Approximately 10 years ago this week (or as near as I can figure), I walked into my first Iaijustu training. I had only two semesters of martial arts under my belt some 20 years earlier and a single semester of European fencing.
I cannot honestly remember how I found my way to that website now - I had moved about a month earlier and was looking for something to get involved in. I reached out to my-now Sensei and watched a class. I enrolled the next week.
With the exception of very few things (this blog, for example) it is one of the longest activities I have ever kept up with.
What started me, of course, was fulfilling a life-long interest of learning to use a Japanese sword as it was meant to be used (or rather a bokuto, a wooden training sword -we do not use actual live blades) with the fullness of drawing and sheathing (unlike European fencing, which while involving great dexterity always felt slightly contrived to me). But that is only a beginning, and if that is all one looks for, one will leave within a year or two.
What Iai has taught me in the intervening years is a great deal more.
It has taught me about dedication, about practicing something consistently day in and day out, sometimes with no sense of actually moving forward. It has taught me that swordmanship is really just timing and distance - and that everything else in life is also just timing and distance. It has made me study more, instilling in me the lifelong learning I have always enjoyed: kata, kanji, even the powers of observation and thinking on my feet. It has also enabled me to go to Japan two times so far, something I did twice once long ago but now view as an annual goal.
Iai changed my life.
Iai is not done with me yet, nor I with it. I still have much to learn and much to perfect - after all, there is never mastery, only improvement. But comforts me greatly to know that I can invest 10 years into an activity and that it ends up making a meaningful difference in my life.
Here is to 10 more.
I think on some level that guys like us crave discipline and peace. Maybe everyone does. There is something about the blade and the bow that is hardwired into us as men on the genetic level too. I get a satisfaction from archery that I don’t get from guns. What I like about your preference in weapons raft is the heritage and history and travel. Can you speak Japanese with any fluency TB?
ReplyDeleteTen years of sticking to anything is an accomplishment in today's world. To me it speaks of self-discipline, which is a valuable trait to cultivate. Well done, TB.
ReplyDeleteI think you may be on to something Glen - The sword resonates with me (and the naginata as well) as nothing else has.
ReplyDeleteI have a little Japanese - technically I passed the N5 Japanese Proficienty Language Test so I have a basic understanding. In a pinch, I can get by. I maybe understand 20% when our headmaster is in town.
Thank you Lgigh! I do not know that I intended to start out with it as a testament to self discipline but that is what it has become (as to most martial arts if practiced long enough, really).
ReplyDeleteCongratulations. And yes, here's to 10 more. God bless. :)
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on your accomplishment.
ReplyDeleteThe sport of fencing is more than a bit contrived. It's a game with standardized equipment, rules and regulations. The fencer knows he isn't going to get stabbed, and so takes risks. The duelist, whether by sword or pistol, is betting his life and well-being that he's just a bit better than his opponent, but more importantly, he's found something worth fighting over.
I've often wondered what the effect on society would be if dueling were legalized. If both parties agree, why not let them meet in some safe place and settle their differences? Pistols for two, coffee for one.
Thank you Linda. Here is hoping for many more years.
ReplyDeleteMad Jack - Thank you!
ReplyDeleteA good point. It is formalized, like football or chess. Or (I suppose) Kendo, although that is a bit more aggressive. The duelist, or in Japan, the Shugyo, the swordsman that traveled from province to province in search of duels to test his skill, has far more lose - and therefore far less risks to take.
As for dueling: If each side signed away their rights for retribution, why not indeed?