Connor Burke and Yamashita Sensei: Book review

 I am currently re-reading a five book series put out by the author, John Donohue. The series follows Connor Burke, an accomplished martial artist and Asian historian living in New York. The reading experience is light and the books are relatively short, anywhere from 270 to 300 pages long. I would categorise the genre of the books as crime thrillers. 

The first book - Sensei - introduces Connor and his sensei, Yamashita. They are pulled into a police investigation involving a serial killer who is methodically killing off high ranking martial artists. The story combines the exotic world of Japanese martial arts with the pragmatic drudgery of detective work. 

Deshi, is book two. Connor's brother, an officer in the NYPD, enlists him to decipher a strange message left by a murder victim. The message leads Connor to the samurai heritage of a mysterious martial arts sensei, the foreboding world of a Tibetan clairvoyant, and finally the wilderness of an elite mountain temple. 

Book three is called Tengu. The book gets its namesake from a renegade martial artist who has named himself after the mythical mountain spirits of Japan. The Tengu mourns the vanished prestige and cultural heritage of Imperial Japan. He, like the terrorists he trains, believes the West is responsible for destroying the spiritual essence of a once-great culture. 

The fourth book is called Kage. In the unforgiving landscape of the Southwest of the USA, Connor Burke works to piece together the mystery surrounding Westmann - a deceased writer - his work, and a cryptic manuscript that has captured the interest of rival smuggling gangs. Burke's only hope of solving this mystery is to call upon the aid and guidance of his teacher, Yamashita. That won't be easy. 

Enzan: The Far Mountain, is the fifth book of the series. Connor is asked by a wealthy and prominent Japanese family to retrieve their daughter from a Korean drug dealer. Connor reluctantly accepts not knowing the dangers of doing so. He accepts the mission to protect his old sensei from harm but gets in way over his head. 

The reason I am reading this series again is due to the author announcing he has finished writing his sixth book in the series, Keppan: The Blood Oath. In fact, he posted on his Facebook page on the 21st January a picture of his computer screen with the finished document. So I imagine we still have some time to wait as it goes into editing and publication. 

John's books captivated me because he manages to interweave pop-culture crime stories in with traditional budo values and uses the protagonist to show the tension and complexities that arise from the mingling of these concepts. The author has been training in the Japanese martial arts for more than 30 years. He has trained in aikido, iaido, judo, karatedo, kendo and taiji. He has dan ranks in both karatedo and kendo. John has a Ph. D. in Anthropology from the State University of New York at Stony Brook. For more on the author and his works, check out http://johndonohue.net/

Licenses, gardens and the dojo.

 This post is going to be a bit of a rambling one. Lots of things have occurred on my martial arts/Japanese front lately that I would like to reflect on. 

First of all, Tobin Threadgill - the kaicho of Takamura-ha Shindo Yoshin Ryu - has released a list of names of kai members who have gained various levels of teaching license. This is the first time he has done this and the current pandemic has brought this about. Normally, he would offer licenses in person as he travelled the world. Obviously, this is not possible right now so he has followed a traditional approach that other budo follow whereby after the Japanese New Year (nowadays celebrated on January 1st), names of people are released who have gained promotions. This usually occurs around Kagami biraki (Opening the Mirror ceremony) on January 11th. 

It was quite a large list, the kai has over 200 members as far as I know and by far the largest group of license recipients were people who have obtained a chuden (second tier) teaching license, my instructor, Chris, included. Two other members of the Oceania group were granted a Shoden (first tier) teaching license, bringing the total number of licensed instructors in our area to five!  It also means we have two study groups becoming branch dojos. This is great for the growth of our area and the kai in general. 

What is even more exciting is that our two most senior instructors, Brent from the U.S. and Marco from Portugal, have been granted one scroll each from the Jodan (third tier) license. This represents their combined ability to teach the entire technical curriculum and is very important in ensuring the koryu can be fully transmitted. 

This weekend, to top it all off, Chris and a few of us from the Hamilton dojo are travelling to Auckland to train with those members there. It will be a good way to start the year and consolidate the NZ group. 

