Bujinkan Santa Monica

Photo from Gifu Prefecture by tallkev One of the hiden 秘伝  (secret teaching) ideas of the sword is that life and death are just flip sides of the same instant. The reason this is a secret is not because no one talks about it, but because you must discover its mystery for yourself. Hatsumi Sensei is always reminding us that just as we can end life with the blade, we can also protect life or what he calls, the "life giving sword." So what about this secret and how does this translate into sword technique? When you are in kamae, and about to cut or thrust to your opponent's suki , there is a Seimeisen 生命線, or an invisible lifeline between you. If your sword is on this line, it is "live," if not it is   considered dead. This line is very fine and there isn't room for two blades there. So only one blade can give or take life. This is also an aspect of Shisen 死線, the point between life and death. To truly understand this lifeline requires a state of fudoshi...

There is a Buddhist idea that when we kill another being we assert the radical difference between us and them. And this would ultimately be an incorrect assertion. But killing is all around us. It is part of the very fabric of nature. So what do fighters do with this? This is a great mystery in life and martial arts. One of the most mysterious secrets is that of 神妙剣 Shinmyoken  or the life giving sword. At its most basic level it is a technique for overpowering your opponent without injuring him with the sword. This simple idea contains many mysteries, the first being, why would you endeavor NOT to kill your opponent? This lesson comes to us in the form of a sword, but it could be any weapon. The sword clarifies the feeling of life and death because it is a very fine (and sharp) edge between the two. Hatsumi Sensei constantly reminds us not to kill. It takes a lot of control with such a dangerous weapon to use it without killing. Sensei tells us that the Ninja understood that u...

Edo Wonderland Sword Fight, photo by -ratamahatta- If you are any good with a sword, Hatsumi Sensei says you can win without drawing your sword. He suggests this to us by pointing out the example of the famous Zen sword master, Yamaoka Tesshū (山岡 鉄舟, June 10, 1836 - July 19, 1888), a famous samurai of the Bakumatsu period, who played an important role in the Meiji Restoration. He is also noted as the founder of the Itto Shoden Muto-ryu school of swordsmanship. One day Tesshu had a sword contest with a famous sword teacher, Asari Gimei. They fought for half a day and Tesshu was defeated. Tesshu became Asari's student and threw himself into Zen practice to try to understand the nature of his defeat. As part of his search to understand what happened to him, he was given a koan to study by Tekisui Roshi' "Crossed swords; neither permits retreat. The sword-master, like a lotus in the fire, Has a heaven-soaring spirit." This advanced koan shows both the problem pr...

Don't malfunction yourself. What if your gun jams, or you sword breaks, or even worse, you have a complete tactical failure?  The first two are are easy problems, the third is more difficult, but can be dealt with naturally.  Let's consider all three in turn. If you have any firearms training at all, you already know that you should train for malfunctions.  A malfunction in this case is confined to the weapon or the ammunition itself.  It is a malfunction of the tool you are using.  A stove-pipe, a misfeed, or the worst, a broken firing pin - are all situations that must be trained for.  One common malfunction that we don't even consider as a malfunction is running out of ammo.  Why is this not a malfunction?  The weapon is essentially useless.  We don't see it as a malfunction because this is something that we very naturally expect to happen.  We train to reload.  You should train for those other malfunctions just as you train...

Seeing Totoku Hiyoshi No Kamae for the first time can be misleading.  Usually a student's first exposure to this kamae is seeing someone hold a sword out in front of themselves while someone else throws shuriken at them.  Then the instructor hands the sword to you and says, "Next." by eflon This aspect of Totoku is often perceived as one of those quirky things in our training that we may try out, but never take seriously.  After all, who has had to dodge shuriken for real?  I'm not counting the dishes your girlfriend threw at you during a recent argument.  Maybe you try this out, maybe block a few rubber shuriken and then forget it. Totoku forms part of some very rich strategy in our art.  And the more you look for it, the more you will encounter.  I personally have heard Hatsumi Sensei reference it many times, and it wasn't anything to do with shuriken blocking.  It is a running theme in our taijutsu that has to be experienced from a qualified...

We often use the sword with less formality in the Bujinkan than other Japanese schools do.  We treat it like a tool.  So even though we wouldn't use a shovel or a hammer with lots of ceremony and stylized movement, with any tool there are good and bad practices. Noto or resheathing the katana is the source of many bad habits and self-inflicted injuries for would be Samurai. Here are some tips for noto: Practice no-look resheathing.  You should be looking at your felled opponent or your surrounding environment.  The resheath should be so natural and automatic that you can do it in the dark. Gravity is your friend. The tip should just fall into the opening of the saya or koiguchi. You are not sticking it in the hole (insert bad joke here), it just drops in from it's own weight. Push the saya (scabbard) onto the sword; don't push the sword into the saya. NEVER force the sword. The saya could have flipped unexpectedly or be split open.  You don't want to inj...