Introduction

Japanese swordsmanship is an intriguing and deeply indigenous subject of great historical and cultural significance, and there is therefore substantial justification for devoting an entire book to a discussion of this art.

In the present volume it is our primary purpose to furnish an introductory approach to the exacting discipline of modern Japanese swordsmanship known as iai-do—that is, the techniques of drawing, cutting with, and returning the Japanese sword to its scabbard. To accomplish the purpose, we place the Japanese sword and swordsmanship in historical perspective, a relationship of vital importance in the understanding of Japanese history that has been grossly neglected by scholars. The interrelation between swordsmanship and the socioeconomic and political systems of Japan is not accidental. Many of the well-known and popularly researched historical events and the origins of traditional Japanese institutions as well as the manner of integration between them are, in fact, later in time than the advent of the standard Japanese sword. In fact, there is much in Japanese history that was incapable of becoming a reality before the appearance and widespread skillful use of the Japanese sword. The rise of the bushi (classical warriors), the enforcement of the shoen (private proprietorship) system, and the formation of the first bakufu (martial government) are cases in point. Moreover, the sword is ancestral to some of the most basic and long-enduring practices of social organization in Japan. Thus, in spite of the intended narrow analysis we make of our subject, it becomes necessary to draw connections with the wider flow of national history.

It is equally important for us to realize that the highest testimony of the bushi's moral worth lay in his mastery of swordsmanship—a discipline in which the sword was an instrument not for taking life but for giving it, even though the warrior's abuses by way of the sword be as evident as death's stamp. Such lapses in the universal goodness of the sword, however, were individual and transient ones, while its great benefits to man are general and enduring. We should therefore be honestly interested in discovering what some of the philosophical tenets of classical swordsmanship are and how they are being applied to modern Japanese society.

In partial answer to F. Monteihet's complaint that "the noise of battles fills history, but no light shines upon the ways in which people become soldiers," we offer information about the origins of Japanese swordsmanship and swords, showing how these weapons were fitted into the educational programs of classical warriors. Additionally, we point out that the Japanese sword, which unites exquisite grace and utmost strength by design in spite of being an object of awe and terror when viewed unsheathed, is enhanced by its great cultural and artistic values. The Japanese sword is a precious and worshiped object that is created in a religious act by the swordsmith, who is both artisan and inspired artist. He begins the making of a sword with solemn prayer and purification rites, then puts his soul into the laborious and delicate job of forging and tempering the blade. Thus, in spite of its utilitarian nature, the Japanese sword is truly an objet d'art, a veritable culture symbol without which the Japan that we know today would not be possible.

Iai-do is a modern noncombative discipline that stems from martial practices out of Japan's historic past. The exponents of combative prototype forms of Japanese swordsmanship are seen to have been extremely vigorous men in each period of Japanese history. They were men whose thoughts and actions give us a penetrating insight into the enduring cultural forces that have molded the nature of Japanese thought, dictated the strict regulations concerning social conduct, set standards of aesthetic taste, developed a stern and conservative philosophy of life, and eventually brought the leaders in the political time frame of the Tokugawa han (demesne) to great heights as well as to miserable depths of despair.

Nonetheless striking is the realization that today, in modern Japan, there are hundreds of thousands of persons of both sexes and in a wide range of age levels who make iai-do an important part of their daily lives. Many of these people are as vigorous as were their counterparts in earlier ages, and a considerable number of the modern exponents of iai-do are important leaders of Japanese educational programs and of business and industrial enterprises, or they are prominent figures in Japan's numerous social, religious, economic, and political organizations. Thus there can be no valid argument against the fact that a comprehensive study of iai-do will afford us a realistic contact with a large segment of Japanese history and, moreover, that this study will be substantially educational not only with respect to many facets of life in pre-Meiji Japan but in terms of the modern age as well.

Historian John Whitney Hall notes that most of the difficulty in arriving at an understanding of Japanese history is due to attempts to explain things in terms of Western preconceptions. As an alternative, Hall suggests: "If the Western observer could but shift his viewpoint and accept Japanese history on its own terms, taking explanations from the content of Japanese culture and from the value system of the Japanese people themselves, the results would be quite different, and certainly more comprehensible." In his use of this book, the reader will of necessity be required to familiarize himself with a rich new technical vocabulary of words and concepts that are peculiar to the art of Japanese swordsmanship. Unless this is done, there is little hope of his gaining a genuine intimacy with the subject.

By way of explanation, it should be noted that the orthography of Japanese words and names used in this book follows, in general, the standard of the International Hoplological Research Center, Hawaii, as adapted from Kenkyusha's New Japanese-English Dictionary, Tokyo, fourth edition, 1974, but given far wider application in the multitude of technical terms not found in that dictionary. An exception is made in omission of the macron used to indicate the long vowel in well-known place names like Tokyo, Kyoto, and Osaka and in anglicized common nouns like daimyo and shogun. All Japanese personal names are given in Japanese style: surname first. The sources cited in the text and itemized in the bibliography are only those available in English. This selective treatment is offered as a convenience to the wide majority of readers, who will have no special skill in the written Japanese language and no easy access to native sources. It is important, however, to bear in mind that the authors do not regard the sources cited in the book as primary sources of information. Rather, it is the vast body of Japanese oral tradition that remains viable in the minds of contemporary martial men and stands in support of important documentary evidence (makiniono) currently in the possession of Japanese classical martial traditions (ko ryu) that has been the main source of our information.