Closer to home, I have begun extending the Japanese garden. I felled three small trees which dropped leaves all year around. I was constantly removing the leaves from the existing Japanese garden, not to mention my gutters blocking up on the house. It was a relief to drop the trees and this gave me an area to extend the garden. 

The new area cleared for planting.

Once I had conditioned the soil by weeding it and adding fertilizer, I covered it with weed matting. The next decision was what to put in it. My elderly neighbour use to be a rock hound when she was younger so has many rocks in her garden. She had mentioned that I could use some if I needed so I went to talk with her and chose a rock she was willing to part with. 

The rock is actually petrified wood and the texture on this piece is amazing! I am very lucky to have such a generous neighbour. The rock is placed in the prestigious position of being the first part of the garden a visitor sees when they arrive in our driveway. Once the rock was placed, I went to a local nursery to buy plants. Two azaleas went in as well as some native ground cover plants called Pratia "Blue Stars". My wife had bought me a Griselinia plant which is a native New Zealand shrub. At the Hamilton Dojo we use this plant in place of Sakaki on either side of the Kamidana. Up until now I have been using artifical Sakaki leaves in my own dojo, but I can now use Griselinia. I have planted this shrub near the back of the garden.

Plants going in. 

One space remains in the garden for my feature plant. In each section of the Japanese garden, I have a taller specimen. In the first section I have a miniature Japanese Maple, in the second, clumping bamboo. The third section is exposed to strong winds so I am thinking of either a dwarf pine, Japanese Plum/Apricot or weeping cherry. Unfortunately, the last two plants are not available until our winter (June/July) so I may have to wait to completely finish the garden. As with the other sections, the empty spaces will be filled with white river pebbles. 

The final piece of news I have is that my friend Jules has finally pushed me into renovating the genkan of my dojo. Its been five years since the dojo was built and I have not done anything significant to the genkan. So recently the two of us took the walls back to the framing, removing the old sections of wall that still remained. Then we started to plan what we needed for new walls including insulation and lighting. 

Jules hard at work pulling the old wall lining down.

We also removed the old oil-stained carpet that was on the floor (the last owner was a car enthusiast) and Jules took it all away. I recently purchased some new lighting that I hope to put up when we line the walls. 

Above is a photo of the lighting I purchased. The black set of three LED lights at the top and the single at the bottom are what are going into the genkan to replace the standard fittings. 

So as you can see, it has been a productive month and there is still plenty of work to do. 

Stay safe, everyone. 

Hello 2021

Well! Where to begin? Little did any of us know what 2020 would bring and even now many people in the Northern Hemisphere are still locked down at home as their countries deal with the pandemic. I count myself very lucky. New Zealand (thus far) has escaped the worst of it. We have suffered a total of 25 deaths and of the 2,162 people that had cases, 2,082 have recovered. Currently we have no restrictions in place other than our borders being closed. Life goes on as normal for the most part. 

I thought I would look back at my first post of 2020 and see if any of my predictions came true. I started last year's blog discussing the number of aikido students I had (two) and growing this. During 2020 I taught four students regularly so I doubled my numbers! As I have said before I don't advertise, it is just by word of mouth that children end up training with me and four is a good number for now. As it was, Covid restrictions created a fairly strange year and training was on and off as the country moved through different alert levels. 

As for teaching TSYR? Well, the Auckland study group were hit hard by Covid-19. Not only did they go into lockdown when the rest of the country did, later in the year, their region was hit again and although the restrictions the second time around were not as bad, it halted training for that group and people weren't allowed to travel to Auckland unless they were essential workers. So I think I managed two trips to Auckland last year and that was it. My own training continued unabated. We have a core group of about six of us that routinely train at the Hamilton Dojo and the group trains three days a week. I try to make two of those training sessions but sometimes it is only one if family commitments call me away. I also can train by myself at my dojo to make up for this. This evening one of the Auckland guys is driving down to stay the night and then he and I will have the first training session of 2021 at my dojo in the morning. 

As for my hopes for 2021? Well, I am very conservative this time around. I don't see New Zealand opening its borders until the pandemic is under control, this means no visits from Threadgill Sensei. As a group, the Hamilton branch must simply keep training to the best of our ability. Aikido will start up when the school term starts in February and I hope to get enough training in to grade some of the students at the end of the year but again, who knows? All it takes is one person to be irresponsible and Covid could be among us again. So, I will take each week as it comes. 

