Journal of Japanese Sword Arts

A monthly magazine dealing with all aspects of Japanese sword study.

Subscribing to the Journal of Japanese Sword Arts

Issue: #89 Feb. 1998

Journal of Japanese Sword Arts A monthly journal concerning all aspects of the use of the Japanese Sword. Articles, news, reviews, technical tips. $36 cdn in Canada per year $36 US in USA $48 overseas. JJSA Kim Taylor, ed. 44 Inkerman St. Guelph Ontario Canada, N1H 3C5

OHMI JINGU ENBU

January 3, 1998

by Peter Boylan, Shiga-ken Japan

Shogatsu, or New Year's, is the biggest holiday in Japan. Everyone visits their local shines and temples to greet the kami and pray for a good year. It is also popular to visit famous shines and temples as well. The really famous shrines and temples turn into mad-houses, filled with crowds jostling to get to the front of the temple to make a New Year's offering and say a prayer.

In Shiga Prefecture, right next to Kyoto, one of the major shrines, Ohmi Jingu, has a big festival on the third day of the New Year, the last day of the Shogatsu holiday. The Shiga Prefecture Kendo Renmei takes part in this festival every year by performing Iaido in front of the main hall of the shrine as an offering to the Kami of Ohmi Jingu. There is an open, white gravel garden separating the area for making offerings and prayers from the honden, the building where the Kami resides, and we demonstrated there.

Before we could demonstrate, we had to go through a Shinto purification ritual. All of the participants in the demonstration, who ranged from mudansha up to hachidan, filed into the ante chamber of the honden, and the priest chanted in very, very formal Japanese (which of course, I couldn't understand), and a female assistant told us to bow our heads in the appropriate places. After this the priest waved sasaki leaves and a wand with cut rice paper over us to purify us. Finally, Kojima Sensei, hachidan, Tsuda Sensei, nanadan, and Inoue Sensei, Nanadan, made offerings of sasaki leaves to the Kami as representatives of our group.

One of the miko, or shrine maidens, directed us out a door opposite the one we had come in, and as we filed out that door and down some steps, we were each given a small cup of sake to drink to further purify ourselves. We got to keep the cup as a souvenir.

Now the enbu began. There were approximately forty people taking part, and the first thing we did was take a group picture on the steps of the honden. Kojima Sensei embarrassed somebody's wife by making her come up on the steps with her kids to be in the picture. She couldn't say no to him. How do you politely say "No." to hachidan?

After all the pictures were taken we started demonstrating. We were outside, on gravel, between the visitors to the shrine, who were throwing coins into the big bins set out for offerings, and the honden, from which was coming amplified chanting.

The first demo was by two of the nanadans, who the ZNKR Kendo Kata. Then there was a demo of ZNKR Jodo. The third set was another demonstration of the ZNKR Kendo Kata, which Tsuda Sensei did with another nanadan.

After this everything got a little looser. Someone had brought about twenty rolled, rice straw, tatami coverings to use for tameshi giri, and a couple of the nanadans set up to do a little tameshi giri before the shodans went out as a group to demonstrate five kata each.

As they were doing the tameshi giri, Tsuda Sensei, who is one of my teachers, walked up to me and said "Peter-san, katana wo karete, tameshi giri wo yarimasho." or "Borrow a sword and go do tameshi giri."

I recall stammering "I'm too scared." or something equally brilliant. Unfortunately Tsuda Sensei wouldn't give up on the idea. And I was genuinely scared of doing tameshi giri here. I'd only done it once, two weeks before this, and I wasn't what you could call good at it. On my first swing, a kirioroshi into a bundle of rice straw lying on its side, I bent the sword so badly it looked more like a letter C. Luckily it was loaned to me by my friend, Nakagawa Sensei, who also happened to have made it. He had made the sword at a Dallas Japanese Sword Show when he was a guest of the show some years ago. He'd never sold it because he said the metal was too soft. I guess I proved him right.

He had expected the sword to get bent, and was standing there with some tools to straighten it. He straightened it up, and the cutting practice went on. I did eventually cut through one-and-a-half rolls of straw mat that night, but I never made even a moderately acceptable kesa cut through an upright bundle.

All of the tameshi giri at the Ohmi Jingu was on upright bundles of straw mat. I had pulled all of my kesa cuts my first time out so badly they looked more like baseball swings than sword cuts. I really didn't want to do this in front of spectators and the finest swordsmen I knew, but Tsuda Sensei wouldn't give up on the idea.

Finally I said, "Sensei, I can't ask someone to loan me their sword, but if you ask, I'll do my best." What was I going to do? Walk up to someone and say, "Sensei, can I borrow your $20,000 dollar sword so I can probably bend it trying to do tameshi giri." I had hoped this would be the end of it. Unfortunately, old men have no shame (he's 81). He walked over to the group preparing to do tameshi giri and started asking.

