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Bujinkan 鎖分銅 Kusarifundō: Truth and Falsehood

From Bujinkan Santa Monica by Michael

Buki-mobile at 鎌倉・山海堂商店, photo by Michael Glenn

Do you know the deepest levels of 虚実 kyojitsu lead down the path of 捨て身 sutemi? In a recent class I shared a dimension of kyojitsu that I’ve only ever heard expressed from Hatsumi Sensei. But is anyone willing to take this path?

During my class demo, I shot the weight of the 鎖分銅 kusarifundō out into the face of my opponent. A surprise 中振 nakafuri strike, but my use of it was for kyojitsu. The sound of the chain and the weight act as 目潰し metsubushi and caught the opponent’s attention. These sensations hid my next move.

It isn’t very safe to use a real kusarifundō in class. Unless your training partner likes dental work or a busted eyebrow, it is safer to use a short cord to practice. But then I noticed my students were missing a key aspect of this type of kyojitsu.

Most people think of kyojitsu as being a feint or fake. You mislead and distract the opponent from your real strategy. Many students stop there by using a fake-out. But, for kyojitsu to work, you must have both the truth and the falsehood.

You start with 虚 kyo… the illusion, and the next step is to see if your opponent believes it or not. If they do not, then you make the kyo into a real strike! The kyo becomes the 実 jitsu. If they don’t believe the lie, give them the truth. The truth hurts!

I shared more details about this during my Japan training with my kyojistu himaku article, where the line between illusion and reality is very thin. But I’m about to make it even thinner. So thin, even the words to describe it can be interpreted in many ways.

When I studied this technique with Hatsumi Sensei, he threw a tangled cord into his opponent's face. The more messy a rope or cord is, the more Soke seems to enjoy using it. Then he said something which contains a big clue for our use of weapons and kyojitsu.

From my Japan notes, I wrote the word for cord in Japanese is himo, and Soke said「紐全くてない」himo mattenai. On the surface this means no strings attached. Or, it could mean not being attached to the string yourself.

This concept is related to 捨て身 sutemi. Self sacrifice comes in the form of throwing away the self, dropping the ego, or even non-attachment to weapons. I allow the weapon to exist, but I don’t plan to use it. I only use it if it’s useful.

We’ve all heard Hatsumi Sensei advise us not to be attached to weapons. But if you focus on the use of a weapon, you yourself become trapped in its use. You may find yourself forcing techniques that are inappropriate for the situation. Or worse, fumbling with a weapon you do not know how to use, or that has malfunctioned.

Many people, when they hold a weapon, all of their focus goes to that weapon. I finished class with the hanbō, but unattached to it. I even throw it into the opponent’s face as a distraction. Throwing it all away leads to victory.

Remember that tangled cord that Hatsumi Sensei threw into his opponent’s face? Hatsumi Sensei did not try to untangle or force the rope to function in any particular way. He allowed it to be what it was. And somehow his technique tangled the opponent up in this mess.

It was like he attacked the opponent with the tangle itself. How did he do this? Well when you consider his advice, 「紐全くてない」himo mattenai, Soke was not telling us that we should be unattached to the rope. But that we must be one with it!

He reminded us to become one with our weapon when he said,

“You haven’t become one with the rope yet. You release it, and the rope becomes separate from your heart. If you learn to become one with your weapons then your movement will be the correct path of the heart.”

This path is the foundation for effective kyojitsu. Did you know that kyojitsu required this type of sutemi? I hope you get to explore this in your own training.

How to Practice the Fake Kick of 指拍 Shihaku

From Bujinkan Santa Monica by Michael

How to Practice the Fake Kick of 指拍 Shihaku
Real or fake kick?
The other night in my dojo we were practicing fake kicks during the kata 指拍 Shihaku. It is a challenge to practice a fake kick. Here I will give you a method to make your fakes seem real.

How do you trick someone into believing something that isn’t real? You act as if it is real. Or even better, make it real.

This is how I often explain kyojitsu to my students. 虚 kyo means fake, and 実 jitsu means reality. For kyojitsu to work it has to be both real and fake at the same time.

Shihaku has a kick that is kyojitsu. But remember kyojitsu only works if it can be either 虚 kyo or 実 jitsu. Too many people only practice the kyo part of kyojitsu. 

Their fake fails because no one would fall for it. So it must be real. Just not necessarily delivered.

This means that if the opponent doesn’t react to your fake, then make it real. And you kick him hard! If he’s not buying what you’re selling, then kick his ass with it.