My post is sounding a bit bleak but to be honest, personally, I have had a very good year. My family has stayed in good health. Professionally, both my wife and I have had a successful year, and our daughters are also achieving very well in their pursuits. So there is plenty to be happy about.

I hope this year brings health and happiness to everyone. Train safe! 

Dean.

Size and Psychology

 I want to touch on a topic that came up in a podcast I was listening to. The podcast was called Managing Violence by Joe Saunders and it was an interview with Savannah Archambault. Savannah shares openly in the discussion about her experience of rape and sexual assault and the impact that has had on her and the way that she teaches martial arts. It was refreshing to hear a woman's perspective on the martial arts. I highly recommend it!

During the discussion, Savannah is asked what the key factors are to teaching female students. She answers by saying that to her, gender doesn't matter. What matters more is the psychological state of that person and their size. In martial arts, size DOES matter. She admits that having a woman only class does help a female student recover from trauma initially but ultimately, once the student can move past some of those triggers, having a mixed class is more beneficial. This allows women to work with men and to see that the techniques being taught can work on a male. 

So I would like to explore the ideas of the mental state and size of  a person in martial arts.

Size does matter.

Firstly, size. To me, this is simple physics. The greater the mass of an object, the harder it is to move. I weigh 76 kg and stand 186 cm (6 foot, 1 inches). Think of a thin pole - that's me. Now if I am training with someone who is 110 kg and 168 cm (5 foot, 5 inches) I am going to have a hard time. I am giving away a lower centre of gravity and have less mass than my training partner. Of course, if I get my technique right I can move the other person around but I will have to have very good technique or I will most likely fail. I mean, this is the reason they have weight classes in sporting martial arts like judo. We discuss this very thing with body throws in TSYR. If we are trying to throw a person that is absolutely huge, then rather than take them over our hip it might make more sense to chock their ankle or leg and have them fall at that point. It still requires good martial principles such as taking their balance but there is less chance of injury for both parties if it goes wrong during training. 

Consider a tall, strong woman who is into training and conditioning, perhaps she goes to the gym, perhaps she is a competitive rower. Now, put her up against a smaller man who is fairly inactive. Perhaps he spends most of his days behind a computer screen at work or playing video games at home. The size and strength difference will be obvious, we can ignore the genders of either training partner because in this situation, the woman will most likely have an easier time of performing the technique than the guy. This is what Savannah was getting at. Size matters more than gender. Yes, this is an unusual situation but is possible. My wife is of Dutch descent, she is 183 cm (6 foot) tall and weighs more than me (I will not be stating her weight here, I have some sense.) So this makes her on par with me for height and reach but I give away a little mass. However, I have trained and conditioned my body for many years in martial arts while she prefers daily walks and yoga. If we have a fun, play-fight and wrestle about on the floor, I can prevail. However, I believe should she want to (and she doesn't), with a bit of training she would be formidable because she has the size already there. 

So with all things being equal, size IS more important that gender when training in martial arts.

What about the mental state of a person? I have already talked about mind set in one of my other blog posts so you will know how important I think this is. No matter your size, if you think you can't beat the other person or you think you can - you are right. Attitude is so important. Confidence is so important. Often we think of women being the victims of abuse, and while this is statistically, most likely, we mustn't forget that men can also be victims of abuse. Men can come to the dojo with trauma. Again, this is Savannah's point. Gender is second to the psychology of the martial artist. 

Where is your head at?

I started my budo journey in Aikido. Historically, it is a martial art that has a higher percentage of female practitioners than some other martial arts. So from the very start I have trained with women. I now teach Aikido to children and only one of my students is a boy, all the others are girls, my daughters included. If I look at my two daughters, their psychology is different, they bring a different energy to the mat. My youngest is a rough and tumble kind of kid and throws herself (sometimes literally) into her training. My older daughter is more considered. Here we can see, within the same gender, a difference in attitude. Both do Aikido, both are strong, confident girls, but approach their training differently. 

