This is a personal review of the
week in Wales
with Inaba sensei and other teachers organised by Tetsushinkan dojo. It is
not a blow by blow account of everything that took place, but a personal summary
with various highlights of things that were important for me.
First a quick overview:
- An advanced guard of the Japanese contingent arrived on Thursday (not
including Inaba sensei)
- Udegawa san taught the normal Friday evening class at Tetsushinkan
- Saturday everyone decamped the 4-6 hours to Wales (this included Inaba
sensei and Endo san who only arrived that day from Poland where they had
been teaching the previous week). Various other overseas visitors flew in
that day and also drove down.
- Sunday was the official opening and first practice
- Standard schedule during the week
- Morning practice 9.30 - 12.30
- Afternoon activities in groups ranging from canoeing to horse riding
to cliff walks
- A couple of Instructor's sessions 6-7.30pm for invited people
(others free to watch)
- A couple of meetings with instructors to review links with Shiseikan, including future courses
- On Tuesday evening we greeted Toyama guji (the Chief Priest of the Meji
Jingu shrine who was "on tour" in Europe) with his entourage to Wales. He
came to watch practice on Wednesday and kindly hosted a meal on the
Wednesday evening for an invited group.
- Final practice on Friday, with an excellent party that evening in a
restaurant in Newport
- Return to London on Saturday
- Japanese all left Sunday
Summary
It was a truly excellent week. I came away with masses of food for
thought and further reflection regarding both life and budo studies. It was a
great pleasure to renew old friendships and to make some new friends. I also
feel a renewed personal challenge to do more with
these insights!
The teaching started with a formal opening ceremony conducted by Mori san, a
priest from the Meiji Jungu shrine and included prayers and harai tachi -
cleansing of the dojo and the spirits of those present. Inaba sensei talked
about his wish to demonstrate the importance of this aspect as part of his
teaching. Shinto is a relatively recent name for practices which go back
thousands of years. The gods and spirits come and sit in the branches of the
himorogi, part of the small shrine set up during practice. He does not view this
as a religious practice and certainly has no wish to convert everyone to
Shintoism! However, he wished to demonstrate the importance of setting the tone
for the week - in a way a sort of misogi for all those present.
Those of you who have seen Inaba sensei will know that talking and lecturing
form quite a part of his teaching. This can be a bit frustrating at first for those used
to other styles of teaching where much more emphasis is placed on practice. Many
of Inaba sensei's messages keep recurring over the years, but as often happens,
various things made more sense to me this time - maybe I have changed in the
meantime and so now hear them differently!
Why Are you Practicing?
As with the initial ceremony, this was something Inaba sensei returned to at
several points. We should understand why we are practising - what do we wish to
protect or defend? What are we prepared to do in the face of attack, for example
on our loved ones? Answers to this question inform all the rest of our studies,
and thus really are fundamental. Study and thought will be well repaid.
Relationship with Kunii Sensei
Inaba sensei gave some more details on his relationship with Kunii Sensei
(the 18th generation Headmaster of the Kashima Shinryu school). This
relationship was fairly short - 17 months I believe as a direct student before
his death in 1966. Inaba
sensei started studying aikido in the early 1960s at Hombu (and with Yamaguchi
sensei). Being allowed to study with Kunii sensei was not easy, but was enabled by
an introduction from Ashizu sensei, a Shinto philosopher that Inaba sensei was
also studying with (and indeed that association went on for nearly 30 years). The
relationship with Kunii sensei was obviously very close and Inaba sensei
mentioned being asked by Kunii sensei to pass what he learnt through direct
transmission and also the results of his own independent study. Inaba sensei
obviously feels a very strong obligation as a result.
Developing the Body
This has long been a key concern - developing our bodies as a foundation for
studies in budo. This time around there were copies of Inaba sensei's book on
the subject (English and Japanese in the one volume). The English title is
"Researching Japanese Budo". It originated in a series of articles for a
Japanese magazine in the early '90s, and I was involved in helping revise the
translation - I hasten to add that this meant reviewing the resulting English
and offering some suggestions for clarifying unclear points or reworking phrases
which appeared a little clumsy. The real work was done by Endo san and Annika
Hansen. The original translation was done by Yamada sensei and
Diane Zingale, of which a number of people received photo copies nearly 10 years
ago.
