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cybermaai
16th March 2004, 01:01
I was reading a book recently which brought up kiai-jutsu. I am curious about historically valid ryu, and whether any of these still exist. (aside from its modern form as halitosis:) )

Thanks,

don
16th March 2004, 19:02
Originally posted by cybermaai
I was reading a book recently which brought up kiai-jutsu. I am curious about historically valid ryu, and whether any of these still exist. (aside from its modern form as halitosis:) )

Thanks,

What were you reading?

Paul Mathews
17th March 2004, 01:26
Let me guess, Oscar and Ratti's Secrets of the Samurai?

cybermaai
17th March 2004, 01:36
No, I read Secrets a few years ago, and it was the first time I'd heard of kiai-jutsu. Yesterday I was reading a mystery novel, The Samurai's Wife, in which the murderer used kiai to kill. It got me wondering if there are historical roots or if it's just legend.

Joseph Svinth
17th March 2004, 03:19
From http://ejmas.com/jcs/jcsart_harrison_0503.htm (EJ Harrison to RW Smith, May 28, 1950):

I am greatly obliged to you for your kindness in sending me the extract from L. Adam Beck’s "The Garden of Vision" [Ed.: Beck, Lily Adams, pseudonym; i.e., Eliza Louisa Moresby Beck. Published by Ernest Benn: London, 1933].

Singularly enough, a very careful reading of the extract has been sufficient to satisfy me that the author of the work, whoever he may be, has ingeniously made use of material borrowed apparently without acknowledgement from my own book, The Fighting Spirit of Japan [Fisher Unwin, 1913]. Thus the gist of Arima’s colourful discourse on the kiai and aiki is really a clever réchauffé of my chapters on "The Esoteric Aspects of Bujutsu," particularly Chapter IX in which I give the substance of a remarkable lecture delivered for my special benefit by the famous veteran Nobuyuki Kunishige of the Shinden Isshin-ryu. The most conclusive proof of the true inspiration of Arima’s discourse appears on the last page of the extract, in which he is quoted as saying, "I may do well to give the rules which are considered to hold the secret of kiai!" Then follow these so-called rules which have obviously been lifted almost word for word from page 167 of my book, where I describe them as "verses" which explain the secret of kiai!

It is utterly impossible to entertain the suggestion that this resemblance is merely an amazing coincidence. My book was admittedly the first non-Japanese publication to disclose the underlying esoteric aspects of Japanese martial arts (bujutsu). Before then the West knew nothing of the kiai, aiki, or the power of the saika-tanden developed through deep abdominal breathing. Indeed, I was the first non-Japanese to supply Western judoka with this esoteric terminology. My own opinion is that no such person as Arima is the author of the matter you have kindly sent me. From the context he seems to figure simply as a leading character in a sort of novel or romance based upon various features of Japanese occultism.

I myself knew a prominent yudansha of the Kodokan named Arima who wrote an excellent book on judo that was translated into English. [Ed.: Arima, Sumiotomo. Judo: Japanese Physical Culture. Tokyo: Mitsumura & Co., 1906, 1908.] I left my own copy in Japan, but our famous Gunji Koizumi, founder of the Budokwai, has a copy. Anyhow whoever is responsible for the subject matter has certainly taken a good many liberties with his elaboration of the theme. Certainly I have never yet heard any modern exponent of the kiai or aiki able to produce the startling phenomena so vividly described in the opening passages of the extract.

Kunishige was quite the most remarkable exponent of the kiai ever known to me during something like twenty years’ residence in Japan. Virtually all other demonstrations of the kiai were more or less perfunctory and devoid of genuinely occult efficacy. Of course not being personally acquainted with something like a million members of judo and jujutsu schools – perhaps more – I cannot pretend to know the precise extent of the powers possessed by individuals. It stands to reason, however, that if within the memory of any living person, Japanese or otherwise, a famous master had performed such feats as seemingly transforming a fan into a sword, or vice versa, or rendering a subject lifeless and then restoring him, his fame would long ere this have passed far beyond the boundaries of Dai Nippon.

True, Kunishige could revive a seemingly dead person, and knowledge of kuatsu enables its possessor to restore the victim of strangulation provided it is promptly administered. But, say, the story of causing birds to fall senseless from a tree and then reviving them is taken from my Fighting Spirit of Japan. The story deals with one Matsujuro who flourished hundreds of years ago, and I myself never vouched for its truth!

Our own well-known writer here, Shaw Desmond, has been guilty of similar inroads on my pages without acknowledgement. Such exaggerations are not really advantageous to the best interests of the art.

Naturally I do not object to other writers elaborating ideas taken from my book, but I think they ought to indicate how much of the material served up in the form of a novel or a romance is based upon fact and how much is purely imaginary. Also when they reproduce the precise terminology of Japanese occultism they should be sporting enough to mention the source of their knowledge.

Some time ago I was told by one Major Browne, a 1st Dan (shodan) of our Budokwai, now in Malaya, that he had himself read two novels in which credit was given to my book by the authors for the occult portions of their books. I cannot now recall the titles of the latter. It is therefore just possible that this "Garden of Vision" is one of them, and that somewhere in the author’s introduction or preface mention is made of my book. In that case, of course, I have no grievance. Anyway, I think on further investigation you will find that it is not Arima who is the author, but that he is featured as a character in the book.

claughrun
17th March 2004, 18:31
Ted,

As long as you're bringing up legend and cheap paperback fiction...

The Sanguo(zhi) pinghua, a 13th- or 14th-century vernacular narrative of the Three Kingdoms period, and a precursor to the Ming novel Sanguo(zhi tongsu) yanyi, contains an episode which might be considered kiaijutsu. In it, the hero Zhang Fei shatters a bridge with a shout and halts the advance of Cao Cao's army on the opposite bank. This was, of course, popular fiction for the barely-literate masses of the time, but it is to my knowledge the first appearance of this kind of incredible power in literature. And that's probably exactly where it belongs.

don
17th March 2004, 19:43
Originally posted by cybermaai
No, I read Secrets a few years ago, and it was the first time I'd heard of kiai-jutsu. Yesterday I was reading a mystery novel, The Samurai's Wife, in which the murderer used kiai to kill.

See Ellis Amdur's Dueling with Osensei (http://www.ellisamdur.com/DuelingwithOsensei.htm), EJ Harrison, as above, and Draeger probably discusses it somewhere in his trilogy.

Joseph Svinth
18th March 2004, 02:33
DD's thoughts on kiai are available through the International Hoplological Society.

No. 1: "Kiai: The Role of Sound in Japanese Martial Arts & Ways"; "Makimono: Japanese Handscrolls."

To order, try http://www.hoplology.com .

See also http://www.fightingarts.com/reading/article.php?id=158 .

mikeym
18th March 2004, 09:20
I've thought about buying some of those monographs in the past, but there's not much information on the web site about their contents. Does anyone (especially Mr. Svinth) have any experience with them? Is there much overlap between the contents and Mr. Draeger's books?

Thanks,
- Mike

Blues
18th March 2004, 19:57
Mr. Karl Friday devotes several pages of his book Legacies of the Sword to aspects of Kiai-jutsu. He also quotes Mr. Harrison as one of his sources.

Joseph Svinth
19th March 2004, 03:40
The monographs that I have read do not have any particular overlap with the books. Instead, the impression I had was that these were bits and pieces that didn't fit elsewhere.

As I recall, that kiai essay is actually the transcript of a talk that he gave in Hawaii.