SHOGO (称号) in Japanese translates simply as “title” or “rank,” and the word can be used in many areas, for example formal titles of nobility, military ranks, scholarly ranks, etc, and informally in the sporting world, between friends, etc.
The use of the word that I will look at here is of-course that to do with the budo world, and specifically the usage promoted by the Dai Nippon Butokukai (1895-1946), and that continues today in one of its spiritual heirs, the Zen Nippon Kendo Renmei (All Japan kendo federation). Please note that the Butokukai information presented here relates to Kendo (variously called gekkiken and kenjutsu) but that eventually all arts under the Butokukai ended up using the system (kyudo, jukendo, et al).
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It’s kind of odd at times how all of us are connected. We all remember our first time walking into a dojo. The odd sights, the sounds, the feeling. Many of us probably didn’t know exactly how to react to it at first.
Starting kendo in the states was a culture shock several hours a week at a time for me. At first it was fascinating, then later frustrating Then I believe it became the glove which I preferred to wear. My sempai told me once when he was teaching kendo in the states, ‘’I have to teach Japanese common sense. It is the most difficult thing’’. I didn’t really know what he meant by that till I started my own club.
People without any sort of Japanese cultural influence can be in for a surprise when they first get into a dojo. As an instructor at that point, I had to try to teach that Japanese common sense and then explain it at times. Why is there no talking during class? Why must you run everywhere? Why does the equipment need to be in a line when we line up? Why must I hear a reply when I speak? What is with the pseudo-military attitude?
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Tsukahara Bokuden (1489/90-1571) is a renowned and well-known kenshi inside and outside of Japan, and is up there with the likes of Matsumoto bizen-no-kami, Kamiizumi Ise-no-kami, and Iisaza Chiosai in relation to his impact on systemising Japanese swordsmanship into the ryu-ha format.
He was born around 1489-1490 as the 2nd son of Urabe Akikata, one of the four retainers of Kashima shrine. As a young boy and teenager, Bokuden was taught the swordsmanship arts passed down within the shrine itself (Kashima Chuko-ryu) by his father, and later learned Tenshin Katori Shinto-ryu from his foster father (who was said to have studied under Iizasa Chiosai himself). It is also said that he learned Matsumoto Bizen-no-kami’s Shinkage-ryu as well, but whether that was from his foster father, or directly by himself is unknown. What is known, however, is that he fought his first duel with a live blade, and went on to fight many more during the duration of his three musha shugyo’s (around the ages of 20, 40, and 60). In total it was said that Bokuden took part in 39 battles and 19 duels with a live blade, never once being injured.
Bokuden lived a long life, and was a successful career swordsman, becoming a retainer of the then Ashikaga Shogunate. Although it is said he never gave a name to his own style (his students would go on to name it Kashima Shinto-ryu) he did pass on his full teachings to three students.
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As part of my summer Musha Shugyo this year I visited the spiritual and historical center of budo in Japan: Kashima and Katori shrines, located in Ibaragi and Chiba prefectures respectively.
Their proximity to each other is very close, about 15 mins by train. Although 400 years ago there were no trains nor cars and travel was done by foot or horse, I can easily imagine kenshi of yore walking between these shrines as part of their musha shugyo.
From the aptly titled article “A bit of Background” please refer to this quote from Meik Skoss to understand the relationship between these shrines and budo culture:
The areas most famous for the development of the classical martial traditions (koryu) are located, as the saying goes, in the Kanto region, “Heiho wa Togoku kara”: heiho comes from the East, referring to the Kanto area surrounding Tokyo (heiho means martial or military arts; strategy). The Kashima and Katori Shrines lie on opposite sides of the Tone River in Ibaraki and Chiba Prefectures.
