DCPan
1st August 2003, 16:20
Hi all,
A thought just struck me (ok, so it didn't hurt).
Let's just use shohatto as the example (MSR, Omori Ryu).
I've seen people do the hand slide along tsuka action to check tsukamaki at two places...while still kneeling before standing up, and after standing up.
Initially, this is how I did it (because I think this makes more sense to me).
At the end of noto, the sword is not completely sheathed, there's still about one finger's width before the sword is completely capped.
While standing up, the moving forward of the koshi caps it for you, you don't use the hands except as a weight for the koshi to push the saya against the sword to completely sheath it.
Then, I do the "check".
Then, I started watching.
The sensei actually "check" the tsukamaki before getting up.
So, I started to think about "why".
Perhaps, the way I'm doing it, there's no zanshin because it's hard for me to draw the sword against the enemy while I'm in the action of checking the binding because I have completely sheathed the sword, not leaving the habaki clear.
You might ask, I could always stand up, check, then cap it when my hand reaches the gashira.
But then, I'm capping with my hands, not the koshi...not very economic. Even if I use my koshi, it's still one extra action, instead of conviniently using the action of getting up to complete sheath the sword.
So, this observation has changed my zanshin because I never realized that I had NO zanshin while checking the tsukamaki. And I would not have realized it until I started to pay attention to why people don't do things in a way that makes sense to ME.
FYI, you guys really changed me.
I joined a dojo (for iai) again...no more ronin for me.
The other change is this. For a while now, I've been doing things the way it makes sense to ME, taking bits and pieces from each teacher.
I'm now going to try this whole loyalty to a particular teacher again and do it his way and try to figure out why he does it his way instead of doing it my way, until I'm experienced enough to have an opinion! :D
A thought just struck me (ok, so it didn't hurt).
Let's just use shohatto as the example (MSR, Omori Ryu).
I've seen people do the hand slide along tsuka action to check tsukamaki at two places...while still kneeling before standing up, and after standing up.
Initially, this is how I did it (because I think this makes more sense to me).
At the end of noto, the sword is not completely sheathed, there's still about one finger's width before the sword is completely capped.
While standing up, the moving forward of the koshi caps it for you, you don't use the hands except as a weight for the koshi to push the saya against the sword to completely sheath it.
Then, I do the "check".
Then, I started watching.
The sensei actually "check" the tsukamaki before getting up.
So, I started to think about "why".
Perhaps, the way I'm doing it, there's no zanshin because it's hard for me to draw the sword against the enemy while I'm in the action of checking the binding because I have completely sheathed the sword, not leaving the habaki clear.
You might ask, I could always stand up, check, then cap it when my hand reaches the gashira.
But then, I'm capping with my hands, not the koshi...not very economic. Even if I use my koshi, it's still one extra action, instead of conviniently using the action of getting up to complete sheath the sword.
So, this observation has changed my zanshin because I never realized that I had NO zanshin while checking the tsukamaki. And I would not have realized it until I started to pay attention to why people don't do things in a way that makes sense to ME.
FYI, you guys really changed me.
I joined a dojo (for iai) again...no more ronin for me.
The other change is this. For a while now, I've been doing things the way it makes sense to ME, taking bits and pieces from each teacher.
I'm now going to try this whole loyalty to a particular teacher again and do it his way and try to figure out why he does it his way instead of doing it my way, until I'm experienced enough to have an opinion! :D