In Shindo Yoshin Ryu: History and Technique by Tobin Threadgill and Shingo Ohgami a past female student of Takamura sensei talks about how she was treated differently to the male students as she could not match their power. He had high expectations of her all the same and demanded that she surpass their speed and precision. He asked that she become deliberate, determined and dangerous. Just think about those adjectives for a moment. If that isn't all about psychology then I don't know what is!

I would like to add my own thoughts to Savannah's. Although gender is second to size and mindset, I do believe males and females communicate a little differently. My years as a secondary school teacher have taught me this as well as raising my daughters. Women and girls like to talk things through while men and boys like to just do it. While this is a generalisation, on the whole I find this to be true. As an instructor it is important to find a space for both approaches. Letting females talk out what they understand, at the right time, helps them. Letting a male just get on with trying the technique, helps them. The trick is making this work in a mixed class and of course, there are exceptions to every rule. 

Hopefully, I have given you some things to think about in this post. 

Train safe.

Ironing out the kinks and removing the slack.

I thought I would just write a short post this time. 

Winter is a tough time for me as I don't get in as much training time as I would like. My Saturday morning training sessions are hijacked by my obligation to take my daughter to her football (soccer) games instead.  Now, don't get me wrong, I really enjoy watching her play but I miss a key training session each week. As weeks go by I find my body tightens up and old injuries start hurting. 

Jack having a bad day.

Saturdays at the Hamilton dojo usually focus around taijutsu and bodywork stuff. It is the foundation a lot of the other things hinge around. By the end of the football season I am really noticing the reduced training. During the week during our kenjutsu class, I really felt by body fighting me. Quality sword work really suffers if your body is not aligned correctly and it physically hurt to adjust habits I was forming from working on a computer and driving the 40 minutes to and from work everyday. Certain muscles had tightened up and it took fifteen minutes or so to get everything working correctly again. By the end of that session my body had limbered up and I was feeling better but I was discouraged how one less training session a week was hampering my progress. My lovely wife opted to take our daughter to training yesterday so I could get a Saturday session in. During the training we covered chokes, vital points for striking and body throws. I could feel tendons and muscles clicking and crackling back into place as I trained and walked out the the dojo feeling much, much better. 

As I get older I appreciate more and more the need to stay mobile for good health. Stuck in a chair for long periods or stooped over a computer increase my chances of getting injured as muscles stiffen and tighten. I have known this for a while now, mobility is the key to physical health in my humble opinion but sometimes as work and family keep me busy it is easy to get lost along the way.

As I write this I am reminded of a quote from Morihei Ueshiaba, the founder of Aikido:

The purpose of training is to tighten up the slack, toughen the body, and polish the spirit.

I certainly feel like I am in need of some serious slack-tightening! It feels to me like O'sensei must have had days like mine for him to say such things. 

Train safe, everyone!

Is the End Nigh?

 As I write this blog, New Zealand had recently succeeded in being free of Covid-19 for 100 consecutive days. Unfortunately, our luck has run out and we have had a small outbreak which has placed restrictions on Auckland and less so for the rest of the country. I have had the luxury of training at my usual dojo, I go to work and life is still pretty much normal. Not so for my friends in Auckland. Training has stopped for them until further notice as the Auckland region awaits the release of the restrictions.

As I have watched the Covid pandemic unfold around the world, as I have heard of long standing dojo having to close their doors due to low numbers and lack of funds in the U.S.,(a good aikido friend of mine in Tennessee recently let me know his dojo is closing its doors).  I can't help thinking about the hardship and obstacles the ancestors of our martial arts went through to keep our traditions going. 

In my own tradition of TSYR, the members of the ryu had to survive many 'choke points' in history where the school could have ended. The founder of Shindo Yoshin Ryu, Matsuoka Katsunosuke, created his school in 1864. Note this is a few years before the Meiji Restoration, a turbulent time in Japanese history where loyalists to the Shogun were thrown down in support for the Emperor and the Westernisation of the country. Anyone supporting the old regime was considered a fugitive and Matsuoka had to keep a low profile for a while as he was on the shogunate's side during the strife. Luckily, he was officially pardoned in 1887 and continued to teach his martial art and grow his membership once more. Had Matsuoka been killed in the fighting or tracked down afterwards by authorities, the martial art I now practice would have ended then. 

