Training Report
March 2020
Ottawa, Canada
copyright © 2020 Douglas Tong, all rights reserved.
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In March of 2020, Tong Sensei travelled to Ottawa to conduct a seminar on Yagyu Shinkage Ryu kenjutsu. Below is copied a reflection on the seminar courtesy of Meishinkan Dojo, our official keikokai in Ottawa. We have also included our own commentary afterwards to support the text and add further details to the story.
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Spring 2020 Seminar Reflections
copyright © 2020 Erika Gaal, all rights reserved.
Every training opportunity I’ve had with Tong Sensei has left me with valuable lessons. I’m often left with new philosophy to think about and subtle new points to work on within the kata.
Yagyu Shinkage Ryu is full of subtlety. We learn the techniques just as you would in any other style, starting with learning the steps and then putting them together into a cohesive kata. Timing and distance, just as with any other style, are important fundamental aspects to understand.
What makes our branch of Yagyu Shinkage Ryu so different is the finesse that is used to execute these aspects. We use timing to interrupt our opponent’s intent and shake their will. We utilize distance in a manner that can mislead our opponent and cause them to act in ways that are beneficial to us. We use a mentality that expresses we are more concerned with not losing our life than in winning the fight, and that to suppress the opponent’s harmful intent is better than to take their life.
In regards to timing, our two main techniques rely heavily on executing them at the exact right moment. To understand the principle behind the first technique, Gasshi Uchi, it helps to explore the meaning of ‘Hakka Hissho’ (8 directions, sure victory). To practice this in a partner exercise, one person will cut any of the eight directional cuts while the other will just cut straight down the centre to catch their cut before it reaches them. This practice teaches where that exact timing is that I mentioned earlier, and how to see it. The window for self-preservation is very small here, so you need a high level of skill to effectively perform this.
Keeping distance in mind, it is crucial to keep attention on where you are at any given time. There are kata where we intentionally offer a target within the danger zone of being struck, and if you are not aware of your precise distance in relation to your opponent, your technique can fall short. In this style, your understanding of distance becomes a telltale sign of your level of experience. Another aspect of distance in our style are the principles behind Muto (no-sword). In this, we must develop a level of comfort in being close enough to our opponent that we can grab them, and be able to gain that distance in various ways. This takes a level of bravery, as you are entering into a distance of vulnerability. In these techniques, you must be confident in your skill and your ability to utilize it.
There is an elegance to this style that I find beautiful. I can make comparisons to Iaido in regards to the amount of mastery over your own body movements that is needed. You need the ability to balance yourself and distribute your weight effectively at any given time, and to move gracefully. You also have very specific targets. This was not always the case of course, as the age of this style of Kenjutsu dates back to the battlefields of Japan. We can see the evolution of the style if we examine the three training levels of the first set of kata: Sangakuen-no-tachi. The origin of this set is actually the last level within the three to learn, and it is rough, less refined, and direct. We can see the difference in mentality also, as the techniques vary their targets and thus become Setsuninto (‘the sword that takes life’) kata. Over the ages and as Japan moved into more peaceful times, the style and philosophy evolved into what we practice today. A sword style of grace and peace, a style of the Life-Giving sword.
I am always grateful to Tong Sensei, my Sempai, and my students, as they all contribute to my growth within this art and my personal growth. Yagyu Shinkage Ryu has opened my eyes to new ways of using the sword and dealing with conflict, and these lessons continue to allow me to use new perspectives in how I view my day-to-day life. It has furthered by ability to adapt and challenges my stubbornness around rigidity.
As Tong Sensei recently said to me: “The only constant is change”.
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Tong Sensei’s Commentary:
This training session stood out for two reasons:
1) We examined the second level of the Sangakuen-no-Tachi set, called Shita Kara. It is an advanced level, where one learns how to use all those fundamental elements which we had learned in the first level (Toriage Zukai, also known as Ue Kara) but in much more fluid ways. The opponent now does not come rigidly and stop and set up a cut and then execute it, in lock-step fashion. Instead, the adversary comes full bore with speed, fluidity, and serious intent to hit you. You must react. You have no time to do anything else. It is quite a challenge to remain calm and composed against such aggression. But that is the training. Your technique needs to be exact and precise. Your spirit and mind need to be unflappable and unmoved.