Anyway, pressure of time meant that it still isn't quite where it might be in
the English translation, but certainly full of very useful and interesting
information - perhaps will review separately. I suggest contacting
Shiseikan
directly if you wish to get a copy.
Energy Inherited from your Ancestors
This was a new concept for me, and something I did not find easy to get a
handle on in a physical sense. Intellectually to me it makes sense to talk about
what we inherit from our direct ancestors and also the energy of the place we
are in, but how to do anything physical with such energy was not clear. The exercise demonstrated was
basically kokyu-ho (e.g. both hands grasped and lifting your hands and thus your
partner in front of you). The difference as shown between this and normal ki
energy was not clear to me in any practical way, so very much one for further
research.
Kenjutsu Kata
I was very interested to see demonstrated some more dynamic ways of studying
kenjutsu. Inaba sensei discussed the various kata and went through the details
of the Uradachi (second set of 10 techniques) in some detail. However, as well
as the classic form of the kata with uke and nage, we were also shown more
dynamic forms, for example where uke more or less attacked in a kendo style and the response
need to be much more freeform than in the set version of the kata. I was
particularly interested as I had been thinking prior to the course that my own
kenjutsu risked being a little formulaic - falling into the pattern
of anticipating the technique and only being able to respond in the fixed form -
even getting annoyed when the attack wasn't "just right"! Some
teaching of the ukemi side were also very useful for me and others who are in
positions to teach. It is important to ensure that you are applying appropriate
pressure to your partner to draw their best out from them.
He did mention the requirements to study each set of kata (Kihon, Ura, Aishin,
Jissen, Kassen) properly before moving on to the next, but also to place them in
a context of being able to react flexibly.
Inaba sensei went through the Uradachi in some detail as part of one of the
instructor's courses. Particular points of note included the requirement for
both sides to treat the shinai as a real sword and thus heavy contact by uke is
not appropriate - you can't lean on the blade of a katana! Normally nage leads
by taking the first step, although it may appear that both people start
together. It is uke's responsibility to respond to nage.
Kesa Giri Footwork
I don't think anyone present will forget the outdoors practice of kesa giri -
the location was at Clydey Cottages - a place with a great lawn and stunning
view over the valley. Inaba sensei really demonstrated the difference between
short, restricted, inhibited kesa giri and the more expansive cuts which really
started to connect with the nature all around us. The difference that this made
in everyone's kesa giri was very marked, partiularly the following day back
inside - you could see the expansiveness still present.
This moved on also to the use
of the feet. For practical reasons of the ground being perhaps unstable, or
uneven, or on a slope, he emphasized the need to step with the feet fully before
completing the cut. It is easy in the clean confines of the dojo to get used to
cutting with the landing of the foot and the focus point of the sword cut
occurring at the same point. Outdoors however, this doesn't work - as soon as
you step you risk slipping and sliding, so it is important to have fairly firm
footing before completing the cut.
Battojutsu (Sword drawing)
This was another memorable day outside (though slightly more rainy) focussing
on the drawing of the sword. We were all using bokuto (wooden swords) for
practice but he did discuss the use of katana (live blades). He does not
recommend practice with iaito (metal swords with blunt blades), as these tend to
give one a false sense of security. A katana will "teach" you if you let it. It
requires much more focus and attention which is good for practice and
concentration. In a way, you should not use a katana too much since familiarity
may breed contempt and thus lack of focus.
Various exercises and cutting to different sides (front, back and both sides)
were demonstrated and practiced. In practice you shouldn't just get into the
habit of thinking "OK, now I will pretend someone is attacking from behind, so
let's react". It should be a much more instinctual response - wait and be alert,
and the right moment will arise. Remember also flexible footwork - react off
either foot.
Stepping off the Line
Figure 1 - Stepping off the line. Step1 in is the "invitation" (or sassoi) - a half step. Then you
step 2 to move left foot around an finally step 3 moves the right foot again.
Note that both feet are now off the line but the focus (shown by heavy dashed
arrow) is on a line pointing at uke's centre which forms a triangle with the
initial focus line.