So when does does the fake become real? Where does that change occur? Hatsumi Sensei demonstrated this on me when he called it 虚実皮膜 kyojitsu himaku.

The way I learned this kick from Hatsumi Sensei was quite interesting. He took it to that in between place of kyojitsu by making the kick 探り saguri geri. Here The kick becomes more of a searching, feeling out, or testing the waters.

But Soke is really probing the opponent’s state of mind. Will he fall for it? Think of a calm mind like the surface of a quiet lake. Then look for the ripples caused by your (fake) kick.

It is like dipping your toe into a pool to see if the water is cold. Is that a kick? The water surface may be broken and disturbed. Our opponent's kamae is also broken and disturbed this way by saguri geri.

I love this in practice because I can often make my opponents fall over without even hitting them. It is because I am striking their mind and spirit. If that fails for some reason, I have the backup of a real kick to the balls and a punch to the gut. I am happy with either outcome!

If you want more of these training tips from me, then please join my newsletter here: Rojodojo

強弱柔剛 Kyojaku Jyugo: Like a Dream in the Void

From Bujinkan Santa Monica by Bujinkan Santa Monica

Paul Masse Santa Monica Training
We had some great training with Paul Masse last weekend. One idea that Paul shared with us is:
強弱柔剛あるべからず 故にこの心から離れ 空という一字に悟り  体また無しとして 之に配す
Neither strong or weak, soft or hard, separate from the heart of these and enlighten yourself to the one character of nothingness. Make your body nothingness and reside therein.
This comes to us from Toda Shinzaburo Masahide of the Togakure ryu. Another translation of this phrase can be found in Hatsumi Sensei's book, "The Way of the Ninja,"
"One should be neither strong nor weak, neither soft nor hard. Leave such thoughts behind, awaken to the Void, and make your body Null to abide by this."
Paul had us exploring these ideas through 虚実 kyojitsu, 無心 mushin, and 縁 connection.

Paul explained that for kyojitsu to be effective you have to sell it. He likened it to a magician performing an illusion. In order to sell it, he has to believe in it himself. In the world of magicians this is called misdirection. The next day Paul and I shared our personal stories as magicians with each other. We both studied and performed magic when we were younger. It was a lot of fun sharing memories on prestidigitation and coin sleight of hand methods.

With kyojitsu you can show the kyo to the opponent (misdirection) and then you hit him with the jutsu. The interesting part is, if he doesn't fall for the kyo, it becomes real- it becomes the jutsu. Maybe it was never fake to begin with?

Soke on Kyojaku Jyugo,
It's not whether you're good or bad. If you think you've reached a certain skill level then you probably haven't. That's why there's this saying, strong or weak, it doesn't matter. You have to have the balance of these points (heijōshin 平常心).
Mushin 無心 means "innocent" or "free from disturbing thoughts" or simply, "empty mind." Mushin is held in the fourth, intuitive level of Godai:
"The fourth dimension is that of the world of Mu— nothingness— a world haunted by death, a world of spirit only. It is a world with no physical existence, where everything simply disappears. That is why in that world you must not let an opponent see or sense your form- you must wipe it out entirely." -Masaaki Hatsumi, The Way Of The Ninja
In Zen, Mushin is the thinking of the body. In the Bujinkan we often describe this as flow. And it is obvious when watching someone whether they are doing technique from their heads or from the wisdom of their body using flowing taijutsu.

Under heaven nothing is more soft and yielding than water.
Yet for attacking the solid and strong, nothing is better;
It has no equal.
The weak can overcome the strong;
The supple can overcome the stiff.
Under heaven everyone knows this,
Yet no one puts it into practice.
-Lao Tzu

Hatsumi Sensei describes Kyojaku Jyugo further:
"This means that in Budo, it is naive to get caught up in thoughts of strong weak or soft/hard; in the end, even concepts such as skillful/unskillful simply fade away, Jutaijutsu contains fifteen strong arts and fifteen weak arts, making thirty in total, which can be seen as three sets of ten (as in Sanshin no Kata: Tenchijin and the Juji idea). Nevertheless, one deliberately and willfully eliminates all of that to make oneself Void."
Mushin is like looking at your own reflection in the moonlit water. If the water is still, maybe you see the moon reflected there with your own shadow. You  might forget that the moon is in the night sky behind you! Don't trouble the calm water with your worries and doubts. Allow your mind to fill the sky and be with the moon.

This type of connection to heaven is something Soke reminds us about constantly.

Thank you Paul! It was all like a dream (夢 yume).