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故人を偲ぶ Avoid beeing seen

From Kabutoshimen by Toryu

One part of self-defence is not to make yourself a target for attacks. This can be as simple as not stand out in a crowd by looking or behaving in a such way that you get more attention than the others around you. By blending into the crowd you will less likely be a chosen target. In this way you will hide yourself and become invisible to persons that is looking for victims.

By concealing your feelings you do not give away the opportunity for someone to manipulate you and use your weaknesses. You hide your feelings.

If you don’t show what you know or don’t know you will always have the upper hand and the possibility to use the element of surprise. In a fight for example you do not take a kamae that reveal what style you are trained in. You hide what you know.

In Bujinkan we have this saying…

身を忍び Mi wo shinobi
心を忍び Kokoro wo shinobi
死を忍ぶ Shiki wo shinobu

Hide yourself, hide your heart, hide your knowledge.

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闇夜の烏 A crow in pitch black night

From Kabutoshimen by Toryu

In budo and also in ordinary life, what is seen is not necessarily the truth or what it really is. In Japanese they have the expression 闇夜の烏 YAMIYO NO KARASU when they say something is indistinct, it literally means a crow in a pitch-black night. Just because you don’t see it, doesn’t mean that it isn’t there.

Sometimes things can be right in front of your eyes but you don’t see it. They also say that you can see ghosts or spirits by not looking directly at it, you can see it in the corner of your eyes. Next time you look at the godan test done in Japan, look where Soke is often looking.

Have you also wondered why some people have high ranks in Bujinkan, why we have generally much higher ranks than other martial arts. There is no need to be judgemental or distrust or disagree with Hatsumi Soke. Have faith in what he do, he have a lot more experience and can see more clearly than us. When I write see, you should read it as feel. He once said that we should look with our hands and smell with our toes.  So listen to what I say with your tongue ;-) .

In Bujinkan there is a poem that reads…

A (black) crow is stitched on black cloth.
A (white) crane is painted on white paper.

Unfortunately I don’t know which kanji is used with this poem, if anyone know, please post a comment or contact me.

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空間感覚 Sense of space

From Kabutoshimen by Toryu

As you know this years theme is the Togakure school. And what we is studying is the 面 OMOTE, outside or the visible and the 空間 KUUKAN. Next year we will be studying the 裏 URA, the inside, what is not visible or the secret. Soke said that next year we will go beyond kuukan.

First I’d like to remind you of my previous posts about not going ahead too soon, and instead follow the natural way and do things with good timing. So what he meant by going beyond kuukan we can leave for next year… no need to worry about that now.

空間 KUUKAN means space, room or air space. The first kanji KARA means emptyness, vacuum or blank, also SORA means sky or the heavens. The second kanji MA means space, room, time or pause. It can also mean many other things, for example KEN which is a measurement used between pillars, the same length as a tatami mat, 1,818 meters. In Koto-ryu for example you should be able to jump 2 ken sideways.

Other Japanese budo arts use and emphasize the same kanji for 間合い MAAI (interval), but in Bujinkan we instead speak of kuukan which has a deeper meaning. It is not just the distance, it is more how you use the distance that is important. For example if you have a pistol on your right side of the hip, you should keep this side away from the opponent so that he cannot take your weapon, and also so that you have room to draw your weapon off need be.

So this year we are developing our 空間感覚 Kuukankankaku, our sense of using the space between ourselves and the opponent as well as everything else around us, including possible weapons, doors, trees, stones, cars, other people etc.

In art they also speak of kuukan. For example using a big white paper and not too much black ink. Instead of looking at the black ink you look at the big white spaces. Or a zen garden one stone in the middle of a big field, it is the same thing, kept very simple. Maybe the same thing can be said about budo, keeping the techniques simple and leave plenty of room that can be used if needed, instead of complicated techniques that leaves out the freedom to henka, change. The key is to keep it simple, I think.…

青銅 Bronze is better than gold

From Kabutoshimen by Toryu

In sports the gold medal is the highest level but in Bujinkan we think that the bronze medal is the highest level.

青銅 The first kanji is AO and means blue or green (when some one says ao it can mean both blue and green!). The second kanji DOU means copper.

銅 DOU can lead electricity and is more useful than gold. In taijutsu we take the natural 道 DOU (way or path). The way is not decided until the opponent has taken his position, like electricity doesn’t jump from one place to another before it can. Taijutsu is the same, we can not do the technique before the opponent has given us the opportunity where it comes natural. This is the 道 we should take.

Then Soke said look how I take this punch with my 胴 DOU (body, trunk, waist) and laughed.

This is the play of words and kanji Soke often does. I think he does this to break patterns and make us think in different ways we usually thinks. Building new synapses in the brain. Shortly after this he spoke about hijoushiki (see my other post about that).…

非常識 Lack of common sense

From Kabutoshimen by Toryu

Some people do the most unexpected things. They do what you think is impossible or what you think is stupid. Someone who is unexperienced in budo have their own theories of what works and not. They are not molded into a system that taught them how to do things, so they do what they think will work. Or it could be a martial artist from another style using techniques you never seen before.

Soke said the other day that we should develop this 非常識 HIJOUSHIKI, which means lack of common sense. We should learn to see these unexpected things coming and respond naturally and not be surprised. He did not say anything (as far as i understood) about “banpen fuugyou” ten thousand changes without beeing surpriced. But this came to my mind immediately, it is the same thing.…

足運びの構え Deep kamae

From Kabutoshimen by Toryu

One of the shihan who have been training with Soke for 47 years! Said that in the beginning when they trained in the basics they to did very deep kamae. But the feet was just shoulder width apart not so wide apart as most westerners do when they go deep in their kamae.