There are enshrined two of the most important Shinto martial deities: Takemikazuchi no Mikoto (Kashima Jingu) and Futsunushi no Kami (Katori Jingu). They, along with the Buddhist goddess, Marishiten, serve as the patron and protective deices for many of the martial traditions. Historical records show very clearly that young warriors gathered, or were sent by their masters, for advanced training at these shrines, which became centers for the martial arts after the end of the Heian era. Eventually this led to the foundation of the oldest known formal traditions in the martial arts, the Kashima Shinto-ryu and the Katori Shinto-ryu.
As this quote states, these shrines did not only serve as centers for religious and psychological development of warriors, but were also places they could study the more physical aspects as well. Kashima in particular was noted for its training of swordsmen.
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While I was in Kyoto for work at the end of July, I ended up swinging by a historical site that is associated with Miyamoto Musashi: Ichijoji.
Four years after Sekigahara the young Musashi came to the capital. Here he is said to have challenged the Yoshioka school to a duel. Musashi defeated the head of the school, then his successor. The Yoshioka – being one of the most famous schools in the city – could not stand the shame of defeat and asked for a rematch. This time his opponent would be the new head of the school – and the 3rd of three brothers (Musashi having defeated his two elder brothers). Leaving nothing to chance, the supporters of the school selected an isolated area on the outskirts of the town and prepared an ambush. The ambush of-course did not go as the Yoshioka group expected and Musashi not only survived unhurt, but defeated the last of the Yoshioka brothers as well. The shame of this defeat damaged the schools reputation so much that the school was effectively destroyed.
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Of the three great private dojo in Japan (日本の３大私塾道場) – Honma Dojo (Chiba), Shubukan (Hyogo), and Tobukan (Ibaragi) – two remain extant at the time of writing this article: Shubukan and Tobukan. Having been to Shubukan, I decided to take sometime out of my schedule and go to practise at the infamous Tobukan in Mito city, Ibaragi prefecture, and learn more about this influential dojo.
Tobukan was founded on the 1st of January 1874, just three years after the abolition of the domain system in Japan and creation of the modern prefectural system. Mito-han had been an extremely influential domain and was the home of many radical thinkers centered around the domain school Kodokan.
The founder of Tobukan was one Ozawa Torakichi, a Mito-han clansman who had been a kenjutsu instructor at Kodokan along with Chiba Shusaku (the founder of Hokushin-itto-ryu, and an extremely influential figure in kendo’s history). Before taking the post he studied Hokushin itto-ryu at Chiba’s dojo in Edo – Genbukan.
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Background
The Mito-han was a highly influential domain during the entire Edo-period. As a senior branch of the Tokugawa clan their prestige was immense. Mito-han became one of the leading intellectual centers in Japan, and its daimyo and scholars became more and more vocal in challenging the central authority of the shogunate, eventually being instrumental in its dissolution. During the turbulent years leading up to civil war and the Emperors restoration, the domain school that produced these young intellectuals was Kodokan.
The following introductory text is taken from the English leaflet called “Kodokan” (I have slightly reworded sections of it). I will add my own thoughts at the end.
Kodokan: the biggest domain school in Japan
Kodokan was built by Tokugawa Nariaki (1800-1860), the ninth daimyo of the Mito-han in 1841. In those days the Mito-han was facing the fear of the baku-han system crumbling (centralised Shogunate relationship with the provincial clans/domains) and threat from foreign colonial powers. Nariaki initiated a reform of the han administration. As a part of this, he aimed at to introduce higher education for his clansmen. Kodokan was built to achieve this.
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Often when an individual thinks of influential characters in kendo, more likely than not, that individual will think of Japanese kenshi like Mochida Moriji or Takano Sasaburo, or even present day heroes like Eiga or Miyazaki (rightfully so as these people have left a tremendous mark). However, few would think of an American named Dr Gordon Warner. Little information is readily available about Dr Warner and therefore his contributions go unnoticed for the most part. Dr Warner was a pioneer and is largely responsible for bridging the western world to Japanese kendo. In the following post I want to share what I discovered about Dr Warner and encourage those with personal knowledge to contribute below (and please correct any mistakes I may have made!).
