Real Blade or Wood Blade?
Funny
how things come into to collective consciousness, I have had two conversations
recently, completely unprompted, about the same thing, live blades versus
simulated blades in training.
Many
dojo will only ever train with simulated or training blades, “traditional” wooden
tanto or rubber or blunt aluminium or even fancy electronic blades or blades
with felted edges for marking “cuts.” Some instructors are horrified at the very
thought of training with real weapons.
At a
recent grading a visitor from outside our tradition attempted to stop the grading
when the weapons segment started, he thought he was important and that we
should do what he or his “Federation” said, “Occupational Health and Safety,”
he said. Of course, he doesn’t understand that bugei is not an occupation, come
to think about it he doesn’t understand a lot, least of all courtesy. He was
invited to sit down and be quiet or to leave.
In Hyou-ha
Bankoku Jujutsu we have always trained with real blades, be it knives, parang (machete)
or axes/hatchets. This is how Professor Kam Hock HOE taught his jujutsu so who
are we to change it? In our view it makes no sense. If one practices against a
weapon that can’t hurt you a false sense of security can develop, if confronted
with a real blade in a confrontation many people will freeze up, meaning the
chance of survival is greatly reduced.
The
thing is, we practice carefully, at speed, but carefully. When live blades are
in use everyone in the dojo is made aware, everyone is on alert and watching,
blades are often knocked free and fly through the air, if you are not watching
you can’t see the blade coming towards you, it’s that simple.
In
fifty years of Hyou-ha Bankoku Jujutsu I am only aware of two real injuries
from edged weapon practice, as I recall the incidents (they were a long time
ago) there was a degree of inattention involved in both of them. A third
incident involved my own good self, way back in 1975.
It
was in the middle of a grading and I was side-on to the person that was to be my
semete, my attacker. I was getting directions from the examiners at the time
and the examiner had the verbal habit of finishing each instruction with a firm
“OK!” At one point he wanted to emphasise something or other to me and he
finished with a quite firm and loud “OK!”
For some reson known only to him, my semete took this to be his signal to attack. At the
last moment I noticed him coming at me with the blade and managed to deflect his
arm a little with one hand. The result was a ruined uwagi and a score across my
ribs, luckily no real damage done but plenty of adrenalin pumping through my
system.
So
done right, brains switched on, practiced in a safe way, live blades work, they
have to, that is the reality!
In
my dojo weapons self-defence training starts around Sankyu, about half way to Shodan. Now
I’m a bit of a rebel, I give these students a couple of weeks of training
with a “safe” blade before they move on to using a live blade.
Words and Actions
Henry S. Haskins wrote in his anonymously published 1947 book “Meditations
in Wall Street” that “What lies behind you and what lies in front of you, pales
in comparison to what lies inside of you.”
I take this to mean that your past and future circumstances are not as
important as your character; no matter what setbacks you've faced or challenges
that lie ahead, you can succeed if you have inner strength.
Often, in life, whether we like
it or not, perception is seen to be the reality and bugei is no different. As a bugeisha, we must be
forever diligent and thus be on guard at
all times. We can expect to be attacked anytime should we let our guard down.
Therefore, we must not leave any openings.
There
is a Japanese saying, Bushi wa kuwanedo taka yoji 武士は食わねど高楊枝, Translation: “A Samurai
pretends, even when he is starved, by holding a toothpick between his teeth.”
I
consider this to mean that if one lets on that they haven’t eaten and are
hungry then enemies will think they will be weak and thus an easier target for
attack. The perception of weakness can then lead to a person being attacked.
In
training, and in life, we must constantly try to ensure that our intentions
match our reality. If we want people to think that we are respectful then we
must act respectfully. If we want people to think that we are humble, we should
then act with humility. If our actions are foolish and arrogant, people will
think we are arrogant fools.
People will
“judge” us by the things that we say and do. As bugeisha we must align our actions
and our words with our intentions.
Return to Traditional Values
In
recent times my friends and mentors, Tino Ceberano Hanshi and Terry Wingrove
Hanshi have been talking about the need to return to traditional values in martial
arts, that is, to deny the modern trend towards sport based “Budo” and to
return to methods that emphasise the development of effective technique.
To
me this comes down to a choice between sport and effective self-defence. For me
it is easy, my jujutsu has always been about developing skills to enable
effective self-defence.
