Daikomyô Sai training concepts
Each Daikomyô Sai is an excuse for Sensei to prepare us for the year coming; and to link it together with what he has been detailing all year long. During the year of the Ox we were asked to study mainly the Saino Konki (or Saino, tamashii, utsuwa), to move like a rope;
and to review the basics of the Ten Chi Jin Ryaku no Maki and to use them as a support for our training or teaching. Last Daikomyô Sai was emphasizing these points and preparing us for the next year's theme. We will soon enter the year of the Tiger and develop a new understanding of the spiritual concept of 'Rokkon Shoujou'1.
During the last Daikomyô Sai Hatsumi Sensei stressed the importance of a new group of concept that we should train, in order to better our taijutsu. This is a quick review of these ideas studied in December in Japan.
HANPA
(Jap.: a fragment2, an odd thing, an incomplete set, a fraction)
"Only do half cooked techniques"
The Idea is never to finish the technique that we are beginning to do. Uke will always react to our actions and by not finishing them we might unveil other possibilities of action that uke cannot be aware of. In the unfolding of action, uke is the one creating the movement, tori only has to adjust to the changes initiated by his opponent. If tori tries to finish the movement then it is obvious that uke will know what is going to come next and will be able to counter the end. On the contrary, if you do not know what you are going to do next as uke is reacting to your initial action then his reactions to what he thinks you are going to do will unfold other possible ends to the fight. As Sensei put it last July: "If I do not know what I am going to do next, how do you want uke to find out?"
EN NO KIRINAI
(Jap.: EN: connection, relation, affinity + KIRU: to cut + -NAI: not)
"Don't severe the connexion"
Whatever you do, you should never cut the link with a) uke, b) yourself, c) your environment. The ability to keep the connexion with everything at all moments is juppô sesshô3. You have to be like a spider in its spiderweb4 always in contact with space, time and preys. Contact is permanent wheter it is a physical or mental contact. The idea here is not to apply a given technique by respecting its mechanical form but rather to keep in mind the integrality of the physical and psychological situation we are facing; and to be able to adapt our actions to it in a blink of an eye. By keeping contact with our attacker we are aware of every little change in his moves and can adapt our reactions accordingly.
SENTE
(Jap.: placing the first stone, moving first, lead)
The Japanese understanding of this concept is ambivalent as always. It defines the sente as winning or losing by applying the first move. In Sensei's words it was more that "we do not give the first attack". By letting uke attack; or by creating the conditions in which uke thinks he is going to win if he attacks, we leave open all possibilities of action/reaction. This is like what the Tao says:5 "don't do anything and nothing will be left undone". If you follow the flow of events and do not think it, then whatever comes to you is open to adaptation. On the contrary, if you already have in mind the end of your action you will "force" the flow of action to follow your line of thought without taking into account the unwillingness of uke to be killed. By forcing your course of action you will lose the connexion with uke and with your environment and create reactions that you cannot see because they are out of your scheme of possibilities, the same scheme that you have decided upon by forcing things in one direction. To put it in a more simple way, as uke sees himself as tori (if not why would he attack you?) you must adapt your actions from this first attack by uke. This is also why your attitude (kamae) must stay neutral in order not to give him any information. Also this neutrality can even prevent uke from attacking, which is in my opinion the best technique to achieve. But if the attack comes, the sente is applicable to both opponents. Uke (thinking he is tori) can win or lose. This is why Hatsumi Sensei always insists on the importance of not considering the fight in terms of losing/winning; strong/weak; hard/soft.6
KUMO NO SU
(Jap.: KUMO: spider + SU: web)
"spiderweb"
Your actions must be like building a spiderweb into space. When a spider makes its spiderweb, it hangs it into space and waits for the preys to come into it and trap themselves. This is the same with uke. Uke is coming into your spiderweb and you do nothing for him to fall into it. Your spiderweb is playing at all levels physical and spiritual. Because you do not plan any movement in advance and stay out of uke's understanding of what is happening; because your actions are only a reaction to uke's intentions, you wrap uke into your spiderweb and he has no clue until it is too late. This year (2009) we used the rope a lot and this spiderweb vision is in fact part of the rope movement. You move like a rope, uke is trapped by your rope movements and any weapon used in the exchange between uke and tori is moving like a rope7. A rope has no logic in its behavior because a rope doesn't think. All our mistakes stem from the fact that we keep thinking about the outcome instead of simply reacting naturally to what is coming. Life and combat are the same.
