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Events
Samurai iai fighting demonstrations @ UniKL examination hall
Basic in learning iai-do ken-jutsu Courtesy by the red dragon ju jitsu dojo By Sensei David T. Bish
A master swordsman must size up his opponent. No two swordsmen fight the same. Ito Ittosai, a great Japanese swordsman was reckless in his style. "Learn by being cut" was his philosophy. He believed one should be concerned more with not losing rather than winning. Proper timing is a key element of this concept.
In his book Go Rin No Sho (A Book of Five Rings), Miyamoto Musashi, remarked that his entire strategy was based on timing and rhythm. Musashi was the founder of the Nito or two sword method of fighting in Japan. It is believed that he learned the rapier and dagger techniques of the Europeans from traders in Southern Japan and used these techniques to develop his own style.
In traditional martial arts, no other weapon has held the status of the sword. It is the center of training for the majority of the arts. Kenjutsu may be studied as a separate art or as a subordinate art of another major system. At the Red Dragon Ju Jitsu Dojo, the basics of Kenjutsu are required for advancement to the rank of Blue Belt. It is also taught as a stand-alone art.
In terms of skills, few weapons require the demands of swordsmanship. The sword moves much faster than the fastest person, the skill in timing and judgement will benefit the Martial Artist in all other aspects of their training.
Kenjutsu should not be considered the same as Kendo. Kendo is a sport form of swordsmanship and an offspring of Kenjutsu. In Kendo, the targets are restricted to the head, wrist, body plate, and throat. In Kenjutsu, any target is fair game.
The study of Kenjutsu has no belting system. It is a pure study of the art and mastery is developed through practice. Students must learn the basic stances along with the basic attacks and defenses. Mastery is derived from actual combat or Kumite using a wooden Bokken. After the student has been properly instructed in the techniques of combat and practices of various timing drills they are pitted against other students under the direct supervision of the Sensei who referees the match.
Training Sequence
The study of Kenjutsu is more than merely wielding a sword. One not only learns the Kihon Dachi (basic stances) and attacks with defenses, there is much more to the study of the art of the Samurai. Any butcher can swing a sword but to be a master you must develop the mental and spiritual aspects of the art as well as the physical.
Shin-Ku-I (Body, Mouth, Mind) or more accurately Action, Word, and Thought is how the Samurai were evaluated. What makes the difference between a swordsman and a master is Ken Shin Ichi Nyo, or Sword and mind as one. One must train as if the sword was a part of them, if it is looked at as a separate entity you will never develop the skill to master the art.
The sequence of training in Kenjutsu is as follows:
-Kihon O Manabu - Emphasize the basics
-Kaisu O Kasaneru - Development through repetition
-Jiga Ni Tsuite - Controlling your ego
-Dai - Kyo - Soku - Kei - Big - Strong - Fast - Light
-Develop the techniques
-Add power to the techniques
-Increase your speed in the techniques
-Perfect the techniques so that the power is derived from the speed and no longer requires strength.
-Saigo Made Einoku Suru - persist to the end - NEVER GIVE UP. This is true for both the practice of the art and the attitude in combat.
-Yudan Nashi - Never off guard
The motto of the Samurai fighter were known 14th centuries ago as "Shinu Kikai O Motomo", "Looking for the opportunity to die" but not today anymore. I believe you would say so don't you?.
This was not a defeatist attitude. The Samurai held life in great esteem and were very selective on what "cause" they would lay their life on the line for. It is easy to kill a man when you yourself are willing to die.
Carrying the Sword (Teito)
The sword should be carried in the left hand with the thumb over the Tsuba. The sageo or strings should be secured between the index and middle fingers to prevent them from dragging. The Ha should be toward the floor in a natural drawing position.
Rei ni hajimari, rei ni owaru (Everything begins and ends with respect)
Bow of Respect (Hairei)
When bowing into the dojo or to the alter, the sword should be transferred to the right hand with the Tsuka toward the rear and the Ha toward the ground. This is a sign of deepest respect and trust since holding the sword in this position makes it impossible to draw.
