Feedback and Corrections (Heihō Kadensho Part 1)

It has been MANY months since my last major post about the Heihō Kadensho, Yagyū Munenori's kenjutsu treatise. In that time, I've received a lot of feedback and commentary. I thought it would be helpful for my readers if I responded to those comments before digging into more of the techniques and philosophy of Shinkage-ryū. Broadly speaking, this feedback pertains to foot position and posture with the sword.

This update has been sitting in my editing bin for awhile, so a lot has happened in that time.

Among other things, I entered a Martial A&S Show and Tell last week! I wasn't able to join the live video discussion, but I did send in a short video which the laurels graciously responded to. In that presentation, I recapped some points of my research that I've already published on this blog. I also delivered a research statement describing how I'm trying to introduce more widespread kenjutsu scholarship into SCA Rapier Combat while aiming to be respectful, accurate, and effective.

If you'd like to see that presentation and the laurels' feedback that followed, you can watch that right here. I highly recommend watching the whole discussion. There were a TON of excellent presentations as well as great pointers from the laurels that may even help you in your own research. If you'd like to fast forward to my presentation, that happens around 56:15.

Here is the full list of panelists and presenters in case you see something that piques your interest or someone you know.

Laurels:

    Valentin Malatesta

    Meister Logos vom Schnecke

    Mistress Lissa Underhill

    Aeron Harper

Presentations:

1. "Implementing Historic Kenjutsu in Rapier Combat" by Ogata Genjirō Mitsui
2. "Shutting Out: A Hypothesis on Blade Coverage from Vienna Anonymous" by Lord Ishmael Stedfast Reed
3. "Applying Grisone to Train Rossfecten Appropriate Hoofwork"
4. "La Verdadera Destreza against the Alfanje" by Doroga Voronin
5. "Polish Saber" by Miguel Mono de Hierro
6. "Giganti teaches tempo" by Maestro Killian Flynn Macthoy
7. "Overview of French Fencing/Dueling Culture" by Maréchal Remy Delamontagne de Gascogne

Seeing so many people chime in about martial instruction over the past few months, as well as hearing feedback from a panel of martial arts laurels, has been really encouraging. Everything I’ve taken in so far gives me a lot of hope for this research.

Throughout this post, I'll be referring to quotes and feedback from people who have experience with other ryuha if not Yagyū Shinkage-ryu specifically. For the sake of disseminating clear and helpful information, I am providing each commentator’s name as well as the school to which they belong or otherwise attribute their information.

Also, to remedy this lack of Shinkage-ryu experience, I went looking for demonstrations of Shinkage-ryu online. Thankfully, I succeeded.

Tokumeikan's founder, Douglas Tong (right),
demonstrating Itto Ryodan with his student Erika (left)

I discovered a Youtube channel belonging to Douglas Tong, an important figure in modern kenjutsu. Douglas lived in Japan for many years and studied Japanese swordsmanship under some great masters, including Masao Mutoh, the 21st Shihan of the Ōtsubo branch of the Owari line of Yagyū Shinkage-ryu. In 1994, Douglas founded Tokumeikan, the official study group (keiko-kai) for the Ōtsubo branch. According to the group's web page (https://www.tokumeikan.org), Tokumeikan is authorized by and often receives direct instruction from Kajitsuka Yasushi, the 22nd Shihan of the Ōtsubo branch.

On Douglas's Youtube channel, I found a wealth of training videos featuring him and his students performing dozens of techniques. The videos are short, about half a minute or less. Each video is titled by technique, according to how the technique would appear in the Yagyū Shinkage-ryu Heihō Mokuroku.

Prior to discovering Douglas's channel, my best chance of utilizing video instruction was to meticulously find and catalog techniques from videos of Shinkage-ryu demonstrations at various Japanese kenjutsu events. You can imagine what a relief it was to find that I had been saved from wildly guessing at the names of techniques.

Tokumeikan's videos have quickly become some of my best sources for answering questions about posture, positions of the arms and legs, and the movement of the sword. Here is what Douglas has to say about his playlist of training videos.

"This is a collection of videos chosen for our members to aid them in their continued practice and learning. They have been chosen because they represent good models of correct form. In the videos shot by us, they were specifically performed at a slower speed so that the relevant details could be more easily seen and analyzed."

Douglas has also curated other playlists on philosophy, martial arts culture, and other martial forms besides kenjutsu. Very soon, I'll be reaching out to Tokumeikan to pose some questions to them directly.

Needless to say, I am ecstatic to start digging into the wealth of Shinkage-ryu knowledge that Tokumeikan has chosen to showcase. In future posts, I'll be linking to some of Douglas's videos and reading along with Sato and Wilson's translations of the Heihō Mokuroku.

