Amatai no Shugo-ryū: Goals, Ki, and State of Mind

Achieving our two essential goals in the practice of Amatai no Shugo-ryu, that is the cutting of an opponent while avoiding being cut and the perfection of character, require an keen awareness of both the physical and mental aspects of each interaction between training partners or opponents. Equally important is the ability to feel the exchange of energy, ki, between the participants. One’s state of mind is critical to this; for, a negative state of mind will interfere with one’s ability to achieve the purpose of each exercise in practice. Anger, impatience and selfishness can limit one’s awareness and prevent them from determining their opponent’s intent.

On the other hand, proper practice does have a significant, positive effect on one’s state of mind. By putting one’s body and mind into action through the practice of kata and drills, while being focused on the key elements and asking one’s self questions about one’s strategy, the tendency is to disrupt anger and promote patience and cooperation. Happiness, patience and cooperation: all make the smooth flow of ki between training partners possible; therefore, each person is better able to react properly.

The more one is able to live in the moment and put aside all irrelevant thoughts and respond intuitively to perceived subtle changes of strength or weakness, the more one is able to sense the ki. To achieve such a state of mind is not easy; however, once one is really aware of the ki component in Kenjutsu, one can then begin to learn to control their attacker’s intent.

This is a valuable goal and it is not by chance that the same qualities one develops in the dojo will help them to become better people outside. Those who truly seek enlightenment, the “Way”, as Miyamoto Musashi put it, try hard to develop specific qualities within themselves: to live within the moment, to put aside irrelevant thought, and to allow intuition to guide them to correct action. As one studies Amatai no Shugo-ryū, they can attain a similar state of mind both inside the dojo and when they leave at the end of the day.

Strategy in Amatai no Shugo-ryū (Part 4): Strategies for 2010

As we have seen, strategy is a plan of action that is intended to accomplish a specific goal. Tactics are methods that one utilizes to achieve a particular end or goal; thus, strategy refers to one’s general plan of action and one’s tactics are the methods used to accomplish that plan. Methods can themselves be categorized into techniques, which will enable one to establish the proper frame of mind and action that will lead to the efficient accomplishment of their goals.

This is so vital to one’s success in the dojo and one’s success in Kenjutsu; however, with the new year of 2010, we should also be aware that it is these same things – strategy, tactics, techniques – which can play as equally vital a role in our daily lives as in the art of swordsmanship. Let us look to Miyamoto Musashi for his insight into this “strategy for life.”

In Go Rin Sho, his Book of the Five Rings, Musashi made two points concerning this. First, that one must choose a goal before one can accomplish it; and secondly, the more difficult one’s goal is, the more effort they must put into achieving it. Now, Musashi’s goal, one he established before even reaching his teens, was (even though perhaps unspoken) to become a great swordsman: the greatest in Japan. An extraordinary ambition for anyone let alone a youth in Sengoku Period Japan.

There are probably few goals in modern life that could compare with the goals that Musashi set for himself; however, all accomplishment, all success starts with goals. Musashi tells us to be ambitions in setting goals; ambitious goals will help one to focus their energies, abilities, and actions to their maximum effort.

New years, it is said, is a time of resolution. With the coming of 2010, we should reflect on our lives, what we have achieved and what we have failed to achieve. We should take the time to think of what we want and can do in the coming year. We should then take the time to form strategies, and determine the tactics and techniques that will enable us to achieve our goals and be successful; be it at our job, in our homes, with our families, or with ourselves. Realistic goals, well-thought strategies, carefully selected tactics and techniques, should make 2010 a good year for us all.

Strategy in Amatai no Shugo-ryū (Part I)

Saya no uchi. Saya no uchi no kachi. Victory with the sword still in the scabbard. The words almost shout at the swordsman, exhorts him, to remember that physical combat is always the last resort. No matter how confident one may think they are, how many techniques they may know, a master of strategy will always find a way to win without fighting. This is a message that is not unique to our dojo; rather, it has been passed down through the ages.

Sun Tsu once said:

To fight and conquer in all your battles is not supreme excellence;

Supreme excellence consists of breaking the enemy’s resistance without fighting.

Did not Miyamoto Musashi make this a central point of his Go Rin No Sho, The book of the Five Rings? Did not Yagyū Munenori, founder of the Edo Branch of Yagyū Shinkage-ryū from which Amatai no Shugo-ryu draws so much, preach this very thing time and again?