He said that they did this for some 20 years, then the next phase in training came when the theme changed to much wider stances. And this was around the same time the first westerners came to train in japan in the late 70’s and early 80’s.

足運び ASHIHAKOBI is the name of the technique the Sumo wrestlers use when they walk with the center of gravity as low as possible. With the feet’s too wide apart it would be very difficult to move quickly. And with the center of gravity too high they would be easily pushed out of the ring. Maybe now you get the idea better. 

Please don’t misunderstand me, keeping the feet wide apart makes it more difficult and useful in training, which I strongly believe is good for training drills. I think it is better to make the training drills more difficult and more demanding. But in practical use you should not keep the feet too far from each other because it will slow down your movement too much. It is very important to know what is a practice drill and what you would do in reality! 

Here is two video clips of Sumo matches, one is very bad use of ashihakobi, and one is good. The first one is the bad example, with these not so good “sumo wrestlers“. Compare the center of gravity of the previous ones with these two and you clearly see the difference. It is also a quite funny Sumo wrestling clip.

The first kanji 足 means foot or leg. The second kanji 運 means `carry’, `luck’, `destiny’, `fate’, `lot’, `transport’, `progress’, `advance’.…

稽古の型破り Unorthodox training

From Kabutoshimen by Toryu

Many trainings have included the “hajutsu” idea from Togakure-ryu. Very interesting concept indeed, and not possible for me to explain with text only.

But we can look at the kanji for 破術 HAJUTSU. The first character has no meaning alone, we need to add a suffix. If we write 破る (yaburu) it means to tear, violate, defeat or smash. If we write 破り (yaburi) it means get away from or escaping. The second kanji means technique or art.

Being Togakure-ryu it could mean that you defeat the opponent and then you escape. There is also a special rythm connected to the hajutsu concept that I can show and explain to those that train with me. It’s not necessary to feed the keyboard warriors ;) .

There is also many others that have trained this in japan this year that might be able to help you understand, not only me.

Soke said that this year the theme is understanding the 空間 kuukan and next year we will explore beyond kuukan. Also one Shihan told me that this year is Togakure-ryu Omote, next year it will be Ura.

One training Soke did something and asked if we understood, we said no. Then he said good, because it can not be understood by just looking. We should not worry just keep training and then it will come to us one day. This is what 稽古 keiko is all about, just keep training (with the right people). He said on another training that it is important to develop the eyes to see who is good and who is bad to train with. In my opinion you need some experience before you can judge who is good or bad, maybe you don’t have the eyes to see clearly, be careful.

頑張って下さい
Ganbatte kudasai
Keep on going please!…

一人天狗 selfishness

From Kabutoshimen by Toryu

It is more and more difficult to find hot spots here than ever. So far I have only found one (thanks Bic camera in Kashiwa!) (Edit: this is now closed!). Those around Atago and Minami-senju is now gone.

Today the teacher said we should practice slowly and get rid of our bad habits. Then he said that we should not be so selfish. Do what the situation demands of you, not what you want to do with the situation. There is also the opponents will and doings that you have to think about, not just yourself.

The second training today with Soke… He didn’t speek so much today (I think?). But he did say one thing i remember, that the higher rank you have the more you have to become zero.

Then I think almost everyone attending was called up to demonstrate. I had to go up twice. There was many people doing good, even green belts! Some not so good (also including me). Doing badly in front of everyone can also be good I think. I don’t feel the need to prove anything. The dojo is the place you train on things you don’t know so well. And everyone in the dojo is your friend, always willing to help. Don’t forget that ego has no place in the dojo.…

矛盾 budo is not logic

From Kabutoshimen by Toryu

We where training on a basic blocking technique in kenjutsu yesterday when the teacher pointed out that we should not overdo the block or try to move to soon. Because if the opponent know this and make faint and attack in the opening you just gave him. Or he might give the impression of feinting and attack where he showed he was attacking, this feinting a feint.

There is no logic in budo. If you think in logic terms you won’t get it. But there is of course logic involved, but it is not logic. It is what Japanese call mujun (contradiction). Let’s look at the kanji for mujun because it is interesting…

矛盾 MUJUN means contradiction. The first kanji is HOKO which is the Chinese long-handled spear. And the second character is TATE and means shield. We use the same kanji in “Tate ni suru”.
The shield maker say that his shield will withstand all spears. The spear maker says that his spear will penetrate all shields. This is not logic it is a contradiction.

The same thing is applied in budo. And I belive this is why Soke stresses the importance of feeling not the technique.

On the flight over here I watched the movie Kung Fu Panda. When the panda received the secret dragon scroll, he first didn’t understood it, then he did and became invincible. There is no way to teach high level budo, Soke says this often. If it would be that easy for a teacher to teach you the arts highest level, then it would be a low level budo in my opinion. What the panda read on his dragon scroll made him realize the truth. But if it was that easy and it would work for most people, then think again… mujun!

Also look up the kanji for “jikomujun” and “mujungoho”. They are also interesting. Please feel free to post comments.…

Arrived to Tokyo this morning

From Kabutoshimen by Toryu

…and now I’m finishing up my soya latte before heading out to honbu dojo (I don’t know if there is an extra training during the day, I hope so).

The weather is fine a little cloudy but warm and humid as I expected. Well it’s time to go :)

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