We looked at principles such as the Yagyu sword principle of 刀身一致 (Toh-Shin-Icchi) [your sword and your movement in accordance]. We made them practice countless times until their sword and body movement became one and inseparable. We focused on this particularly in executing the ‘Ni-no-Giri’ [second cut]. You make your cut when your opponent brings his sword up to make the 撥草 (Hasso) Stance. It is the action of following your opponent’s timing. We train to make our entire body movement follow our sword movement.
2) We then proceeded to examine the third level of this set, called Mukashi no Zukai (or Koshiki). These are the same katas in their original format as taught by our Founder Kamiizumi Nobutsuna. These are the original battlefield versions of these katas.
It is quite an eye-opening experience to see how crude and rough and primal these katas are, in their technique and in their spirit. But knowing them allows us to see how the techniques in the later versions evolved. As I have always said, things do not spontaneously occur in a vacuum. Everything comes from something before it. And if you don’t understand its roots, there is always a piece of the puzzle that’s missing. And you can’t quite fill in the complete picture…
Here is a good article I wrote that explains this: Evolution
The students got to see this primitive version from the ‘Kaisha Kenpo’ (armoured fighting) period, when the combatants wore full armour on the battlefield. It is quite a different kind of fighting altogether. Here are some examples from another branch of Yagyu Shinkage Ryu which demonstrated this old style of Shinkage Ryu in full armour.
My students have the good fortune to be exposed to an old battlefield style, Katori Shinto Ryu, which I learned in Japan and have practiced for 30 years. That is something important that our members have exposure to: intimate background knowledge of where the style came from. Kamiizumi Ise-no-Kami (the Founder and 1st Headmaster) and Yagyu Muneyoshi (the 2nd Headmaster) were both masters and adepts at Katori Shinto Ryu. Yagyu Shinkage Ryu came out of a fusion of Kage Ryu and Katori Shinto Ryu.
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“In his youth, he went to nearby Shimōsa Province (modern day Chiba Prefecture) and began studying Nen-ryū, and Shintō-ryū. Later he went to Hitachi Province and studied Kage-ryū. In the Empi-no-Tachi scrolls that Kamiizumi gave to Yagyū Munetoshi, he wrote that he had studied Nen-ryū, Shintō-ryū, Kage-ryū, and others, and had developed an innovation from Kage-ryū, and thus named his school Shinkage-ryū (New Kage-ryū).”
Kamiizumi Nobutsuna
“Munetoshi studied the martial and liberal arts, becoming proficient with the spear and sword,… An Owari Yagyū family record suggests that he studied Shintō-ryū under a man named Kantori Shinjūrō. But “Kantori” may simply be a misreading of kanji meant to read “Katori”, thus signifying “Katori Shintō-ryū“.”
“In the Yagyū Kaken, the Yagyū family constitution, Munetoshi wrote that he’d loved the military arts since he was a youth, and studied many ryū, but did not know victory until he met Kamiizumi Hidetsuna.”
Yagyu Munetoshi
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And the key to understanding Yagyu Shinkage Ryu lies in understanding where it came from: the old style of Katori Shinto Ryu. In fact, in 1566, Kamiizumi gave Yagyu Sekishusai Muneyoshi the catalogue “Kage Mokuroku”, which contained 4 scrolls: Enpi, Sangaku, Kuka, and Nana-dachi. The set ‘Nana-dachi’ (or sometimes called ‘Nanatsu-dachi’) is a set of techniques which come explicitly from Katori Shinto Ryu. So a further reason why it is useful to know the old styles.
In this training session, the students had the opportunity to see and experience a part of the missing link that bridges these two great styles together.