Bujinkan Theme 2007
This is and old post but…Today was the first day of training for 2007 at the Hombu. (hatsugeiko)Soke showed us the bud that will eventually flower into this year’s theme.The theme for 2007 is Kukishin Ryu and the aspect of Kimon (demon gate) or direction.The aspect of Kimon is Buddhist and said to be native to Japan. The Kimon is the gate of a temple at the north east point which allows both the Oni and the Kami to enter the temple grounds. It is necessary to have this duality as Oni in though demons are actually kami. The characters in kimon can also be changed to mean birth gate therefore bringing in the new. This concept will develop further as the year goes by, but good information on kimono can be found on winkpedia.Sensei also wrote the calligraphy scroll for this years training (pictureattached) for Ku (Nine) Ki (demons) Tai (big) sho (smile). The meaning of this is that you must be able to smile at the demons and enjoy training even though it can be painful at times. Don’t think of training as always easy.You must train to survive. Tai sho is also can mean the top of an organization, for example an army general, the boss of a company, the owner of a top sushi bar.Sensei said that you have to become a demon in your training at times. You have to be tricky and even brutal if need be. This type of mindset and strategy is essential for real combat situations.Sensei made other comments today regarding the other martial arts of Japan and their fixation on the sword. He was not bad mouthing them per se but was using them as an example to illustrate that you should be set on one weapon (in this case the sword) because Japan also had guns, so how can you expect to fight sword against gun? Sensei commented that the sword masters were writing of the heart and not of the sword per se.The first waza that we did today was SEION and focused of the feeling of the waza and not the step by step, because kukishin ryu is the art of 9 demons so why should we trust the scroll?
June 27, 2007 at 10:13 pm
I really like this entry to your blog. It definately makes you take a step back and think so that you can “Keep Going” Very nicely written. Thank you for sharing your thoughts and insights with us.
June 30, 2007 at 6:47 pm
A friend of mine sent me a link to this article this morning and it has been extremely interesting because it more or less confirms a few theories I have been working in my own study.
In the Bujinkan there is seen a series of repeating numbers, 3, 5, 8, 9 and 10. Each of these numbers have a certain significance in the Buddhist tradition. Here I am examining specifically 9 and 10.
There are three translations for the Kukishinden Ryu as transmitted to myself and others in attendance at a recent seminar with Shihan Mike Pearce. The translations are 9 Demon Gates, the Mysterious Gate, and the Birthing Gate. These words got me thinking a lot about the importance of understanding the origins of all the spiritual and philosophical thoughts that have “given birth” to the arts of the Bujinkan.
In Buddhist thought, the number 9 represents a sense of completion on a cosmic scale, which translates into every aspect of creation. 9 planets in the solar system (when I was your age, Pluto was a planet), 9 months of human gestation, in Buddhist ritual 9 monks are required to perform the most sacred rituals, and 9 in a more simplistic sense, 9 is the final single number in a base 10 number system, the final number of course being 10. In the religious sense, 10 symbolizes rebirth. Going back to the base 10 number system, once 10 is achieved you are simply adding a number to it to continue. Japanese counting is a good example of this…Hachi, Ku, Ju… and continuing, Juichi, Juni, Jusan, etc.
I like the example of the budding flower presented in the first article. Essentially the flower is sealed or shielded in its bud until the “perfect moment” that it can emerge into the empty space it will occupy. This space in Japanese is called Kukon… (here you can see the number 9 at the root of the word). I liken that feeling of emergence to the use of Jumonji… (there is that pesky number 10 at the root, makes me think there must be something to this stuff…
By passing through the 9 Demon Gate, the Mysterious Gate, or the Birthing Gate, we essentially experience a rebirth in a sense, in which me emerge more than we were when we first began, a better martial artist and a better human being.
Just a few of my thoughts, I hope you all find it interesting.
“SHIKEN HARAMITSU DAI-KO-MYO”.
Thank you,
———————————————————
-Jerome Teague
jerry_teague2002@yahoo.com
August 13, 2007 at 7:02 am
Thanks for doing this Doug! Excellent Info!