Shugo means "gather round" in Japanese. This blog is for longer articles connected to the Nanseikan Kendo Club.
Sunday, August 3, 2014
Kirikaeshi and kihon uchikaeshi
This post is a reference for our members as to what is expected by the terms, kirikaeshi and kihon uchikaeshi.
The video above is what kirikaeshi is. This is required for certain kyu gradings, and is performed by all Kendo clubs. The version above is without taiatari, the form favoured by Yano sensei at the Kenshikan.
This video shows what we now perform at Nanseikan in place of kirikaeshi. It is called kihon uchikaeshi to distinguish it from standard kirikaeshi.
When performing kihon uchikaeshi, the kakarite starts by calling out "uchikaeshi!"
The format is three kihon uchi waza, followed (without taiatari) by the usual nine times sayumen, four forwards and five backwards.
It is called kihon uchikaeshi because these initial three strikes can be varied through all the basic ippon-uchi waza (single strikes) and ni-san-dan uchi (multiple strikes).
This is an efficient way to combine practicing a structured drill like kirikaeshi that includes a role for the motodachi, as well as kihon waza with proper zanshin. In a club that only trains once a week, making the most of our two hours is important.
I worked on this problem for a long time. I knew kirikaeshi was too important to discard, but I resented the amount of time it took up, especially the amount of time it took to teach to beginners. And our club has had a problem with members having poor zanshin.
Kihon uchikaeshi solves all these problems, and also gives us a special little aspect of difference, like a dialect in language, that gives our club a slightly separate identity from other Kendo clubs in Melbourne.
If you're visiting Nanseikan, please take a moment to familiarise yourself with the format of kihon uchikaeshi. It's pretty simple.
Wednesday, April 9, 2014
Kirikaeshi — lecture by Okada Morimasa sensei of Nittaidai
training at Nittaidai's Kendo Dojo in Tokyo
As promised, here are some of my notes* on the lecture given by Okada Morimasa sensei of Nittaidai on 16 February at the Kenshikan Dojo, on the topic of kirikaeshi. These notes are to be thought of as a number of points, each of which you should, in the words of Musashi, "study well".
"A big thing can encapsulate a small thing but small cannot encapsulate big."
- Kirikaeshi was originally performed against the teacher only, so the motodachi's role is very important and requires effort.
- The first men cut is extremely important as it sets up the rest of the kirikaeshi. Taiatari should not be included at first so as to avoid ingraining the "taiatari pose" (the reflex of bringing the hands down in front of the body after the attack). Taiatari is taught later at Nittaidai when the skill level is high.
- Motodachi should receive with a vertical shinai.
- Motodachi should harmonise their mind with kakarite (attacker). This can be done by saying "men, men, men" in time with kakarite.
- Take care with the footwork for each cut. Don't bring feet together (i.e. make sure left foot stays behind right foot) especially when you go faster. Each cut should have kikentaiitchi.
- One breath kirikaeshi should have each "men!" punctuating the kirikaeshi; not "me~~~~~~~~n!" but "me~~~, me~~~, me~~~n!"
- Avoid shinitai (dead body). Shinitai is a posture when your left knee flexes and you lean backwards.
- For the final cut of kirikaeshi, ride over the top of the motodachi's men. Don't let it slip off to the side nor bounce too high. Cut and follow through straight ahead with the feeling of slicing.
- Standing in migi jodan (right foot forward jodan) helps to set your hips; belly button points to the ceiling. (!) Hold jodan position without raising the shoulders. Then return to chudan and you will find that your hips are engaged. The repetition of the sayu-men cuts in kirikaeshi helps to develop this hip engagement and creates the foundation of correct, straight, indomitable posture.
- When receiving kihon (basics), be alive.Give the opening and welcome the cut. Watch the tachisuji (the path of the cut) right onto your men. This develops your ability to perform ojiwaza (counter-attacking techniques) later on. Be alive when receiving, not a dead dummy.
- A big thing can encapsulate a small thing but small cannot encapsulate big: large waza will lead to small waza but small waza will not lead to large. In other words, perfect your large waza first and it will enable you to perform both large and small. But fall into the trap of only training in small waza and it will limit your Kendo to only small waza.
*Any faults or omissions are my own. Thanks to Maksay sensei for providing the translation.
