SWORDDUELING.COM

San Cai Jian

Kun Wu Jian

Qi Men Jain

These are all in Dr. Jwing-ming Yang’s book – Northern Shaolin Sword.

Look at these digs! Very nice. Combat kendo in LA.

Mu Ryu kicks it in the park.

These kids are like ninjas.

They can’t even be hurt. You hit them in the head and they “have a helmet.” Then you hit them in the leg, but it’s still a no go. Why? They “have helmets all over their bodies.”

Yamaoka Tesshu, Renaissance swordsman of late 1800s Japan, calligrapher 1,000,000 pieces of art.

http://www.thejapanesesword.com/articles/Tesshu.htm

Obviously tales of Tesshu’s life differ and exaggerate to some degree, but by all accounts he seemed to be a man of immense spirit. It is said that Tesshu divided every day into four parts, Kendo, calligraphy, drinking and sleeping. Renowned for his drinking abilities, on one occasion whilst drinking with friends, they spoke of a horse that was so wild no-one could get a hold of it let alone ride it. Tesshu replied “An animal that man cannot control! That is ridiculous! So his friends baited him to ride it and together they went to the stable. Tesshu marched up to the wild horse, grabbed it by the tail and started yanking it hard. Tesshu’s friends all dived for cover expecting the horse to buck and kick. Then to all their surprise the horse turned quietly and obediently followed Tesshu. He explained to his friends “Animals confronted with determination greater than their own immediately submit”. However he later admitted that he had been quite drunk and had felt a bit braver than usual.

Tesshu’s pursuit of Kendo and enlightenment knew no bounds. He would practice daily in his loincloth, any visitors to his house, regardless of the reason were immediately invited to practice with him, postmen, deliverymen or friends. Eventually they complained to his brother begging him to make Tesshu stop. In his younger years in Edo he took part in thousands of contests with the best swordsmen in Japan. At practice sessions he would not rest between partners and practiced continually. When he was twenty-eight, he met Asari Gimei (Yoshiaki) a superior swordsman of the Nakanishi-ha Itto-Ryu, who defeated him in a contest. Tesshu became Asari’s student, as it was the custom to do so. Tesshu was unusual for a Japanese, he was well built and around six feet tall, Asari on the other hand was almost half his size. Asari was also twelve years his senior. When Tesshu, a determined young man, met Asari in his dojo, he repeatedly could not defeat him. Asari ‘s spirit was much stronger, he forced Tesshu all the way to the back of the dojo, continued out into the street, knocked him to the ground and then slammed the door in his face. This was too much for Tesshu. He increased his efforts in training and meditation. Constantly pondering fencing scenarios, he would wake up at night jump out of bed and get his wife to hold a sword so he could work out problems. Whilst eating he would cross his chopsticks or during conversations he would cross pipes looking for solutions. On the morning of March 30th 1880 whilst sitting in zazen, Tesshu attained enlightenment. Later that morning he went to practice Kendo with Asari. Asari realising that Tesshu had reached the level of ‘no-enemy’, declined a match telling Tesshu that “You have arrived.”

When he died, he sat down, composed his death poem and then closed his eyes and died.
He died like a true samurai and Zen master by first composing his death poem, then closing his eyes and slipping into death whilst sitting in the formal Japanese manner.

Doka

Swordsmanship:
I am not struck,
Nor is my opponent hit.
Unobstructed I move in
And attain the ultimate.

Against an opponent’s sword
Assume no stance
And keep your mind unmoved.
That is the place of victory.

Where swords meet
Throw off illusion.
Abandon yourself
And you will tread on the living path.

Spirit, swift
Mind, calm
Body, light
Eyes, clear
Technique, decisive!

Muto Ryu Strategy

The Five Components:
Myo-ken, Marvelous Sowrd
Zetsumyo-ken, Exquisite Sword
Shin-ken, True Sword
Konchichoo-ken, Sword of the Golden Garuda King
Dokumyo-ken, Sword of Solitary Splendor

The Seven Ways to Attain Victory

1. Suppressing the opponent’s ki
2. Anticipating the attack
3. Responding to the attack
4. Holding down
5. Driving back
6. Overwhelming
7. Proper adjustment
These seven ways of attaingin victory must always be kept in mind. If they are ignored, it will be difficult to have proper understanding of the Way of the Sword. if one trains aimlessly, Mind cannot develop, time is wasted, and there is useless expense of energy. Thus, I formulated these seven basic procedures at the request of Mr. Maeda and taught them to him over a seventeen-day period.
August, 1880

I think I know what he means by these, except for Holding Down.