MUSHIN
(Jap.: MU: no + SHIN: spirit, heart)
"state of no thinking"
Nagato Sensei explained that we have not one or two hearts8 but four, that he called "yotsu shin". We have the brain and the heart and the belly/bowels and the genitals. A few days later Hatsumi Sensei developed it a little further. In fact once your yotsu is one, you reach the 5th dimension, the mushin9 state. Only at this level can you be able to enter the kûkan (the one from outerspace). This passage from the 4th dimension (yotsu) to the 5th (mushin) transforms your actions. Like photons and stardust traveling invisibly through space and colliding, contact makes them both visible. The natural movements exists beyond uke and tori and their encounter renders it visible; your actions or non actions are similar to photons and stardust. Stardust never stops in space; photons once emitted exist until they hit something. Your taijutsu must be the same. There is no intention10, only a flow in time and space. When you reach the mushin state you become able to enter the kûkan of space and move naturally without thinking.
TECHNIQUE AND WAZA ARE SEPARATED, THE ROPE LINKS THEM
At the end of the Daikomyô Sai Sensei spoke about the difference between "technique" and "waza". He took the image of a country separated by a wall, in the West is the technique, the mechanics and on the other side of the wall, on the East, there is the feeling. We can also see them like omote and ura. We are walking on the edge of this wall and depending of the situation we jump to one side or the other. What we see as waza is an idea in motion. The "technique" is the dead explanation allowing us after many years to reach the waza level. As long as you keep doing techniques you are predictable as the form will betray your intention. An idea manifested in our dimension renders it visible and therefore can be countered. If you let things happening like the spider in its spiderweb, with a mental of mushin you are moving into the kûkan. Connected all along with your environment you read what life is giving you and adapt your behavior accordingly. When you become able to do this, your life gets simpler and you can really be happy. "By laughing purely you are given a full spiritual life", or to put it in Japanese, you enter the world of "rokkon shôjô".11
LAST MINUTE
"Next year will be tachi waza and everyone should get one. We will continue with the rope feeling but this time you will feel like being tightened up by the rope" Hatsumi Sensei, hombu dôjô December 18th, 2009
Interview taken on December 20th 2009 in Bonn, Germany.
1 For more details on rokkon shôjô please visit the blog of Duncan Stewart. I spoke with him during my last trip and my understanding is a little different. The concept of rokkon is, to me, more about the rewarding of your spirit i.e. the improvement of your life as a human being. Therefore my understanding of this theme is: "The essence of Life is to be happy". Check also the conclusion of this text.
2 All translations are coming from the Kenkyusha's New Japanese English Dictionary 4th edition - 1974
3 Hatsumi Sensei during Daikomyô Sai 2009.
4 See about the explanation on "kumo no su - spiderweb" below.
5 During training I went to Sensei to explain this sentence from the Tao and he asked me to share it with the whole group, this is why I am repeating it here.
6 Last April Sensei commented on this by saying that those who understand "martial arts" in this dualistic way were stupid and childish.
7 This is also why Sensei insisted a lot on moving with "uncommon sense". If you move like a 3 year old kid (sanshin) then everything you do will be hard to determine by the attacker and he will be trapped into your spiderweb.
8 Shin in Japanese has the double common sense of heart and/or spirit, brain
9 Mushin: detachment, no thinking
10 One day during training at the hombu Sensei explained that noise is intention. Train silently to show no intention. The sound reveals your actions. To be invisible be inaudible.
11 Rokkon - roku: reward + kon (tamashii): soul and shô: laughter + jô: pure, clear. "The essence of life is to be happy".
