Aidan's Tameshigiri Seminar
Aidan asked me if it was ok to share with his kendo club out in Penn State about tameshigiri. I said no problem. I thought it would give him a very different insight when you have to "give" rather than "take". Also the sword that Aidan borrowed was a cheap Chinese made sword that many people were raving about (mainly the online guys), and I took a chance on it since we needed a new dojo beater. Never. Again. Period.
Anyways, here are Aidan's thoughts!
A little over a month ago I went to go visit my kendo club at Penn State before leaving for school overseas, and wanted to leave them with something from outside the style to hopefully be an enriching experience that might help them better understand their art and some of it’s underlying ideas. I decided that trying tameshigiri would be an exciting activity that in kendo never comes up, as shinai are blunt thus not easily lending themselves to being considered as edged weapons, and also as a way of hopefully kindling interest in maybe looking into studying battodo or iaido as a means of broadening their base. Also because tameshigiri can be fun and immensely satisfying.
The first thing I have to say is that it is hard to teach. I had originally wanted my teacher, Sang Kim Sensei, to come and give a seminar during the previous year but due to the school’s workload on many club members, it was never able to be brought about. I don’t consider myself anywhere near the level of proficiency, nor do I have the requisite experience, to be a sensei or to be qualified to teach at all, and so the idea of trying was pretty nerve wracking. I decided that the best way to start was with suburi and to drill big circular swings, hasuji, and tenuchi, since kendo technique lends itself to a flicking motions for speed, and the tenuchi disperses impact rather than trying to cut through. The concept of hasuji is absent as it’s unnecessary with shinai. I tried remembering the ways I learned these concepts and the ways that Sensei taught and explained to them but found it was still difficult for me to say what I wanted to say to help them learn. I would know what I wanted
to say but not how to say it, and sometimes I think I may have been a little more confusing than helpful due to lack of clarity.
After doing suburi to the point that I felt that they understood what the difference in technique felt like, I moved on to kesa giri, as that’s the most fundamental cut, and I felt that this was harder to teach than suburi, because most of the time the best advice I could think of was ‘it’s just like suburi but diagonal,’ and after saying it once I don’t think it would have been much help. In the end I had
them go through the motions at a moderate pace, because trying to swing with power of the bat doesn’t help technique. The general tendency was to swing too steep, too much like suburi and not enough like kesa, and not enough reaching out. I think generally the right to left kesa was smoother, but was generally too steep, while the left to right kesa wasn’t as steep but had a tendency to scoop more. I tried helping only one or two people directly at a time, mainly because I only had 2 iaito,
but also because I think it would have overwhelmed me trying to lead everyone at the same time.
Finally we got to cutting, and honestly I’m pretty sure everyone cut better than I did my first time cutting (I didn’t even manage to cut the tatami, just slap it a few times haha). First things first, I demonstrated rokudan giri to demonstrate all the basic cuts, then I had everyone try cutting alternating kesa cuts. I had everyone cut one mat first so that they could then think about how it felt and reflect on it and practice before their next cut. I had everyone for their first cut do a few slow swings and touch the tatami so that they could see the distance and how their angles were before hand so that they could know what it felt like before hand, and then proceed to cut. After that I had them cut and would give feedback on major points I saw for their next cut. This was particularly when I wished Sensei had been there because I’m positive he would have been able to give much better feed back than I could have hoped to.
Unfortunately, due to an accident half way through, the shinken hit the stand and much to my shock broke at the habaki. Luckily no one was hurt as the blade bounced away from everyone present, though it was still pretty terrifying. I still feel bad that that they weren’t able to cut more and I definitely want to make it up to them when I next get the chance. I also feel bad about the shinken, since Sensei had let me borrow it, as my own was dull.
All in all though I think it was a good experience for both the club and for myself. For them in that they got to experience a different, and fundamental, facet of swordsmanship, and for me in that I got to appreciate just how difficult it is to teach the art I study, though I don’t think I’m particularly eager to try again any time soon.
Anyways, here are Aidan's thoughts!
A little over a month ago I went to go visit my kendo club at Penn State before leaving for school overseas, and wanted to leave them with something from outside the style to hopefully be an enriching experience that might help them better understand their art and some of it’s underlying ideas. I decided that trying tameshigiri would be an exciting activity that in kendo never comes up, as shinai are blunt thus not easily lending themselves to being considered as edged weapons, and also as a way of hopefully kindling interest in maybe looking into studying battodo or iaido as a means of broadening their base. Also because tameshigiri can be fun and immensely satisfying.
The first thing I have to say is that it is hard to teach. I had originally wanted my teacher, Sang Kim Sensei, to come and give a seminar during the previous year but due to the school’s workload on many club members, it was never able to be brought about. I don’t consider myself anywhere near the level of proficiency, nor do I have the requisite experience, to be a sensei or to be qualified to teach at all, and so the idea of trying was pretty nerve wracking. I decided that the best way to start was with suburi and to drill big circular swings, hasuji, and tenuchi, since kendo technique lends itself to a flicking motions for speed, and the tenuchi disperses impact rather than trying to cut through. The concept of hasuji is absent as it’s unnecessary with shinai. I tried remembering the ways I learned these concepts and the ways that Sensei taught and explained to them but found it was still difficult for me to say what I wanted to say to help them learn. I would know what I wanted
to say but not how to say it, and sometimes I think I may have been a little more confusing than helpful due to lack of clarity.
After doing suburi to the point that I felt that they understood what the difference in technique felt like, I moved on to kesa giri, as that’s the most fundamental cut, and I felt that this was harder to teach than suburi, because most of the time the best advice I could think of was ‘it’s just like suburi but diagonal,’ and after saying it once I don’t think it would have been much help. In the end I had
them go through the motions at a moderate pace, because trying to swing with power of the bat doesn’t help technique. The general tendency was to swing too steep, too much like suburi and not enough like kesa, and not enough reaching out. I think generally the right to left kesa was smoother, but was generally too steep, while the left to right kesa wasn’t as steep but had a tendency to scoop more. I tried helping only one or two people directly at a time, mainly because I only had 2 iaito,
but also because I think it would have overwhelmed me trying to lead everyone at the same time.
Finally we got to cutting, and honestly I’m pretty sure everyone cut better than I did my first time cutting (I didn’t even manage to cut the tatami, just slap it a few times haha). First things first, I demonstrated rokudan giri to demonstrate all the basic cuts, then I had everyone try cutting alternating kesa cuts. I had everyone cut one mat first so that they could then think about how it felt and reflect on it and practice before their next cut. I had everyone for their first cut do a few slow swings and touch the tatami so that they could see the distance and how their angles were before hand so that they could know what it felt like before hand, and then proceed to cut. After that I had them cut and would give feedback on major points I saw for their next cut. This was particularly when I wished Sensei had been there because I’m positive he would have been able to give much better feed back than I could have hoped to.
Unfortunately, due to an accident half way through, the shinken hit the stand and much to my shock broke at the habaki. Luckily no one was hurt as the blade bounced away from everyone present, though it was still pretty terrifying. I still feel bad that that they weren’t able to cut more and I definitely want to make it up to them when I next get the chance. I also feel bad about the shinken, since Sensei had let me borrow it, as my own was dull.
All in all though I think it was a good experience for both the club and for myself. For them in that they got to experience a different, and fundamental, facet of swordsmanship, and for me in that I got to appreciate just how difficult it is to teach the art I study, though I don’t think I’m particularly eager to try again any time soon.
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