As the ‘Art of Sword’ workshop gets ever closer, we thought you might enjoy some writings and thoughts about what sword means to your sensei’s and to the dojo!
In feudal Japan peace and order was enforced by the sword. Battles and duels were fort daily and a skilled swordsman was never short of opponents. These were difficult, hard and far from peaceful times.
But these times quite literally forged the development of the sword and the techniques of wielding such a profound weapon. This period of Japanese history helped to change not just the shape of this exquisite weapon but continually refined the methods and strategies used in its lethal application.
Now of course sword is no longer studied for its functional purpose of taking lives. Instead it is now a vehicle for personal discovery and self expression through the performance of its artistic movements.
To explore this aspect of swordsmanship we need to focus our minds toward expression and away from killing, this is the true spirit of sword.
There are no ‘opponents’, only the ‘cut’.
The sword, folded hundreds of times, forged, moulded and honed to a razor sharp edge is made ‘perfect’. It is we that make a cut beautiful, weak, powerful or even ugly.
Often when holding the sword we grip too tightly, causing excessive movement in the tip of the sword itself. This extra tension detracts for a ‘true’ cut which, even on the field of battle, could lead to a sword being damaged or broken.
Grace and poise win over on this war for mastery of ones self, expressed through the vehicle of the ‘perfect weapon’
With sword work, much like dance, the floor is the canvas. Or rather the space is the canvas as the movements of the sword and the body take place in all dimensions. That of course includes time!
In combat we would ‘wait’ for the target to become available, poised ready to cut. And in performance this too is the case.
The Arts of sword work has a unique ‘medium’, it is not just movement but a form of combat. We express ourselves through the innovative ways we dispatch imaginary opponents.
One such aim of swordsmanship performance is to have the swordsman seem to disappear. The timing, precision and focus of the swordsman will cause the onlooker (audience) to ‘see’ the opponents, to watch them fall. Here the swordsman attempts to convey to the audience what he sees in his imagination. The better this can be done the more the swordsman seems to ‘disappears’.
All too easily are the martial arts dismissed as brutal and thug-like. If one were to watch a tournament or even a real fight then to some extent this would be true but this has never been the aim of martial arts.
The key to understanding is in the term martial ARTIST. And here in our workshop it is this artistic side that we aim to explore and develop.
Hold the sword the way a painter holds a brush, a sculptor holds a chisel or even as a musician lovingly holds an instrument.
A cut is powered and fuelled by passion not aggression. We strive to express ourselves rather than dominate others.
The ‘cleanness’ of the cut reflects the clear mind of the swordsman – this is the aim of sword work, to connect with the sword like the painters brush, holding it lightly to let the masterpiece unfold. To grip too tightly is to impose our will upon it and then only our thoughts and intensions will manifest outward. It is about the sword and swordsmanship not the swordsman.
Let the sword move and speak through us, for without us it will remain sheathed. This is the relationship we cultivate.
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