Banzenkan Aiki Ninjutsu and ME!

[Aiki Lee]

Ok. Here we go. My school has posted videos on the inter-web. I am in this video and would like to know what you think of it.
I'm not looking for people to pat me on the shoulder, but I'm not looking to have absolutely everything on the video torn apart by an arm chair sensei either. I don't mind if you have some criticism of techniques, but if you are going to criticize please be specific about what you have issues with, because I may be able to explain why it was done a certain way.

Also Some sword and bo kata being performed are not done with the proper distancing. This is intentional as we could not get the camera to pan out without not being able to see what ws going on.

(edit In case anyone is wondering I am the guy blocking shuriken with the iaito at the begin of the vids.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJXXb2yNZgM&context=C3298773ADOEgsToPDskJneuwM_xXUCp9SyM1mQo7s

please be honest, and please be fair

 

[Chris Parker]

Okay, I'll start.

Query: With the way you're blocking, or deflecting the shuriken at the beginning, is there a reason you're holding the sword edge forward like that?

Critique: Don't lean forward so much, especially with the Bo.

Comment: Not a bad video, all in all. Some things I'd have some technical issues with, but it's hard to find a video without that. Honestly, though, the "Black Belt Free-form" one is the better one so far. Lots of Aikido influence, there's a fair amount of Toshindo (even to the point of the "middle names" for you all...), far more than any of the more "mainline" X-Kans, or actual Ninjutsu Ryu approaches, but that's just a reflection of the way you guys do things.

 

[Aiki Lee]

As for the kongo no kamae, I'd imagine the shuriken toss is not something you could be prepaired to turn the blade around for. The shuriken themselves are rubber so there wasn't a risk of damage to my iaito if that's where you were asking.

Thank you for the tip on leaning forward. I tend to not bend my knees as much as I should and compensate poorly for it by leaning forward. You liked the free response one better? I feel we need to re-do the randori video because I just see a lot of sloppy technique on my part.

I really appreciate your feedback.

 

[Chris Parker]

What I was getting at was that that was a rather unusual method for deflecting shuriken in the first place, and is very low return... especially when a specific method is actually taught. So I was wondering why an inferior method was shown rather than the higher return genuine method.

As to "sloppy technique" in the free form, well, yeah. That's what happens!

 

[Aiki Lee]

Hmmmm. I'm not sure I've seen another method. What does it look like?

 

[Sanke]

Cool video, Himura!
There are some technichal issues I can see in there, but overall quite nice. The bo vs sword stuff was pretty cramped, but as you said that was for filming reasons.

I suppose my main problems lie in the Iai stuff, the way they're drawing there seems a bit slow, leaving quite a few openings, and over-cutting a bit much for my taste. Out of curiosity, where does your iai material come from?
Though some of the sword stuff in there (particularly the cutting drill at the end) is not bad.
I liked the kusari fundo stuff, nice flow to a lot of it, and the hanbo stuff was quite nice.

Overall, interesting stuff, and a fun watch, thanks for sharing!

 

[Chris Parker]

Hmmmm. I'm not sure I've seen another method. What does it look like?

Totoku Hyoshi.

 

[Aiki Lee]

Thanks for the name of the skill Chris, I'll youtube it.

Paying attention only to the way he deflects the shuriken, is this the proper kamae? It appears that he holds the blade sideways to shield a bit more of himself, and he crouches low to presumably make himself a smaller target. Is this video a good example? Other than crouching low and turnign the blade to the side I don't see much else that's different. Could you tell me what i might be missing here?

Sanke, We don't work on iai as much as we probably should the majority of it coming from Eishin Ryu as far as I know. I see the same issues with the iai that you state as well. The reason its slow is because we simply have a lot of work to do to make the action smooth. Until we can reliably perform the iai in a smooth fashion we probably won't increase the speed for a while. The person performing the do girir battou no to is a relatively new blackbelt who we wanted to showcase a little, but he like the rest of us simply need more practice! I appreciate your feedback!

 

[Sanke]

Thanks for the name of the skill Chris, I'll youtube it.

Paying attention only to the way he deflects the shuriken, is this the proper kamae? It appears that he holds the blade sideways to shield a bit more of himself, and he crouches low to presumably make himself a smaller target. Is this video a good example? Other than crouching low and turnign the blade to the side I don't see much else that's different. Could you tell me what i might be missing here?

Sanke, We don't work on iai as much as we probably should the majority of it coming from Eishin Ryu as far as I know. I see the same issues with the iai that you state as well. The reason its slow is because we simply have a lot of work to do to make the action smooth. Until we can reliably perform the iai in a smooth fashion we probably won't increase the speed for a while. The person performing the do girir battou no to is a relatively new blackbelt who we wanted to showcase a little, but he like the rest of us simply need more practice! I appreciate your feedback!