Bowing to the Sensei (Shirei)
All Seito line up in front of the Sensei taking seiza. The proper way to take the position of seiza is to snap the left leg of the hakama back between the legs and kneel onto the left knee then bring the right knee down. NEVER use the sword as a crutch to support your weight. This is a sign of disrespect. It would be better to fall on your face then to disgrace yourself in this manner. The sword should be lying on the floor on your right side with the Ha facing toward your right leg and the Tsuka toward the front. Seizarei is performed by first placing the left hand on the floor in front of you in an "L" shape with the tip of the thumb on midline. Next place your right hand down in the same manner so that the thumb tips meet forming a diamond shape. Bow the head approximately 4 - 6 inches from the floor centered on the diamond formed by your hands.
After the Sensei has returned your bow return to a seiza position by returning your hands to the rest on your knees in the reverse order of placing them on the floor. Rise to your feet, first the right then the left. Again, do not use the sword as a crutch to assist you.
Bowing to the Sword (Torei)
Depending on the school you attend, the Torei may be performed from either seiza or the standing position. Never-the-less, it is always performed prior to and immediately following any practice session. This is a sign of respect to your sword and a joining of your spirit with that of the sword's.
When performed from seiza, the sword should lie in front of you. The Tsuba should be positioned so that it is in line with the left knee, the Ha toward you and the Tsuka to the left. The seito would then perform seizarei to the sword as described above.
If Torei is performed from a standing position, the sword is held in front of the head at eye level with the Tsuka toward the right and the Ha away from you. Lower the head to below the level of the sword.
Wearing the Sword (Taito)
The katana is worn on the left side with the Ha facing upward. The Sageo are tied into the Obi of the hakama. The end of the Tsuka should be directly in front of the naval.
Standing Bow to Training Partner (Tachi Rei)
Prior to Junjo (training) and upon completion of training you and your partner should perform Tachi Rei to show mutual respect. Any time you change partners or receive individual instruction from the Sensei, tachi rei should be performed.
When your training session has ended and you and your partner have performed Tachi Rei, you should again bow to your sword (Torei), Bow to your instructor (Shirei) and bow to the alter or at the exit of the dojo (Hairei).
Gripping the Sword (Tsuka No Nigiri Kata)
Many beginners tend to hold the sword too tightly. In the beginning, training should concentrate on gripping the sword properly. The sword should be held loosely but firmly. It should act as a natural extension of the dominant hand. There should be a space between the hands, this allows for better mobility of the weapon. The dominant hand should be next to the hand guard; this is the weapon's center of balance. The majority of the grip strength is applied by the little finger and the index finger is used for balance. Beginners are often taught to grip the sword with the index finger extended to train them not to use this finger for gripping. The non-dominate hand should grip the sword close to the butt of the weapon.
Drawing Cut (Nukit Suke)
Koiguchi no kiri kata - Opening the Koiguchi. The thumb of the left hand should push against the Tsuba slightly to advance the sword approximately ½ inch from the saya (scabbard). The middle knuckles of the right hand should rest on the bottom side of the Tsuka. As you draw the sword forward from the saya with the right hand, the left hand should be pulling the saya to the rear. Do not think of drawing the sword and cutting your opponent - think only of cutting your opponent. Drawing the sword is merely a means to the end and both the drawing and the cutting are the same action.
Raising the Sword (Furikaburi)
After the initial cut is made on your opponent, twist the right wrist inward to raise the blade above the head. The blade should be brought to a position parallel to the ground as the left hand raises to the Tsuka.
Downward Cut (Kirioroshi)
This is the Men uchi strike to end the suffering of your opponent. To allow another Samurai to bleed to death or die from infection of the wound would be to disgrace him. To die at the hands of a master swordsman was the ultimate sign of respect. Te no uchi or cutting technique refers to a straight cut or hasuji otosu. A wavering hand would only butcher the opponent more and add to his suffering. The cut must be quick, clean and straight.
