Author: kumafr

From Shiro Kuma's Weblog by kumafr

The more important things we learn through training in the bujinkan is that it is ok to make mistakes. By accepting that we are not perfect we can improve our skills.

The errors we make in the dôjô are our best teachers as long as we do our best to learn from them and correct our attitude (kamae). And then hopefully we will not make them outside when fighting time is coming.

“Shu Ha Ri” can therefore be understood as: do, make mistakes, get rid of the mistakes. Whatever we do in life is about learning and our errors create our success.

Isn’t it why we keep repeating: “shikin haramitsu dai komyô“?

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From Shiro Kuma's Weblog by kumafr

Drawing the tachi with the legs by using footwork. Filmed during the tachi III workshop right after the April trip to Japan.

If you are a member of KOI Martial Art you can download a small tachi movie filmed during one of the classes I gave at the Honbu dôjô in Atago.

Enjoy!

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From Shiro Kuma's Weblog by kumafr

Yûro Shi Tennô Taikai – Paris 2010 July 9th to 11th

Join us

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From Shiro Kuma's Weblog by kumafr

On Facebook one friend wrote: “without understanding what juppô sesshô is and its relation to the dragon and the tiger, you will stay forever in the mechanic world and never understand what is biomechanics” and another friend commented: “any movement you do is always biomechanical. Impossible to do a non-biomechanical movement by definition of the word.” I thank you both for your comments as they allow me to be more precise.

First of all, both are right and wrong. To the first one I would say that the dragon movement is by definition using the body and therefore belongs to the mechanical world. But to the second one I would object that a movement might not always be mechanical. When I am “moved” by the beauty of the landscape, a piece of music, or any artisitic masterpiece; I am moved but I do not physically move (except if I faint).

As always our language is limited and carries different conceptual schemes (cf. Quine: “word and object”) allowing various realities to cohabit. From the omote perspective, comment #2 is true; but from the ura perspective comment #1 is also true.

We should focus more on what we do than trying to give the exact definition of what we can do. Entering the dragon is more a feeling, a kankaku than a real movement but without the knowledge developed in the waza it is useless.

A Japanese shihan said to us once: “in the bujinkan you need to train both kankaku and waza as they are the two legs allowing to go forard on the path. If you focus on one leg only and exclude the other one you will not move forward very long”.

The bujinkan path you have chosen to follow is long and I can assure you that you will definitely need your two legs to go further.

Becoming a dragon does not mean that you will stop walking and fly instead!… but  who knows?…

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From Shiro Kuma's Weblog by kumafr

Asian martial arts often refer to the opposition/unity of the tiger and the dragon. In 2003, the first year of the  juppô sesshô cycle, we learnt that the dragon is in the sky or ten and the tiger on the ground or chi.

We also learnt that the dragon was capturing while the tiger was hitting.

These two symbolic animals are showing the duality of possibilities offered to us at any given moment.

This is what sensei explained and you can find his explanation  in one of my books: koteki ryûda juppô sesshô hibun no kami. At the beginning of the year, sensei gave a copy of the densho to some of us and I was lucky to spend a lot of time with him and that he answered my questions. This link between tiger and dragon is paradoxically not an opposition but has to be understood as an union.

And once you are aware of these dual aspects in your Self  (brain & body can also be seen as the tiger and the dragon), you have to fuse them together in order to create Oneness. It is like the in-yo taichi.

The highest level of budô can only be achieved when you become able to “enter the dragon”. Like the “shu ha ri” supposing to mean: “learn, master, discard”; it can be seen as “shu hari” : to see the “truth by piercing through the appearances” (sensei April 2010).

When the duality of the ten-chi disappears you have one reality left, you became a dragon. Maybe this is why sensei gave to some of us dragon names in 1993. When you train in this year of the tiger please do not to forget the “crouching” dragon inside of you.

And remember that if dragons can fly they can land too, but that tigers will never fly.

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