kukan is not just the physical space between the fighters. It also holds the much larger space that exists in the fighter's mind. If you control that, you control the fight.

In Japan, there is a similar practice for controlling one’s own mind and manifesting this in the physical world. It is called 指差喚呼 shisa kanko (pointing and calling)  and is a safety measure. You will see it at train stations with the white gloves. It provides the engineer with an extra indication as to whether a switch has been turned on or off, or whether the train station platform is clear before and after departure.

When Soke pointed he caused the opponent to change his focus or move his intention in a certain direction. The ability to do this comes from a strong kamae and the ability to manage the space and the psychology of the opponent. In fact, in one instance, Hatsumi Sensei waved the finger through the air like he was erasing smoke (it looked like 千早振る chihayafuru). When Soke brandished the finger this way, the opponent stuttered his attack and his ability to stand just collapsed.

Hatsumi Sensei told us that to do this, "You can't focus on any one point. It's like cutting through the kukan. This is what defines 気 ki."

I certainly felt a kind of atmosphere and mood when I saw the antler that afternoon before class. And later that evening, I felt different when Hatsumi Sensei changed the spirit to one of laughter. I can't wait to go back to Japan next week!…

Keiko#33 DOWN UNDER 2017 with MATS HJELM

From Budoshop by BUDOSHOP.SE

  $19.99

Down Under 2017

  $19.99

Three video files, total playing time is 106 minutes. 5.7 Gb (H.264, AAC, 1280x720p)

This was filmed in Australia in the middle of Mats Hjelm’s #JapanTrip38.

The instructions on this film is in English. Each technique is demonstrated several times from all angles. The techniques are a mix of basics and new techniques from Japan trainings this year.

14-15 OCT – Port Macquarie Seminar

On Saturday the training started with all three forms in Sanshin no kata, then moved on to Muto-dori. Muto-dori and especially Shinken-shiraha-dome is this years theme in Japan, it is unarmed defence against knife and sword where you grab the blade.

Sanshin Gokei no kata (5 techniques)
Sanshin Gogyo no kata (5 techniques)
Sanshin Goshin no kata (5 techniques)
Sanshin with Kunai (5 techniques)
Muto-dori and Taijutsu (many techniques)

On Sunday the training started with Ashirau with is techniques trapping his legs and take him down. Then Taijutsu and Muto-dori against sword and knife was taught. Finally the five Jutte techniques from Kukishin-ryu was taught.

Ashirau (4 techniques and henka)
Muto-dori and Taijutsu (many techniques)
Jutte-jutsu (5 techniques)

 

The video is edited down to 62 minutes

17 OCT – Newcastle extra training

Some of the people was at the seminar and requested more Ashirau techniques and Jutte techniques. A little Kunai was taught and also Muto-dori and Taijutsu.

The video is edited down to 17 minutes.

18 OCT – Sydney extra training

Taijutsu and Muto-dori was taught at this extra training.

The video is edited down to 27 minutes.

 

Title: Down under in Australia with Mats Hjelm
Instructors: Mats Hjelm
Theme: Sanshin no kata, Kunai, Jutte, Muto-dori
Recorded: Recorded in Port Macquarie, Newcastle and Sydney, Australian October 2017

Kind: Apple MPEG-4 movie
Size: 5 703 149 641 bytes (5,7 GB on disk)
Dimensions: 1280×720
Codecs: H.264, AAC, Photo – JPEG, QuickTime Text
Duration: 106 min…

Ken, Tachi, Katana

From Shiro Kuma by kumablog

 