As a young boy growing up in Southern California Dr Gordon Warner enjoyed watching chambara movies with his nisei friends, which at that time was very rare due to the absence of cultural understanding. Dr Warner often believed the people in the community thought he may have wandered into the theaters by mistake. It was this early exposure to Japanese culture that sparked his interest in Japanese history and eventually budo.
Dr Warner, a social studies major at the University of Southern California, was a large athletic man. Standing at 6′4″Dr Warner was on the varsity swim team. During this time he also decided to pursue judo and kendo at a local dojo. After graduating in June 1936, Dr Warner entered the United States Marine Corps as a 2nd lieutenant. It was during his time in basic training that Dr Warner met two officers Colonel Biddle (at the time a renowned fencer and foremost hand-to-hand combat instructor) and Captain Puller, who both encouraged him to continue studying budo, noting that kendoist were adept at parrying attacks during bayonet drills.
Read More Post a comment (16)The Japanese team for the 14th World Kendo Championships to be held this year in Brazil has been announced on June 1st (Japanese here). I am sure you will spot many familiar names, in both the mens and ladies teams.
Its not surprise that the mens team mainly consists of police, and not a few of the ladies team either. What is slightly different from before is the more experienced age of the ladies team, however.
Team leader: Inoue (Nara)
Mens manager: Kato (Tokyo)
Mens coach: Furukawa (Hokkaido)
Mens team:
1. Uchimura, 29, 5dan, Tokyo, Police (Keishicho)
2. Kiwada, 30, 6dan, Osaka, Police
3. Shodai, 28, 5dan, Kanagawa, Police
4. Takanabe, 32, renshi 6dan, Kanagawa, Police
5. Teramoto, 34, renshi 6dan, Osaka, Police
6. Nakano, 29, 5dan, Kyoto, Police
7. Furusawa, 31, renshi 6dan, Kumamoto, Police
8. Hojo, 33, renshi 6dan, Kanagawa, Police
9. Matsuwaki, 30, 6dan, Tokyo, Police (Keishicho)
10. Wako, 32, renshi 6dan, Hokkaido
Ladies manager: Kanzaki (Osaka)
Ladies coach: Ishida (Osaka) [renshi 7dan]
Ladies team:
1. Otsuji, 26, 5dan, Osaka, Police
2. Kondo, 30, 6dan, Osaka, Police
3. Sakuma, 23, 4dan, Yamagata, Teacher (high school)
4. Shimokawa, 28, 5dan, Kagoshima, Teacher (university)
5. Shojima, 32, renshi 6dan, Tokyo, Police (Keishicho)
6. Shinzato, 27, 5dan, Nigata, Sports Association worker
7. Takami, 23, 4dan, Chiba, Teacher (private)
8. Tsubota, 28, 5dan, Okayama, Police
9. Murayama, 34, renshi 6dan, Saitama, Police
10. Yamamoto, 20, 4dan, Osaka, Police
As every kendoka knows, Busen (Budo Senmon Gakko) was – along with Tokyo Koto Shihan Gakko – the premier place for training kendoka before the war. It was run by the Butokukai and was based in the legendary Butokuden in Kyoto. People who graduated from here went on to train kenshi all over the country. The schools impact on modern kendo cannot be underestimated. During the post WW2 occupation the school was renamed and its martial arts practice banned.
The subject of this article is about the person who was said to be the last graduate from Busen – Furuya Fukunosuke hanshi. Furuya sensei was well known in the Kansai area and taught at a few different dojo, including my own one in central Osaka – Yoseikai. I managed to do keiko with him only a few times before his health deteriorate to the point where he could not practice. Even after that point he still came to the dojo and attended a couple of gasshuku, thus I luckily had the chance to learn something from him. unfortunately, at the relatively young age of 81, Furuya sensei died last December.
