Hi all,
This is my information on Japanese swordsmanship, or authentic
Kenjutsu, as there is some interest and discussion on it here in
Singapore. I will write what I know here and try to put it down
in a condensed form as there is way too much info on the
subject to write down atm.
I will, in all likelyhood, get some people angry on this forum
with my post but I'm long past caring about it already. If you
don't think I'm comfortable with what I'm going to write, feel free
to log off now.
Authentic Kenjutsu is taught as part of the overall curriculum
of a Koryu. Koryu are the old martial
schools/traditions founded in Japan as martial/military schools for
the Bushi before 1867(I prefer the term Bushi rather than Samurai).
Kenjutsu was one of the main fighting skills. As such, there was
and is no such thing as generic Kenjutsu. A Bushi would be trained
in a certain Koryu style that identified him as a very distinct
swordsman from another Bushi. For example, Bushi trained in the
Yagyu Shinkage Ryu would be characterised by their wait-and-respond
approach to an enemy rather than say, a Jigen Ryu Bushi who would
initiate an attack with all out ferocious strikes. If you were to
tell me that you train in Kenjutsu, the 1st thing I would ask you
would be "What is the Ryu that you train in?"
That brings me to the next point. Koryu is rare. Even in Japan,
the local population are hardly aware of its existence. Authentic
teachers possess teaching licenses that are passed from their own
teachers and are given a heavy responsibility to ensure that the
Ryu they inherit are passed on to the next generation in a proper
way. It is rare to find Koryu outside of Japan but the foreigners
who are authorise to teach a Koryu tradition are indeed very
exception people who spent a lot of time and effort to learn
the tradition inside out (Think 10 yrs or so in Japan...)
Koryu is very different from its modern counterparts like Judo,
Kendo or Aikido even though the latter is descended from the
former. For a start, Koryu teachings are very extensive. It is more
than just learning how to use a sword in combat but also learning
other weapons like spears or staffs and other knowledge ranging
from human anatomy (Bushi needed to know the vital spots of a human
body to make their attacks instantly lethal) to the wearing of
armour to esoteric buddhist rituals and chants. Also, paired kata
is the main teaching method in the koryu (yes, I can immediately
hear people groaning and complaining that "Wa lau eh...Kata very
boring one ah...") as the techniques are too dangerous for
free sparring and kata is one of the main reasons why a lot of
these ryu are still able to preserve their tradition into the 21st
century. Some koryu have experiemented with free sparring
but none have replaced their kata with anything else.
I searched high and low in Singapore for an authentic Koryu
teacher and all I found so far are...very, very wierd, anime,
samurai xbox 360 fantasy things that are attempting to pass
themselves off as authentic kenjutsu. There is no koryu here in
Singapore as far as I know. For someone who wants to learn Japanese
martial arts, it is best to learn Kendo or Aikido. They may be
modern arts but they are descended from Koryu and have more
intergrity in them than the b***s**t that is masquerading as
Kenjutsu and badly misinforming the public and schools about what
they teach.
I will post more about where to find more info on the Koryu and
some of the famous ones still in existence in another post.
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