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by Hunter Armstrong Sensei This article first appeared in the Winter 1996 issue of the SMAA Newsletter. Hunter B. Armstrong Sensei is one of a small number of non-Japanese to have legitimately studied the koryu, or ancient Japanese martial arts, in detail. He lived in Japan for quite a few years practicing directly under the soke, or headmasters, of more than one koryu. (Armstrong Sensei personally believes that koryu bujutsu can be defined as "traditions of fighting arts originating no later than the early Tokugawa era, and whose functional aims were the development of combat effectiveness, discipline, and morality, in that order.") A close associate of the late Donn Draeger Sensei, one of the world's foremost budo/bujutsu authors and historians, Armstrong Sensei succeeded Mr. Draeger as the Director of the International Hoplology Society.

by Dave Lowry - The editor of this publication [Bugeisha] was discussing on the phone with me some of the problems in presenting a serious magazine devoted to the martial arts and Ways. In particular, he lamented that there is a great shortage in those who are qualified and willing to write about the koryu, the classical martial arts of Japan which have become, within the past few years, a matter of considerable interest to Westerners. There are people out there who know a lot about these arts, he said, and why, he wanted to know, won't they write articles about them for magazines like this one, which would present such arts in a realistic and dignified way?

Like many, my first step into the world of iai and traditional Japanese sword arts was through the Zen Ken seitei-gata and for several years my experiences there strongly colored how I viewed iai, koryu arts and budo in general. Now anyone who has spent a

By Meik Skoss

Editor's Note: This article is an excerpt from Keiko Shokon - Clasical Warrior Traditions of Japan, Vol. 3, published by Koryu Books, available in FightingArts.com e-store.

Introduction

Itto-ryu kenjutsu is one of the most significant schools of Japanese swordsmanship ever developed. It was chosen as one of the official kenjutsu ryu of the Tokugawa shogunate (Shinkage-ryu being the other). Many of the daimyo (lords of major feudal domains) throughout Japan also adopted it as an otome ryu (official system) for their own retainers.

J'ai eu la chance de rencontrer certains des maîtres les plus remarquables de notre époque. Tous ont en commun une efficacité redoutable. Pourtant quand il s'agit de puissance Akuzawa Minoru se dégage du lot et de très loin. Sa maîtrise de la force interne est si remarquable qu'en voir et plus encore sentir la manifestation est littéralement effrayant. Pourtant rien de plus paisible que la méthode qu'Akuzawa senseï a créée sur les bases des koryu et qui s'apparente presque par sa forme à un type de Qi Gong. Pour la première fois Akuzawa senseï a accepté d'expliquer la genèse et les principes de sa méthode.

Takano Sasaburō (1862-1950) and Nakayama Hakudō (1872-1958) were two of the most important figures in the development of modern kendo (see this article for more information). Practitioners of both classical swordsmanship and the more modern forms of shinai keiko, their ways of thinking shaped the sword arts that we practise today. As such their opinions on kendo and swordsmanship in general are quite pertinent to those studying both modern and koryu arts. The following is a translation of their respective thoughts on tameshigiri.

Pour traiter de ce sujet, je vous propose la traduction de "Training Hard And Training Well Are Not The Same Thing" du site The Budo Bum. Peter Boylan est un pratiquant de koryu et aussi un adepte de longue date du judo.

Texte de Michel Coquet, Kyôshi, ETIK association.

A la demande de nombreux élèves désireux de mieux connaître la vie du fondateur de l'école Tenshin Shôden Katori Shintô ryû, j'ai profité d'un récent voyage au dojo du Shihan Risuke Otake pour lui poser quelques questions à ce sujet. Selon lui, il n'existe aucune biographie du Fondateur, mais un grand nombre de récits anecdotiques qui sont en possession du Sôke de l'école. L'un des écrits sur lesquels sont compilés les enseignements du fondateur, Maître Iizasa Chôisai Ienao, est appelé Kumazasa no oshie, "l'enseignement du bambou nain à cernes". Il reste tout de même de nombreux points inconnus de sa vie, particulièrement de ceux qui se rapportent à des datations précises. Selon sensei Otake, ce manque serait due au fait que maître Ienao était avant tout un guerrier des champs de bataille dont les exploits étaient souvent ignorés et non répertoriés. On enregistrait plutôt les combats individuels, les exploits riches en témoins officiels. Comme maître Ienao était contre ce genre de combat, bien peu de choses ont été connues de sa vie intime et de ses exploits.
L'un des problèmes rencontrés chez ceux qui se sont efforcés de mettre sur pied une brève histoire du maître, concerne l'identité exacte du Shôgun instruit par maître Ienao et surtout la date où il devint instructeur officiel.

I was sitting with a karate sensei in his dojo one afternoon, visiting with him, when he was approached by a fellow who had come to watch the class that day. The fellow said he was interested in taking up karate, but he wondered if training might present a problem for him. He was a marathon runner, he explained, and he spent several hours a week running and traveling to races. Would karate practice interfere with that?

Another time, an acquaintance commented to me that he wanted to begin studying the art of aikido. But as an underpaid schoolteacher, he wasn't sure he could afford the club dues of $30 a month that were levied by the dojo he wanted to join. It is pertinent to add in this case that this acquaintance was a smoker who easily spent more than $30 a month on his habit.

http://www.kendo-ventoux.com/blog2/?p=287 ;-)

Je crois que tout engagement sincère dans une voie (martiale ou pas) nécessite cela ... le réduire au budo est un peu étriqué ... Rilke en parle dans "Lettres a un jeunes poète" p.10 (mais tout le bouquin va dans ce sens...moins d'une 100aines de page ce n'est pas la mère a boire ) http://beq.ebooksgratuits.com/classiques/Rilke_Lettres_a_un_jeune_poete.pdf oui je sais je vais créer un topic ... "Voie/bien d'chez nous" ;-)

NOTE: Japanese martial arts are very diverse, and so any generalising statement or rule will have exeptions, probably about 50% of the cases. None of the following should be taken as absolute truth.

Comme expliqué dans la section histoire, Kashima-Shinryû prit d'abord forme lorsque MATSUMOTO Bizen-no-kami Ki no Masamoto développa Ichi-no-tachi. Cette technique représente l'expression physique ultime d'une approche de l'art du sabre basée sur l'applic

- La pratique de SHINDO MUSO RYU JO JUTSU - Shoshin, l'esprit du débutant - Pratiquez, pratiquez, pratiquez - Pratique traditionnelle

These Iai arts were performed by NAGAE Matasaburo, in his sixties (guess). He was born and lived in Nagasaki, received the 7th grade of Kendo and 8th grade of Iai from Zen-Nippon Kendo Renmei (All-Japan Kendo Federation). He also practiced Shinto Munen st