Saturday, March 1, 2014
Teaching Kendo to Children
Teaching Kendo to
Children – an introduction for new instructors
this article was originally published in Kendo World magazine issue 5.2, June 2010.
With its low injury
rate, a structure that makes it possible for small to dominate big,
and its long and captivating history, kendo is a wonderful activity
for children of all ages. However the way an instructor teaches can
have a big impact on a child’s experience of kendo, and will,
whether we like it or not, often be the determining factor as to
whether that child becomes an adult kenshi.
This article is a
short guide to some of the major do’s and don’ts of teaching
kendo to children. It is specifically aimed at yudansha who
are considering offering children’s classes in kendo: people who
have a comprehensive knowledge of kendo fundamentals and perhaps some
experience instructing adults but who have little or no experience of
working with children. Some points in the article have been made
simplistically for the sake of brevity when in fact many of these
issues are complex and can be addressed via a wide range of
approaches. The author welcomes correspondence from other instructors
on any of the ideas dealt with, or not dealt with, in this article.
Age
Children mature at
different rates. What does this mean when it comes to setting up
classes or even setting up a new club?
Generally from the
age of seven and upwards, children become capable of practicing an
activity for its own sake. Naturally this will vary depending on the
maturity and interest of the individual child. For instance the
child’s ability to focus on a single activity for a period of time,
their ability to hear and process verbal commands and/or visual cues,
their ability to mix with a new group of children many of whom may be
older, all these things have an impact. As an instructor, your very
first job will be to make appropriate judgments on this point with
regards to the children who wish to join your class.
It is important to
allow new students to experience kendo at least once with no
obligations or expectations in order for you to gauge their ability
to integrate into the class. A good rule to have is that if a child
comes ‘just to watch’, always get them to join in. They will only
know whether kendo is really for them if they experience it first
hand. This saves everyone’s time if it proves straight away that
the child does not want to do kendo. It also gives you time to assess
the child’s ability. Although this sounds like a difficult task, I
should say that in the last eight years I have never once had to turn
away a prospective student because I felt they would not fit into the
class.
As a general rule
however, children younger than seven will not integrate well into a
mixed-age class that has a focus on skills-acquisition. For those
kids a separate class of between 30 and 45 minutes duration focusing
on kendo-related play is more appropriate.
Games vs skills
Always the difficult
balance in children’s kendo classes is on how much time to spend on
skills acquisition versus ‘having fun’. Children don't always
conceptualise exactly how drills relate to practice. This is the
reason why you might spend a great deal of time correcting a child’s
footwork during suburi, only to see them constantly returning
to natural walking or running when doing more dynamic practice like
uchikomigeiko, or jigeiko.
An instructor might
feel that it is easy to engage the kids when doing ‘fun things’
like jigeiko, but they might at the same time feel that it is
dangerous to let them run before they can walk, as it were. Most
instructors will want to return to basic drills as often as possible
to try and instill the correct body movements before allowing her or
his students to move onto more advanced training. This imperative
will be deeply ingrained in the instructor’s psyche if it was how
they, as an adult learner, were taught themselves. However children
will usually find this more abstract way of learning to be at best,
boring and difficult, and at worst, pointless and de-motivating.
A simple way to
avoid de-motivation is to remember to teach skills embedded within
games. The most obvious, indeed the ultimate kendo ‘game’ is
shiai itself. As their students progress towards shiai
ability, instructors should use their creativity to design games that
are both fun and instill correct technique.
One example is to
have motodachi throw rubber balls at students waiting in
kamae. The student must time their cut to strike the ball in
mid-air as if it is an opponent’s men, kote or do.
Varying the size or number of balls alters the difficulty. This
challenging exercise is universally loved because it seems more
difficult than it is. For many kids their reaction is “this is
like Star Wars!” But it also can instill correct technique if
the instructor models it correctly and keeps a close eye on things
like hasuji and ki-ken-tai-itchi. Five minutes of a
play-focused drill such as this can reinvigorate a lethargic class
and guarantee that every child will want to return the following
week.
How will you know if
the drill you designed is sufficiently game-oriented? Simple. By the
end everyone, including you, will be smiling. Warning: there may even
be laughter. If you find the idea of laughter in the dojo challenging
then perhaps teaching children is not for you!
