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Seminar
Report – Hagakure Iaido Seminar 2006 By Andy
Watson
It is good to see changes to BKA routine taking place which have a positive effect on the majority and the arts which we study. It is also a pleasure to see our good friend and teacher, Ishido sensei, here in the UK independent of the ZNKR and thus free to speak and teach as he sees fit. This was the result of much planning and coordination by the members of the Hagakure Dojo group and its sensei, Len Bean. At this rare opportunity to see Ishido sensei away from the normal run of European-scale events we were also honoured with the presence of one of sensei’s top students, Morishima Kazuki, 7th dan iaido kyoshi. Some of you may remember Morishima sensei from way back when Warwick was used as a summer seminar venue. You may have been rather surprised that someone that young had progressed that far. Well some things never change. I met the two sensei at the airport on the Friday prior to the seminar along with the members of Hagakure dojo roped in for greeting, driving, entertaining and overall dogsbodying duties for the weekend. They all seemed happy to do though. When the two sensei arrived through arrivals it was easy to see which was the more seasoned traveller even given the age gap. Ishido sensei looked like he had just awoken fresh and full of life and Morishima looked like he had just awoken surprised and full of alcohol poisoning. A slow journey into East London followed made all the more eventful for that most dire of extreme and rare weather conditions which always brings London traffic to a standstill – rain! Fortunately Len had arranged an excellent choice of eating experiences in Canary Wharf to make up for the terrible journey and we were joined by Momiyama san for one of the best Chinese banquets I had had in this country. Jetlag kicked in quite early (that’s a hell of a distance from Heathrow) and the two sensei retired. The choice of sports centre next day was incredible just as Len had promised. Huge, clean, well equipped with changing facilities that the Roman emperors would have given the thumbs up to awaited us as well as a reception by Hagakure that ensured that everyone knew where they were going and when. It was also very nice to see so many from the Muso Jikiden Eishin Ryu sector of the BKA Iaibu including Fay Goodman sensei. There was also no shortage of friends from Holland, France, Sweden and….I apologise for any of the other countries I have left out. At the opening ceremony, Ishido sensei conveyed his gratitude for this event. After 28 years of visiting the UK, this seminar meant that each of his 5 original students (Chris Mansfield, Jock Hopson, Vic Cooke, Loi Lee and Len Bean) had now organised at least one seminar each to allow sensei to come to this country under his own steam. By seeing the way students trained and performed iaido it was possible for sensei to identify which lineage that student had originated from (me being tall of course come from Chris’s lineage who must all be above 6’1.5” to be allowed in the dojo – a jump test is mandatory!). This seminar as well as the fact that each of his original students had achieved 7th dan gave him a sense of completion and he expressed his respect for Len for organising this event. This address then followed with one minute’s silence in respect for Ishido sensei’s father who had passed away earlier this year (a separate article is in the pipeline as a memorial for Ishido Kancho). The seminar began with warm-ups and straight into an explanation of the recent clarifications to seiteigata. Sensei explained that the central seminar this year should have marked the completion of any clarification and changes to the seitei forms. I would like to confirm what this means to us. When the latest seitei manual was published there were areas which were left intentionally vague and undetailed. These were to be clarified by verbal transmission or would allow a certain amount of personal interpretation and flexibility by the teachers and students of the art. Over the last few years, some of these holes in the document have been filled, changed and refilled and this final committee meeting in 2006 should mark the end of any clarifications and changes. That of course does not mean that there won’t be any more changes but this is the first time there has been a decision made that the clarification is complete. As the clarifications were conveyed it was good to see that they all reflected a critical logic and efficacy of movement. Technically nothing had changed and the only alterations were to the style and emphasis of movement. One of the most significant changes was to the way of moving from a standing cut to the next cut. Historically this had been a difference between Shinden and Jikiden teachers; the former preferring a rotation of the body while the sword remained at hip height; the latter preferring an instantaneous drive up through ukenagashi into furikaburi. The news is: Jikiden wins. This is a vast oversimplification of course of something which is slightly complex but beautiful to realise nonetheless. I have tried to recreate sensei’s explanation of this in diagrammatic form below. As you have noticed, I am no artist… The “old” way (for Shinden anyway):
This way which was typically taught through Ishido sensei, tended to put a moment into the rotation of the body to see and confirm the opponent’s position. At that point the sword was drawn out of the first opponent’s body and so was brought to a horizontal position in front of the body with the balance equally positioned between the feet. It was of paramount importance during the entire movement that the angle of the sword was maintained above or on horizontal. …evolving into:
This method allows a certain decline of the sword as one passes through ukenagashi into furikaburi. It is still necessary that the sword is above horizontal at the apex of furikaburi but during the initial movement the sword will naturally decline in angle in a flowing and continuous manner. This also causes the body to move continuously towards to the new opponent but should not allow for any lack of metsuke or sword control during the transition. I realise that this may come as something slightly controversial to our more senior members and for that reason I asked to confirm the understanding of this. The diagrams above represent fairly accurately what sensei said. Personally I prefer this newer style of movement as it makes the cut more singular and continuous although I admit that it does make a decisive metsuke more challenging. Oh well. Another part of the clarification which made good logical sense came around with the explanation of why we now do ukenagashi the way we do it. The critical part at the point of deflection has seen various opinions as to the angle of the body and feet at that moment. The manual is quite emphatic now that the body is turned to face about 15 degrees to the right of the opponent at the moment of contact. The reasoning for this sensei gave is illustrated below:
It was pertinent to the above point that sensei pointed out that each of the kata explanations in the manual concluded with the phrase “And by doing this you win.” This point emphasises that all of the kata interpretation must be logically effective and should maximise your chance of winning the encounter. Further clarifications of cutting distance and target were given for the subsequent kata. In the context of timing it was very interesting to hear why each of the opponents in Shihogiri attacked individually. With a series of very neat demonstrations, sensei showed how any simultaneous attack from two or more opponents could be turned around so that friend defeated friend and that the convoluted situation where a simultaneous attack could be successful would only occur if the attackers had precognition of what the exponent was likely to do. As sensei frequently says, it is easy to find holes in the logic of the kata but only if you know the kata first. If you approached the situation for the first time (as a kata is supposed to be appreciated), these holes would not avail themselves. Timing came up once again in the evaluation of Sogiri. The question arose as to whether one could adjust the timing of the cuts. Sensei’s response was very clear: fail to demonstrate the ability to deliver consistently timed cuts and you could find yourself at the end of a grading failure. This was the same for shiai – one must show the difference between Sogiri and Somakuri (Gohogiri). I will here now attempt to speak for the majority at the slightly jaw-dropping skill and panache of Morishima sensei at his execution of the demonstrations. He has a style all of his own combining unexpected reach and sharpness of technique. All this is in a wonderful combination with his good sense of humour. A number of times when Ishido sensei was quoting something in praise of Morishima sensei, the latter would look at us with a look of worry that he could not fulfil some of these expectations. Without a few hours left of the first day we broke up into two groups of those wishing to train in Shoden Omori Ryu and those wishing to train in Chuden Hasegawa Eishin Ryu. Ishido sensei took the Shoden group with yours truly in the translator hotseat with Momi san doing his WaEi for Morishima sensei who took the Chuden group. This was preceded by a run through koryu reiho which I will summarise here but put a disclaimer in that this is relevant for Muso Shinden Ryu; Muso Jikiden Eishin Ryu of course is different.
I cannot of course speak for the Chuden lesson what with me not being there ‘n’ all but the Shoden lesson was very clear. Sensei was able to also give direction to the Jikiden members as he had spent much time training alongside Haruna sensei in the past and was also originally a Jikiden practitioner. He demonstrated the importance of correct posture in Shoden and how this in itself could be used for avoidance techniques within the kata. Two particular instances come to mind:
Actually the rest of the afternoon saw most of us stranded trying to do piece together Ryuto after sensei had decoupled it from what we thought we should be doing. It still amazes me how someone over sixty years old can move faster and with more control than someone a third of his age. We reached the end of the first day with a head-full of thoughts and a thirst like the desert has never seen for a beer. That evening Hagakure held a reception-cum-sayonara dinner at a local Indian restaurant whose food was fantastic if a little over egged in terms of making the customer wait. Oh well, at least it gave us an excuse to keep drinking. Dragon from Hagakure built a challenge up for Morishima sensei by ordering him a vindaloo which was promptly gobbled up without any forethought or sweat. “Blast!” we all thought. We can’t even get him that way!
Day two started with another friendly chat about stuff. Sensei expressed his gratitude to all who had sent letters of condolence and apologised for not replying to all of them as this is the custom in Japan. We quickly got started back into Koryu training. The Chuden group were looking shaky as I sniggered off to do some pain-free Shoden. We were soon joined by a few of the walking wounded from the Chuden group. A comprehensive explanation as to a form which might otherwise appear simple was the theme for Seichuto. Seichuto means attacking the elbows or the centres of the arms. The effect of the first draw was one in which an effective cut to one forearm, a stop against the other forearm and a subduing action against the eyes were all combined into the nukitsuke (see diagram below):
I won’t go into any more details of the Shoden training (that’s why people paid their seminar fee!) but towards the end of the morning we started on standing Okuden. I have already illustrated in previous articles some of the points of the early Okuden forms such as Yukizure. Sensei really wanted to plough into Sodome though and had us using the whole depth of the dojo to do repetitive techniques getting lower and lower until “Oooh!” This brought us to the end of the seminar and with a final message of well done and “you’ve only just started” from sensei the seminar was closed. I met the sensei and a reprobate 7th dan from Holland (one Mr Amersfoot) that evening back at the Chinese from the first night. On Monday I helped facilitate the palaver of getting VAT claimed back at the airport, dropping the form, finding it again before a conversation on the intricacies of Ukigumo and how a cardboard box can help. One can never escape from the look of entertainment on sensei’s face when you try to emulate actions of the kata while knocking over cups of coffee. I would like to extend a heartfelt thanks and congratulations to Len Bean sensei and his students at Hagakure for what I think most of all was an effective seminar – what had been expected from the seminar had been delivered with interest added.
© Andy Watson 2005, all rights reserved |