The next thing I know, a man I've never met, is waving me over to his side, and handing me a sword. He says "Kanemitsu desu." The Kanemitsu line produced some of the finest swords in Japanese history. Many of them are cultural treasures. I was being loaned one to cut straw with. This one was a fine example of why Kanemitsu blades are such treasures. Wonderful balance, feel, and swing.

By this time the shodans had nearly finished their demos, and they were getting ready to come off the grounds. I was lead over next to Kojima Sensei. He wasn't doing any demonstrating, but he was announcing each demo to the shrine visitors watching on the opposite side of the demonstration ground from the honden.. Another Sensei did tameshi giri ahead of me, and then Kojima Sensei turned me to the crowd and said, "Gaijin-san ni, tameshiri wo yate-moraimasu." or "We will receive a demonstration of tameshi giri from the gaijin." As I was bowing to the crowd, I could see many of them digging out their cameras, and several video cameras swung into action as well.

I went out on the demonstration ground, and did my ritsurei to the Kami and the sword, while praying to both to let me get this right, just once. I turned, drew, and advanced on the bundle of straw. It was just waiting for me to twist my cut a little, so it could bend the sword. This was my foe.

I took a long time getting ready for the first cut. When I swung, it was a little bit high. The sword entered through the top of the bundle instead of the side, but the cut itself, was clean. My next cut was very nice. I relaxed, having beaten the demon once, and just let the sword swing itself. It was a wonderful sword, and made a beautiful cut.

Unfortunately, I started thinking after that. My third cut, while clean, was not as good as the second. At that point I decided to quit while I was ahead. There was still enough of the bundle left for two or three more cuts, but I didn't want to press my luck any more than I already had. I was afraid I would twist my cut, or worse, cut into the wooden spike the bundle was sitting on.

I backed away from the bundle, bowed to the sword and the Kami, and got off the demonstration grounds. I can only attribute my success to my teachers, and having been given a fantastic sword to use.

All the nanadans were telling me what wonderful cuts I had made, and the some of the lower dans were clearly amazed. Part of their amazement was because very few people do tameshi giri, and most of those are at least godans. I was playing far above my current, lowly rank.

Following my tameshi giri, the nidans went out to perform their kata, along with a mudansha from America, Jodie Holeton, who only started iaido in September. He got stuck with them because I was supposed to be his guide, and I was stolen from him to do tameshi giri. He made his way out, and did five kata from the ZNKR Seitei Kata. He did quite well. It was only the fact that he was demonstrating alongside the nidans that made him look at all bad.

After that there was some more tameshi giri by the high ranks. A two of the nanadans boosted my ego tremendously by not making clean, complete cuts once or twice. In their defense however, we were outside, barefoot or in thin tabi socks, and the temperature was near freezing.

After they finished, it was time for me to do my kata demo, with the sandans, instead of lower down, where I belong. I was now so cold that I was beyond shivering, I shook if I tried to stand still. That's is no excuse for bad kata though, because practice in the winter here is always barefoot in near-freezing or freezing temperatures, even though we are inside. The Japanese don't seem to believe in heating gymnasiums or dojos. My first four kata went all right. Unfortunately, for my last kata, I swung my iaito right into the gravel. I was just thankful I did that with my own sword, and not the wonderful one I had been loaned.

After everyone had done their demonstrations, and all the tameshi had been cut, we assembled on the demonstration ground and bowed to the Kami again. Then we grabbed our coats and sword bags and shoes, and hurried back to the side building where our clothes were.

There Ohmi Jingu had a small treat for us. There were several large bottles of sake, and chips, roasted squid and other treats. While we were drinking, several of the senseis took the time to give me some advice on doing tameshi giri. Most of it was not new, things like "Cut through and past the bundle." and "Let the tip of your sword continue down, well past level when cutting." Of course, just because I'd heard it before, that doesn't mean I don't need to hear it again.

One piece of advice however, was totally unexpected. "Be careful not to cut your foot." It seems that this is a common injury among people who do a lot of tameshi giri. I was told that if you drop your shoulder too much during your follow-through, you are likely to cut your big toe, perhaps even cut it off. After thinking about it though, this made sense. Especially since the night I first did tameshi giri, someone, not me this time, put a six inch cut in the mat they were standing on, as well as cutting the tameshi.

The enbu at Ohmi Jingu was quite interesting. I had the opportunity to watch a number of excellent teachers demonstrate their kata, and to see a lot of tameshi giri. That was at least as important as doing it myself. On top of all that, a friend got it all on video.

I would like to publicly thank two men. I want to thank Tsuda Sensei for pushing my into doing the tameshi giri, and borrowing a sword for me, and I want to thank Mizukuchi Sensei, for loaning me a wonderful blade to use. I can not express my gratitude to them for giving me this opportunity.