Behind the Black Gate: Japan Report Eight 令和6年

 

黒門 Kuromon: the Black Gate

This morning I made my way into Tokyo to visit the 黒門 kuromon, or black gate. This was one of the few structures from 寛永寺 Kan’ei-ji that survived the battle of Ueno (上野戦争, Ueno Sensō). During the Boshin War (戊辰戦争, Boshin Sensō), and the gate marked the spot where the 彰義隊 Shōgitai lost a decisive battle against the Imperial troops.

Today it is riddled with bullet holes and cannon scars. The Shōgitai were the last of the Tokugawa Samurai. They had swords, arrows, and spears. But they were no match for the 官軍 kangun, the Imperial army led by 西郷 隆盛 Saigō Takamori, who used Snider rifles and Armstrong Cannons.

黒門の半分見へて春の雨
the Black Gate
is only half visible –
rain in spring
〜Kobayashi Issa, 1805

My visit to the black gate was marked by the gentle fall of Ginkgo leaves. A quiet peaceful morning helped me reflect on such a fierce battle. Maybe one of the reasons I am allowed to be here was because of this war which led to the end of the Tokugawa Shogunate and the beginning of the Meiji Restoration.

After my morning field trip on Japanese history, I caught the train to the Bujinkan Honbu Dojo for a class with Nagato Sensei. On my way to the station, I randomly saw my new friend Natalie from Córdoba, Argentina. She was quite emotional after visiting the 子育ての銀杏 Kosodate no ichō Ginkgo tree nearby. I was caught off guard by the emotion she expressed but I was happy to see her.

Training with Nagato Sensei

Later when I arrived at the dojo, she and I were training partners. That’s when I found out it was her birthday! I speak Spanish so we had a great time training and sharing in Nagato’s class.

Nagato asked someone to demo, then he riffed off of that. He received the attack then passed it from one side to the other while striking with his elbows. Then he finished with 外掛け soto gake or various foot sweeps.

Then Nagato Sensei shifted to sword against sword. He started by saying that this was 神傳不動流 Shinden Fudō Ryū and there were no kamae. It was all from 自然の構 Shizen no kamae. So the cut would come in and he smacked it aside with his own blade to thrust in.

He called this all 無刀捕 mutōdori. Even though it was sword on sword, he still called it that. Then for emphasis, he dropped his own weapon and did pure mutōdori. Catching the mune and leveraging the opponent’s sword like a hanbō to turn it back into him.

During break he told us a story about a piece of wood that is displayed under the kamidana in the Bujinkan Honbu dojo. He said that back in the old days, everywhere was a dojo and training could happen at any time or place. One time it was during a walk with Hatsumi Sensei.

Nagato said that they passed by Atago shrine. There had beeen a large ginkgo tree there that had been struck and destroyed by lightning. Soke told Nagato to go and take the 中心 chūshin, the heart, the center, or essence of the tree. So Nagato Sensei ripped out a piece of wood from the heart of the tree. That wood is now part of the spirit of our Honbu dojo.

Here is another one of my 愚痴壺 Guchi tsubo rants. A lot of modern martial arts are infected by sports. The goals and training methods of sport are different. While the goals of our training are the survival of real combat.

We don’t train for tap outs or submissions. We don’t seek to win matches or score points. Our goal is not to be seen to begin with. Or maybe we escape. Or we even kill if absolutely necessary.

This kind of training is deadly and very different from sport. Many dojos who don’t have good teachers or are purely commercial get lost in sport training. Those people have lost their way. Sport training takes you down the wrong path.

During the break, someone asked Nagato Sensei about the old style training that seemed “harder” or more “violent.” Nagato Sensei didn’t answer the question directly. He said this was 矛盾 mujun, or a contradiction.

Nagato told us that in the old days, if someone killed your father, you were supposed to 仇討ち ada uchi, seeking revenge. He told us they gave out licenses for these revenge killings. I asked him if you could get one of these at the post office, and he laughed. He said you got the permission from your lord. Nagato told us that if you did not seek revenge, your family would come to ruin.

After break, Nagato did an evasion against two punches. It ended with a very light touch control on the outside of the opponent’s shoulder. Then he would redirect down to the attacker’s feet to throw using their own attack.

I still have a long day ahead of me. I will be training in three classes and late into the evening. You can follow my updates in Japan Report Nine 令和6年