Author: Ellis Amdur Page 1 of 11

Notes: From Ellis Amdur

1. This essay is published with the kind permission of Mayumi Abel
2. Any additions, clarifications or other changes to Laszlo’s essay, that follows the foreword, will be in oxblood script. I have made minor textual corrections and added a few links.

Forward: Ellis Amdur

Back in the 1970’s and 1980’s, there was a small number of non-Japanese who were training in koryū-bugei. Some such as Phil Relnick, Quintin Chambers, Larry Bieri, Meik Skoss, Hunter Armstrong and the very recently deceased David Hall were closely associated and trained with Donn Draeger, the groundbreaker who proved to many, otherwise chauvinistic, Japanese that non-Japanese could fully integrate themselves within classical Japanese martial traditions (my apologies to anyone I left out of that group). Many others of us were not so closely connected to Donn, but also trained in classical koryū-bugei. Among the most remarkable of them was Laszlo Abel. He was a wiry man of medium height, with a nose that preceded him like the bowsprit of a battleship. He had a hot temper and a rude sense of humor, and I never saw him back down in a debate, even when we were out drinking, and things might turn physical.

Laszlo was interested in the unusual rather than mainstream. I know he trained in a rather obscure branch of Tenjin Shinyō-ryū, Masaki-ryū with Nawa Fumio, Negishi-ryū shurikenjutsu and Shindō Munen-ryū kenjutsu. He had wicked skills with a short chain in his hands, and every time I saw him, he’d reveal some hidden weapon, like a ring, turned inward, that had small spikes on it.

Read More

After the release of my book, Hidden In Plain Sight, I began corresponding with Spyridon Katsigiannis (Spyros). He was then living in Sweden, teaching physical culture. He later returned to Greece, and we began to meet regularly, during my biasnnual trips there. He taught me some kettlebell technique, and we informally began an exchange in our various training methodologies to develop greater abilities to use the body in martial arts practice. We were becoming close friends, something I find increasingly rare as I get older, and it was a personal loss to me, as well as his many students, when he suddenly died of a heart attack. The only blessing is that, at the moment of his death, he was with one of his closest students, whom he had brought up, so to speak, into manhood. He did not die alone.

Spyros’s martial arts training started with Chinese martial arts. If I recall correctly, he trained in Hung Gar kung fu, did tournament fighting, and then became a coach. He lost interest in fighting and martial arts, per se, in his early thirties, but became very interested in Russian Martial Arts, interested in it more for physical culture.

Read More

Pre-War Jiujitsu in Europe

Before the second world war, jiujitsu was taught as an independent system throughout Europe. [1] There was no influence from arts like karate or aikidō; furthermore, jiujitsu was different and separate from jūdō. This jiujitsu may have been a bit stiff, and probably relied more on strength than we are led to believe when we read the books and newspaper articles from that period, but its practice still developed formidable fighters, who fought matches against boxers, wrestlers and sometimes just plain street fighters. Some of these matches were organized, while others were unruly affairs, the result of an impromptu challenge during what was intended to be a demonstration of the art. Jiujitsu had to prove its mettle and the record shows that it did.

Read More

The short treatise, translated into English, was on the nature of budō. It was written by a very senior exponent of classical koryu. I knew him. He was among the most erudite—and physically talented—budōka I’ve ever encountered. I have paid attention to every word he’s said and written. He made the point in the essay, one that was an overview of some of his opinions and beliefs, that in the end the ultimate goal of all traditional budō was to “establish peace.”

The notion is hardly unique, of course. We read it, we hear in the dōjō similar sentiments all the time. Curious about it though, I found the same essay online in the original Japanese. The same line in Japanese used the word junjo (順序) for what was translated as “peace.” Which is not at all the same thing. Junjo means “to put things in order.” And that, to paraphrase Robert Frost, makes all the difference.

Read More

I am prompted to revisit this topic after viewing this video of Tada Hiroshi, a remarkable 94 year old aikido instructor. For those who like order, you are in trouble. I will live up to my promise of ‘casual’ – this will go all over the place. I’ve got no final point to arrive at–this essay is more like a jazz improv on a basic theme, the latter of which might have been insipid to begin with. [NOTE: A few people contacted me that they were unable to see the embedded videos, so I’ve also put a direct link under each one.]

Read More

The Shiai-Seihō and Aliveness in Yagyū Shinkage-ryū Practice

Let us now consider at how Yagyū Shinkage-ryū is practiced, particularly in relation to levels of “aliveness.” The Yagyū Shinkage-ryū curriculum is broadly divided into two groups: the honden (original teachings) and the gaiden (supplemental teachings). The honden are the tachi devised and passed down by Kamiizumi Hidetsuna and Yagyū Munetoshi (including beginner’s versions of two of these forms devised by 5th soke Yagyū Renya and 6th soke Lord Tokugawa Mitsutomo). The gaiden are made up of the shiai-seihō devised by assistant instructor Nagaoka Fusashige, plus some unique forms developed by Renya.

Read More

Part 3 – Later Historical Record of Yagyū Shinkage-ryū

There is little written about Yagyū Shinkage-ryū as it was in the 1700s. Renya’s nephew Toshinobu succeeded him as head of the family and instructor to the Owari Tokugawa. He took the ryū into the 18th century, and then passed it on to his son Toshitomo, who then passed it on to his son Toshiharu.

Nagaoka Fusashige

One of Toshiharu’s students was a man named Nagaoka Tōrei Fusashige. Nagaoka inherited from his father the position of shihan-hosa, assistant instructor to the sōke. Nagaoka’s official post in the Owari Domain was to train martial arts, particularly Shinkage-ryū, and to write about them. Toshiharu was succeeded by his son Toshiyuki, but Toshiyuki died at a relatively young age, and was succeeded by his teenage son, Toshihisa. But then Toshihisa also died at age 20, when his own son, Toshishige, was still a baby. Toshiharu’s younger brother, Toshimasa, together with Nagaoka, kept things together until Toshishige could come of age and grow into his role as sōke.

Read More

Part 2 – Early Historical Record of Shiai Within Yagyū Shinkage-ryū

We will now look at mentions of shiai in the early historical record, stretching from the mid-1500s to the 1700s. One thing I did not wish to do with this series was just appeal to my authority as a practitioner. So I have tried to rely as much as possible on primary sources. These are available in Japanese due to the work of the late Imamura Yoshio, professor emeritus at Tokyo University of Education, in particular, his mammoth two-volume work Shiryō Yagyū Shinkage-ryū (Historical Materials of Yagyū Shinkage-ryū), which provided transcriptions of a great number of historical documents related to Yagyū Shinkage-ryū.

Read More