From Bujinkan Santa Monica by Mats "Toryu" Hjelm

How much do you sacrifice for training? Does it seem like a lot? We might consider this in light of what Hatsumi Soke and his teacher Takamatsu O-Sensei have offered us.


Hatsumi Sensei said,

... when I had an opportunity to meet with Takamatsu Sensei a year before he passed away, I was told by him, "You are now all right as a budoka. I have taught you everything. I have been able to repay the kindness of Toda Sensei, Ishitani Sensei, Mizuta Sensei."

Takamatsu had such gratitude to his own teachers, that he devoted himself to Hatsumi Sensei and to the tradition that they shared with him. Those who have been dedicated teachers understand the responsibility and sacrifice this was. Add to this the burden of the very survival of nine ryuha and all the history and wisdom they contain, and it cannot be considered lightly.

Our Soke obviously does not take it lightly. He states,

"... I have decided to bare and show budo to the world, as well as demonstrate my personal techniques. In becoming bare is hidden 決死の覚悟 kesshi no kakugo, the resolve to face death."

Shall we give less of ourselves or our training?



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From Bujinkan Santa Monica by Mats "Toryu" Hjelm

Hidden within Shizen no kamae is the key to understanding all kamae. This simple looking stance, two feet on the ground, hands and arms relaxed, spine upright... It is how we've readied ourselves all our lives for all variety of activity.


But outward forms can be misleading. Hatsumi Sensei has reminded us many times that the form of the kamae is not the kamae. Rather it is the spirit and feeling held there. The lifetime of experience with our bodies held naturally. But there is something within Shizen no kamae that goes beyond our experience. It starts with another idea Soke has given us about kamae. He simply calls it, "the moment before change."

In the moment of change we can connect to more than ourselves through 先達 sendatsu (guidance) or 閃達 sendatsu (flash of inspiration). This guidance or inspiration comes from a connection to nature; our own nature and the opponent's, as well as the nature that surrounds us. Soke tells us that Shizen no kamae is the embodiment of nature.

It is the like deer that bounds away without having seen you. Or the leaf that turns toward sunlight. Hatsumi Sensei says that "Nature's creations continue to live bound by the ties of nature." And the intuition (kandankei 寒断計) they receive from nature should be treated with more significance. This intuition or guidance speaks to us without words or thought. Can you feel this in Shizen?


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