Now
some say that the martial arts aren’t really about self-defence; I disagree, to
be clear, since 1935 Professor Kam Hock HOE taught self-defence jujutsu, his
business card stated that his school taught “Scientific Self-defence,” this was
evident in everything that he taught.
Our old
grading certificates began with the statement Nihon Bugei Goshindo Jujutsu 日本武芸護身道柔術 "Japanese
Martial Art Self-defence Jujutsu." Professor Lea has always been clear that practical,
effective self-defence was at the heart of Hyou-ha Bankoku Jujutsu.
This
idea has become my approach to any martial arts training I undertake; it is
tightly coupled with the karatejutsu methods of Tino Ceberano Hanshi, if it is
bugei, it has to be close to reality.
In
our practice of Hyou-ha Bankoku Jujutsu students quickly migrate to training
with “live,” sharp blades. This practice horrifies jujutsu practitioners from some
other jujutsu traditions but it is amazing how this sharpens the student’s
attention to detail. It is perfectly safe, provided everyone in the dojo is
alert to what is going on. In my 50 years of Hyou-ha Bankoku Jujutsu I can only recall two incidents where a practitioner was injured by a blade, inattention to blame on each occasion.
Bugei,
that is, the martial arts, that I practice and that I teach are intended to provide
practitioners with effective, efficient self-defence skills, there is no sport
managed by rules, the only rules are rules of safety and rules of curtesy.
Adapt or Perish?
I’m an old man, I have artificial knees,
artificial hips, I have hearing aids and my optician tells me I have cataracts
forming so soon I expect to have artificial eyes! I think of myself as being
over the hill.
On those mornings when my knees and hips
don’t want to be kind to me and making a fist really, really hurts I think I’m
so far over the hill that I’m getting to the crest of the next one.
Why do I keep training? I hear you
say. There’s so much more to learn and understand, there’s so much more to pass
on to the next generations, what else would I do? If I stopped it would drive
my family crazy and they just might end me!
What’s the plan? Don’t kneel, strap
the knees, warmup, shorten the stances a little, not too many punches, open hand
techniques more often and modifying hand forms where I have to, for example,
one of my favourite hand forms, Keiko-ken鶏口拳Single knuckle fist
(Chicken beak fist,) also known as Sho-ken 小拳 Small Fist, Ryu-ken 龍拳 Dragon Fist, Feng Yan Quan 鳳眼拳 Phoenix Eye Fist.
What I have found is that, rather than the orthodox method of placing the thumb
outside the index finger to reinforce the striking knuckle, I can reinforce the
striking knuckle without pain by placing the Distal InterPhalangeal (DIP) joint
or first knuckle of the thumb inside the Proximal InterPhalangeal (PIP) joint
or second knuckle of the index finger, making sure the bulk of the thumb forms
a straight line with the index finger.
Orthodox Keiko-ken Adapted Keiko-ken: Top View Adapted Keiko-ken: Side View
Purists will be horrified, I'm sure, but I find
that if anything, when impacting on something solid, that this hand form feels
stronger than the orthodox hand form, certainly for me. Orthodoxy changes over
time, Shu-Ha-Ri comes into play here I think, my orthodoxy isn’t necessarily
yours, that’s OK.
Darwinian, I think, adapt or perish.
The Heart of Bugei
Budo values reflection and compassion, so
too the older, truer, Bugei form of practice.
When these are not present it is hard to
develop the heart and character for deeper study. The heart, the mind and the
body make mistakes, but mistakes have great value when they can be understood
and admitted so that we might be propelled into a deeper understanding of the
teachings.
In my practice of Hyou-ha Bankoku
Jujutsu, kuatsu, Hakuda Kenpo and Goju-ryu Kenpo I do my best to remind myself
of the mistakes I make and the frustrations I cause, to myself and to those
around me.
My work today, and every other day, is to
admit to these mistakes and to understand the truth of their origins in
ignorance or dissatisfaction.
Today I reflect on developing the ability
to be able to overcome my weaknesses of heart and character in order to
transcend the blockages that they cause so that I can practice, and teach, with
an open heart such that my time will be well spent, and that I will be happy
and peaceful.
In these difficult times it isn’t easy
but we must all practice well and do our best to overcome these challenges.
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