Today I watched the 14th annual Osaka koryu embukai. There were around 15 types of koryu on display, iaijutsu, kenjutsu, naginatajutsu, jujutsu, kyubajutstu, etc… and it reminded me of a topic that I talk about semi regularly with my friends: Pure Kendo.
The term koryu is one that isn’t talked about in Japanese kendo circles except very infrequently. That the people who shaped modern kendo into what it is today all came from a koryu background is telling: kendo is indivisible from its koryu history. Or rather, it should be. Nowadays, however, most kendo people don’t even practise iaido, and couldn’t spot a Katori Shinto-yu kata from a Maniwa Nen-ryu one… if they have even heard the name. Kendo has lost its roots and exists for itself nowadays.
“So what?” you might ask. Personally, I think kendo can survive on its own and, in fact, that we’ve gone too far down the road to turn back. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Kendo has become more exciting, more energetic, and gained a lot of popularity for it.
However, if you are truly interested in learning about what kendo is and where it came from, serious study into the koryu is essential, at least in my opinion.
Agreed. And ideally a koryu that has some paired forms! :D b
Funny, I agree with what you say basicaly, but I don’t feel the NEED to actually DO the koryu thing. I’ve been doing kendo for the past 13 years, but never try iaido once… and in this case it’s not because there isn’t any iai here to do, because there is.
Of course being in Japan you are offered lots of different possibilities and experiences about the subject, but I believe “my” (poor, I know) kendo can survive on its own too, and I only see koryu (kenjutsu, in my case) as a sort of… hum… an antropological study of kendo, if you wish.
Interesting? Yeah sure. I’d love to read a thousand pages about it; but would I do it? Probably not.
The fact that you dont feel the NEED is exactly my point.
13 years is actually nothing. I have a couple of more years on you, but not much, so we are basically at the same level in terms of time. However, when you start to hang around people with 50+ years of training behind them, you do in fact see into a new world, and its a different one that exists now. And even then, most of those people are responsible for the “pure kendo” situation that we are now in. Their teachers were a different breed however.
I still stand by my original point –> to understand kendo in the manner that it was meant to be understood, you probably should not practise it in-and-of itself.
At the end of the day, thats up to you – of course – and I wont and cannot judge you for it. But I am confident that those that do add koryu (at least iaido) to their training will come out at the end of the day with a fundamentally more advanced and deeper understanding of what “kendo” actually is…… as they are following a path that is much closer to those that created and developed kendo….. and that means pretty much everyone up until, and just after WW II.