Author: Ellis Amdur Page 1 of 11

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.]

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Part 1 – Introduction

With this series of articles, I would like to address a certain dissatisfaction with the common debates one sees online regarding koryū, kata training and sparring or what is called “aliveness.” These are typically framed in very binary ways, something I find incongruent with both my own experience of practice, my understanding of the history of koryū in general, and Yagyū Shinkage Ryū Heihō (YSR) in specific.

• This part will be an introduction to the argument I am addressing, the terms with which I will address it, a very general look at the history of shiai in classical Japanese martial traditions, and some of my own conclusions and speculations.
• Part 2 will be an examination of the appearance of shiai in the early historical record of YSR. Fortunately, the historical record is relatively well-preserved, and has been printed in a number of different modern sources.
• Part 3 will look at the modern (post-Meiji) history of shiai in YSR.
• Finally, in Part 4, I would like to present the YSR approach to kata and free training, specifically through the lens of what we call the “shiai-seihō,” or “shiai-gata.” I’ll note that this material is adapted from private presentations I’ve made elsewhere.

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