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This was another exercise completed outside. It is one I have seen and
practiced several
times over the years, and yet realised this time around that I really need to
focus much more on it for my own practice.
You start a couple of paces away from uke, and then step in so as to "invite"
an attach (standard punch to the stomach). As the punch comes in you need to
step off the line so that you end up in a triangle with feet pointing at your
opponents centre. If uke attacks right hand (and foot), then it is quite normal
to initially half step with the right foot to "invite", and then step off the
line with the left foot closest to uke. See Figure 1.
The alternative which we practised involves "inviting" with a half step
forward of the left foot. The result is similar, but left and right feet are
reversed.
This appears quite simple but is difficult to do well, and in particular
getting the timing correct and being able to move your body appropriately is
key. Watching Inaba sensei, he doesn't necessarily appear to move particularly
fast, but it is at just the right moment and with appropriate speed.
Further developments of this exercise shorten the distance to one step, then
half a step, then no steps (with uke's hand on your belly). Challenging stuff!
The Grading
This happened at the end of the week during the last session ranging from
shodan to yondan (errrr that would be me...). Most people were from Tetsushinkan
but some others from London and Greece, and everyone generally did
very well. Results are on the
Tetsushinkan
events page.
As is typical with Inaba sensei's gradings they were relatively short. In
each case various attacks were specified and the actual technique was not
specified - indeed it was perfectly acceptable to perform the same technique
several times in a row to the same attack. The important factors are spirit,
body movement and effectiveness, rather than necessarily technical beauty.
People also demonstrated some of the Kashima Shinryu kenjutsu kata according to
the knowledge and experience of the person being graded (e.g. Kihondachi or
Uradachi). This approach is certainly different to what is normally done within
many standard aikikai dojos. I did discuss this afterwards over a beer
with a couple of people - "but how do you know they know all the appropriate
techniques?" was one question. I obviously can't speak for Inaba sensei but I
think that it is usually clear from a demonstration the sort of level a person
has reached, and it is perfectly in tune with his general approach of studying
relatively few techniques but in great depth. In addition, I think that this
sort of approach works well in smaller organisations where the people being
graded are known to the examiners - I think there might be more problems with
larger scale organisations.
Instructor's Meeting - The Future
There were a couple of interesting discussions with vairous instructors and
countries present, e.g. Bjorn Eirik Olsen and others from Norway, Pascal Durchon
and Joel Roche from France, Anita Kohler from Germany and various others from UK
etc. As with all good discussions, some heat and light at times was eventually
turned into some good results and conclusions.
Inaba sensei was keen to get an understanding of how he could best support
those present, and what sort of future courses and training was both sought and
might be possible. He did mention that his preferred method is to teach a small
group of people at the Shiseikan where he could give a lot of time and attention
to them, and he made a generous offer for those prepared to arrange visits.
Pascal and Anita in particular expressed a desire to give more people the
opportunity to get to know Inaba sensei and experience his teaching. The rough
plan for 2007 is for a seminar in France to be organised primarily by Pascal,
followed by Norway in 2008 and Germany in 2009. Visits to Shiseikan are left to
individual groups to arrange. I think the intention for Paris is to perhaps
offer open sessions where anyone can attend, but also a more restricted session
for those with previous experience and who have already made contact with Inaba
sensei and are already studying his methods. This would allow for more advanced
training, in particular for kenjutsu. I think it will be very interesting to see
how this works, and certainly look forward to Paris next summer!
Conclusion
The course was excellent - lovely surroundings and a great atmosphere.
Serious study and yet not in a heavy atmosphere. The number of seniors around
(from Japan and elsewhere) made for some excellent training.
Inaba sensei is a fascinating and inspiring teacher on many levels, and it is
worth taking any opportunity to get around him and learn from him. Some of his
methods are a little extreme perhaps, and I am not clear in my own mind how easy
it is to combine what he teaches with classic aikikai aikido. The differences go
to quite deep levels. This is fine for those of us who primarily follow his
teaching. Others who think it might be nice to spice up their traditional
methods may find it distinctly more challenging. How much integration is
possible and how much is it two separate approaches - I suspect it is going to
take me at least quite a few more years to decide. In the meantime he is
planning for the future. He is not going to go on for ever - seek him out and
take advantage of him!
