For Study Group: Do You Know the Difference Between Tsuyoi and Umai?

仁王像 阿吽 Nio AunOne video is available for Newsletter subscribers at the bottom of the page. The video Part II is only available for Kendo For Life Club members only since it is a lecture for my own students. You can become a member of Kendo For Life Club at Pateron.

The kendō I have been wanting or searching is that tsuyoi kendo. What is tsuyoi kendō?

One day when I was 12 years old, at my dōjō back in Japan, the late Tsurumaru sensei called me and asked me, out of nowhere, this question.

Which One Is Better, Tsuyoi Kendō and Umai Kendō?

Tsuyoi means strong. And umai means skillful.

What do you think?

His explanation…

Tsuyoi kendō is like this. You can strike a target, for example, men while showing that you are going to strike men. So your opponent knows what you are going to strike.

Umai Kendō is like this. You strike a target, for example, kote while showing that you are going to strike men.

My answer was tsuyoi kendō would be better and I did not know why until he told me an answer for this question.

Almost 30 years later, I talked to Masayoshi Miyazaki (7-dan) about it. He was in charge of kids’ kendō back then and have been my sensei for as long as I have been doing kendō.

He said, “The former one is martial arts and the latter one is sports”.

20150412 French Chanbara Championship 022
Sports Chanbara, Pierre-Yves Beaudouin / Wikimedia Commons, via Wikimedia Commons

Martial Arts vs. Sports

I do not think there is a vivid line between the two (at this very moment) and I am still figuring that out but I know what he meant.

In training, we should not focus about hitting targets, even though that is what we do in kendō. In training, we should focus on the process rather than results.

It is always important to have a good result (sports aspect) but more importantly we should focus on “how” to get a good result (the way part of kendō).

Tsuyoi kendō is more like the core of our life. Live and fight fair and square. Live right. Fight without cheating. That is why the late Tsurumaru sensei said, you should practice kendō like “I am going to strike men and strike and get men”.

Umai kendō is also necessary. Mind you, umai does not mean cheat.  We need to know a lot of different techniques to fight with righteousness and support the tsuyoi kendō.

yoroiKamiizumi Isenokami Nobutsuna

Here is an example of Umai. I am telling this story from my memory that is very poor so please forgive me if this is not very accurate.

The founder of Shinkage-Ryū, Kamiizumi Isenokami Nobutsuna was passing through a village.

The villagers were gathering looking very worried. And as he passed by, one of the villagers asked him to save a girl from a kidnapper hiding in a shed (or a house) because Nobutsuna looked like a great samurai.

Nobutsuna agreed to help the girl. But he started shaving his hair off and dressed up like monk. He also prepared some rice balls.

He walked toward the shed and said to the kidnapper,  “You (and/or the girl) must be hungry. I have some rice balls for you (and the girl). Let me in”.

The kidnapper let him in and then Nobutsuna pinned the kidnapper down and rescued the girl.

No one died or got hurt by Nobutsuna getting into the shed to rescue. He just chose one technique out of other possible solution and executed it very well.

He could confront the kidnapper as a samurai. He could try to persuade the kidnapper like a negotiator. He could use other villagers to attract the kidnapper’s attention.

To accomplish a goal, he probably had a lot of techniques but he chose the best technique at that time under that circumstance.

Become a Strong Person with a Lot of Techniques

Up until recently, I was aiming to do tsuyoi kendō but now I am trying to add more techniques to my kendō.

The core of my ideal kendō is tsuyoi  kendō but I absolutely need more techniques to expand and improve my kendō.

Life is the same, don’t you think? People who live their life seriously and with righteousness are not always treated correctly. People need some skills so they can be treated right and also the right things can be seen “right”.

What do you think?

Difference Between Tsuyoi And Umai: Part I

 

Difference Between Tsuyoi And Umai: Part II available at Kendo For Life Club

Learning One Handed Men Strike to Improve Your Kendo

One Handed Men Strike two pieces of shinaiI learned the shinai swinging mechanism at the 8th Nito Seminar. The mechanism is very helpful for all the kendo practitioners but I do not want to make it to the public because I am still learning. If you want to learn come and join the Study Group. If you a member of the study club, you are seeing this fine 🙂

If you have some spare shinai, prepare two pieces of bamboos from the shinias you no longer use. Then tape them together like the photo above. Then mark where you think the center of mass is.

The reasons that you make this shinai is

  • to have a light shinai

Why?

So you can strike one handed strike without unnecessary strength.

This is very very important. If you use a normal shinai, you will put extra strength to swing the shinai down and stop it. This will develop unwanted habits. So we want to have a light shinai.

Once you have the light shinai and marked the center of mass, then time to swing it down. What you should do is

  • Have your shinai right in front of you so the mark is right in front of your face
  • Lift up the shinai a little bit so the mark goes over your eye level
  • Push it forward to strike a target

 

One Handed Men Strike-front of face
Place your shinai in front of your face
One Handed Men Strike-above eye level
The mark should be above your eye level
One Handed Men Strike-extend your arm
Extend your arm

 

When you extend your arm here is what you should pay attention.

Once you lift up the shinai as the mark goes up above the eye level, just extend your arm so the mark is going toward the target.

You can feel how effective it is to strike a target with this method.

Here is the video I can share with you. It is introducing its mechanism. The other video is about actual practice but it is only for patrons because I do not want to make it to the public. Go and watch another video at Patron Only Content.