Trends I see and Tameshigiri thoughts from Nakayama Hakudo
Nakayama Hakudo sensei was the founder for Muso Shinden Ryu and was one of the main creators for Toyama Ryu Battodo. I recently read an old article that was shown on Kenshi 24/7 with some of the thoughts from Nakayama Hakudo sensei of tameshigiri. Tameshigiri has grown quite a bit in Japanese swordsmanship (as well as other type of swordsmanship like HEMA), and it should be a practice to solidify your technique not become an art of it's own which is what I've noticed happening.
Here are some of the paragraphs from that page that I believe should be applied to any school that practices tameshigiri. *It's a lot to read but I underlined some thing and has been copy pasted from the article*
From, Nakayama Hakudo - Maturing One's Iai
"Tameshigiri is something that should be done after many long years of iai training, once one has reached a certain level of licensed proficiency [允許 – traditionally, this is the level of license typically required for a student to open their own dojo.]
Tameshigiri allows one to adapt the iai kata to real cutting practice. In other words, iai should be the core, and the application of the kata in tameshigiri should be secondary. However, today many people totally ignore the preservation of correct sword methodology and technique and merely cut things. As a result, tameshigiri has unfortunately come to be thought of as an independent practice.
Thus, the most important points of sword technique, such as the three separate classifications of hasuji, are being forgotten. To put it another way, every kind of battō uses the sword blade in a different way. There is no absolutely fixed way of doing things. Even in a single kata, at first you may cut with the first two or three sun (寸, approx. 3.03cm) of the blade, then the second cut may be with the central portion of the blade. Understanding this distinction is essential.
Of course, the way the blade is used changes depending on the target and your distance from it. There are times when you must cut with the base of the blade, times when you must use the centre and times when you must use the tip. If sufficient consideration is not given to these points, the sword methodology will be incorrect.
However iai today has mixed these points up and become very confused. Moreover, there is a lack of enthusiasm for serious study. Together these issues have caused tameshigiri to become merely the act of cutting, without altering one’s posture at all. Needless to say, simply cutting without preserving the procedure of adopting correct distance, the method of zanshin and the various cutting techniques of each kata is something completely removed from the traditional approach to tameshigiri.
I want you to be aware that tameshigiri in iaido is something that occurs at the very highest levels. Therefore in combination with normal iai kata training, I have incorporated mizugiri (水切り) – the practice of cutting standing water without raising a splash – into my standing iai kata. The last three or four sun of the blade are used to cut. The cut is made straight downwards, and not a single drop of water should be splashed up. The next kind of tameshigiri is yukizumi (雪積み), which trains horizontal cutting. For this, snow is packed tightly into a mound less than one shaku (30.3cm) in height, and then used as a target for nukiuchi practice with the central portion of the blade.
In essence, all kata ultimately contain an element of cutting, and the practice of cutting in this way is called tameshigiri or tameshigatana (試し刀). This has a very different meaning to the tameshigiri practiced today. Tameshigiri is meant to be done as an accompaniment to kata, not independently.
I have heard of some people who cannot perform these kinds of tricks, cannot do tameshigiri as part of kata, and cannot even perform iai correctly, but act as though they are masters with forty or fifty years of hard training under their belts, and filled with pride, perform public exhibitions of so-called tameshigiri. What truly pathetic people, as ignorant as frogs in a well [Note: “a frog in a well knows nothing of the wide ocean” is a well-known proverb in Japan.] It is true that I myself have done displays entitled ‘tameshigiri’ in front of the Emperor and at large taikai, but that was only because I was the most senior person there in terms of age. Inside, I felt quite embarrassed. Sometimes I could not stand the embarrassment and performed the display under the title of suemonogiri instead."
Now, the reason why I push cutting in the dojo is what Nakayama Hakudo sensei has written as well as being a large part of Toyama Ryu. I normally make students at the dojo wait 6 months before I start letting them cut. They must have ingrained their basics and techniques. However you can only ingrain so much if you just cut at the air and needs to be tested.
Even for me, I am seen performing more advanced cuts, but those techniques can only happen when the basics are fully ingrained instead of luck (although in the beginning it will start off as luck haha). However when I do practice or demonstrate basics or advanced cut, I always treat my mat as an opponent and come up to my "opponent" before I try to perform the technique that I've practiced, not just a mat to pull off something entertaining that doesn't have to do with what I practice.
There has been times where I've done seminars with different styles, who has beautiful form, but change their forms when they practice to perform cuts. For us, we should only use cutting as a means to solidify the technique from our form and in the beginning, it just helps you learn why corrections were made (usually quite the few!). Although fun/funny things can happen through the practice of tameshigiri, you shouldn't forget the reason why you're practicing tameshigiri in the first place.