Some training
techniques you devise may not be games as such, but generate similar
interest because an unorthodox approach has been taken. For instance
tying each student’s ankles together with thick elastic as a way to
help develop muscle memory regarding the quick return of the left
foot to kamae position during okuriashi.
Many other games can
be developed using simple props that are either already in the dojo
or require little outlay. One example is using the line markings on
the floor (if you have them) to create complex ‘racetracks’ that
the students must follow whilst using kendo footwork.
The only limit is
the instructor’s imagination. All children, especially those over
the age of 18, enjoy a holiday from routine, being surprised, being
shown something familiar in a new way, and testing themselves in new
situations. All of these things support learning.
Attendance and
retention
When a child chooses
to do kendo they have already distinguished themselves as unusual. By
the time they walk though the door of the dojo they have travelled a
long way down the path of doing kendo. That’s because in Australia
and many other countries outside Japan or South Korea kendo is not a
freely available option. Considerable motivation is required of
children to get as far as finding out where the nearest dojo is and
getting mum or dad to agree to take them there. Granted it is much
easier now with the advent of the internet. But you should still see
new students as already having a degree of commitment. In other
words, even if they look and sound undecided about kendo when they
arrive on the first day, think of them as already having made up
their minds to give it a red-hot go.
It is important to
remember that a child’s attendance is entirely dependent on the
whole family’s schedule. Furthermore, parents and children alike
are generally used to sports that have an off-season, not activities
that continue year-round. This means that scheduled time off
throughout the year is important. A third important point to remember
is that parents’ ability to retain details about dates and events
is generally less than if you were dealing with adult club members.
So plan to send out multiple reminders for each important event.
As an instructor, it
will be important that you, or another senior member of your club,
maintain as good a relationship with parents as with their children.
Regular newsletters are a great communication tool. A club weblog can
be used as a record of what the club has done, although beware of
posting identifiable images of your students (or their family names)
on the internet. Parents will appreciate being informed, reminded and
consulted.
Retention is a more
difficult matter, and is largely outside your control as an
instructor. So long as you have done your utmost to teach correct
kendo, and have done so in a way that tries to understand the needs
of the child learner, you cannot hold yourself responsible for
children who stop coming to training. Hopefully you will get, either
from the child or the parent, a reason or at least some warning about
the end of their participation. But sometimes they will simply stop
coming. It is not the fault of the instructor or of kendo. Children
like to try many things and only a few will ever stick at kendo.
If you have observed
these points above, then at least if you experience a falling
attendance rate you can generally assume that it is due to
demographic, economic or other factors outside your control. It would
also pay to remember that while these factors may occasionally lead
to a decline in numbers, they just as often can lead to increases as
well.
For the majority of
my students, it is the case that they are keen to do kendo and their
parents are facilitating that choice. This is the scenario that
informs the observations above, the assumption that the child is the
instigator. However there is also the situation where it is the
parent who is the motivator behind their child starting kendo and the
child does kendo to please the parent. In this situation many things
are simplified for the instructor, and most of the observations above
do not apply. In this situation my policy is to encourage the parent
to join the class as well, allowing them to model the kind of
participation they desire their child to display.
Energy, strength
and co-ordination
Children’s energy
is also very different to adults. In young children it is quick to
deplete and equally quick to replenish. Short bursts of exercise with
regular breaks are what is required. Older children and teenagers may
be able to push themselves to exhaustion if they are very committed
to kendo or the instructor. However the kind of severe training that
was once commonplace in Japan is not generally possible in Australia
for instance, the reasons being more cultural than physiological
(anecdotal evidence suggests it is also becoming less common in
Japan). This is a constant dilemma for instructors of children in
kendo: balancing fun and enjoyment with fidelity to kendo’s budo
heritage. Above all, avoid simply replicating the structure of an
adult class unless all of your students are high school age or older.
Muscle development
is also different to adults. Before puberty, children’s muscles
don’t grow in response to exertion to nearly the same degree as
adults’. Instructors should focus on developing muscle memory
rather than muscle power, particularly in areas such as
footwork and the use of the left hand.
