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Arts of War, Arts of Peace, Iizasa Ienao Choisai of the Tenshin Shoden Katori Shinto-ryu

Among the famous masters of swordsmanship, Iizasa Choisai Ienao stands out as the "father" of swordsmanship. Ienao (1387-1488) lived in the midst of the Muromachi era, and the swordfighting style he founded, the Tenshin Shoden Katori Shinto-ryu, is considered to be one of the first swordfighting schools developed in the Kanto (Eastern Japan).

Tenshin means "direct from heaven," Shoden is "the true (proper) teaching" of the Katori Shinto system (ryu). Katori is a Shinto shrine. Legends say that Ienao, after returning to his own lands after serving the Ashikaga shogunate, was battle-weary from the incessant wars that plagued the military government. After undergoing ritual austerities, he received divine guidance from the deity of the Katori Jingu, which was a Shinto religious shrine known from ancient times as a pilgrimage site for warriors of Eastern Japan (bando musha).

The system exists to this day, and the Iizasa family continues the tradition. From what I understand, owing to ill health, the training is conducted by Otake Risuke. It was this ryu that the noted martial arts scholar Donn F. Draeger studied in his later years.

Iizasa is noted for saying "heiho wa heiho nari." It is a play on words. The first heiho can also be read hyoho; it means the military methods. The second heiho is written with the characters for peaceful methods. Thus, Iizasa was saying that the warrior arts should be arts for peace. This refers to a long-held belief among many martial arts masters, or bugeisha, that the highest level of expertise was in being able to win without fighting (arawazu ni katsu).

Because of the renowned mastery of Iizasa Choisai Ienao, and the fact that his school was near the Katori shrine, many swordsmen would journey to his dojo (training hall) not to study, but to test their skills against him.

Ienao disliked such contests, so he devised a method to defuse them, which with solid wooden swords could still be deadly. He had would-be challengers wait for him in his garden. Ienao would then greet the warrior and sit on top of a bed of kumazasa, a kind of low-growing grass with long, narrow leaves and a twiglike body. The odd thing was that Ienao could sit on the kumazasa, which could grow to some five inches or more, without bending or flattening them. It was as if he floated on top of the grasses!

Then Ienao would tell the amazed warrior, "You, too, come sit over here on the grass. If you don't break or crush the kumazasa, and if you sit properly, then according to your request we will have a match."

Of course, none of the challengers took him up on it, and none who did succeeded, so Ienao would win without having to resort to fighting.

In the Kendo Nihon article from which this information was drawn (Kendo Nihon, 1993 issue 4, #207, page 31-32), the writer Minekawa Nobuhiko compares Choisai Ienao's philosophy with other martial arts sayings:

To warriors like Ienao, the highest level of the warrior arts was to be able to "perceive that which is silent, to see that which has no form." By training in the warrior arts, one would open up the "shingan," or the "spiritual eye." The author also believes that Ienao combined esoteric Shingon Buddhist rituals and concepts into his martial arts, including the use of mudras (in); the weaving of the fingers in various postures to generate mystical powers.

How do you attain such insight? Otake Risuke has mentioned some of the Katori Shinto-ryu methods in books and interviews. For the rest, I think that we either have to gain entrance into the ryu, or we simply have to train diligently in our own system, with the right frame of mind. John Stephans, aikido teacher, university professor, author and Zen priest, once said that when you watch the "old masters" move, they seem to attain a similar type of attitude and methodology. He compared Ueshiba Morihei (of aikido) with Mifune Kyuzo (of Kodokan Judo). I would also throw in Asai Tetsuhiko (Shotokan karate) and Tohei Koichi (Ki Society) as teachers that I have seen either live or on videotape. They have a certain smoothness, almost like a sixth sense about things, that seem strikingly similar.

Otake sensei also said in a forum held in Hawai'i that there are different paths up a hill; but they reach the same summit. Likewise, there may be different martial arts styles, but the proper ones take you to the same goals. --However, he did say that there are also "dark roads," the wrong paths that take you down the hill instead of up, and lead you the wrong way. These paths are to be avoided, so Otake sensei was not saying that anything goes. You must chooose the path that takes you upward. Besides martial arts, you could also study other artistic self-disciplines, such as tea ceremony, flower arrangement.

"The only difference," he joked, "Is the danger. Budo is more fraught with danger. If you make a mistake, you get hit on the head with a bokken or something to that effect. In tea, the worst that can happen is you spill a ladle of hot water on your lap!"

Thus, I have heard some people lamenting that, due to work, family or other responsibilities, they must forego budo practice. But the goals of budo are the goals of living fully, with responsibility and open-heartedness. So living fully is also a form of training, even though you don't put on a training gi. Wisdom can be attained in many ways.