It occured to me last evening that Niten is a great way to start your sword practice. It’s so simple that you get into the meat and potatoes almost without intending to. By that I mean the distancing, timing stuff that usually takes quite a long time after learning the dance steps of the kata. We moved along through the first five kata once again, after warming up with some nito kihon. Although we have people in the class who have never seen Niten, they were quickly going through the techniques like pros.
Our first revelation of the evening happened during the warmup when we tried to reduce the kihon to a count. It didn’t work, the right and left hands were doing different things and the rationalizing brain just couldn’t keep it all together. This is one of the main points of the two-sword practice. Nothing to do with combat effectiveness, but everything to do with training your body to fight with either hand, and to get rid of the one-two-three stuff. If Musashi were alive today he’d talk about the impossibility of driving a car while trying to think of everything you’re doing. Stearing, shifting gears, clutch brake and accelerator pedals, blinkers,.. and that’s before you even look out the window.
Last class we talked about the distances needed between the partners as we went from number one to five. As we did, it became clear to some of the seniors that waiting for uchidachi to strike and reacting to that, is a good way to die. Without the mental and physical disruption of the attack, that attack will succeed. This changed the movements of the kata quite dramatically as we understood the Edo era advice on kendo to go right in as if you don’t care about being killed. Throw your life away and move right in. Without doing that you have no chance.
We continued from 6 to 12, mostly just getting through the steps.
6. Moji Gamae is one of the longer kata in the set, it’s three steps. Assume the kamae, a strange looking thing that covers all the usual targets for uchidachi so he has to either expose himself dangerously to try and hit shidachi’s body, or knock down shidachi’s defending sword. For the sake of full movement in the kata we knock down the sword which shidachi lifts to avoid the strike and then “stomps” down onto our attacking sword to pin us. While this is a bit of a stalemate, uchidachi is at a disadvantage, being below and having shidachi’s blade facing us. Uchidachi tries to remove his sword to attack once more but shidachi 1, blocks the attack and 2, opens his do. Uchidachi cuts for the do and shidachi slams his sword back down again. Having full knowledge of Musashi’s admonition not to do anything twice, but if you must, never, ever do it a third time, uchidachi tries to break contact. Shidachi strikes as the correct distance opens up.
Each time I go through the kata I find more connection with Musashi’s writing and if the students want to know more about that, (at the risk of doing an advertisement) I’d recommend reading my books which they will find at sdksupplies.com. I especially advise the heiho sanjugokajo (called Hyoho: the strategy, ethics and philosophy of Miyamoto Musashi… really? Clunky much?)
7. Hari tsuke. Speaking of going right in and not waiting for the attack, this slapping away of uchidachi’s strike to the head followed by a thrust to the suigetsu is a scary thing. Also hard on the knuckles if you mis-time it. As a way to walk before we run, we went back to the distance of the first kata and uchidachi struck to six inches in front of the face. This lets shidachi slap the sword aside with some safety. A somewhat unexpected benefit of the distance is to allow uchidachi to swing at full speed, arriving (for many years, usually) at the target height long before shidachi can swing the sword. Blink, flinch, think or otherwise disrupt your complete concentration on your partner and you are finished before you start. Good lesson. Good practice.
8. Nagashi uchi. We did a bit of kihon for this one, it’s the most difficult, longest kata in the set. Yet it really isn’t anything more than the putting together of uke nagashi hidari and migi. Uchidachi does his own uke nagashi in between. The important bit here is not the memorization of footwork or the speed of the return strikes or even how hard we can hammer our partner’s sword. It’s the very first movement where shidachi gets to decide if he’s doing uke nagashi hidari or nagashi uchi. That choice is made in the deepness of that first approach.
9. Tora buri. This I usually describe as a reward for getting through the long (4 moves!) and difficult nagashi uchi. For this kata you move the sword into koshimi (sort of like waki gamae but not) and wait. As uchidachi cuts down on your head, you (as shidachi) step to the right side, switching your feet, and lop off uchidachi’s head. Not much more to say about this except that you’d better understand the difference between Kan and Ken… which I typically got the wrong way around last evening. Kan is insight, ken is sight, yah ken laddie?
10. Kazu ki. These last three we moved through too quickly but the beer was getting warm. This one is Hari Tsuke but when you meet uchidachi on the right foot rather than the left. The consequences of this create the difference in the kata.
11. Ai sen uchi dome. These last two kata are usually practiced by us the other way around. This is wrong but it’s the way we first learned them (changed the very next seminar but still). We should start doing them the way the rest of the world does, and perhaps changing the other one or two things we do arising out of old jokes and such. Ai sen uchi dome is very similar to the last kata of our iaido partner practices, Tachi Uchi no Kurai and especially Tsumi Ai no Kurai. Hence the switched placement all those years ago.
12. Amashi uchi. After having out left elbows flared out to the side for the entire practice, uchidachi finally notices what a good target that kote it is. he swings at it, we remove it and threaten him, he tries to disengage and we follow in to strike. What could be simpler?
Well, a lot, but never mind.
If you’ve read down this far you must have some interest in Niten Ichiryu so here’s a pitch for you. If you sign up for the July seminar in Guelph (check the link below) and you are new to Niten (beginners are welcome, as I said, it’s not that hard to pick up, you’ll get a lot out of the seminar) you will receive free, gratis, a daisho, a set of long and short bokuto for practicing Niten. These are “seconds” which means Brenda doesn’t want to sell them because they are not shiro kashi or hickory. They are mostly spalted maple, birch, beech, or oak. It will be first come first picked through for you when you get to the seminar. Just let me know when you sign up that you’re a new student who doesn’t have his own weapons and they are yours.
Yes I really do believe in this stuff, and so do the students. One of the seniors was wondering why we didn’t practice Niten more regularly.
Because gradings.
But Niten is simple, it’s also intense. You can do it in bursts, collect lots of information and take that back to your other arts. That’s what I’ve done for the last, what, coming up on 25 years or so.
Come. Try.
July Niten and Kage seminars:
Seito Bugei Juku 