I recently asked you about your expectations about the videos and texts that I do. To my surprise, you are 90% willing to have more insights on History in Budō. In this first article, I will address a point that might change your vision of sword fighting.
Only the Kukishinden and the Togakure Ryū have sword Denshō. And we use the concepts and the body flow of each other school to get their specific biken jutsu.
Here are the few points for you to keep in mind when using a sword:
#1 Taijutsu is a tool for the training of the young Samurai aged 6 to 15 before they could wear the Yoroi. Or have the muscles to use the massive weapons.
#2 Taijutsu became a significant fighting art during the second half of the Tokugawa period.
#3 During the Edo no Jidai (1), there was peace and no more battlefield encounters.
#4 Peace time is the reason for the creation of “martial arts” as we know them today. Historical reasons explain that:
a) Hideyoshi killed his major rivals (2),
b) Shimabara rebellion (3),
c) the need for the former soldiers to survive during peacetime. (4)
tsurugi
#5 The Tsurugi (Chinese sword) has been in use in China and Japan for more than 4000 years.
In the myth of the creation of Japan, Jimmu sent by Amateratsu comes to the archipelago with a Tsurugi, the famous 草薙劍 Kusanagi no Tsurugi.
tachi
#6 The Tachi replaced the Tsurugi around the end of the Heian no Jidai (794-1185). (5)
#7 The way of the Tachi benefits from the Tsurugi experience developed for more than 40 centuries.
#8 The Tsurugi and the Tachi were used on horseback with Katate, only one hand. There were used for stabbing. (6)
biken
#9 The Katana began to be used in the 16th century. It replaced the Tachi with the Tokugawa peace.
#10 The last sword technique of the Kukishin biken jutsu, “Tsuki no Wa” is a Tachi technique.
#11 The Sanshin no kata is a Tsurugi and a Tachi set of movements, it was then adapted to the Katana, and then to Taijutsu.
#12 The Katana was used standing up, not on a horse. So it didn’t need to be as long as a Tachi. The Katana was used to stab and to cut.
#13 My sword teacher told me that the two-hand grip on a smaller blade, increased speed and precision. The triangle uses the power and flexibility of the wrists. (7)
#14 With peace, the Yoroi stayed home. The Samurai could now use their sword to cut the opponent. Before the Edo period, it was not possible. (8)
#15, As a result, the quality of steel improved even faster.
#16 My sword teacher said that “cutting with a Katana is easy, after all, it is made for that. But that genuine expertise is to know how to stop the blade after the cut.
For over 45 centuries warriors used the Tsurugi and Tachi for fighting. Without this knowledge, the Katana would not be the same. You must train all three swords if you want to understand about sword fighting.
This is a Sanshin.
___________________________
  1. Edo no Jidai (1603-1868)
  2. Hideyoshi killed three Daimyō opposed to him. As a result, a lot of Ronin began to wander all over Japan.
  3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shimabara_Rebellion
  4. Unemployed soldiers began to teach Martial arts to the civilians. This situation led to the creation of many Dōjō. The technical level was not always “high level.” “By the end of the Tokugawa era, there were 718 swordsmanship schools, 52 archery schools, 148 spearmanship schools, 179 unarmed combat schools.” p26 In “The truth of the ancient ways” by Anatoliy Anshin, Kodenkan Institute NY. We can imagine that the majority of these schools were not the best.
  5. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heian_period
  6. Katate: 片手, one hand
  7. He lived in Japan for 17 years. As a Frenchman, he was a member of the Japanese Kendō team, vice world champion of Kendō (for Japan). Teacher of the Musō Shinden Ryū, and 35 other older Kenjutsu schools, teacher of 5 styles of Battōdō. Only to let you know that when he spoke, I was listening.
  8. The Yoroi is designed to parry the Yari, the most dangerous weapon on the battlefield. I read a paper explaining that the Yari accounted for about 60% of the casualties in comparison to the 21% of kills with the swords. (data from 10th to 17th century).

 

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33% Discount at Budomart In November!

From Shiro Kuma by kumablog

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I began training in June 1984. This year it is my 33rd year in the Bujinkan. With Christmas coming soon, I thought it would be nice to celebrate this anniversary together.

During the whole month of November, you get a permanent discount of 33% on ALL budomart DVDs. That is my way of thanking you for being in my life.

You can use this discount only once, so, choose wisely. 🙂

Get your DVDs today and be sure to have them waiting for you under the Christmas tree!

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Saigō Takamori, The Unlucky “Last Samurai”

From Shiro Kuma by kumablog

saigo

There is a new painting of Saigō Takamori in the Dōjō from the Edo period. (1) (2)
Saigo Takamori helped to replace the Bakufu to install the Meiji restoration.