Tesshu’s writings from The Sword of No Sword by John Stevens.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yamaoka_Tessh%C5%AB

I’d like to see how these spins work in combat. Very kumdo in that aspect.

Kumdo is like the Korean version of kendo.
Haidong Gumdo is like Kumdo, but with an emphasis away from cutting down and towards horizontal spinning attacks that supposedly are geared to the battlefield more than the duel (at least that’s how the videos make it seem).

I like this video of test cutting but what looks to be choreographed preposterous swordfights, as opposed to real fights, is something I do not like at all.

Pul-leaze. I don’t like kendo’s rules and constrictions but this is worse.

Why can’t I find this stuff in English? Or where can I?

While traditional Korean sword forms are contained in the Bonguk Geombeop (Korean sword method), other geombeop are taught within Haidong Gumdo curricula, including:

* ???? Ssangsu Geombeop (method of using the double handed sword)
* ???? Simsang Geombeop (method of the heart of swordsmanship)
* ???? Yedo Geombeop (method of using the short sword)
* ???? Jedok Geombeop (Admiral’s sword method)
* ???? Jangbaek Geombeop (the Jangbaek method)
* ??? Wae Geombeop (Japanese method)
* ???? Wuisu Geombeop (method of using the sword with one hand)
* ???? Ssanggeom Geombeop (The method of using two swords)

Oh wait, here is some stuff
http://www.kumdousa.org/English/forms.htm
But I can’t make these work (or don’t see the utility).
This sounds encyclopedic – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muye_Dobo_Tongji & available.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kumdo
http://hdgdforum.com/
Swords mainly in the NE & SW.
http://www.ushaidong.net/schools/

This article and this one are about the study of an archeological gravesite found in what was Ephesus and is now Turkey where the skeletons of Roman gladiators provided insight into their lives, wounds and deaths.

VEGETARIAN?

The researchers expected gladiators would need a protein-rich diet to build muscle – however their analysis of the bones in fact suggested a vegetarian diet.
Plants contain higher levels of the element strontium than animal tissues. So, people who consume more plants and less meat will build up measurably higher levels of strontium in their bones. Levels of strontium in the gladiators’ bones were two times higher than the bones of contemporary Ephesians, according to research presented by Kanz and Grossschmidt at a meeting of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists in Philadelphia, U.S., in April this year.
This agrees with some historical reports of gladiators eating a diet of mainly barley, beans and dried fruit, says Grossschmidt.
It would have given them a lot of strength, but may also have contributed to the tooth decay found in teeth in the cemetery and potentially made the men fat. However, a little extra weight could actually have had benefits in protecting vital organs from cutting blows during fights, argue the researchers.
Grossschmidt says that the gladiators also drank foul-sounding plant or bone ash solutions, acting as a kind of ancient isotonic sports drink. The mineral-rich drink may even have been a kind primitive painkiller, he says.

! really ?

Written records tell us that if the defeated gladiator had not shown enough skill or even cowardice, the cry of “iugula” (lance him through) would be heard throughout the arena, demanding he be killed.
The condemned gladiator would be expected to die “like a man” remaining motionless to receive the mortal blow.
The pathologists discovered various unhealed wounds on bones that showed how these executions could have taken place. And these are consistent with depictions on reliefs from the time showing a kneeling man having a sword rammed through down his throat into the heart. A very quick way to die.

woah

Or if you just get critically hurt and need to be put down somebody garbed as the death god “Dis Pater” will swing by to deliver a hammer to the skull.

5 years in the ring and then freedom.

What a hard knock life.

One interesting sword move is Cloud, when you spin with the sword or spin the sword around you. Bagua sword has alot of these and these two movies provide contrasts between the heavy dao and light jian versions. The old man is awesome.

Interesting how the sword’s ridge is braced on different parts of the body.

These clouds http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99KxR2dXa4c are an example of this being done with less violent force and structure and therefore not looking too battle effective.

http://www.youtube.com/v/jM71tGZ_Y6Q
This is a pretty wushu version – the guy’s sword would be more impressive if the blade wasn’t so thin it was rippling wind. The end of this is him doing something instructional.