My sempai and sensei reacted sadly at his death – not only because of his young age nor due to his impact in the kendo of the area – but his passing is also hard evidence that the kendo world is changing for ever. Gone and going are the sensei who learned kendo at legendary places such as Busen. Can we live up to their legacy? Well, only time will tell.
My ardour, posture, and sword were cultivated by breaking through the opponents kamae during keiko (相手の剣を割っていく稽古で気勢、体勢、剣勢が養えた)
I am the last graduate from Busen. This was a special school aimed for people who wished to pursue kendo as a professional career. At that time, training there was completely different from normal dojo. First of all, everyone was treated as a beginner, and kendo was taught to you from the start, no matter if you were experienced or not.
Read More Post a comment (9)Founding of the Butokuden
in 1895 on the 1,100 year anniversary of the transferring of the Japanese capitol to Kyoto (Heian-kyo), and as part of the building of Heian-jingu, the Butokuden construction began. It was originally meant as a demonstration platform for the Butokukai. It was completed in 1899 on the north-west side of the Hein-jingu complex. If was then also designated as a school for training Martial Arts teachers (later it would become the Budo Senmon Gakko).
At that time it was said “in the east there is Kodokan (built 1884), and in the west the Butokuden” such was its place in the center of Japanese budo circles.
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Editors note: this post is just for general informational purposes.
The format of one of Japans premier kendo competition – the Todofuken Taiko Kendo Yusho Taikai (aka the Todofuken, or in English the “All Japan Team competition”) – has changed from this year, 2009.
The main theme of the change was two-fold: to include high school and university students in the mix, and to break the competition into male and female ones. One of the main female only competitions – the All Japan Housewives competition – has been subsumed into this new female competition.
For background on what it was before along with a more detailed explanation, historical information/results, and links, please read this article.
Member Makeup (starting 2009)
Here are details on the selection procedures for both competitions. Please note that this is based on what was published by the Osaka Kendo Renmei, it is possible (but unlikely) that other prefectures follow a different selection process.
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Eikenkai is an informal group of friends in the Kansai area of Japan that seek to promote and develop kendo for the foreign community. We have strong connections in the area and wish to utilise these to make peoples stay or visit in the area a great kendo experience.
Our February keikokai was a jam packed: 45 mins of kihon, 45 mins of jigeiko, kendo no kata embu, two iaido embus (Hoki and Mugai ryu), and a hands-on how-to-use-a-katana lesson aimed at iaido inexperienced kendoka. Following all this we ate and drank into the evening at our sempai’s restaurant.
People participating came from 6 countries spanning 5 prefectures, from mudansha to kodansha, and 4 different ryu-ha’s as well as kendo were represented.
If you are in the area and are interested in our group, then please check out EIKENKAI.NET for more information.
Kenpō Nagasaki is a bimonthly kendo publication available to subscribers in Nagasaki prefecture. Each issue features shiai and seminar reports and articles by sensei on various topics.
Recently the magazine featured statistics about dojo in Nagasaki prefecture, including a survey on how many dojo have kamidana or Japanese flags at their shōmen. I have translated the statistics from this section of the survey here:
| Area | No. of dojo | Kamidana only | National Flag only | Neither | Both | No Answer |
| Nagasaki City | 34 | 4 | 10 | 16 | 4 | 0 |
| Seihi Area | 4 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Isahaya City | 17 | 2 | 13 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| Unzen City | 5 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Minami Shimabara City | 9 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| Ōmura City | 15 | 4 | 7 | 3 | 1 | 0 |
| Higashi Sonogi Area | 9 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 2 | 0 |
| Saikai City | 8 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 0 | 2 |
| Sasebo City | 20 | 5 | 1 | 11 | 3 | 0 |
| Kitamatsu area | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Hirado Area | 13 | 1 | 5 | 5 | 0 | 2 |
| Gotō City | 8 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Shin-Kamigotō City | 10 | 2 | 1 | 5 | 0 | 2 |
| Iki City | 9 | 0 | 0 | 9 | 0 | 0 |
| Tsushima City | 18 | 2 | 0 | 15 | 0 | 1 |
| Shimabara City | 5 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 |
| Matsuura City | 9 | 4 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 0 |
| Total | 195 | 37 | 48 | 84 | 16 | 10 |
It is interesting to note that 43% of dojo have neither a flag nor a kamidana, and only 8% have both. This is in contrast not only to the western image of Japanese dojo, but the to general Japanese image of dojo as well.