Co-ordination can be
a problem for some children, so it is necessary to be aware of what
each child is capable of, both from a biomechanical point of view and
a neuro-psychological one (see hyperlink below). Strive to have
realistic expectations and don’t be afraid to be compassionate and
forgiving. Sometimes a lack of co-ordination results from specific
cognitive or neurological causes*,
for example a developmental delay in short-term memory or poor
visual-spatial awareness. Sometimes it might be from a general lack
of strength or little muscle memory of that drill. Sometimes it can
just be from the nervousness that comes from feeling closely
scrutinised. In the majority of cases, practice over time will help
solve most difficulties with the movements of kendo. And there’s
much to be said of the observation that, in the end, the least
talented often prove to be the best students.
Duty of care
Duty of Care as a
concept came about so as to give legal weight to the concept ‘Love
thy neighbour as thyself.’ In the United States it is called a
Legal Duty.
There is much
information available on this issue. The main thing that needs to be
said here is know what your legal responsibilities are.
Ninety-nine times out of a hundred your own common sense will match
best practice. However there may be issues that you are not aware of,
or which at first glance do not seem significant or your
responsibility. Here is a list of questions for the prospective
instructor from my own past experience. It is by no means exhaustive
but is meant to give the reader an idea of some of the areas that may
not be immediately self-evident where the instructor has a legal Duty
of Care:
- Do you have emergency contact numbers for all your children?
- Do you have signed parental consent to call for an ambulance or administer first aid?
- Do you know whether any child in your care has epilepsy, asthma, diabetes?
- What allergies do your students have – latex, band-aids, nuts?
- If one of your students is anaphylactic, do you know what the trigger is, and also how to use an epipen (self-administered adrenaline delivery device)?
- It is an extreme example, but it has happened and shows just how far ‘out of left field’ these issues can come: do any of your students have a non-custodial parent or other relative who is the subject of a Restraining Order and who is not allowed within x metres of the child?
It is your
responsibility as an instructor to stay informed. The Australian
Sports Commission website has a wealth of information and resources
relevant to Australian law. Most other countries will have similar
organisations producing resources relevant for coaches and volunteers
in their jurisdictions.
It is worth noting
that many countries’ kendo federations have recently developed
formalised coaching qualification programs as a pre-requisite to
starting a new club or dojo. The best of these programs deal in depth
with such issues as mentioned above, so that coaches enter the field
informed of the variety of issues they may have to deal with and
confident that they can do so effectively.
Coaches and
volunteers working with minors are now required in many countries to
have a Criminal Records Check to establish that they are suitable
people to work with children. If you are teaching kendo to children
and are unaware of what your legal obligations are, contact your
national or regional kendo federation.
Injuries
Kendo is as safe an
activity for children as it is or adults. However training between
two students of vastly mismatched size can be dangerous if it is not
well managed. The main danger comes not from taiatari, which
is relatively easy to monitor, but striking men from above.
Even a moderate men strike from a high angle can miss the
mengane altogether, and strike the top, and unprotected back,
of the child’s head. A dojo policy must be in place, and
demonstrations regularly given by instructors, on how hard to strike
someone who is considerably shorter than oneself. Instructors should
be up-to-date with the latest information about head injuries and
concussion.
How hard is too
hard? This is a tricky question as children, particularly those new
to kendo, have a lower pain threshold than seasoned kendoka. However
when it comes to the brain and its casing one should always err on
the side of caution—doubly so with children’s brains. If a child
can tell you that they heard music or saw stars after receiving a
heavy blow then that’s it for them for the rest of training. They
can sit out and watch, or do suburi by themselves. Make sure
also to remind the student responsible to take more care. Finally,
let the child’s parents know and recommend that the child in
question refrains from contact sports for a couple of days.
Children’s kote
are often lightly made and also do not ward off blows as well as
adult kote do. Here too, explicit instructions to all students
about how to strike in this situation are crucial.
Finally, all
instructors of children should undertake first aid training, whether
through their governing renmei, or at their own expense.
Conclusion
If there is one
principle that I have learned and used to guide my teaching it is
this: children learn differently to adults. They are indeed able to
run before they can walk. That is, Kid A may not be able to answer a
simple question about kendo terminology but that will not stop her
from being able to perform degashira men instinctively. And
just because Kid B constantly needs reminding which foot goes in
front when standing in chudan no kamae, doesn’t mean
he won’t then dazzle you with the kihon uchi of an 8-dan.
