This series of articles presents what I believe to be the first-ever English translation of The Ittō-ryū Book of Oral Recollections (Ittō-ryū Kikigaki, 一刀流聞書). This 19th-century work is based on the teachings of one of the most important teachers of swordsmanship in Japanese history, Nakanishi Chūbei Tanemasa, whose lineage shaped kendo as we know it. Despite its age, the text is still highly relevant to students of Japanese swordsmanship today.
If you haven’t already, please read part one and part two of this series first. Part three continues below.
Embracing death
If participating in a fight with real swords, you must go into it with the conviction that you will be killed. If you can do this you will be able to act decisively and remain physically strong. If you do not think that you will be killed, you will not be able to attain victory. This is a point of profound significance.
In a fight with real swords, you cannot prevail if you do not have a firm knowledge of the duality of life and death. For example, when the day is over night will fall. When night is over it always becomes light again.* When your life reaches its limit, you will meet death. Likewise, when the threat of death is exhausted, you will surely live.
There is an Ittō-ryū teaching:
Like a horse chestnut husk carried on the mountain river’s rapids
Discard your body and float upon the current**
* Here “day” and “night” are described with yin (in, 陰) and yang (yō, 陽), which indicates a much broader meaning incorporating negative and positive, west and east, passiveness and activeness and so on. Yin and yang are used to express many important concepts in Ittō-ryū, as well as in other schools of Japanese swordsmanship.
** This poem is a major teaching of Ittō-ryū. The key phrase “mi wo tsutete” literally means ‘discarding one’s body.’ This means to commit fully to an attack with a preparedness to die in the attempt. The same idea is commonly referred to as sutemi (捨て身) in modern kendo. In the poem, this line is a play on words. The horse chestnut husk has discarded its seed (mi, 実 in Japanese) and has become light, floating on the water. The swordsman who discards his body (also pronounced mi, 身 in Japanese) and is prepared to die in a fight will in fact be more likely to prevail in an encounter.
Facing the opponent
When your sword tip is not touching that of your opponent (i.e. you are too far away) you cannot cut him. A bout will be decided when the point of each sword has passed the other by 5 sun (approx. 15cm).
A cultured man [i.e. a samurai] who is determined to kill his opponent will approach them directly, facing them squarely. A person of lower class will approach his enemy diagonally, in a hanmi stance. Even if you are a member of the warrior class, sidling up to an opponent indirectly makes you no better than a boorish peasant.
If you try to raise your spirit above that of an opponent whose spirit is higher than yours, you will not be successful. If you try to lower your spirit beneath that of an opponent who is operating lower than you, your actions will become crude and lose substance. Instead, you must stay in the very centre, the ‘true centre,’ and never stray from it. The ‘true centre’ means you act so as not to lose*, without excess or deficiency in any area. If you simply carry out your daily training in this way, when you have to fight for real, simply act so as not to lose, and you will naturally be able to utilise the teachings Shinken and Dokumyoken.* If you stray from the true centre, then you will not be able to make use of these teachings.
* This is an ideal of swordsmanship in Ittō-ryū.
** Shinken and Dokumyōken are two of the highest teachings of Ittō-ryū. They are part of the Kōjō Gokui Goten, a set of kata which are said to originally come from Chūjō-ryū (via Toda Seigen and his student Kanemaki Jisai, who subsequently taught them to Itō Ittōsai).
True victory
True victory means to be sincere and act according to your true feelings. If, no matter what occurs, you remain unshaken and maintain a clear and composed sense of dignity, you will be able to grasp victory. The feeling you should have is that described by the Buddha: “throughout heaven and earth, I alone am holy.”*
When inquiring of your sensei, if you ask with the feeling described above, you will receive an equally direct and sincere answer. In this way students can come to receive the most secret teachings from their teacher. This is a concept that is very difficult to put into words.
*When the Shakyamuni Buddha was born, he raised one hand to heaven, stretched one hand towards the floor, took seven steps and proclaimed that there was no-one more exalted than him in all of heaven and earth.
Training is a journey
Your training is like a journey. If you have business in Kyoto, first you set out from Shinagawa, walk until you reach Hakone, continue past Oigawa, travel through Nansho and finally you will arrive in the Kyoto area. Instead of taking this winding route, you may think it is better to travel directly to Kyoto, but if you do so, even though an event may still occur along the way, your journey will not be filled with many trials and tribulations.
In training and competition, you should allow the fifty kumitachi* to lead you through many trials and tribulations until you become proficient. Other approaches are useless. If you approach them in this way, competition and kumitachi will never become tiresome.
* The core fifty techniques of Ittō-ryū.
Matching of spirit
In Noh drama, performers only wear a single mask. To show happiness or sadness, an actor does not change his mask, but expresses the emotion through his performance. A skilled performer is able to make an audience cry when they express sadness in this way. This is empathic – a direct connection between the minds of the performer and the audience.*
If you do not understand the points at which your spirit and the spirit of your opponent match, then you will not be able to attain victory.
** The phrase used here, 以心伝心, is a Buddhist expression referring to a telepathic communication or tacit understanding. In Zen Buddhism particularly, it indicates the nonverbal transmission of an inexpressible truth or understanding from teacher to student.
Owlish swordsmanship
There is such a thing as ‘owlish swordsmanship.’ Like an owl that can see in the darkness of night but which is rendered blind in the brightness of day, such a swordsman cannot comprehend the bright areas of opportunity.
Students who go through a process of gradual cultivation through training based on teachings and written documents they receive, and – in recent years – who take the true centre in shiai, who have reached the point where, more so than winning they focus on not losing, and are able to utilise the highest teachings very rarely have this kind of problem; however, even if you deliberately pay close attention to it, when facing an opponent your sword tip is liable to raise slightly. If you are not facing an opponent, this will not occur. You must be mindful of this and work to correct your sword tip accordingly.
