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From another sword-blog – Otake-shihan on Freeplay, here is the post –

I just found a great quote I wanted to share with anyone reading this blog. You’ve all read things I’ve written about Otake Risuke, the current Shihan of Tenshinsho-dan Katori Shinto-ryu. This ryu is the oldest extant Japanese martial arts school and is listed as an ‘intangible cultural asset’; it comes from the days when bushi fought for real. Otake-shihan is considered a living national treasure of Japan and is the only one who holds a full license (gokui kaiden) in the art. In my opinion he is the greatest swordsman of any system living today. This quote can be found in its entirety here: http://www.cateransociety.com/Joseki.htm:

“Kata is still the teaching method in the classical Japanese sword arts precisely because it preserves the essence of the art’s history—the art as it was understood by those who created it. Some schools, such as the Tenshin Shoden Katori Shinto Ryu … pride themselves on the fact that they have never used any type of free sparring in their practice.

{Otake-shihan said:} “(I)t is said that a shiai, or competitive contest, is synonymous with shiniai, which means ‘to meet for the sake of death.’ That is another way of saying that any kind of combat is a serious matter of life and death. As a result, from then until now, competitive matches have been forbidden in Katori Shinto Ryu…”

Otake-shihan then went on to say that, in sparring, “the vital responsibility and danger of handling a real weapon is replaced by the mental approach of the game-player with a toy weapon.”

Game players with toy weapons. Perfect. Real swordsmen don’t do freeplay.

I just want to give an open challenge to anyone who takes this attitude. You are wrong. Find me a two swordsmen – one who has sparred countless times against countless people using shinai or the like (along with doing whatever else they want) versus somebody who has only trained themselves to react to predetermined stimuli with predetermined responses with a small group of fellows who even know the kata they are using.

All the great swordsmen sing a pretty constant refrain that the quality they win with is essentially a mind in satori leading to unconstrained action perfect for the moment that is here and now.

As a note, I have nothing against kata. Additionally, I recognize that a fight with steel swords means one must overcome and ignore the fear of death and that is a whole other matter. Nevertheless, if you haven’t tasted the realistic chaos of sparring and tried to apply your kata in that context, you are missing something important.

[p.s. I just read the original article the post quotes and it is good and goes into length about how although Asian arts are inclined to kata and Western to free-sparring, both do both, and both are worthwhile]