Gil Gillespie
18th June 2000, 03:39
At this point in time there is one topic in Gendai Budo with 13 replies. Simultaneously there are 16 topics in general Koryu with 322 posts. Yet when last I looked we were 6 months into the year 2000, conversing with each other across the planet on the miracle of the internet, and dealing with decidedly un-koryu realities like cell phones, high performance automobiles and jet travel to Japan.
I train in Aikido, definitely gendai, and MJER Iaijutsu, most avowedly koryu. I find them not at all exclusive, but mutually reinforcing. I marvel at the living breathing evolving entity of Aikido as expressed and disseminated by Mitsugi Saotome Shihan. I also cherish the traditional introspective atmosphere of Iai katas as preserved and passed on by Miura Takeyuki Hanshi in Osaka.
Ueshiba Morihei, reverred as O-Sensei, propelled his art into modern times by design. He intended Aikido to be gendai. A budo mystic by nature, his art baffled even his inner circle. It seems he never taught specific technique. He demonstrated his art accompanied by abstruse religio-poetic ramblings and his disciples brought their varied interpretations into the budo arena defined by when they branched off from the Aikido tree.
As O-Sensei's inner circle dwindles to a precious handful, his gendai art becomes increasingly steeped in tradition. At the same time, the koryu arts are evolving in the hands of one grandmaster to another, sometimes from one seminar to another! I questioned this, and was reassured that this refinement in no way diminishes the traditional value of koryu.
An art that no longer evolves and refines is not koryu; it is a fossil---it is dead. Koryu implies a veneration and preservation of the traditional arts and their philosophies (oooo dangerous gendai term), a seemingly inconsistent infusion of the value of feudal techniques into modern life. For a resolution of this inconsistency far beyond my meager resources read Shimabukuro Sensei's MJERI manual: "Flashing Steel." (Among other fine koryu volumes,of course.)
As an illustration of a koryu art's modern refinement, MJER Iaijutsu has recently dropped the Kendo Federation Katas from its curriculum and reintroduced an emphasis on tameshigiri cutting for its shodan requirements.
As a student of MJER Iaijutsu and Muso Shinden Ryu Jyodo, I have found a rewarding koryu infusion into my 21st century life. This training, as with all budo training, is ultimately about the moment, the NOW of it. It's not about future rewards or ranks; it's about the uplifting of the human spirit one gains from the study of an art that by definition can never have a modern combat application.
So stretching things as such, could it be we're all gendai? I place my head on the block. Choose your weapon(s) and have a go.
Just attack joyfully!
I train in Aikido, definitely gendai, and MJER Iaijutsu, most avowedly koryu. I find them not at all exclusive, but mutually reinforcing. I marvel at the living breathing evolving entity of Aikido as expressed and disseminated by Mitsugi Saotome Shihan. I also cherish the traditional introspective atmosphere of Iai katas as preserved and passed on by Miura Takeyuki Hanshi in Osaka.
Ueshiba Morihei, reverred as O-Sensei, propelled his art into modern times by design. He intended Aikido to be gendai. A budo mystic by nature, his art baffled even his inner circle. It seems he never taught specific technique. He demonstrated his art accompanied by abstruse religio-poetic ramblings and his disciples brought their varied interpretations into the budo arena defined by when they branched off from the Aikido tree.
As O-Sensei's inner circle dwindles to a precious handful, his gendai art becomes increasingly steeped in tradition. At the same time, the koryu arts are evolving in the hands of one grandmaster to another, sometimes from one seminar to another! I questioned this, and was reassured that this refinement in no way diminishes the traditional value of koryu.
An art that no longer evolves and refines is not koryu; it is a fossil---it is dead. Koryu implies a veneration and preservation of the traditional arts and their philosophies (oooo dangerous gendai term), a seemingly inconsistent infusion of the value of feudal techniques into modern life. For a resolution of this inconsistency far beyond my meager resources read Shimabukuro Sensei's MJERI manual: "Flashing Steel." (Among other fine koryu volumes,of course.)
As an illustration of a koryu art's modern refinement, MJER Iaijutsu has recently dropped the Kendo Federation Katas from its curriculum and reintroduced an emphasis on tameshigiri cutting for its shodan requirements.
As a student of MJER Iaijutsu and Muso Shinden Ryu Jyodo, I have found a rewarding koryu infusion into my 21st century life. This training, as with all budo training, is ultimately about the moment, the NOW of it. It's not about future rewards or ranks; it's about the uplifting of the human spirit one gains from the study of an art that by definition can never have a modern combat application.
So stretching things as such, could it be we're all gendai? I place my head on the block. Choose your weapon(s) and have a go.
Just attack joyfully!