The reason why I am sharing this with you is that I believe that you care about kendo enough to subscribe to Kendo-Guide.Com Newsletter. Not a lot even do not make a bit of effort to subscribe to our Newsletter. So please keep this between you and Kendo-Guide.Com. I think this kind of knowledge should be passed onto the next generation.
If I find something suspicious activities, this video will be removed for good. So please do not tell this URL anyone who is not a subscriber. Murayama sensei is one of my senseis. He won an 8th Dan Championship.
I distinctively remember my first jigeiko with him, when I was about 14 years old.
He was not very tall. Way shorter than I was. However, the pressure I felt from the kensaki of his shinai was unbelievable. The kensaki of his shinai looked so huge that I could not even move forwards. It looked like a huge shield.
I will talk about my memories with him more in the future, so let me tell you something about tenouchi that I did not mention in an article.
In the video, Murayama sensei is using a tenugui to show his tenouchi. When I was a kid, I learned to have tenouchi as drying a chakin, cloth used in the tea ceremony. chakin is made out of linen or cotton according to my friend who is a master of Urasenke (a school of tea ceremony). It is very soft and you do not need to squeeze it much to dry it. Grab a chakin with both hands and twist the wrists a little bit very lightly, you can dry it. That is how we should have our tenouchi.
Tenugui is soft enough to practice tenouchi so if have a tenugui, go and practice your tenouchi in your bathroom. If you do not have a tenugui, get a sock. Not the one made of 100% cotton. Well, it is ok but it is sometimes hard to dry. Wet a sock and feel your tenouchi as Murayama sensei demonstrates in the video. I think you will notice that you do not need to squeeze hard to dry a sock. That is tenouchi. Hope this helps your kendo.
Thank you so much for the video of Muryama sensei demonstrating tenouchi. I have an older group of friends that are benefiting from Kendo techniques, and are hitting way too hard. I thought it may have been their grip, and now I have an answer.
Regards to you Imafuji sensei,
Keith Hulme, Queensland, Australia.
You’re very welcome! Tenouchi is one of the hardest things to learn. As Murayama sensei says in the video, he was still learning it!
But we have to start sometime, right? SO why not now! This is something we should come back and watch over and over!
Hello Imafuji-sensei. Thank you very much for the video.
I was thinking if we can apply the same principle to a normal cloth, as doing soji in the dojo, or just cleaning the house. I am just trying to kill two things in one time, but don’t know if this would be a recommended way to trying a little bit of tenouchi.
Actually, I tried.
I don’t think I will ever need a grip like that…
This was an stupid question, I’m sorry.
Hi Kaitei. Sounds like you are on a good path. Of course, you cannot!
He was an 8-dan tournament champ and he himself said that his tenouchi was still not good.
If you could do what he is showing in the video right now, you are as good as or even better than most of the kendoists in the world!
So don’t be sorry. Don’t compare yourself with a super 8-dan sensei.
You tried and that is a start of the right path. Keep up the good work, my friend!
Thanks for your comment, Kaitei. You can. Just make sure you do as you see in the video.
An image that stays with me is those birds that wade through shallow water, hunting fish.
So parsimonious, so economical! The sudden head movement is so they spend as much time as possible with their head very still. Very still, then snap forward, then very still again.
And when they strike? some slowly adjust their head for the optimum angle and then/*SNAP*/ … with sniper accuracy.
No tension. From relaxed to deadly.
Thanks for your input. I was reading a book written by an 8-dan and it said, it should be totally relax with the strength as less as zero.
No strength there and when you strike, the power goes up to its max.
Easy to be said than done, indeed. 🙂
Thank you so much for the video of Murayama sensei! Since I started practicing kendo two years ago, one of the aspects that have been difficult for me to learn is to stop striking so hard (especially while practicing Men). And lately, during training, especially in jigeiko, I have had some difficulties, because my strikes are not that good, it seems that they lack strength. And I think it is related to my tenouichi.
Therefore, having the opportunity of seen this video and listening to the explanation of how the tenouchi should be, especially with the example of gripping a wet tenugui, helped me a lot to understand in a better way the concept of tenouchi, and how I can improve it.
Definitely, I am going to start putting into practice this knowledge.
Best regards,
Alberto Coto, Costa Rica
Thank you very much for your comment, Alberto!
I am glad that the late Murayama sensei’s video helped you to understand what tenouchi is.
Are you with Min?
I just talked to him on Skype on Sunday.
Hello Imafuji sensei,
Yes, Min is my teacher and is the one that introduced me to the amazing world of Kendo. Under his guidance, I have learned a lot about kendo, and I hope to continue learning from him and from you!
Best regards,
Alberto