Chiburi (Blood removal)
There are three main ways to perform Chiburi. They are as follows:
Kasa no Shizuku Oharao - After the cut is made, twist the wrist so that the Tsuka is now in front of the head. Swing the katana in a circular motion over the head and snap the blade by twisting the wrist as it is pointing to your right.
Katana O Kaesu - Loosen the grip with the left hand except for the little finger. Flick the right wrist out while pulling the back of the Tsuka to the left with the little finger of the left hand.
Chi no Shizuku O Otosu - Tilt the blade to a 45 degree angle and rest the tip on the right outer thigh and allow the blood to run or drip off.
Noto (Resheathing)
When replacing the Katana, circle the sword in front of you, bringing the mine to rest on the koiguchi. Slide the mine along the koiguchi until the Kissaki drops into the opening. Raise the Tsuka rotating the Ha upward and slide the blade into the saya with the right hand as you slide the entire saya forward with the left hand.
Distance and Timing (Ma ai)
Kenjutsu requires an extreme awareness of distance and timing. Unlike unarmed combat, where an accurate defense may result in an opponent contacting with a strike or kick, in Kenjutsu, the same mistake could result in death. Distance and timing is what makes great martial artist great. No matter how strong the attack, if you are not there when it arrives, the attack is ineffective.
Knowing when and from where to attack is paramount. An ill-executed attack is just as deadly as an ill-executed defense. Faking an attack against an experienced swordsman is useless. He will see through your fake and avoid it, launching his counter-attack before you have a chance to recover.
Unlike the movies, actual sword-combat last only for a few passes. A spectator may not realize what has happened before the combat has ended. In training, a great deal of time is devoted to distance and timing. There are multiple drills the student must work on to build these skills.
Metsuke (Eye Contact)
Where should your eyes be focused during combat? There are many different schools of thought on this question. The best advice is to look at the level of the solar plexus with Enzan no Metsuke, or Distant mountain site. This allows you to see the entire body all at once. If you watch only one portion of the body you can be fooled by a master swordsman. All parts of the body cannot fake a movement at the same time.
Kokyu (Breath Control)
When practicing kata, take three deep silent breathes attacking on the third breath. Think positive thoughts with each inhalation and disperse negative thoughts with every exhalation. The breaths should enter the nostrils, circle the crown of the head and settle to the Tan Tein.
Samurai weapons, Samurai armors and the Samurai way of life, hold a fascinating sway on the imagination. Samurai, the historically famous warriors of Japan, were known for their bravery, sense of honor, fighting skills and, of course, for their elaborate armors and weapons. They were an elite class of warriors who loyally served their masters, the daimyo.
Though thought of as, basically, the classic, essential soldier, most Samurai were well-educated and highly versed in literature and the fine arts. They had many pursuits outside of the arts of war. Samurai were, in general, followers of Bushido - which translates as "Way of the Warrior." They studied all weapons and skills to form a code of conduct which guided their actions on the battlefield and off.
Samurai were skilled in the use of a range of weapons such as bows and arrows, knives, spears and guns; but their most famous weapon and their symbol was the sword.
Thanks to countless romantic representations in movies, the word, Samurai, has come to signify the superhuman warrior. Actually the word finds its root in samorau (or saburau). This is a verb in Japanese that means "to serve".
History tells us that the Samurai first came into being out of the need by the feudal lords of Japan to have skilled, armored bodyguards to protect themselves from robbers and the warriors of rival clans. Over time, the samurai (also known as Bushi) became a class unto themselves, creating new power structures in Japanese society with elaborate traditions.
However, traditions, no matter how strong, can hold up against the inevitable changes in societies. The Samurai warrior clan slowly slipped into decay and then into extinction, due mostly to the abolishing of feudalism in the late 1800s. As the Japanese began to centralize their government, they also combined the many small armies of the land into one national army. And without feudal lords to protect, who would need the services of a specialized "bodyguard?"