From my point of
view, the important learning from this has been to make sure even
whilst instilling correct technique that I not, in doing so, smother
the spark that brought that child to kendo. In a country like
Australia where children generally are not forced to come to
training, that spark, if it is there, is the thing most likely to
keep them going throughout their life in kendo. As an instructor that
means I must always take care to know all of my students, to reflect
as best I can on what they each need, and always seek to improve how
I teach. Embarking on teaching children is a daunting task, until you
remember this one thing: to have had a positive impact on a child’s
life means that you have created something good that will outlive
you.
More research
Kendo instructors of
children should maintain their own personal research. The literature
covering childhood development, both physical and psychological, is
vast. The answers are out there, it is mainly a case of knowing what
your question is.
Most of the
information in this article is based on experience, not
scientifically gathered data. It is designed to be of assistance to
those of you who are venturing into teaching kendo to children for
the first time. I hope it can be of use to you and that you will
build on it with your own observations and experience.
The British Kendo
Association has a clear and informative page on this topic, with
additional information regarding developmental physiology and
psychology at
A book that I have
referred to often and found very helpful is Martial Arts Teachers
on Teaching, edited by Carol Wiley and published by Frog Press,
Berkeley. Although none of the essays deal with kendo specifically,
several do focus on teaching children, while others explain how
different learning modes (visual, kinesthetic and aural; global vs
analytic thinkers, etc) can affect how you teach. It can be previewed
on Google books.
**
If you are lucky, occasionally
these issues will have been medically diagnosed and the parents can
explain the implications. Later on, experience will allow you to
recognise similar traits or symptoms in other children and adjust
your teaching accordingly.
Notes on being an instructor
As I progressed in kendo inevitably I was called upon to start teaching. Some people relish the opportunity to teach, but I became quite apprehensive when faced with a class of people looking expectantly at me awaiting direction and maybe even (gasp!) advice as to how to they should improve. "I can hardly perform basics myself, how can I seriously teach others not that much less experienced than myself?"
This
article is attempt to write down on a few things that perhaps
would have made my life a bit easier back then.
Follow
the pattern
In
the beginning it is enough just to run the class. Follow the pattern,
you're just a supervisor. Warm-ups, suburi, kihon, uchikomi, kakari,
jigeiko: it's a time-honoured sequence that does not need much
fiddling with. If my sensei asked beforehand to add in some time
practicing some specific technique, I realised it was OK just to
repeat sensei's teaching method even down to his exact phraseology.
In a sense the junior instructor is a cypher for their sensei and is
not expected to display any personal flair or skill. They are not
expected to have an interpretation of waza based on their own
experience.
As
time goes on I was called upon to decide on the actual content of the
class. This started with running beginners' classes and taking care
of the lower kyu grades. This is where a junior instructor starts to
bring their own take on how to perform basics. However in my opinion
the gap between a junior instructor's actual grade and the level of
the techniques on which they can instruct should be quite large. Here
is my own personal metric (YMMV, etc): shodan should not express an
opinion on any techniques but simply announce them and call
"hajime/yame!"; nidan/sandan can instruct footwork and
suburi, basics of kamae and wearing of dogu. Kihon and other waza
should only be taught in depth by yondan/godan and above.
Issues
of teaching
There
are a number of reason for the gulf between technical proficiency and
teaching ability:
- it is one thing to be able to perform an action with one's own body, it's quite another to be able to explain it effectively
- recognising that different people learn at different rates and often require completely different kinds of instructions to reach the same goal is a subtle skill that requires experience
- teaching is about closely monitoring and diagnosing the needs of others, not displaying one's own skill for personal gratification
Japanese
versus 'Western' teaching methods
As I
gained the experience to be able to run an entire class unsupervised,
I realised I needed to develop a teaching methodology. In kendo, two
conflicting methodologies operate side-by-side in many dojo, very
often without the conscious knowledge of the instructors. For
argument's sake let's call them the "Japanese approach" and
the "Western approach". Typically the Japanese
approach is to make the student perform repetitive drills with little
or nothing in the way of advice. Historically, even high-level waza
were not explained and it was left up to the individual to observe
closely and imitate. The rationale for this approach was that once
the student could see
a waza, they would also be ready to do
it.
