The days and nights have become cold and crisp out in Noda. The founder of Ittō-ryū was in my thoughts during my brisk walk to the Bujinkan Honbu dojo for a class with Sakasai-san. For now, I pulled my thin jacket tight around my shoulders.
There were only three of us in the dojo. Ueki-san, myself, and Rich from Florida. Sakasai said it would be his last class for the year and he would resume on the 19th of January. Despite this, tonight he covered a lot of ideas with us.
He began with 一文字 ichimonji, 十文字 jūmonji, and 飛鳥 hichō. But he combined them all into one response to the opponent’s attack. Then he did something similar using 五行の型 gogyō no kata. The attack was two punches, and then he adapted chi, sui, ka, fu, and ku to break the opponent down little by little.
Next he used 生音 Seion to explore some very subtle angle shifts. No striking, and he did it without the 外掛け soto gake. He wanted us to throw through positioning alone. I found it very difficult because people don’t just fall over for no reason.
Next he went into a form from 義鑑流 Gikan Ryū that he called 差し手 sashite. He told us the secret was まあわい māwai. So we ended up in the same positioning as the previous throw from Seion. And then through subtle adjustments to the interval of our kamae, we could topple the opponent.
This next part left me scratching my head. He extended his 間 interval to the very edge of the attack, and then used one finger to to manipulate the punch. This was supposed to unbalance the opponent. Sakasai-san was successful against his uke, but the rest of us couldn’t reproduce the magic.
This was not a practical technique for a real fight. He even admitted that it was more of a training experiment. The point was positioning and how to affect balance. He said if you can do the light version, you can always add force.
Looking for the founder of 一刀流 Ittō-ryū
The next morning I went on a pilgrimage to the grave of 伊東 一刀斎 Itō Ittōsai. I had no idea where it was, just the general neighborhood. So, as usual, I played the dumb tourist and asked random monks at the shrine. I was at the wrong shrine, so the monk there walked me down the block to 天妙国寺Tenmyōkoku-ji next door.
The lady who worked in the shop there knew exactly what I was searching for. She walked me through the maze of the cemetery right to the grave marker. I imagine other budōka have needed this same guidance in the past.
Itō Ittōsai was the founder of 一刀流 Ittō-ryū. His style became the foundation for a lot of modern kenjutsu. The Ittō-ryū philosophy was one sword, one cut. It is a decisive cut that is both attack and defense. He fought and won at least 33 duels about which he said that his sword seemed to act with its own will.
As Ittōsai developed his thoughts on kenjustu, he described this idea as 夢想剣 musōken. It has a dream quality where the techniques come from the unconscious. They are spontaneous and the cuts happen from instinct or inspiration. Even though this was an Ittō-ryū idea, I feel like knowing the source of inspiration is also a hallmark of our Bujinkan.
Visiting this grave site is one of the ways I learn about history. And I am also paying tribute to the warriors who came before. In the Bujinkan, the connection down through the generations is what keeps our art a living practice. All of the warriors who came before… refining techniques, living and dying on the battlefield… passed on their skill to make the art that we study today.
The cemetery visit made me hungry, so I went to a つけそば処 tsukesoba shop. I ordered the スパイスカレー温つけ蕎麦。 It was spicy and delicious!
The lunch was fuel for another one of my 愚痴壺 Guchi tsubo rants. In one of my classes, we studied a kata that relies on your training partner to be alive. You do a technique that he tries to counter. And then the kata demands that you counter his counter.
This requires him to give a live attack and be active and responsive. Too many students in the Bujinkan don’t train this way. A lot of people when they are in the “uke” role are like zombie attackers. They throw one punch and fall asleep.
Some are completely passive and become like a wet noodle. Others will actively resist and try to defeat your practice out of fear of injury, or even worse, a spiteful ego. They fight you every step of the way, even though it is just resistance for the sake of it.
I often tell my students that 50% of your training is being an uke. What are you supposed to do during this half of your training? Learn how to be an uke, which means learning how to receive and be safe. But you’re also supposed to learn how to attack!
These attacks must be real. They must be effective. You should never sleepwalk through that 50% of your training.
After my rant, I made the wistful journey to Haneda airport. I am happy to return home to my family and my own dojo. But I always feel that I miss Japan before I’ve even left.
I learned a lot during my trip and had many wonderful experiences. I saw many friends from all over the world. I also shot a LOT of video that I will be editing for members of Rojodojo. If you’d like to support my work and my teaching, please join us there.
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