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Yagyu no sato (柳生の里) is a small village in Nara prefecture, Japan. Passing through it in a car or by very infrequent bus, you would probably notice nothing particularly different to any other sleepy rural Japanese town. However, this town was the center of Yagyu-han, the ancestral home of the Yagyu family, the masters of the most famous school of Japanese swordsmanship.
Yagyu Sekishusai was already a renowned bugeisha (martial artist) when – via the introduction of the skilled spear-wielding monk Hōzōin In’ei – he was introduced to one of the legends of Japanese swordsmanship – Kamiizumi no kami Nobutsuna. Following a legendary duel in which Sekishusai lost to one of Kamiizumi’s students armed with a fukuro-shinai, Sekishusai himself became a follower of Kamiizumi, eventually inheriting the system from him. Sekishusai’s son Munenori went on to become an official sword instructor for the Tokugawa Bakufu (shogunate) and taught three successive Shogun’s. In his lifetime his stipend and position considerably rose, assuring both his families success and their notoriety.
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Following Scotts great article on the 1st Hyoho Niten Ichi-ryu UK Seminar, i’d like to start the first in a series of short articles entitled “Kendo Places” by writing about a place that all kendo enthusiasts should visit at least once in their life and that is connected strongly with the art that Scott practises: REIGANDO.
Reigando (霊巌洞) is basically a small cave in the mountains close to Kumamoto city. It is on the grounds of the very old Unganzenji temple (雲巌禅寺), and it was here, in this cave, where Miyamoto Musashi was said to have written his treatise the Go Rin no Sho (五輪書) in the early 1640’s.
Myself, my friend, and my sempai and his family travelled there by car early one morning back in 2004. It was a cold morning and we were a bit hungover.
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Whilst nowhere near as popular or widespread as kendo, dedicated iaido clubs can be found at many Japanese universities. University students often have a strong showing in shiai, and student taikai are highly competitive with some great iai on show. University club members often have extremely strong form, visually impressive iai, and ability far beyond the average for their grade.* However, student iaido or ‘gakusei iai’ is also marked by several quirks that many sensei say must be overcome if a student wants to progress into the higher grades. Taking my former club as an example, I’ll give a brief description of why the student approach to iai does so well in shiai, and what its weaknesses are.
You’re all thinking, what’s a jitsugyodan, right? The easiest description is simply “A company”. That could be used to describe all of the entrants in the Nippon Budoukan last weekend. Basically, your company registers your internal kendo club, and away you go, you can enter the jitsugyodan Taikai. This means you see all manner of companies entering, including Crab Speciality Chain Restaurants, Kendo Armour Shops, Insurance Companies, Banks, Scientific Researchers, Truck Manufacturers, Coordinated Security guards and many, many others. I regularly practise with a jitsugyodan myself, Mitsubishi UFJ bank. It’s also worth noting that many jitsugyodan have a variety of sports clubs for their employees. For instance, 2 ladies Badminton representatives at the Olympics this year were jitsugyodan regulars. Mitsubishi UFJ even has a basketball team.
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Today the 56th Kansai University Kendo Championships (32nd for the ladies) was held in central Osaka. About 60 universities from the area battled it out frantically for the top spots.
Too tired to write a long post now, but just wanted to share the picture with you, and the fact that Osaka Taiiku Daigaku (Osaka Sports University) won the mens competition.