The
Western approach is frequently characterised as being more
analytical. Students usually have the waza explained to them verbally
first, then demonstrated, then more verbal explanations follow. Often
the waza will be broken down into its component parts, and each one
of those practiced, before reassembling them back into sequence. This
is seen as being a more time-efficient and student-focused approach,
as it allows students to question the instructor and get
clarification on specifics of the waza that are pertinent to their
individual needs.
Which
path is best?
The
big disadvantage with the Western analytical approach is that it
encourages over-thinking. Students will often mistake a superficial
grasp of the main concepts for real understanding. One indicator of
this is the ability to perform the waza momentarily but not later on.
On the other hand, few 'Westerners' have the patience for the
old-school Japanese approach of "three years kirikaeshi, three
years uchikomi". There's insufficient cultural conditioning to
be able to stay with the apparent neglect of this teaching style. So
a hybrid methodology is needed. How to combine these two approaches
will differ according to individual instructors and their students.
Learning
to observe
As
the old saying goes, "God gave us two ears but only one mouth so
that we should listen twice as much as we speak." As a guideline
for teaching kendo I think this is hard to beat. When in doubt about
what to tell my students, I found it was best to tell them nothing.
Not being sure about what to say, was, I realised, a sign that I had
nothing worth saying right
now.
So I learned to kept my mouth closed and my eyes and ears open.
Actually, I'm still learning that...
I
learnt to notice
of my students, letting their actions tell me what I needed to do in
order to teach them what they needed to know. Some sensei, Japanese
in particular, are observing machines. They rarely feedback to their
students but when they do, it is worth the wait. Their methodology is
to observe intently over very long periods of time. Perhaps the
amount of time you spend observing is directly proportional to the
depth of the insights to be gained. Whatever the outcome of their
advice, as a result, they become masters of observation as much as
kendo.
The
very best teachers avoid
giving advice to themselves when speaking with their students.
If you know what I mean then you know how hard that it is. If you
don't know what I mean and you're an instructor then you could be
doing it without realising.
Q&A
I do
believe in being available for questions from students. However I am
frequently struck by how technically
unhelpful not only the questions are but more especially my own
answers. It is rare that I feel that I ever get it so right that the
student has a light-bulb moment. On the other hand the discussion can
serve an important social function. Interaction between teacher and
student is important and your demeanor as instructor, and the fact
that you are open to questions can, in and of itself, be a valuable
learning and motivation tool for your students.
Mohan
模範
Mohan
means "a model performance of keiko
in front of many beginners". This is a really tricky part for
those of us who are instructors but whose own kendo is somewhat short
of hanshi
level. How can we perform an example of a particular waza for our
students and do justice to it? How can we do that time and time again
without mistakes? How can we avoid the nervousness that comes with
being in front of an entire dojo? How can we avoid stuffing up?
Short
answer is, we can't. And we shouldn't. Every now and then you
will fluff a seemingly basic men in front of all your adoring
students. You will see them knot their eyebrows in puzzlement. You
will feel nauseous as you realise you have just slipped a rung in
their estimation. Best thing you can do is apologise and try again.
But
the thing I have realised is that these moments are to be cherished.
When you have the ego knocked out of you in front of your students,
it is good for your kendo, and for you as an instructor. It has the
following benefits:
- shows you are human
- shows that the techniques are difficult
- shows you are striving to improve just like everyone else
- shows that striving for improvement is a process that doesn't end
- shows that you are a decent bloke/sheila because you don't take yourself too seriously
- makes the technique look even better when you nail it next time
- gives you instant feedback on what you did wrong – when you do it in front of a crowd, you know
- forces you to perform under stress, like a grading or shiai
Eventually
you will get used to it and these moments will no longer be
stressful... at least not until the next time you have to demonstrate
a technique that deep-down you know
you can't do very well! But keep doing it, stuffing up now and again,
and trying again. Your students are watching you for a whole lot more
than just how you perform a technique. You were a mohan
as soon as you entered the dojo.
Monday, January 13, 2014
Book review: "Kendo Tokuhon: the Kendo Reader" by Noma Hisashi (McCall edition)
What a difficult book to review, there's so much I could say. My two word review would be, "Buy it."* But I will try to add a little about why I think you should.
