Hyoho Niten Ichi-ryu UK Seminar

“Mata ao!”

This is what we hear from Iwami-soke at the end of every seminar. Last year in Finland was no exception. We’d pack our bokuto away, fold our kit up and ready ourselves for a final night of festivities at the hands of the Finns who must be amongst the maddest party animals in the world. We’d approach Iwami-soke after keiko to say goodbye and thanks for all the teaching he imparted on us over the previous three days, and he’d always thank us for our efforts, wish us a good journey home and say ‘mata ao’ (let’s meet again). That last time was a little different though. The next time we would meet would be at Heathrow Airport for his first visit to the UK – and the very first time we would have the soke of our school present to head a kenjutsu seminar in Great Britain .

Iwami Toshio Harukatsu is the soke of Hyoho Niten Ichi-ryu, one of the most famous schools of koryu kenjutsu in Japan . HNIR became famous due to its creation by the famous samurai Miyamoto Musashi and also the school’s use of two swords wielded simultaneously (although there were other ryuha before HNIR that also practiced this).

Iwami-soke was inaugurated as the 11th headmaster of HNIR in 2003 and was presented with two items by Imai-soke, the 10th head of HNIR – the Menkyo Kaidensho Makimono, a scroll containing all of the techniques contained in HNIR and names of all previous headmasters, and the Jisso Enman no Bokuto, a wooden training sword made by Musashi himself and designated as a national treasure by the Japanese government.

Until now, only a handful of people from the UK had met him, let alone practiced with him. We intended to fix that by inviting him to the UK to teach the influx of new practitioners here, along with old faces from all over Europe .

We invited, he accepted – it was all go!

After collecting Iwami-soke and two of his senior students (Nagaoka-sensei and Comont-sensei) from the most ridiculously busy airport in the world, off we went for some traditional English pub grub and an early night in London to recover from a long flight. The next day was a sightseeing visit for the delegation around London , starting with a flight on the London Eye. I don’t know why I suggested this over other typical tourist attractions as I am scared of heights! Still, better to face my fears than show my sensei what a big girl I am by chickening out! Surprisingly, it was enjoyable and the views of central London were awesome. I did have one minor panic when just as I was considering how pant-wettingly high we were, I realised we were only halfway up! Still, no-one noticed me clinging to the capsule superstructure in fear, so all was well…

Following my potential London Eye panic attack, we decided to take a tour of London in order to see as much as possible with the minimum of walking around in order to save everyone’s legs. Nagaoka-sensei noticed the Duck tour (an amphibious vehicle that drives you around London and then into the Thames for more sightseeing), so we jumped on this and off we went. It was very entertaining, and we learned lots about some of the major attractions nearby – although I was highly doubtful of the comedy-tour-guide telling us that the Thames is remarkably clean. Would you swim in it? Buckingham Palace was next, and we had to get some photos of the head of a prestigious Japanese sword school with sword-armed members of the Household Cavalry! The next day was the chance to rest up for the day before the seminar starts. We did a little sightseeing around Warwick , and returning early to relax and chat with soke as we had many questions about both the ryu and the techniques. After all, the next three days would be filled with hard training, with little time for talking and questions.

Friday morning. Breakfast, grab kit, panic about potential things that can go wrong, check I haven’t forgotten anything, dive into car with gear and head to hotel to pick up our teachers. Iwami-soke emerged from the hotel lobby, dressed ready for keiko with bokuto in hand and a big grin on his face. All of the previous days’ tiredness had gone and I could see we were in big trouble. Iwami-soke is a traditional sort of budo fella and not a big fan of relaxing practice. A short drive got us to the dojo at the University of Wolverhampton and as we entered the building, I could see from the viewing area for the first time the scale of the monster we had created. In the dojo there were 55 people from all over Europe were here to receive Iwami-soke’s teachings. For those of you who attend other sword art seminars, 55 may not seem like a lot but from virtually nothing less than ten years ago, there are now practitioners in 12 European countries – with representatives of most of those nations present at this seminar.