Thanks for the reply, as for the iai, that's fair enough. I agree that doing it slowly is the best way to learn and get it up to a fast pace, but I will point out that I was referring more to the way he's moving in sequence.
It's very much: Ready hands, Draw sword, place ready for cut, cut. You can see each action clearly, where it should be one single action, even when done slowly.
Now don't get me wrong, I do the same thing, with my iai and other things, but ideally the smooth-ness should be there, even if you're doing it slowly.
But again, I appreciate you admitting there's a lot of work to be done, and you're not the only one out there, trust me. I'm right there with you

As for the video you posted... No. That is not Totoku Hyoshi, nor a good example of shuriken deflection. That's not a jab at you, by the way (I doubt there are many examples of this on youtube). If anything, it's a jab at that kid, because he really is just showboating on youtube for attention.
The fact he's doing it with metal, or worse, live shuriken shows that he is a complete idiot, and saying 'don't try this at home' doesn't really work if he's gonna start bragging about it a second later...

I'll let Chris go into the specifics, I'm not really the guy to ask, but suffice to say some of the ideas are there, but he's doing it very stupidly, and very wrong.

Still, thanks for sharing, and replying to my questions.

 

[Chris Parker]

Thanks for the name of the skill Chris, I'll youtube it.

Paying attention only to the way he deflects the shuriken, is this the proper kamae? It appears that he holds the blade sideways to shield a bit more of himself, and he crouches low to presumably make himself a smaller target. Is this video a good example? Other than crouching low and turnign the blade to the side I don't see much else that's different. Could you tell me what i might be missing here?[/QUOTE

Totoku Hyoshi isn't really as Dean is showing here (for those unaware, Dean, aka scottbaioisdead, is a rather well-read, and vocal critic of persons such as Antony Cummins, "Choson Ninja" Greg Park, "Anshu" Christa Jacobson, and any other less-than-credible persons in the Ninjutsu field. His arguments have been used as information in discussions many times over, although his actual physical training and experience is a little less sure). Totoku Hyoshi isn't even really a "kamae" (it's found in the Togakure Ryu Biken as part of the Kamae gata, but doesn't feature the "no Kamae" suffix), it's a shielding concept, particularly against projectile weapons, and can (and is) done with other weapons other than a sword.

The basic concept is that you extend the weapon in front of yourself as a shield, narrowing your body behind it. The sword (in this case) is held with the flat of the blade facing, rather than the edge, creating a larger area protecting you. The idea is that the further in front of you it is, the more of your body it guards (think of looking at someone, or something, a distance from yourself, then place your finger between the object and your eye, your finger isn't bigger than the object, but you can still "cover" it all). It creates a "wedge" of protection.

There is no "deflecting", there is no trying to hit shuriken out of the air, you just sit there and let the sword protect you. In fact, by moving the sword around, you're more likely to be hit. The best example I've found is on Hatsumi Sensei's "Hidden Weapons" DVD:

(I'm not really fond of the whole thing being on you-tube, but since it is...) Go to about 9:30 - 9:55 for both Bojutsu and Ninja Biken forms of Totoku Hyoshi.

The form you showed was Kongo no Kamae, which realistically is best used (and most commonly found) against a spear. It's very low return for protecting against shuriken, and basically relies on the thrower being good enough to hit your sword. While they both have the sword held vertically in front of you, that's really where the similarity ends.

Sanke, We don't work on iai as much as we probably should the majority of it coming from Eishin Ryu as far as I know. I see the same issues with the iai that you state as well. The reason its slow is because we simply have a lot of work to do to make the action smooth. Until we can reliably perform the iai in a smooth fashion we probably won't increase the speed for a while. The person performing the do girir battou no to is a relatively new blackbelt who we wanted to showcase a little, but he like the rest of us simply need more practice! I appreciate your feedback!

Which form of Eishin Ryu?

The issue that I saw with the Iai wasn't the speed (hell, Seitei is slower than Taiji! Well, maybe not, but it's close...), it was more the disconnects that occured during the technique, as well as the short, choppy cutting actions, which were really not that good at all.

 

[Aiki Lee]

I wish I knew which Eishin Ryu. Mr. Maienza had trained in one form of it but he is no longer part of our organization so I can't ask him. The banzenkan is currently looking for a person to instruct more completely in kenjutsu as we know we aren't where we want to be. The choppy motions and the breaking up the technique into little parts without having them flow is, again simply due to our lack sword practice in the classes. Most people don't practice at home and when we do use swords the majority of the time we use them to teach isshin and exaggerate principles of timing and maai.

Our Batto no to that I've seen so far are taken from some form of Eshin ryu. The kenjutsu we practice is mostly from kukishin and togakure ryu of course, but we also have some aikido sword kata as well. Other than the kihon kamae and cuts we actually don't start working with swords until around 2nd dan. So keep that in mind too.

 

[Chris Parker]

Most commonly, Eishin Ryu is a shortened form of Muso Jikiden Eishin Ryu, but there are a few others that have used it, so I was just curious.

 

[Aiki Lee]

Oh yes. It's definitely Muso Jikiden Eishin Ryu, but I wasn't sure if there were off shoot branches of that, that may do things slightly different from each other. That's what i thought you were asking.