About DO and JUTSU arts

I have heard repeatedly over the past few years people who believe that the JUTSU types of Martial arts are superior to the DO types, when it comes to actual usability in a real fight.

Such people will pretend for example, that Jujutsu is superior to Judo in an actual confrontation in the street, because the dangerous moves of Jujutsu were remove from Judo so it could be safely practiced in competition.

This is a fallacy. You may debate for hours what is the best car in the world, but if I have to go to town now, the best car in the world is my car. In case of a confrontation, the best martial art in the world is the one you know - IF YOU MASTER IT - because the is the only one you have...

One day a guy called and asked me if I taught Kendo or Kenjutsu. When I told him we practiced both at our dojo, he explained - at length - that he was only interested in Kenjutsu, because Kendo was a modern - therefore worthless - version of Kenjutsu. So I asked him where he had practiced before and he acknowledged the fact he never had, but had read a lot about the subject. I invited me to come to the dojo for a try.

Interestingly enough this guy never showed up for class ...

 

This is a very interesting video - it shows the Sensei demonstrating fast action Kendo. He is wearing no Bogu and his opponent attacks Men repeatedly. Watch the speed of his action, I don't think his opponent was able to touch him but once, the rest of the time, he hit his Do, Kote or Men, (*) or a combination of these. Obviously, these guys enjoyed this greatly, and I myself really enjoyed watching them. 

Some experts will say that this would not have been practiced by real samurai, that because the Shinai is longer than a real Katana, and that is has no curvature, too much practice with the Shinai would create bad habits that would kill you on the battle field. And there is some truth to this. It is said that Yamaoka Tesshu liked to practice with very short swords for this reason. 

It is also said that when Miyamoto Musashi had to fight the famous Sasaki Kojiro who was using a very long sword (the drying pole) he carved an even longer Boken out of an oar and beat him with it.

Watch carefully this video and ask yourself honestly, would you really feel comfortable with your real sword fighting this little yellow devil armed with a wooden Boken ? 

The best Martial Art is the one you master.

Merry Christmas to all

Terminology :  

Do, Kote and Men are approved targets in Kendo : they are the sides and front of the abdomen, the wrists, and the top of the head. 

A Bogu is the armour used in Kendo to spar.

A Shinai is the flexible bamboo sword used in the Kendo video.

A Boken is a wooden sword the size of a real Katana sword, also used in Kendo and Kenjutsu Training.

Amazing research proves that training works !

In an experiment published by the Oxford Journal, British neuroscientists from the Centre for Neuroscience, Imperial College London compared the behavior and brain structure of a control group of individuals  - never involved with Martial Arts - with a group of karate black belts.

"Using 3D motion tracking, we investigated whether the ability to control ballistic arm movements was associated with differences in white matter microstructure. We found that karate experts are better able than novices to coordinate the timing of inter-segmental joint velocities" (in Individual Differences in Expert Motor Coordination Associated with White Matter Microstructure in the Cerebellum)

Translation : The Karateka punch faster...

Ouch !

Now this is amazing, Training works... If it were only for that, that study would represent a waste of lots of money and effort. There is an interesting aspect to this though : " the ability to control ballistic arm movements was associated with differences in white matter microstructure. " Translation : Training  locally modifies the structure of white matter in the brain. 

There are in the brain 2 types of matter : Grey and White, and apparently, the structure of that White matter is modified by training.

Then in another study published by the National Academy of Sciences of the USA, research found that Medittion involved changes in the white matter.

"In our work, we found that a form of mindfulness meditation, integrative body–mind training (IBMT), improved FA in areas surrounding the anterior cingulate cortex after 4-wk training more than controls given relaxation training. " (in Mechanisms of white matter changes induced by meditation)

Translation : Meditation changes the way white matter operates

Note that they don't say that the structure is changed, but that there are changes in the Way White matter operates. I tend to believe that changes in Functions are generally related to changes in Form - but I then, am no neuroscientist.

It is nevertheless interesting to link both information : 

• Training in Martial Arts modifies - locally - the structure of White matter in the Brain, and 
• Training in Meditation modifies the way This White matter operates.

This could mean that meditation is profitable to Martial Artists, and explain why some famous Sword masters were also practicing Zen (Miyamoto Musashi, Yamaoka Tesshu, Yagyu Munenori...)

This is also a good indication that practicing Martial Arts (or other physical activity developing speed and accuracy) would be profitable to Meditators...

Get off your butts...

Yoshukai Iaido

As we were enjoying lasagna and sampling various beverages after the Dothan Tournament, I asked Grand Master Kaicho Yamamoto if he had learned our Iai waza from Dr Chitose.

He did not. Sensei Yamamoto studied Niten Ichi Ryu, a school of kenjutsu founded by the legendary Miyamoto Musashi during the first half of the 17th century. For what I understood of our conversation, Master Yamamoto could not study very long because his instructor died.

Now, if you research Niten Ichi Ryu, you will hardly find any mention of Iai Jutsu, but of Kenjutsu only. I did not get the opportunity to discuss that with Kaicho. It could simply be that Niten Ichi Ryu being a Koryu, the information available is not very reliable, and that some Iai moves are part of it's curriculum, after all, before you get to hack your opponents right and left, you have to draw your sword out of the saya !