Moving forward in history we come to the Obata line of Shindo Yoshin Ryu. At this time Obata Shigeta was training his own son, Hideyoshi in the art, training him hard. Hideyoshi would eventually join the military and with the start of World War II, many students departed the dojo for military service. Hideyoshi was now an officer in the army and had to leave as well. Obata's grandson, Yukiyoshi was being trained at this time. In 1944, news of Hideyoshi's death was reported to Obata and seeing the future of Shindo Yoshin Ryu residing with his grandson, he put plans in place. Yukiyoshi was granted a Menkyo Kaiden at 16 years of age (his training would carry on) and he and his mother were moved to the countryside. This ensured the line would continue. The Tokyo fire bombings destroyed the Obata Dojo and Yukiyoshi's grandfather disappeared at about the same time. Through careful foresight and some luck, the school continued through Yukiyoshi. There are many moments through this part of TSYR's history that the koryu could have ceased. Had Obata been killed earlier without handing over the Menkyo Kaiden to his grandson, Shindo Yoshin Ryu would no longer be considered a koryu. One of the defining characteristics of a koryu is the unbroken line, documented with scrolls of transmission. As it was, Takamura Yukiyoshi had several years of training ahead of him at this stage. 

It is a daunting task maintaining and ensuring the growth of a koryu bujutsu. It is important to have good quality deshi but perhaps more importantly, to have enough deshi to ensure someone from the group can rise up and fulfil the role of leading the koryu into the future. This is harder than it sounds. A simple mishap and a student who has been training for years can be gone. 

Ellis Amdur has said many times in interviews and in his books that he was the last remaining student of one of the schools he trained in. All the other students had dropped away for one reason or another until it was just him and his teacher. I wonder if his teacher ever thought that would be the case?

So I look at the situation the world finds itself in now. We are living in unusual times, there is no denying that. But I believe our ancestors have endured far worse and I see the best thing I can do for my ryu right now, is train. Keep grinding the stone and polishing the mirror. We don't know what tomorrow will bring so make the most of it.

Stay Safe!

What is koryu bujutsu?

Once work colleagues or people outside my close circle of friends hear that I practice martial arts the next logical question from them is, "What martial arts do you practise?"

I have found this hard to answer. I used to say 'jujutsu' but this would lead to people thinking I did Brazilian Jujutsu and was rolling around on mats and choking or tapping people out. Irritatingly, this is what most people think jujutsu is. So I changed my answer to 'an old Japanese martial art with swords'. This tends to get people thinking in the right direction but they started to think I was a ninja or samurai (eye-rolling at this point).

Lately (in the last two years or so), I have revised my answer once again. This time to, "I practice a classical Japanese sword art."  I like this answer for a few reasons. First of all, the term 'classical' indicates something old. It's very definition is that of being traditional or long-established. This is very true of koryu bujutsu. Secondly, it is of Japanese origin. Martial arts have many cultural backgrounds, I want the people asking to know that my tradition is strictly Japanese. Finally, I mention the word 'sword' so that they don't automatically think about the many empty hand fighting arts that come to mind when thinking martial arts. Even though my school does train without weapons, that is not our focus, so this is my answer. It tends to satisfy the curious while keeping true to what I do. If they have further questions or want an actual name then I will tell them that I practice Takamura-ha Shindo Yoshin Ryu. This is usually more than enough!  Just uttering that phrase tends to blow their minds. 

This line of thought triggered this blog post. I would like to go a little deeper into what is koryu bujutsu? Now, I do not read or speak fluent Japanese and my understanding is simply my own based on conversations with and reading by those that know better than I do. So, I do not claim to be an expert on this subject. I am simply, as always, writing down my thoughts on the matter. 

