19th-Century Samurai Training Text Deciphered

[J W]

http://news.yahoo.com/19th-century-samurai-training-text-deciphered-113135497.html

Thought those of you who don't visit Yahoo often might be interested in this link.

 

[arnisador]

Cool! Thanks!

 

[Chris Parker]

Hmm. While an interesting little piece, it's not really what it's billed as being. For one thing, the Takenouchi Ryu is still quite alive, and practiced in a number of forms (the Soke line, the Sodenke line, the Bitchu-den Takeuchi Ryu, the Takenouchi Santo Ryu...), so such a text would hardly need to be "discovered and deciphered". From there, there seems to be a large attempt to equate what the single document from one Ryu states with the way all samurai trained and were educated... which simply isn't the case. The cited academic (Szabo) also gets a fair bit wrong... making generalizations (and, in cases, inaccurate ones), rather than demonstrating any real familiarity with the subject itself. For the record.

 

[qianfeng]

That article sounds very wierd why is it written in a secret code? There were many martial arts manuals in old China like Qi Ji Guang's Army manuals which detail old Kung Fu techniques which are still found today and werent really secret. I really doubt there is some secret godly skill which is only passed from headmasters....

 

[qianfeng]

It doesnt even show the text

 

[Chris Parker]

That article sounds very wierd why is it written in a secret code? There were many martial arts manuals in old China like Qi Ji Guang's Army manuals which detail old Kung Fu techniques which are still found today and werent really secret. I really doubt there is some secret godly skill which is only passed from headmasters....

I'd recommend reading my post above, but to answer what's asked here… it's not written in a "secret code", kanbun is an older method of writing. Chinese manuals have absolutely nothing to do with the way things were written for Japanese arts. While there might not be any "godly skill" passed on, there are certain methods and lessons that are passed on only from the headmasters… these can be kuden, okuden methods, or other…

It doesnt even show the text

Yeah… that's hardly the biggest issue of the article, honestly….