The full quote from Nakayama Hakudo shown above can be seen at http://kenshi247.net/blog/2011/01/28/thoughts-on-tameshigiri-from-famous-swordsmen/
Here are some of the paragraphs from that page that I believe should be applied to any school that practices tameshigiri. *It's a lot to read but I underlined some thing and has been copy pasted from the article*
From, Nakayama Hakudo - Maturing One's Iai
"Tameshigiri is something that should be done after many long years of iai training, once one has reached a certain level of licensed proficiency [允許 – traditionally, this is the level of license typically required for a student to open their own dojo.]
Tameshigiri allows one to adapt the iai kata to real cutting practice. In other words, iai should be the core, and the application of the kata in tameshigiri should be secondary. However, today many people totally ignore the preservation of correct sword methodology and technique and merely cut things. As a result, tameshigiri has unfortunately come to be thought of as an independent practice.
Thus, the most important points of sword technique, such as the three separate classifications of hasuji, are being forgotten. To put it another way, every kind of battō uses the sword blade in a different way. There is no absolutely fixed way of doing things. Even in a single kata, at first you may cut with the first two or three sun (寸, approx. 3.03cm) of the blade, then the second cut may be with the central portion of the blade. Understanding this distinction is essential.
Of course, the way the blade is used changes depending on the target and your distance from it. There are times when you must cut with the base of the blade, times when you must use the centre and times when you must use the tip. If sufficient consideration is not given to these points, the sword methodology will be incorrect.
However iai today has mixed these points up and become very confused. Moreover, there is a lack of enthusiasm for serious study. Together these issues have caused tameshigiri to become merely the act of cutting, without altering one’s posture at all. Needless to say, simply cutting without preserving the procedure of adopting correct distance, the method of zanshin and the various cutting techniques of each kata is something completely removed from the traditional approach to tameshigiri.
I want you to be aware that tameshigiri in iaido is something that occurs at the very highest levels. Therefore in combination with normal iai kata training, I have incorporated mizugiri (水切り) – the practice of cutting standing water without raising a splash – into my standing iai kata. The last three or four sun of the blade are used to cut. The cut is made straight downwards, and not a single drop of water should be splashed up. The next kind of tameshigiri is yukizumi (雪積み), which trains horizontal cutting. For this, snow is packed tightly into a mound less than one shaku (30.3cm) in height, and then used as a target for nukiuchi practice with the central portion of the blade.
In essence, all kata ultimately contain an element of cutting, and the practice of cutting in this way is called tameshigiri or tameshigatana (試し刀). This has a very different meaning to the tameshigiri practiced today. Tameshigiri is meant to be done as an accompaniment to kata, not independently.
I have heard of some people who cannot perform these kinds of tricks, cannot do tameshigiri as part of kata, and cannot even perform iai correctly, but act as though they are masters with forty or fifty years of hard training under their belts, and filled with pride, perform public exhibitions of so-called tameshigiri. What truly pathetic people, as ignorant as frogs in a well [Note: “a frog in a well knows nothing of the wide ocean” is a well-known proverb in Japan.] It is true that I myself have done displays entitled ‘tameshigiri’ in front of the Emperor and at large taikai, but that was only because I was the most senior person there in terms of age. Inside, I felt quite embarrassed. Sometimes I could not stand the embarrassment and performed the display under the title of suemonogiri instead."
Now, the reason why I push cutting in the dojo is what Nakayama Hakudo sensei has written as well as being a large part of Toyama Ryu. I normally make students at the dojo wait 6 months before I start letting them cut. They must have ingrained their basics and techniques. However you can only ingrain so much if you just cut at the air and needs to be tested.
Even for me, I am seen performing more advanced cuts, but those techniques can only happen when the basics are fully ingrained instead of luck (although in the beginning it will start off as luck haha). However when I do practice or demonstrate basics or advanced cut, I always treat my mat as an opponent and come up to my "opponent" before I try to perform the technique that I've practiced, not just a mat to pull off something entertaining that doesn't have to do with what I practice.
There has been times where I've done seminars with different styles, who has beautiful form, but change their forms when they practice to perform cuts. For us, we should only use cutting as a means to solidify the technique from our form and in the beginning, it just helps you learn why corrections were made (usually quite the few!). Although fun/funny things can happen through the practice of tameshigiri, you shouldn't forget the reason why you're practicing tameshigiri in the first place.
The full quote from Nakayama Hakudo shown above can be seen at http://kenshi247.net/blog/2011/01/28/thoughts-on-tameshigiri-from-famous-swordsmen/
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