Let's start with looking at the word 'koryu'. The characters that make up ko-ryu can be read as "old" and "flow". Essentially, this refers to styles or traditions of Japan of a particular past time such as flower arranging, tea making, dance and of course the fighting arts. Therefore, I can't simply say I practice a koryu. It is too broad. Therefore, I can add the word "bujutsu", meaning "martial arts". So you could translate koryu bujutsu as old school martial arts. Now, the words bujutsu and budo can be used interchangeably and have a fascinating history in English interpretation. There are some lines of thought that classify bujutsu as martial arts that focus on combat effectiveness while budo are martial "ways" that focus on self perfection and morals. I believe Donn Draeger was the first person to place a difference on these two words. However, others have said that most Japanese do not see a difference between the words at all. Some old school Japanese practitioners will say they study budo.

Ellis Amdur mentions in his writing that one of his own Japanese sensei didn't like the word kobudo (old martial way) as to him it meant something fixed and dead, like an antique. This sensei preferred, instead, to say koryu budo (old flow martial way) - an art that flows from the past to the present, still developing and relevant to the world. 

I tend to use the term budo for my general practise of TSYR and aikido but if I am specifically talking about TSYR I will refer to it as a koryu bujutsu. I never say koryu budo. It just doesn't sound right in my head. Each to their own.

Amdur writes that the koryu bujutsu were established as entities that used combative practice as a binding force. Their purpose to teach the practitioners how to function perfectly as a member of the samurai (warrior class) under the leadership of the daimyo (feudal lord) whom the bushi served. To the modern observer it may appear that training in these old schools simply comprises of mimicking a preset series of movements called kata. It is far more than this. If we look between the lines at what Amdur has written we can see that at its heart, studying koryu bujustu demands loyalty from its practitioners. The ryu flows through its members (remember the translation "old flow") and when you sign up to be participant in one of these archaic arts, your individual wants or needs in your practice become second to the maintenance of the ryu itself. You are loyal to the headmaster and loyal to keeping the practice going into the next generation. Threadgill sensei discusses loyalty in "Shindo Yoshin Ryu: History and Technique." He mentions that loyalty should not be trivialised in a society where individuality takes priority. In other words, western culture. One must not let ego get in the way of real loyalty. The type of loyalty he writes about is not that of a mindless drone. More that of a thinking person who has made a conscious choice to be loyal to the ryu. Amdur describes this type of group loyalty as similar to a wolf pack. At first glance, wolves might play and frolic about but as soon as the leader prepares to hunt or perceives a threat, the whole pack is on the alert. They are finely attuned to the alpha's moods. Such is the case with koryu members who may appear to joke around with each other or tell stories before training begins. However, as soon as the sensei kneels to bow in, without a word, the casual joviality stops and everyone lines up ready for class. Immediate focus and calm ensues. 

I have battled with the balance of loyalty between my training, family and work for years. I have written about it from time to time on this blog. However, I have settled on this working paradigm for now - my family is first, my work is second and then koryu bujustu fills in the remainder of my time. I study a martial art so I can learn to use physical power to protect my family and others (family first). I work to obtain money to support my family (family first) and my koryu practice, therefore work needs to be second. However, once I have satisfied my needs for family and work, koryu training must be my priority. Let me clarify this. Having a drink down at the local bar is not as important as training. Binge watching a television series is not as important as training. Thinking "I can't be bothered going out to the dojo today" is not good enough. If I have time, I should be training. Now, training not only includes going through the physical movements of kata. It could writing my blog, reading one of many books on the subject I have yet to get to or cleaning and maintaining my sword. I can be practical about this. 

Right now, my country is in lock-down as it comes to grips with COVID-19. I am fortunate in that I can work from home. My children are home with me and my wife can also work from home. My daily routine supports my priorities. First of all I keep my family safe, we follow the health suggestions by our government and stay in our 'bubble'. We wash our hands well and only my wife is going out for essentials - family first. Secondly, I am a high school teacher so I am working from a digital platform for now. I make sure I am up-to-date with my work commitments online. Once they are satisfied I go out to my dojo and train for 30 mins to an hour depending on what I am working on, every day except Mondays. I give myself Mondays off from physical training - today is Monday.

I also read books about martial arts and write these posts. My mind is never far from TSYR or budo in general. 

My relationship with other deshi in the kai is quite unique as well. I cover these in more detail in this post. It is a very unique situation where I am part of an international community. 

So, that is my thoughts on this crazy obsession of mine.

Train safe and wash your hands.