2017 - NinZine 3.0

33% Discount at Budomart In November!

kumafrNovember 3, 2017

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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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http://www.budomart.com

Saigō Takamori, The Unlucky “Last Samurai”

kumafrNovember 3, 2017

From Shiro Kuma by kumafr

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.”

Demo: The Intelligence Of However

kumafrNovember 1, 2017

From Shiro Kuma by kumafr

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

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Cincinatti, Ohio January 2018

Undervisningsmetoder

IwatoOctober 11, 2017

From Sida 9 – Iwato 1810 by Iwato

Om man som lärare ska föra över 900-år av samlad kunskap om budo till en elev så har man ett digert arbete framför sig. Det handlar ju om överföring erfarenhetskunskap ur tre dimensioner: fysiskt, tekniskt och mentalt [jap. shin-gi-tai], och som är genomsyrade av en överlevnadsmekanism [jap. bufu] inympad i vår DNA. Lite lättsamt skulle man kunna påstå att vi har fyra olika metoder, som vi mixar och använder vid olika tillfällen och med olika syften:

Undervisning
Träning
Operant betingning
Lek

Undervisning består av vanligtvis av de teorier och principer som ligger till grund för vår budo. En överföring från en neocortex till en annan neocortex, som kan hamna fel eller missförstås eftersom sändare och mottagare inte alltid befinner sig på samma plan när det gäller intresse och fallenhet för teoretisk/akademisk kunskap. Det finns ju de som vill lära sig ”martial arts” men känner att det handlar mer ”material art”, dvs budo blir mer som ett skolämne med studier av kompendier, historik etc.
Kobujutsu (budo som kulturtradition) och kampsporter kan betraktas som skolämnen eftersom det utövas i ett slutet system medan självförsvar/självskydd kan aldrig falla i formen ”one-size-fits-all” eftersom det är ett öppet system. Professionella självskyddskurser för börjar alltid med en individuell behovsinventering och omvärldsanalys. Utifrån den riskanalysen kan man sedan prioritera vilka aspekter som just den individen behöver lära sig att behärska. Vid dessa kurser är lärarens stil-preferenser lättare att hålla i schack om aspekterna är väl förankrade i verkligheten. För kampsport är alla aspekter kända; tid plats motståndare etc medan vid självförsvar är allt öppet och okänt.

Träning består av fysiska övningar, drillar, reps, tekniker, kata etc som definierar budo arten. Övningarna består av: Vad man ska göra, Hur man ska göra dem och När man ska göra dem. Vad-övningarna är själva formen för tekniken som går att dela upp i olika antal steg. Ofta anses det att de mer avancerade övningarna har många steg, men så är det inte i vår dojo. Ju färre steg, desto mer avancerad är tekniken.
Hur-övningarna är själva innehållet i tekniken. Man kan fotografera eller filma en teknik och blir på det sättet instruerad i vad man ska göra, men för att förstå innehållet – uppfatta känslan – i tekniken måste man få direkt hands-on kontakt med läraren.
När-övningarna handlar om tajming, att lära sig att göra tekniken i exakt rätt ögonblick. Detta är en typisk repetitionsövning, för det är något som man bara kan lära sig med tiden.

Operant betingning är ett begrepp utvecklat av psykologen B.F. Skinner och är en central del av behaviorismen. Operant betingning innebär att beteenden kan förstärkas eller släckas ut och att det sker beroende på konsekvenser av beteendet. Detta är en viktig del i våra studier efter godan-testet, men vi använder den även vid studier på mudan och yudan nivån. Framför allt kan det han det då handla om att försöka släcka ut beteende som en elev har skaffat sig och som motverkar de nyckelrörelser som vår budo består av.
Detta gäller speciellt de nybörjare som har erfarenhet från andra kampsporter/-arter och som dessutom skaffat sig ett beteende baserat statisk repetition utan hot-stimuli. Stridsförmågan kan inte tränas med statiska repetitioner, där tekniken och färdigheten reproduceras utan hot-stimulus. Träning utan stimulus som triggar igång en rörelse är i bästa fall rituell eller teatralisk och har inget med äkta budo att göra. Av det skälet anser vi att det endast är en shidoshi som kan bedriva operant betingning.

Hatsumi sensei leker i London 1987

Lek är den undervisningsform som Hatsumi sensei föredrar. Vi börjar vanligtvis våra övningar ur ”shizentai” – en avspänd, naturlig och spontant lekfull kropp. Denna kropp är ett tillstånd av varande, snarare än en form av en individuell kropp som vi har.
Shizentai definieras av hastighet. I överfallets olika skeden sker förändringar i enlighet med den hastighet som krävs. Ingenting är långsamt eller snabbt, hastigheten är snarare en komprimerad process. Där tanken inte hinner med tar kroppen vid. Ingenting existerar på ett enkelt och bestående sätt. Allt förändras hela tiden. Tidsflödet kännetecknar erfarenheten, den kan inte existera i sig självt, oberoende av erfarenheten. Nuet är den ofrånkomliga formen för all existens och vi kan bara leka med den, inte styra den, inte forcera den.

…

Bujinkan Strategies of Control Part 7: 中心 chuushin

Michael GlennOctober 5, 2017October 5, 2017

From Bujinkan Santa Monica by Michael Glenn


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!… Read More

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Year: 2017

33% Discount at Budomart In November!

Saigō Takamori, The Unlucky “Last Samurai”

Demo: The Intelligence Of However

Undervisningsmetoder

Bujinkan Strategies of Control Part 7: 中心 chuushin