After a short opening speech from Iwami-soke, we got underway. We split into three groups depending upon ability, with all three groups concentrating on itto tachi seiho – the longsword techniques of the school. As usual we started with some stretching and a lot of kihon. Much of the first day was based on lots of adjustments on everyone’s basic techniques. The way we move, the speed and timing of our waza, grasping correct distancing by closing up more and making the seiho come alive. For those of you who do not practice paired techniques at a very intense level, I can only describe being in this situation to be terrifying and exhilarating. No armour, no padded weapons – just you, your opponent and a natural instinct to survive! That may sound melodramatic, but your training partner is aware of your level and cuts at you accordingly. The desire to not get hit on the head by a lump of oak makes a very good incentive to do the technique properly and with the correct timing. The counterattack is almost a pleasure to deliver, knowing that you just survived a shomen-uchi that started where your head was and ended a few inches from the floor! Within minutes of pairing up for some serious practice, everyone was getting a good sweat on (mostly stress-related I think!) and throwing everything into that one moment when uchidachi approaches issoku-itto-no-maai and cuts. From Friday to Sunday we practiced the various kenjutsu sets of HNIR, with the beginners staying with itto-seiho while the intermediate group moved onto kodachi-seiho and the advanced group did kodachi-seiho (short-sword techniques) and nito-seiho (two-sword techniques).

After Friday and Saturday’s keiko came the time-honoured event of beer & food. Friday took us to an Italian restaurant where it took forever to get served, but the atmosphere was great and we had a pretty good time. Saturday was pretty much the same, except it was Indian food. We expected Iwami-soke to leave a little earlier than usual as he said that the day’s keiko was quite strenuous, but he likes to chat with everyone so it was another late night!

In my opinion, the techniques of HNIR are quite simple in the delivery, but the real study of our art is in timing and strategy. All through the weekend we adjusted our timing to the point that many of the cuts we received would glance past us, catching the sleeves of our clothing and just missing the flesh! To do kata this close is disturbingly good fun, and the nods of approval from our teachers were very well received. On the first morning, paired practice was relaxed, with everyone getting into the swing of things in their own timing. Practice the seiho, check footwork, adjust distancing depending on your opponent’s movements etc. By the last practice of the day, every single practitioner was reborn. No longer were we just doing kata, but putting ourselves in what could only be described as mortal danger and coming out the other side winning! The transformation of each practitioner was quite strikingly obvious as seen in the last hour of the seminar when Iwami-soke requested that we give a presentation of what we had learned over the past three days. The beginner and intermediate groups gave a demonstration of the itto-seiho, and the advanced group presented techniques from itto-seiho, kodachi-seiho and nito-seiho. Right across the board, we witnessed excellent fighting spirit which only comes from the confidence-building of repeated practice and our teachers behind us spurring us on to get better, faster, closer and more dominant. Each of the three groups came off the dojo floor after the presentation gasping for air after throwing everything into those few minutes – and our teachers acknowledged our effort with a nod and a simple smile. Whew, they were happy! A couple of wrecked bokuto, an occasional cracked knuckle and 144 litres of water later and it was all over. Everyone survived the ordeal and had massively-improved technique to show for it.

Way too soon the week was over, and after a little shopping for goodies in the Midlands and sightseeing in Stratford & Oxford while en-route to London, we took Iwami-soke, Nagaoka-sensei and Comont-sensei back to the airport for their return home, loaded up with Cadbury’s chocolate and other goodies for their wives! After checking in their luggage and having a farewell meal, we offered our thanks for the time our teachers expended on us and in return Iwami-soke thanked us for our efforts in helping HNIR grow in UK and Europe . Once their boarding gate opened, they grabbed their hand luggage and made their way down the corridor to face Her Majesty’s Customs & Excise, waving goodbye to us all the way.

Even after Iwami-soke had gone through the security checkpoint, we could still hear his voice…

“Mata ao!”

Scott Halls
Heijoshin Dojo,
West Midlands, UK

For anyone who is interested in learning more about the practice of Hyoho Niten Ichi-ryu, please visit www.nitenichiryu.co.uk