During the Boshin war (1868-1869), Saigō Takamori led the Meiji army. Disagreeing on the reforms put in place by the new power, he left the court and went back to Kagoshima in Satsuma. As a clan leader, he was right to his people, he rebelled to the Meiji power and went to war against troops of the emperor. These events are called the Satsuma rebellion.
In the end, surrounded by the imperial troops, injured, he committed seppuku in 1877. He was 49-year-old.
Sensei explained that Saigō was unlucky.
These were difficult times of change. The official start of the Meiji restoration is 1868, but this didn’t happen overnight. In fact, the end of the Satsuma rebellion of 1877 is the real beginning of the Meiji era.
He was pardoned in 1889, and he is considered today a significant historical figure of Japan. Today you can see his statue facing the parliament in Tōkyō.
Considered “the last Samurai” by many, his luck left him. As Hatsumi sensei often repeats, “to succeed, you need to be lucky. Create your chance.”

For Western minds, it is strange to consider that chance can be created. But when I look at my life in the Bujinkan for the last 33 years, I understand what sensei means. Last Sunday, Sensei added that “if you want to live a long time you need to have luck!”
Train sincerely and the Bujinkan arts will help you to get lucky, unlike Saigō Takamori.
_______________________
1. Saigō Takamori: (西郷 隆盛 (隆永), January 23, 1828 – September 24, 1877)
2. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saig%C5%8D_Takamori
3. Boshin wars; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boshin_War
4. Wikipedia: “…Unable to overcome the affection that the people had for this paragon of traditional samurai virtues, the Meiji Era government pardoned him posthumously on February 22, 1889.”


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Demo: The Intelligence Of However

From Shiro Kuma by kumablog

The waves keep crashing on the shore, they change to adapt, but they are all the same. Water flows on what it finds on its path.

“Intelligence is the ability to adapt to change,” said Stephen Hawking. That is what we learn in the Bujinkan.
A friend in Japan noted that Sensei always finished his sentences by “Demo” (however). Sensei leaves all his answers unfinished. (1)It reminds me of the concept of Chūtō Hanpa, (2) where you do NOT finish the technique.
It is easy to understand it in a fight where many right solutions are possible. There are many ways to adapt to a given attack. But it seems more difficult to apply it on a daily basis. Our problem is that we are too judgmental. We always an opinion about everything. Sensei doesn’t have any firm position. He never closes the door, and never get things fixed permanently.
His answers are flows of possibility fitting the moment. All through these last thirty years, I often saw it. One day Sensei would answer a specific question. Two years later, he would give a different answer to the same problem. The first time, I thought my memory was defective. But when the same occurred many times, I began to believe that he is only adapting his answer to the moment. There is no truth, the only possible course of action is to adapt.
In life, as in technique, there is no right or wrong answer. There is only a flow of opportunities leading into one direction or another, both being good. In one of his book, he wrote: “[…] you must know when to bend with the wind, and know that there is no need to bend when there is no wind.” Later he adds “[…] If you ask if there is truly such a thing as the fundamental techniques of ninjutsu, we will have to say “no.” If you ask if you are doing the fundamentals correctly, we will tell you that there is no right or wrong way. These movements we call the fundamentals are only a means for the attainment of the natural-appropriate responsive movement that comes with personal enlightenment.”
Strangely in the text above he keeps letting things open, one moment there are no fundamentals, the next sentences he says there are no right or wrong to do these fundamentals! This the “Demo” attitude that is so characteristic of Sensei’s personality.
The Bujinkan is not about learning hundreds of Waza, it is about being able to adapt, to not be judgmental, and to be happy, Demo…
__________________________________________
1.Demo: でも, but; however; though; nevertheless; still; yet; even so; also; as well
2. Chūtō Hanpa: 中途, in the middle; half-way + 半端, fragment; fraction; halfway

Online streaming

Cincinatti, Ohio January 2018

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VID_20171002_090148
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Bujinkan Strategies of Control Part 7: 中心 chuushin

From Bujinkan Santa Monica by Michael

Hatsumi Sensei and Michael Glenn
I got off the plane and went straight to the dojo. This is extreme. And maybe a little foolish.

