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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.…

the End (for now) – Day 10 (20tr)

From Kabutoshimen by Toryu

Times up for this time, 20 trainings in 10 days and my head is full of ideas for training back home. I’m doing the laundry and will start packing after this message. There is not much I can say about the trainings except that they are very good, it is like when Soke asked me to explain the feeling efter taking me down to the floor (without pinning me down). All I could say was that he was soft and not using any muscle power at all, he took my balance completely, the timing and everything was perfectly executed.

He did the same thing to another uke until he was on the floor and then soke was pinning him down. He tried to escape the pain, move to a place where the pain would be less and he almost broke his fingers. Another uke said the pain was terrible (my words), and Soke said that the pain should not be so that the opponent tries to jerk out and try to escape, but it should be in such a way that the uke is too scared to move at all. I strongly belive to achieve that is beyond physical techniques, anyone can inflict pain (so please don’t think inflicting more pain in a technique will cause this effect!). Soke also said that you should lock the person and make him feel secure, like you take care of him (like holding a pet and stroking it).

Well I won’t go into more details here. When I get home I will try to upload some pictures to the kaigozan photo album. Next weekend I will be teaching a seminar in Istanbul, I hope you can be there… http://www.bujinkanturkey.com…

Day 7 (14tr)

From Kabutoshimen by Toryu

Today the weather was good, so the trainings was sweaty and good. There is still a lot of people, most people I have spoken to will leave on Monday. So if you are coming here you might be lucky, but I don’t think so, there will probably come more people this weekend :-D .…

Day 6 (12tr)

From Kabutoshimen by Toryu

It never cease to amaze me how some people don’t pay attention to what the teachers is showing. I just realized that I’m now starting to understand Shiraishi sensei’s movements and can use them more freely without thinking to much. I think this is because I have paid attention to what, and how he is doing things and most importantly trying to copy his movements. My training partner on the other hand was doing his own stuff -/

The second class with Nagato sensei was simple movements in to good positions taking the balance and have a strong kamae to make the final technique strong. Not because you use power but because you put the opponent into a weak position and yourself into a strong position (same as Shiraishi sensei!). Then lightly apply the technique. The important point I think is to get into the technique so that you don’t have to use so much power. My training partner this session was very stiff and rigid, he took my balance pretty good but when applying the technique there was no “koppo”, no technique, just muscles against my stronger points and not the weak points, as if he didn’t know how to do a gyaku. Very far away from what was being taught I think.

The third class was with Noguchi sensei. His classes is all about feeling and henka, he show the class something and get the training going and immediately show people henka of what he was just teaching, then he break the class and show something new. You have time to do the techniques two times each if you do it quickly. These training’s is very intense and a lot of fun. This training my partner was pretty good and we had a lot of fun.

By being so critical I wondered if I should post this or not, but then it is my blog and why shouldn’t I write what I feel. I hope there was some kind of insight.

Oh, yesterday I saw a few pages from the new book by Hatsumi Soke. It was just as I expected, text describing the techniques and not pictures describing the techniques as far as I could see. But there was many pictures, some I never seen before of Hatsumi Soke and also pictures of Takamatsu sensei I never seen before. The book was just a sample, and it will probably be ready in June.…