Month: October 2015

 It is obvious that the sword is a thing with which one strikes and the spear is a thing with which one thrusts. . . . The cut has its rules, and thrust has its rules, and if a person does not know their function, then he will not do full justice to them. Even though the heart may be strong, if the form is not appropriate, then the stroke will fall where it should not fall. If one deviates from the principle of technique, one will not attain what one desires.

—from Tengu Geijutsu Ron

We should stop doing tachi-dori and jō-dori in public demos. There are lots of real swordsmen in the audience, people who’ve really trained with weapons, and they know that we can’t really take swords and staffs out of people’s hands when they are attacking us. We are making fools of ourselves.

—Kuroiwa Yoshio, Aikikai shihan

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This essay was originally published several decades ago, and I used to maintain it on my Edgework website. I don’t think that this was ever the best place for it. Rather than an essay for therapists who wish to teach self-defense, it is really meant for martial artists and self-defense instructors who either happen to be therapists, or who need to work in tandem with a counselor, because you are attempting to teach protective skills to victims of abuse and violence. Teaching survivors requires humility: just because something is easy for you, or seems to be something anyone would want does not mean it is so for someone who is wounded. All too often, self-defense classes for traumatized individuals can be likened to being asked to run a hundred yards on a broken leg. Surely, the runner desires to reach the finish line, but all the attempt provides is failure and pain. Hence this essay.

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This small essay, written for the website discussion group BudoSeek has kind of gone viral. It is frequently used in various internet discussions to counter claims that lineage doesn’t matter, and it’s acceptable if a teacher is a fraud or liar as long as he or she is charismatic, graceful or a good fighter.

Log on any Internet martial arts site, and sooner or later – no, constantly – there will be a debate about the legitimacy of one school or another. Nowhere is this more common than in koryu (Japanese martial traditions). These debates usually revolve around whether historical documents are needed to substantiate claims of antiquity and authenticity – particularly concerning systems that are little known, presumed lost, or never  heard of before. Essentially, the same rationalizations arise in each and every such discussion.

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Preface

My original essay, which the reader will see below, was published about ten years ago. It was written subsequent to a visit I made to Akuzawa Minoru’s dojo. Rob John, one of Akuzawa’s senior students, sent me a commentary, where he pointed out several areas where I did not fully perceive or well describe what Akuzawa sensei was teaching. Rob gave a richer, more detailed description of things. Last year (2019), I visited with Akuzawa sensei and Rob again – we’d not spent any time in each other’s company for many years. We spent a wonderful afternoon comparing and contrasting our respective training regimens, and my appreciation for what the Aunkai (Akuzawa’s system) is doing is all the greater, particularly as it is different from my own. One of the most valuable training experiences is to find something different, and rather than trying to re-contextualize it based on one’s own knowledge, appreciate it on its own merits.

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 Many children come upon a question, an inquiry around which their life turns. For me, a young Jewish boy in a safe, mostly American suburb, that question was – “If the Holocaust comes for me, can I face it with integrity?” I did not imagine winning, destroying my enemies in some adolescent Rambo fantasy, but simply, “Could I remain a living soul in the face of the worst?” As life began its inexorable erosion upon my innocence, I found that the tinder of Holocaust lay stored away, dry and ready — within myself.   My only salvation was either willful ignorance, hoping no spark would light upon me, or mindfulness, a close caring attentiveness that might keep me strong and resilient enough that I not catch fire.

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Up until modern times, embu (public presentations of a martial art) were either honno embu (offerings to the deities of a shrine) or presentations to a figure of authority. The techniques of a martial ryu (tradition) were considered so essential to survival that one avoided showing one’s techniques to outsiders much as one hides nuclear technology today. For this reason, in the Edo period, warriors would flock to any duel or street confrontation – not only for the entertainment value, but to pick up some of the essentials of combat possessed by the combatants, just in case one had to fight someone from that martial tradition at a later time.

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Natural Born Killers

There is an island where chimpanzees are resettled after a lab closes, or because of aggressiveness, or psychological and physical damage. The chimpanzees are no longer useful to humans, and so they are placed on this island to live out the rest of their lives. There is not enough forage, so estimable humans bring in food by boat. I saw a video some years back of a rather serious error of judgment by one of these well-meaning individuals.

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