I got up at 5am in California, went to the airport to fly across the Pacific Ocean for around 12 hours. When I land in Japan, I get on one train for an hour, then another for half an hour, and the last one to the dojo for another half hour.

When I arrived for Hatsumi Sensei’s class, he decided to throw me around the dojo. Then I got back on a train to go check in at my hotel. When I finally lay in bed, it is 22 or 23 hours since I left home. But I lay awake trying to understand what just happened in training.

Even if I only had this one class, the whole trip was worth it. Hatsumi Sensei was teaching us about control. But it is not accomplished by purely physical means. In fact he said, “Don’t grab, it’s neither grabbing nor not grabbing.”

What is in between grabbing and not grabbing when you are trying to control someone? This in between space is what he was trying to show us. And here is a huge revelation for your training if you are ready for it. Soke said,
“Don’t do more than necessary by grabbing. But trying NOT to grab is also doing too much. you have to be in the middle. that middle space is where you can disappear.” 
What does this type of control look like? Well, I just felt it and witnessed it in the Bujinkan Honbu dojo. The opponent ends up fighting himself. Soke was doing this against knife attacks. And every time the attack came in, Soke pivoted around it and was able to redirect the knife so the attacker stabbed or cut himself.

This can happen when you are neither taking nor not taking. But what you do “take” are things you can’t see. Those in between things, those invisible things are really controlling the opponent. とってでとってない totte de tottenai.

Soke threw his opponents very painfully. But they couldn’t take ukemi because he controlled them. He laughed and said 親切 shinsetsu. which is the word for kindness, but the kanji means killing the parents. Like you’re killing them with kindness. He said that throwing them is a type of kindness.

He also used the word たすけて tasukete which suggests that he is helping them find the destruction they seek. You are helping them and using kindness to throw them, but then you have to be able to immediately kill them. Kill them with kindness.

I watched as he demonstrated a type of 手の内 tenouchi which is the way of using the palm or the fingers. He would catch the opponent’s finger right in the center or palm of his hand and move it around like a joystick.

He told us 力を感じさせない chikara o kanji sasenai… don’t let the opponent feel your power. You control through connection, but when you connect these ideas, they become zero.

Remember, it’s not your hand that is connecting to the opponent… and it’s not the place on the opponent where you put your hand…. it’s the connection. It’s the zero in the middle. In between your hand and the opponent is where the connection exists.

When you block or place a hand on the opponent, it’s neither the hand or the opponent that matters. It’s the connection or the place in between. That moment of zero.

Soke says we are studying mutō dori. And when we do mutō dori we are not really taking their weapon. He said we are taking 中心 chuushin, or their central point. This is their essence or core spirit.  Another way to write the kanji for 衷心 chuushin can mean their innermost feelings or inner spirit. Hatsumi sensei called this type of control “zero-style.”

Soke reminded us that he cannot teach this. We have to discover it for ourselves. We have to try to get this feeling from him in person.

I had travelled 5497 miles or 8,846 km for tonight’s class. I closed my eyes and dropped my head into the 蕎麦殻枕 sobagara pillow. I was exhausted, but for a lifelong budo addict like me, every mile was worth it!…

The autumn moon

From Kasumi An Study Center 　霞庵 スタディセンター by カスミアン

By Tomoe Gozen

Take a look out the window tonight(October 4th) and you will see the Chushu no Meigetsu. The Japanese have an ancient tradition of gazing at this moon on this particular date. They like to eat snacks, sing songs and quietly contemplate.

According to the lunar calendar, Chushu, 中秋 which means in the middle of autumn, was the 15th of August. They also call this moon Juugoya, 十五夜、 the night of the fifteenth. It used to always be a full moon but since the Japanese no longer use the lunar calendar, sometimes it is not completely full. But if you have not taken some time to look at the moon recently, dont miss this opportunity to slow down and enjoy some nature beauty and moon rays. You will be glad you did!…