Kendo Tokuhon: The Kendo Reader is a wonderful little book: only 120-some pages and not much in the way of practical explanations of technique. There are some chapters on the different waza, and a brief description of each. These are more like an inventory than a how-to manual however. Noma doesn't bother to describe such things in too much detail. Instead he tries to cover broadly and briefly all the main elements of Kendo. It's a bold undertaking but he succeeds remarkably well. From starting with "Why study Kendo?" he progresses to basics like "Clothing and Appearance" and "How to hold the sword". These chapters are as enlightening to experienced kenshi as much as they are for beginners. Later chapters cover more subtle concepts, such as "Kyojitsu" (Truth and Falsehood), "Hinkaku" (Dignity of Character) and "Sen" (Initiative). These are definitely aimed at those who have been training for a while.
Noma at left
Those knowledgeable about Kendo can see some of the subtle historical differences in his descriptions of even simple things as compared with how they are considered today. In fact Noma's book provides a bridge between classical Kendo and modern Kendo. For instance in the chapter on "Kamae", Noma explains that the positions of chudan no kamae and seigan are basically the same. Seigan is a term that was widely used in classical Kendo but is less known today, and Noma helpfully provides the three different ways of spelling it in Japanese. He also mentions that hasso no kamae is also known as in no kamae, and waki gamae as yo no kamae. In (陰) and yo (陽) are the Japanese readings of the Chinese terms yin and yang. Such details can open up new understanding when one starts his or her own investigation into the history of Japanese swordsmanship.
For me this is the greatest value of the book: the fact that Noma was writing at a time that was a cross-roads between a Kendo that still had links to killing, and Kendo that was purely for self-development. He was well-trained and intelligent enough to encompass both. Reading this book is like listening to an old 8th dan Hanshi speak about Kendo. Through it we learn about and keep alive knowledge that has been hard-won by generations past.
Noma fighting in the Tenranjiai (on left)
Beginners, especially children, often ask me very direct questions, like "Why is there so much shouting in Kendo?" I try to answer my best but often find that I haven't thought adequately about it. It's just something we do! Of course this is not a good answer, and I wish I had Noma's list in mind when last I was asked.
Kakegoe (use of the voice in Kendo) causes the following:
- It stimulates the spirit;
- It focuses one's resources upon a single point, thereby producing greater than normal power;
- It makes the enemy aware of one's power and spirit;
- It forestalls the enemy's intentions;
- It confuses the enemy;
- It lures the enemy in;
- It irritates the enemy;
- It startles the enemy;
- It declares one's victory.
He then quotes Musashi's ideas on the use of the voice in classical swordsmanship (including battlefield use) and how this relates to modern Kendo. Like Musashi, Noma often ends a paragraph with the recommendation to the reader, "This requires careful study."
This edition and its genesis are well detailed on George McCall's site. From my point of view as a reader I found the square format of the book attractive, and the design of the book clear, stylish and to-the-point. There are only a few typos, which are difficult to completely eradicate in a self-publised book. I know George and I know how much work he would have put into making sure all his translations were checked and double-checked against various sources, to make sure the nuance of a particular phrase was transmitted accurately. This is not translation work that can be done by anyone. It requires a thorough knowledge not just of Japanese but of both Kendo and classical sword traditions, and the anachronistic, specialist terminology employed in both. George has immersed himself in Japanese sword culture deeply in his more than 10 years living in Japan and has translated many smaller works in that time. "The Kendo Reader" is his magum opus as a translator.
A couple of minor quibbles would be with some large spelling mistakes up front: "Content" instead of "Contents" (a result of George's IT background perhaps? hehe!) and "Forward" instead of "Foreword". Also, after several reads, the closeness of the text to the edges of the pages becomes a bit claustrophobic. But again, for a self-published book these details are minor. And being an online book, there is ample scope for fixes along the way.
Overall the book gives the reader a great deal to look at, read, and think about. I especially love the inlays with calligraphy by Noma and some of his teachers. This translation is the work of someone who loves Kendo and who wants to share the very best information he can find with the non-Japanese-speaking world. Indeed you could say that is the mission statement of the whole kenshi247 site.
I could go on and on with excerpts of my favourite bits, but for all my students, don't worry, I'll be quoting them at you over the next few months!
Buy it here.
*Although, as I said above, I know George, I purchased this book myself for full price and did not receive any inducement to review it.
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