Still the Samurai lives in legend and in our imagination, today, as true warriors to be respected and admired. And along with the soldiers who used them, the Samurai weapons and armor continue to awe people due to both their artistic appeal as well as their practical uses.
The Katana
The Katana is a curved, single-edged Japanese sword traditionally used by the samurai. Pronounced [kah-tah-nah] in the kun'yomi (Japanese reading) of the kanji, the word has been adopted as a loan word by the English language; as Japanese does not have separate plural and singular forms, both "katanas" and "katana" are considered acceptable plural forms in English.
In battle, katana was typically paired with the wakizashi or tanto, a similarly made but shorter sword. Both were worn by members of the Japanese warrior class. The two weapons together were called the daisho, and represented the social power and personal honor of the samurai.
Katana with long blade was used for open combat, while the wakizashi or tanto with shorter blade was considered a side arm, more suited for stabbing and close quarters combat. Samurai may have used the shorter sword for decapitating beaten opponents when taking heads on the battlefield, and seppuku, a form of ritual suicide.
In Japanese, the scabbard for a katana is referred to as a saya, and the hand guard piece, often intricately designed as an individual work of art, is called the tsuba.
Other aspects of the mountings (koshirae), such as the menuki (decorative grip swells), habaki (blade collar and scabbard wedge), fuchi and kashira (handle collar and cap), kozuka (small utility knife handle), kogai (decorative skewer-like implement), saya lacquer, and ito (professional handle wrap, also named emaki), received similar levels of artistry.
Each blade has a unique profile, mostly dependent on the smith and the construction method. The most prominent is the middle ridge, or shinogi. The shinogi can be placed near the back of the blade for a longer, sharper, and more fragile edge - or a more moderate shinogi near the center of the blade.
The sword also has an exact tip shape, which is considered an extremely important characteristic. The tip can be long (okissaki), medium (chukissaki), short (kokissaki), or even hooked backwards (ikuri-okissaki). In addition, whether the front edge of the tip is more curved (fukura-tsuku) or (relatively) straight (fukura-kareru) is also important.
The kissaki (point) is not a "chisel-like" point, nor is the Western knife interpretation of a "tanto point" found on true Japanese swords. A straight, linearly-sloped point has the advantage of being easy to grind, but it bears only a superficial similarity to traditional Japanese kissaki.
Kissaki have a curved profile, and smooth three-dimensional curvature across their surface towards the edge - though they are bounded by a straight line called the yokote and have crisp definition at all their edges.
A hole is drilled into the tang (nakago), called a mekugi-ana. It is used to anchor the blade using a mekugi, a small bamboo pin that is inserted into another cavity in the tsuka and through the mekugi-ana, thus restricting the blade from slipping out. To remove the tsuka one removes the mekugi. The sword smith's signature (mei) is placed on the nakago.
Some marks on the blade are purely aesthetic. Signatures and dedications written in kanji and engravings depicting gods, dragons, or other acceptable beings, called horimono.
Some are more practical. The presence of a "blood groove" or HI (also known as "fuller") does not actually allow blood to flow more freely from cuts made with the sword. There is no difference in ease of withdrawing a blade from the saya, or a reduction of the sucking sound, which many people believe was the reason for including this feature on commando knives in World War II.
Instead, the purpose is to lighten and strengthen the sword blade. The grooves are consistent in structure to an I beam, lessening the weight of the sword yet keeping structural integrity and strength. The basic design principle is that bending causes more stress in material near the edge or back of the blade than material in the middle, due to leverage. Blood grooves remove material from near this neutral axis, which is closer to the blade's spine if one edge is sharpened. This yields stiffer blades of a given weight, or lighter blades of a given stiffness.
