About

So, let’s face it – Japanese martial arts have been a tad tainted.

Yes, you know what I’m talking about.

We got karate shows with so maxed out kata choreography that, and I’m not saying its not a feast for the eye, I wouldn’t be surprised to see it in a Bollywood movie.

We got kiai masters who claim that they by moving around their extremities in circular motions could break any MMA-fighter.

We got self defense schools claiming to guarantee you 100% protection from rapists thanks to their mysterious one-punch-and-its-bye-bye blows.

And we have dojos that claim mysterious Japanese origins, but would make Rex Kwando look genuine in any non-partisan comparison.

You might think these “phenomena” are a product of the Japanese martial arts’ spread to the West. Think again. I’ve seen all of the above four happen here in Japan. I don’t know if it is because original dojos tend to be controlled by bitter old men who have no clue how to attract new students or, au contraire, if the blame should be but on people believing the fancy images that the entertainment industry shows us of ordinary people learning how to fly, breath fire etcetera within the minute the movie producer put aside for the montage (yeah, there’s always a montage right…gotta love it).

Well anyhows.
This blog is not going to be about stuff I find exotic and just feel I gotta shove in your face to dazzle you and make you think I possess such-ninja-much-mystery-many-knowledge about medieval Japanese martial arts. Yes, that’s right – medieval.
This blog will probably refer to judo, kendo, sumo, brazilian jujutsu and other awesome stuff, but I’ll focus on the teachings I have received through training martial arts that formed and were practiced before Japan opened up to the rest of the world.
Why? Because that’s what I’m training!
I don’t want to overreach and try to play Mr. Smartypants (so feel free to point out whatever you might find a bit odd about what I’m writing).

This is in fact mainly going to be a blog bringing up principles I’ve been taught (not conceived myself) through training. The number of pages will be kinda few, but stuff will get updated over time.

And yeah, I’m going to try to keep it simple and short – because there’s no way you would be able to understand what the heck I’m posting here unless you’re training the stuff yourself. Elaborating too much will just come off as pretentious I suppose, and if you’re into any martial arts you know that you have to do it with your body anyways to understand what its all about.

Words don’t mean that much when you’re fighting at any rate, so why waste them?

云々

・加速

Detail from Jûniruikassenemaki (十二類合戦絵巻)