Adherence to the master’s teachings
In Ono Jirōemon’s* dojo it is written:
“The Ittō-ryū school of strategy taught by this house strictly adheres to the teachings of the founder teacher, Itō [Ittōsai] Kagehisa, and transmits these teachings to students, never adding personal ideas, but simply passing down the teachings of Ittōsai sensei.”
*Itō Ittōsai’s successor and the founder of Ono-ha Ittō-ryū. Nakanishi Tanemasa’s line of Ittō-ryu (which originated from the Ono family tradition) is today called ‘Nakanishi-ha Ittō-ryū,’ but well into the twentieth century its official name was simply ‘Ittō-ryū’ and it was colloquially known as ‘Ono-ha Ittō-ryū.’ This naming denoted that it was the same tradition as that of the Ono family, albeit continued by a separate line of teachers. There was a great deal of interaction between various lines of Ittō-ryū in the Edo and Meiji periods. The full delineation of present-day Ono-ha and Nakanishi-ha occurred in modern times.
Itō Ittōsai presenting Ono Jirōemon Tadaaki with the Kamewaritō, a sword that was a symbol of succession in Ittō-ryu. Source: Honchō Bugei Hyakunin Isshu, 1851
Grounding
Even if you erect a fine, solid pillar, if the ground* is poor the pillar will twist and fail to stand straight. If the ground is solid then even if the pillar itself is poor, it will stand straight and true. In swordsmanship, even if a person is skilled at techniques they will not amount to anything if their grounding is poor. Conversely, a person who is unskilled but has a solid grounding can become truly capable. This “grounding” is extremely important.
* The word used here is chigyō (地形). This term appears in the Jūnikajō Mokuroku, where it refers in practical terms to adopting advantageous tactical positioning and movement corresponding to the terrain. Yamaoka Tesshū writes of two positions: junchi (順地) and gyakuchi (逆地). Junchi is an advantageous position where you are uphill from your opponent, and gyakuchi is the opposite. This teaching states that it is also important to place the elements (e.g. the sun, wind and rain) at your rear. The essential goal is to take an advantageous position while forcing your opponent into the disadvantageous position. This clearly parallels the teachings of Sun Tzu. In both immediately practical and philosophical terms, chigyō is a key teaching in Ittō-ryū.
Developing courage
A person who tempers their courage* will naturally improve the use of their hands (i.e. techniques). A person who focuses on training the hands will not develop courage. Courage is tempered by coming face to face with death.
Like a shell ladle: discard the body, to save the body**
*Tan (胆): literally “liver,” this can be interpreted in a similar way to “guts” in colloquial English.
** A shell ladle is made from an empty clamshell. The body of the shellfish has been discarded, but the empty shell can be used to fish out food from a pot. Hence, the swordsman must strike at the risk of his life (with sutemi) in order to avoid death.
Distance and closeness
A skilled person understands closeness and feels difficulty at a distance. An unskilled person understands distance but not closeness.* If you construct a box, first you prepare your saw, sharpen your plane, and gather your tools – you organise all the things you need to put the box together. If you try to make a box without undergoing this preparation, your saw will not cut, your plane will not smooth, and you will be unable to make a decent box. In swordsmanship, if you aim to defeat someone you must scrutinise the situation deeply in preparation. Only after you have done this will you understand how to win.
* ‘Distance and Closeness’ (遠近之事) is a teaching contained in the Jūnikajō Mokuroku which states that the distance between you and the opponent should be far for him, and close for you. Of course, physically speaking this is not necessarily possible. Rather, this teaching refers to perception of distance, and to adopting maai in a way that establishes victory before you make a strike.
Be calm and decisive
It is vital to be unhurried and to remain calm. If a fire breaks out, if you panic you will forget to rescue important things, and you will lose them. In swordsmanship, you face a similar situation. If you lose your cool and rush, you have already lost the mental battle. Without panicking or hurrying and without fear, take a single step without stopping, to reach the point of victory.*
*Although the kanji used here are different, this recalls the Ittō-ryū teaching “a single step, without stopping” (一歩不留). In simple terms this means to act without pause, doubt or hesitation, and advance at a smooth pace, avoiding stagnation. This can be interpreted on both a raw technical and philosophical level. See this article for more information.
The heart
The heart* should be rounded, but still have one corner
Too round, and the heart will turn over too easily
To keep a corner on a heart that feels round:
The harder it is for the men of today’s world,
The more they must strive to do so
*Kokoro (心) in Japanese: this is perceived as the seat of consciousness.
Sources and further reading:
『剣道』 高野佐三郎〈著〉 島津書房発行 1982 ( 1915)
『兵法一刀流』 高野弘正〈著〉 講談社発行 1985
『一刀流極意』 笹森順造〈著〉 礼楽堂発行 1986 (1965)
『剣禅話』 山岡鉄舟〈著〉 高野登〈編訳〉 徳間書店発行 1971
『高野佐三郎 剣道遺稿集』 高野佐三郎〈著〉 堂本昭彦〈編〉 スキージャーナル株式会社発行 2007 (1989)
『剣道の発達』 下川潮〈著〉 梓川書房発行 1976 (1925)
『日本剣道史』 山田次郎吉〈著〉 一橋剣友会発行 1976 (1925)
『剣道五百年史』 富永堅吾〈著〉 百泉書房発行 1971
『増補大改訂 武芸流派大事典』 綿谷雪、山田忠史〈著〉 株式会社東京コピー出版部発行 1978