Author: Ellis Amdur Page 9 of 12

An Interview of Hamaji Koichi by Gerald Toff

Translated by Matuoka Hiroshi & Edited by Russ Ebert, Published by Aijokai

Which brings me to Jō no Hinkaku. In 1977, Shintō-musō-ryū practitioner Gerald Toff interviewed Hamaji Koichi, a menkyo-kaiden in the art. This interview was turned into a book, only forty-one pages, first in Japanese and now in English, one I consider to be the single most important work for anyone interested in koryū bugei.  Why do I consider this book so important when we have works as erudite as David Hall’s, The Buddhist Goddess Marishiten: A Study of the Evolution and Impact of her Cult on the Japanese Warrior, Karl Friday and Fumitake Seki’s Legacies of the Sword: The Kashima-Shinryu and Samurai Martial Culture, or Donn Draeger’s three volume, Martial Arts and Ways of Japan, to name only a few? The reason is that these books give the reader everything except that which is most important: the experience of hearing – truly – the mind of someone who lived koryū bugei as it was in a past era. Hamaji sensei hearkens back to the time of his father and grandfather, describing a mindset largely gone from the world today. And without somehow internalizing that mindset, you will never understand a traditional cultural practice, be it a combative art or an aesthetic one.

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Because of some recent discussions on Ueshiba Morihei’s solo weapon practice, I would like to add some thoughts of my own. I am going to excerpt a relevant passage from my second edition of Hidden in Plain Sight, to set some context as to what Ueshiba was actually doing, followed by some recent observations I made during a trip to Japan, followed by another passage from HIPS.

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A 2nd edition of my book, Hidden in Plain Sight has been published through Freelance Academy Press. It is two-thirds larger than the original, with eight new chapters. The revisions and development in the new version are enough to make it almost a new book entirely. Of course, I corrected all the errors that are enumerated below. Still, some may have the previous version on their shelves, and these errors should be noted, lest someone, unaware of the new edition, is misled. 

Concerning the 2nd edition: Every book is printed with errors, be they spelling, design, editing  and sometimes, regrettably, errors in fact. One of the latter appears in the 2nd edition. I note it below and note also how to download a glue-in correction of the book itself. It has been corrected in the electronic version, but will still remain in the bound version until all copies of this print run are sold.

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By Nigel Sutton

Note: During the writing of this piece Master Lee Bei Lei passed away. He was 86  years old. Rest in Peace, Shifu!

I first met Lee Bei Lei (aka Li Bian Lei/Lai) in 1987 on my first visit to Malaysia. My brother-in-law was secretary of the taijiquan group that he ran in Batu Pahat, a town in the southern state of Johor. As a ‘visiting fireman,’ who had participated and enjoyed some success in a competition in China, I was invited to perform in front of an audience of several hundred taijiquan aficionados. At that time Chinese in Malaysia were not allowed to visit China, so a foreigner who had been there and practised Chinese martial arts was something of a rarity. I strutted my stuff, the 48 step combined taijiquan form and a baguazhang form and afterwards, I was introduced to ‘The Master,’ Lee Bei Lei. My youthful naïve ignorance protected me from even being aware of the dread I should have been feeling. I had come to his training hall as a ‘celebrity,’ demonstrated in front of his students and basked in their applause! A traditional martial artist of Master Lee’s generation would see all of this as a challenge, literally an attempt  to damage his reputation. This to a man for whom challenges were an everyday occurrence, the very lifeblood and nourishment of his existence! But I knew none of that.

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When the word swimming is mentioned, many of us will conjure images of blue-hued pools, and the exploits of professional athletes such as Michael Phelps. For others, it will bring to mind the lacquered grimaces of synchronized swimmers, the unusual headgear of water polo stars or the tightly wrapped wrists of competitive divers. While completely understandable, this is a very limited view of natation arts, one that has been completely hijacked by the modern Olympics.

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NOTE: The following essay owes a tremendous amount to my consultation with Stephen Delaney of the Araki-ryu gunyo-kogusoku. I take full responsibility, however, for everything – both history and speculation – within this essay.

 Araki Buzaemon and his immediate successors

Two different martial traditions, Araki-ryu gunyo-kogusoku and Araki Shin-ryu, are associated with Araki Buzaemon Hisakatsu, a man otherwise unknown, but believed by these ryuha to be related to Araki Mujinsai (AKA Muninsai) Minamoto Hidetsuna, the founder of Araki-ryu torite-kogusoku.

These two schools are profoundly different, but both have the same anomaly in their lineage: after Araki Mujinsai, both Araki Shin-ryu and, until recently, Araki-ryu gunyo-kogusoku then listed the next two generations blank, followed by Araki Buzaemon in the fourth generation. Such blanks in the lineage are not unusual in Japanese ryuha. For example, Miura Yoshin-ryu has a gap between the alleged founder, Nakamura Sakyodayu Yoshikuni (Miura Yoshin) and the sixth, Abe Kanryu. Generally speaking, such a gap implies that the person after the gap, in this case Buzaemon, created a new ryu inspired somehow by Mujinsai, but separated by a few generations.

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