Furthermore the grooves (always done on both sides of the blade) make a whistling sound when the sword is swung (the tachikaze). If the swordsman hears one whistle when swinging a grooved katana then that means that just one groove is making the whistle. Two whistles means that both the edge of the blade and a groove are making a whistle, and three whistles together (the blade edge and both grooves) would tell the swordsman that his blade is perfectly angled with the direction of the cut.
Wakizashi
Samurai always carried a second, shorter sword named a wakizashi. Carrying both of these swords gave the samurai a greater advantage over a swordsman armed with only one sword, as a wakizashi could be used to greater effect in close quarters, often used to deliver the killer blow to the enemy.
Tanto
Another bladed samurai weapon was the tanto, which is more or less a dagger, and used for very close quarters, and often concealed and used in surprise attacks.
Samurai Armor
Not an offensive weapon, but a defensive weapon, the armor of a samurai was especially designed to be as light and as free-moving as possible, which put the samurai at a great advantage over opponents wearing rigid suits of armor as their ability to move quickly and freely wasn’t impinged.
One can only imagine how fearsome a samurai in full armor must have looked to the unfortunate enemy.
Kama
Samurai certainly were inventive, and every implement with lethal capabilities was exploited. Such an example of this is in the kama – which is nothing more than a farming tool similar to the western world’s sickle. Left and right handed
Kama were made, and when used in battle they were usually used in tandem. (Kama training for martial arts purposes still exists today.)
The Kama is a Japanese farming implement, not dissimilar to a sickle, used for cutting crops. Samurai and various other martial artists have also made use of the Kama as a lethal weapon.
When used for farming, Kama will be used single handed (they come in right or left handed varieties) while the other hand holds the crops to be cut. Used as a weapon, Kama are invariably used as a pair.
Kama have a razor sharp tip and inner blade for their offence, but Kama can also be used as defensive weapons to block and disarm an attacker.
Like other lethal weapons, a great deal of skill is required to make effective use of Kama. Numerous martial arts still use Kama training to this day. As Kama training is difficult, normally blunt, wooden or rubber Kama are employed, which are much more forgiving than would be razor sharp Kama if a mistake was made.
Kama were extra effective as samurai weapons because of the confusion caused by having to watch, dodge and break the defence of two weapons being used at the same time.
Ever inventive, the Japanese created an even more complex and interesting weapon to overcome their enemy using the Kama as a basis, which became known as the Kusarigama.
Kusarihama
Kusarigama are interesting weapons which evolved from Kama; the farming sickle, to incorporate a length of chain with a weight at the end.
Kusarigama are a notoriously difficult weapon to master, but someone skilled in Kusarigamajutsu can use the weapon in a variety of ways, such as…
Swinging the weight on the chain to distract or strike an enemy before moving in with the blade.
Disarming an enemy at range by entangling their weapon.
Entangling the enemy themselves.
Striking a deadly or injuring blow to the enemy with the weight.
Holding the weight and swinging to strike the enemy with the bladed end.
Kusarigama certainly added a whole new dimension to the Kama, particularly greater range.
Of course, Kusarigama from different regions and periods vary, but the most prominent difference is some Kusarigama have the chain attached to the upper-end of the weapon (usually on a loop on the near side of the blade, or to a hold made in the near of the blade) or to the butt of the handle. Differences also occur in the length of the blade, the size and shape of the weight as well as chain length.
Fans
Who knows if the term ‘fanning the flames of war’ originated here. Fans were used for a variety of purposes, and by a variety of people throughout feudal Japan. Japanese samurai in particular were known to have carried a type of fan called a tessen.
A tessen was actually a steel fan
masquerading as a harmless paper fan, which the samurai would use for throwing, fending off projectiles, and even clubbing people with when closed. Sometimes, samurai would even create a dummy folded tessen which was in fact a solid steel club.
It may seem a little bizarre that a samurai who carried swords and knives would have use for a fan, but, they were actually carried into places which weapons weren’t permitted; so what we have is an early example of a concealed or disguised weapon.