Foot Position

If you recall some of the conclusions I made at the end of my last post, I was left with a big question about foot position. To reiterate, “[Yagyū] Munenori doesn't specify whether your feet should be pointed in the same direction or opposite directions. Which direction should your feet point?”

After watching a few of Tokumeikan's training videos, I noticed that the participants can be observed moving with both feet pointed in the same general direction or within an acute arc. Some exceptions include when a posture might call for a "T-pose," in which the feet are pointed at right angles to each another.

I also received feedback on this question of foot position from a few acquaintances in the SCA Japanese facebook group. Among others, Shannon Houtermans offered some key insights and nomenclature he learned from studying Hokushin Ittō-ryū.

"Many pre-Edo styles would and still stand in Shimoku-ashi (feet pointing in different directions, bent front leg, stretched back leg) with the sword, as this was the preferred stance for using polearms.

In contrast, a lot of styles that were developed during the Edo period, and especially the late Edo period, would and still stand in Shomen-ashi (feet pointing in the same direction, heel of the back leg raised slightly) with the sword, in order to move more dextrously. This could even be achieved in armour. Shimoku-ashi would still be used with polearms in these styles.

This is also why we see Shomen-ashi in modern Kendō, because gekiken and taryū-jiai were very popular during this period, and many schools from the late Edo period contributed to its development."

Big shoutout to Shannon for that insight!

I think one of the most valuable contributions we can gather from Hokushin Ittō-ryū at this time are those technical terms that refer to the placement of our feet. To be honest it was getting awkward referring to these positions by their criteria for lack of a name.

Once again they are:

• Shimoku-ashi: feet pointing in different directions, bent front leg, stretched back leg
• Shomen-ashi: feet pointing in the same direction, heel of the back [foot] raised slightly

As a disclaimer, this terminology isn't used in the Heihō Kadensho or Heihō Mokuroku as far as I've seen.

For those who are unfamiliar with gekiken and taryū-jiai, these are terms for different Japanese dueling traditions. Gekiken or "free-fighting" was a term for matches that specified no particular style. Taryū-jiai was a more formal duel between members of different schools. Both of these traditions commonly featured training implements such as bamboo shinai and padded armor.

In addition to passing on info and nomenclature from Hokushin Ittō-ryū, Shannon dropped a quote from Chiba Shūsaku Narimasa, who founded Hokushin Ittō-ryū in the 1820's.

"In Kenjutsu it is very bad to put your left foot completely on the ground. If your left foot is not free, you cannot move dexterously. It is very unskilled to do so, so if there is a person doing it during training you should try to correct his left foot in order to improve him.

This bad stance is called shimoku-ashi (shimoku-ashi describes the way how a Buddhist monk at a temple stands when hitting the temple bell with a big wooden hammer, rear foot is pointing to the side while front foot is pointing straight forward). It is a very bad habit. If any of the students happen to stand in that way, correct them quickly. Since it is not easy to fix this stance-habit after it was practiced frequently, one should correct it as soon as possible." (Chiba Shūsaku Narimasa, Kenpo Hiketsu)

For context, here is a Buddhist monk in Korea ringing the type of bell that Chiba is talking about.

Regarding shimoku-ashi, I think Shannon's claim about it being well-suited for pole-arms makes sense and the passage from the Kenpo Hiketsu absolutely supports this. By keeping your back foot flat, you can brace yourself against the ground and use your body weight to power a strike. Additionally, you can advance and retreat with ease. As I described in my last post, this posture is also useful for powering a lunge.

Now compare this to Chiba's suggestion about shomen-ashi. While shomen-ashi may not be well-suited for explosive lunges that maximize range, I am tempted agree with Chiba and say it is more dextrous. In boxing and other hand-to-hand martial arts, balancing your weight between both feet while they are pointed forward allows for fast and complex footwork. Among other things, you can quickly switch the placement of your feet while maintaining balance. In my last post, I commented on how the position of your hips can change the speed of your steps. I think the same logic applies here. When your hips are kept close together, your feet can pass each other with more ease than if they were spread open.

Although this new information answers some parts of my question, it has given rise to a new question. Simply put, "does a T-pose count as shimoku-ashi or shomen-ashi?" I am not sure how to answer this question at the moment, but I think it would be a good one to put forth to a member of Tokumeikan.

Posture with the Sword

Admittedly, this was the part of my analysis where I expected the most mistakes.

This is my first serious foray into two-handed swords, let alone into kenjutsu. It's natural that I'm going to get a lot of things wrong about sword position after applying two different translations of the same historic text.

After my second post on the Heihō Kadensho, I conferred with my friend Jason Foil. Jason is a black belt in Kakijimbo and its daughter system Calm Water. By putting our heads together, we sorted out how to properly form the postures I initially sought to display. I have adjusted my form accordingly and reproduced the postures below.

