As well as escaping a week of the British winter for the sunny south of Spain I had the pleasure of meeting Nagamatsu sensei from Hyogo Kendo Federation who was on the second stop of his teaching tour of Spain, which takes in Madrid, Malaga, Valencia and Santander. Nagamatsu sensei is a hachidan, former Hyogo police instructor who is now shihan of Kwansei Gakuin University.
I was able to take part in the first of his teaching sessions in Malaga which took place at Shion Dojo’s Estepona location. After an introduction where he talked about correct rei , sonkyo and posture, sensei spent much of the two hour session looking at everyone’s basics and made a number of very interesting observations after watching men suburi.
He stated that the weight of the cut should be in the shinai’s monouchi and that we should aim for maximum extension using the shoulders, elbows, wrists and tenouchi in that order. He also made the point that the feet and abdomen should play a key part in the striking process, using the analogy, ichi-gan, ni-soku, san-tan, shi-riki. (first sight, second feet, third abdomen, fourth power / waza).
Sensei was emphatic that the shinai should be raised to only at a 45 degree angle and not allowed to go back beyond that. I have heard this many times before and always try to give the same advice myself, but Nagamatsu sensei’s explanation of why was enlightening. His view was that 45 degrees is the natural extension angle of the shoulder joint and that if we reach back beyond this point then we have to change our grip.
By keeping to the 45 degree rule we are able to lift the shinai and strike in the timing of one (ichibyoshi). If we go beyond that point, we follow a timing of two, as the movement is broken as we rearrange the positions of our fingers on the tsuka.
We then had a jigeiko session where sensei took great trouble to work with people on their individual strengths and challenges. Some tired but happy kenshi then headed for some very welcome beer and tapas at a local bar. Unfortunately I only had the chance to attend one of the three sessions before my own travel schedule took me in a different direction, but for me it was a much appreciated learning experience and I am sure that my friends in Malaga will make some real progress on the back of Nagamatsu sensei’s teaching.
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Takezawa Sensei visited Nottingham a long while ago and said a number of memorable things. He specifically said that there was a point when lifting the shinai where the interplay of muscles changes in the back and we limit the backward motion of the arms and the shinai to avoid going past this point. Together with your comments about grip it explains the characteristic ideal shape. I wish I could do more justice to his explanation. I understand it in relation to my own movements but I’d be interested if someone with the relevant expertise could justify this or not.
Since I have time another comment comes to mind. Iwatate Sensei conducted a seminar in London a number of years ago. He explained the ideal method that we know but also said that because westerners shoulders are so stiff they should also do lots of suburi where the shinai comes right back to touch the body before going forward. I have found this very beneficial myself.
My point of view as an orthopaedic surgeon – I have given this 45 degree furikaburi a lot of thought.. in iaido they say the blade must not go past 45, in kendo anything between 45 and horizontal is fine. Some people try to stop at 45 so much that the furikaburi is only some 30 degrees… looks strange to me and quite week. To the shoulder thing, in my personal case the flexion (that is the forward movement) of the arm in shoulder joint stops with my arms at 45 degree up and forward, and the angle of the sword is then controlled by elbow flexion to a little extent, but mainly by wrist position. The only difference between my 45 and horizontal furikaburi is the tilt of the wrists; elbow and shoulder don’t change position at all. I still keep the pressure with my left little finger so that the kensen does not drop below the horizontal.
As to the effect, I actually prefer the more natural horizontal to strict 45. The rational of a 45 is that the trajectory to target is shorter, thus faster, and the power is enough. However, although the trajectory from horizontal to target is longer, we have that extra momentum given to the strike by the wrist (a whip-like strike), so the strike itself if faster (has more acceleration) and stronger… and arrives at the same time, at least.
Having said that, I have seen a number of people who stressed 45 degree furikaburi, who in practice did the natural almost horizontal, sometimes the tip going below horizontal too 🙂 It is when the tip drops below horizontal that we have extra flexion in shoulders as well as elbows. To quotate Yamanaka sensei, in furikaburi the tsuba takes the straightest path to the spot above your head.
To the timing of one… it is very important concept, however the name has nothing to do with mechanics, only with the feeling. See, wherever you stop, you still do 2 movements: flexion and extension. The point is to make the transition as fast as possible. The only real timing of one is when you thrust while the blade points to the target (if not, it is 2 movements) or when you cut when the sword is already raised (as in jodan) i.e. points away from the target, otherwise it’s a furikaburi and a cut (2 movements). See also point vs edge discussion in western fencing, or the concept of tempo in Italian rapier fencing of the 17th century. Nothing new really. Only hard to master. And then practice is often a little different form theory.
I could not explain better! 🙂
Having that said: ” Doctor, I’m feeling a little pain right here!…” 😉
Regards!
“(…) shinai should be raised to only at a 45 degree angle and not allowed to go back beyond that (…)” — If I understood correctly, this is referred to ‘furi-kaburi’, the raising motion of the sword above the head in preparation to a strike. Indeed, when I begun to practise Kendo, we were thought to practise suburi bringing the shinai until our back; however, at some other Dojo we were acquainted they didn’t make so, raising the shinai upto above the head at approx. 45 degrees!… Nowadays, at my Dojo, we use a ‘mixed’ approach’: in some of those suburi routines we do the longer move until the back (as long as one can do it) to stretch arms and shoulders, and to ‘assimilate’ better to right “trajectory” of the sword. Namely, when doing ‘joge-furi’ we do it ‘long’. But those suburi moves done as practical cuts (e.g.: shomen-uchi), we do ‘smaller’ lifting the shinai upto above the head at 45 degrees (like in Jodan no Kamae stance!), allowing faster strikes ! Further, I use to explain to beginners that we lift the sword to ‘accumulate’ potential energy for the following strike, and the maximum potential energy of the sword will be at that highest point in its trajectory — ” U(r) = mgh(r) “, considering to use the weight of the sword and gravity*). So, there’s no need to bring the sword beyond under the top of the head, at our back, where the potential energy would be less and, eventually, time spent to pull the sword forward will be longer…
*We could try to ‘calculate’ the potential energy of the sword by another approach, considering the torso muscles that pull the arms like springs: so, the “formula” would be that for ‘Potential energy for a linear spring’ :
” U(x) = (1/2) kx² “… Of course there’s no scientific rigour in this approach.
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