Something must be said, too, about the fact that, in spite of the substantial and accredited practical experience and expertise that has been mustered to produce this book, certain limiting factors have intruded to the great displeasure of the authors. During the almost four years' time that it has taken to prepare this manuscript there have been various major difficulties, not the least of which has climaxed the effort made in taking the photographs for the sword-drawing techniques. These pictures were taken during the rainy season in Japan, a time when the capriciousness of intermittent periods of clouds, clear skies, and sunshine is notoriously unpredictable, and so the desired results were not possible. Moreover, in the retyping of the manuscript that existed only in draft form with many emendations and handwritten corrections, every effort was made not to introduce errors. Here the editorial skill of Ralph Friedrich has greatly minimized such errors. But in a work of this size errors unnoticed have undoubtedly slipped in, and it is the authors alone who are responsible for this possible shortcoming.

The authors do not intend this book to be a definitive work either on the subject of Japanese swordsmanship in general or on iai-do in particular, nor yet a work that fully details the story of the Japanese sword and its many contributions to history. That the book does not attempt to address the actual training methods and procedures used by expert swordsmen to attain their proficiency and, therewith, to instruct others, is also a deliberate omission because the explication of such vital matters requires a volume in itself and must be left to another time. Nevertheless, the publication of this primer should make possible a better understanding of Japanese swords and swordsmanship as representing a unity of thought and action now only imperfectly known to Westerners and to modern-day Japanese as well.

From Chapter 2: Swordsmanship and Classical Warrior Education

The Essentials of Classical Training

Ayoung warrior might best become a formidable swordsman by seeking the guidance of a competent master of the sword, preferably one who had established his reputation by successful participation in combat. Master swordsmen were most likely to be the founders or the legitimate successors in leadership of classical combative ryu, or they might simply be outstanding swordsmen of well-established traditions. Not all master swordsmen were approachable, for many led ascetic lives and refused to teach their art. But either by personal choice of a master swordsman and by direct application to him or through the recommendation of some other person, a warrior might gain entrance to a classical martial ryu for the purpose of undertaking martial study. He could be compelled to enter a ryu that was traditionally attached in some way to his family or to that of the superior whom he served. But he might also request formal permission to dispense with his local obligations in order to enter a ryu located in another area.

Certain formal procedures had to be completed before the headmaster of a ryu would accept an applicant. It was almost always necessary that the warrior-applicant execute the keppan, a blood oath-seal, which was a pledge of allegiance to the ryu signed in the applicant's own blood. By the strength of this oath he swore on his personal honor not to reveal the nature of his martial studies to anyone outside his ryu. The keppan is one major reason why members of classical martial ryu displayed an immense pride in their ryu and an equally strong sense of loyalty to their headmaster. A newly admitted member of a ryu was always impatient to learn the exacting and awesome cutting and thrusting actions with a sword that characterized the ryu of his choice. But the headmaster sometimes first required the new member undergo the te hodoki, or untying of hands, a period of probation whose duration was the sole prerogative of the headmaster. During this time the suitability of the applicant for study was probed, and he might be given domestic chores such as suited the headmaster for whose convenience they were performed.

Once he began training, however, the warrior truly became the monjin, the disciple, of the headmaster. It was soon evident to the trainee that the use of the sword in an effective combat manner was filled with so many pitfalls and technical hurdles that only by a willing submission to training on a daily basis and over a long period of time was it possible for him to master this fascinating art. Kata (prearranged exercise) was the central training method. Kata in classical swordsmanship is the discipline of disciplines. It steels the nerves and balances the emotions so as not to disturb the serenity of mind that is so essential in swordsmanship. Kata, while teaching the particular pattern of movement and use of weapons, is also an exercise that builds stamina with a view toward endurance of pain and hardship.

The exponent of modern disciplines involving swordsmanship (kendo, iai-do), if lacking experience in classical martial disciplines (jutsu forms), cannot possibly have any true understanding of classical kata. Modern kendo, for example, does not place emphasis on kata. Moreover, any kata attached to a modern discipline is always a farrago in which the individual techniques, having been chosen from various and different sources, bear no interrelationship or, what is worse, is a newly constructed kata designed by persons who have had no hand-to-hand combat experience with the sword. The serious technical deficiency in the kata of modern disciplines is further compounded by the fact that kata practice is rarely required of exponents of these disciplines and, if taught at all, is taught by persons who have no real understanding of any inherent combative values the kata may have. Deprived of combative integrity, the kata of modern disciplines thus stand tangential to the very discipline they are said in theory to support, the disciplines being characterized more by an emphasis on "free" action directed toward sport-context applications that are far removed from the exigencies of combat.

Genuine classical sword kata are sequences that have been extracted from successful battlefield experiences. The careful manner in which individual techniques were selected and linked together to form a meaningful combative sequence was accomplished by men who had considerable experience on the battlefield and elsewhere. In classical kata there is no preset "winner" or "loser," for any single technique executed on the part of either of the participants is designed to produce shobu, lethal results, if carried to conclusion. "Conclusions" are made possible in various clever ways without actually injuring the participant. This is accomplished mainly through control of the interval between the participants and by impacting weapon against weapon instead of weapon against the chosen target area on the victim's body. In addition to training in swordsmanship the warrior learned to ride well (bajutsu) and to master the bow and arrow (kyujutsu). He also had to gain proficiency in the use of other major weapons: the yari (spear), the naginata (halberd), and the bo (staff). In addition there were secondary skills to master such as kuini-uchi (grappling) and combative swimming (suiel-jutsu). Each ryu had its own peculiarities regarding the scope of its martial curriculum and the specific nature of the techniques comprising that curriculum, but all revolved around training with weapons in kata fashion in which the long sword was the central weapon. The study of swordsmanship also entailed a working familiarity with the nomenclature of the various styles of blades, scabbards, and fittings and with a rich vocabulary of terms minutely detailing the component parts of the sword. It was further essential for the warrior to have full knowledge of an equally formidable array of customs and forms of warrior etiquette, all of which were based on the lore of the sword and had practical essence.