Jodan (Front)

Jodan (Left)

Chudan (Front)

Chudan (Left)

Gedan (Front)

Gedan (Left)

Jason also introduced two new postures as well. "Waki" and "hasso" are postures that are taught in modern kendo as well as other traditional kenjutsu schools. Neither Yagyū Munenori nor Matsudaira Nobusada talk about these postures using those same names. However, the basic characteristics of these postures do feature in the techniques of the Heihō Mokuroku. I'll start with waki and then talk about hasso afterwards.

The basic characteristics of waki can be observed at the beginning of the technique "Itto Ryōdan." This is the first technique in the Heihō Mokuroku. Itto Ryōdan is also called "Splitting the opponent in two with a single stroke" (Sato) or "One Cut, Two Halves" (Wilson). Here are some portions of the translations of Itto Ryōdan that remark on the opening posture.

"You face the opponent sideways, holding your sword to the right, downward, the sword tip facing away from you. 

...Because of the low posture you assume, this technique is nicknamed chinryū, "a dragon crouching in the water." (Sato, The Sword and the Mind, pg. 26)

"...drop your sword back to the right like a wheel, advance your left foot, and cock your knee slightly. Your body should be at an oblique angle to your opponent." (Wilson, The Life-Giving Sword, pg. 78)

Although Nobusada does not name this posture as he names jōdan, chudan, or gedan, Sato mentions that a nickname for the technique was "chinryū." I am not sure whether this nickname could be used to refer to the posture as well as the technique that utilizes it, but it is certainly interesting.

As we read the translations, we can follow the training videos provided by Tokumeikan. Here is one of their videos demonstrating the basic postures of Itto Ryodan.

In this video, we see Erika (on the left in white) facing Douglas (on the right in black). Erika moves into position. She holds her sword (a fukuro-shinai) to the right, with the tip and edge facing away from her body. Her body is positioned at an oblique angle to Douglas, with her shoulder pointed out. She has advanced her left foot and seems to be keeping her weight balanced 50/50. Her right foot forms a "T" with her left.

Here is my attempt at waki, or, chinryū after studying several demonstrations by Tokumeikan.

Waki (Front)

Waki (Right)

Moving onto hasso...

The basic characteristics of hasso can also be observed in the Heihō Mokuroku, though Nobusada calls this posture "yin position." Two techniques in the section "The Nine Kinds" feature this as an opening posture. These techniques are Hisshō and Gyakufū. Sato and Wilson both translate these names to mean "Certain Victory" and "Cross Wind," respectively. Below, I have reproduced portions of their translations of Hisshō where Nobusada remarks on how to stand in yin position.

"You hold your sword in a yin position - over the right shoulder, the blade inclining upward and back." (Sato, The Sword and the Mind, pg. 31)

"The sword is held over the right shoulder, pointing upward and to the rear." (Wilson, The Life-Giving Sword, pg. 131

Here is a demonstration of Hisshō by Tokumeikan. Unlike the video I linked for Ittō Ryodan, this demonstration of Hisshō shows continuous movement between each posture.

As this technique is being demonstrated closer to fighting speed and with fluid movement, we should break down what is happening and where the position occurs. We see Scott (on the right in black) approach Douglas (on the left in white). At 0:10, we see Scott move his sword over his shoulder. The sword's tip is pointing behind him and the edge is facing upwards.

Additionally, we see Scott's right foot begin to creep out in preparation of the side-step he will take in that direction. I am not sure if this way of positioning the foot is a feature of yin position generally or of Hisshō specifically. To make matters more confusing, Munetoshi's illustrations of yin position (in Hisshō and Gyakufū) feature the left foot in front and the right foot behind.

Hisshō

Gyakufū

Here is my attempt at hasso, or, yin position. You will notice I chose to represent the footwork of Munetoshi's illustration.

Hasso (Front)

Hasso (Right)

Recap

I sent in a video presentation about my research to a panel of martial arts laurels and it was well received! Once again you can find that here.

I stumbled upon Tokumeikan, the official study group of Shinkage-ryū! I also found Douglas Tong's personal youtube channel. You can find a playlist of techniques demonstrated by Tokumeikan students right here.

Shannon Houtermans offered some valuable insight about footwork! Specifically, he commented on shimoku-ashi and shomen-ashi as effective nomenclature to describe the angle of the feet.

Jason Foil helped me to correct my posture and pass those corrections on to my readers!

That's everything I wanted to cover in this update. I hope to receive even more comments and feedback as I continue researching and writing about kenjutsu!

Sincerely,

Ogata Genjirō Mitsui MKA Charlie Denton