The path to mastery of Amatai no Shugo-ryū, Yagyū Shinkage-ryū, or any form of Kenjutsu is long indeed. Before anyone can achieve success by virtue of intellect or willpower, they must have a deep understanding of the principles of swordsmanship and of a nature which will allow them to act in keeping with those principles. One can only acquire this through constant, long-term practice and the study of strategy; which includes the old texts by those Musashi and Yagyū Munenori, among others.

Simply put, strategy is a plan of action with the intention of accomplishing a specific objective. A true swordsman practices his art with two very definite objectives in mind:

n To cut the opponent while avoiding being cut.

n To progress in the direction of perfection of character.

To cut the opponent while avoiding being cut is in one sense largely external, because it depends, in part, on technique and strategies which are taught and learned. The second goal, to progress in the direction of perfection of character, is more internal, as it comes from within each of us; yet, it is equally as valid. Both of these objectives are keys to the proper practice of the art of swordsmanship and every subsequent goal is derived from them.

MUSASHI AND SELF- DISCIPLINE

MUSASHI AND SELF- DISCIPLINE

類い稀な体力、精神力、知性の持ち主、二刀流の達人、独力で剣の極意を得た剣豪、といえば、「バガボンド」の主人公宮本武蔵ですね。
　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　これだけ有名な剣豪ですが、さて、幼少の頃の武蔵はどうだったかということになると、なかなか資料が見つかりません。ただ、現存する資料や武蔵関連の書物から子供時代の武蔵を推測すると、武蔵は幼少の頃より自己鍛錬に励み、強い意志を持った青年だったようです。
　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　武蔵には師匠と呼べる人はいません。仮に、武蔵がどこかの道場の門下生だったとしましょう。武蔵は13歳にして、すでに木刀の達人であり、当時、巷で強いと評判の剣豪達に戦いを挑んでいました。そんなすごい生徒なら、道場が黙っているわけはありません。道場の評判を高める為にも、○○道場門下生として武蔵の名を世間に公表したであろう事は十分に考えられすがそのような記述はみたことがありません。また、武蔵の剣豪としての意識は子供の頃に形成され、剣の修行のため、幼い頃から独力で鍛錬に励みました。
さて、武蔵のおこなった修行を現代に当てはめて考えてみましょう。武蔵の修行ががどれほどのものであったか、想像してみてください。

金メダル目指してトレーニングしているオリンピック選手と比較してみるのが良いかと思います。コーチの指導を全く受けずに、技術的な面も精神的な面も助言を与える人が全くいない状態で金メダルを目指さなければならないとしたら、どうでしょう。

武蔵は独力で金メダルを獲得しました。

武蔵の修行の中から、何か私たちの日々の生活に取り入れられるものが、きっとあるはずです。


MUSASHI AND SELF- DISCIPLINE
One can assume that tremendous mental, physical, intellectual, and spiritual self-discipline are the reasons that Musashi Miyamoto was able to achieve his great success and reputation as Japan’s finest swordsman while still a relatively young man. Despite the fact that records of Musashi’s youth are both scarce and confused, as one learns more about him, it becomes apparent that he was indeed strong-willed and extraordinarily self-disciplined from an early age.
In Go Rin Sho, Musashi wrote that he himself had no teacher but rather that he was self-taught. This would seem to be true if for no other reason than any one of the formalized schools of Budo, which kept careful, strict records could have claimed him as a student and would have done so. By the age of thirteen, he was exceedingly adept at least with a wooden staff, to the extent that he had no hesitation in challenging a veteran samurai who had killed many men in one-on-one fighting.
This alone is enough to make Musashi distinctive in the chronicles of the samurai and indeed rare in any context. It supports Musashi’s claim that his own ambition formed very early on and compelled him to a level of self-discipline that seems rather extraordinary for a boy on his own.
In a modern application, perhaps the best way to point up the degree of self-discipline required in Budo would be to compare it with what men and women training for the Olympics would have to go through without the benefit of coaches, or sponsors. There is, however, nothing really new with regard the role of discipline in developing skills of any kind. Musashi’s deeds make it clear that in order to achieve that kind of success one must exercise comparable self-discipline, which can, be applied to any of life’s undertakings.

Copyright 2007 by Hayato Tokugawa and Sekishinkan Tokugawa Dojo