The Iaido Journal  July 2006
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What's in a Name?

Copyright © 2006 Sébastien Leclair, all rights reserved

We are a strange people. Us western iaidoka, that is. We are all part of a rich culture that goes back to Ancient Greece and to the Roman Empire. Were we only interested in the martial arts of the sword, we would still find a number of Western ones teaching European, Italian, and Scottish swordsmanship, and even more. Yet we have instead opted to study arts which come from the far east, from a land and a culture that is foreign to most of us. We try to understand the culture and philosophy of those who came before us through our practice. One way to help this along is through the study of the Japanese language, and I hope here to perhaps enlighten some of our practice through understanding the names of our kata. By 'our', I mean here the kata commonly practiced in Muso Jikiden Eishin Ryu and the Zen Nihon Kendo Renmei. Let's get to it, shall we?

Of course, we will not necessarily find any deep meanings or intricate philosophical principles in the names of the kata. A large number of names are quite straightforward, and in fact only very superficial descriptions of the kata's contents. The most striking example, of course, is the first kata of the Zen Ken Ren iaido set, mae. The literal meaning of mae is very simple: in front. This describes only the very basic situation of the kata, with one person in front of the iaidoka. Of course, the Japanese character mae can be used in many different ways. “In front” is one of those, but also “before”. This can be evocative of the spirit of mae. It is the first kata we learn, the first kata we do in the set. It is the one we learned before, but it is also the one in front of us. It is the kata we always go back to, the foundation of all we do. An interesting word using mae in Japanese is maemuki; it means to face forward, which is literally what we do in the kata, but it also means to do so positively.

The second kata from the Zen Ken Ren set is ushiro. Again this is pretty straightforward.

Ushiro means behind, and that is our situation in this kata. That is another advantage of learning some of the language. By knowing what the word means, it brings to mind the kata itself. No longer do you have to rely on the order of the kata to remember what you're supposed to be doing. You will know when ushiro is called out that it has to do with someone behind you. We then come to the third kata, uke nagashi. This one's translation is somewhat less direct. It is composed of two parts; uke, which has the meaning of “to receive” or “to accept”, and nagashi, a verb meaning “to float” or “to shed”. It is a bit hard to see this as a direct description of the technique, but it does give you a feel for what the uke nagashi movement should be like. We get the clear idea that this is not a block, not a stop, but rather a way to accept and shed the opponent's blow. The character used for nagashi is the same character used for the ryu of koryu. It can represent a flow, a current, such as the flow of one master's tea to his student's teacup during the transmission of his style. We can understand we are to flow with the cut and accept it in this kata, which, while they may not be exactly what your sensei tells you to do, is still a handy way to remember what kata the name refers to.

We then go back to naming the kata simply with tsuka ate. You probably already know tsuka, which is the handle of the sword. Ate is a verb meaning to strike. This is the base of the kata, to strike the opponent with the tsuka. No surprises here. We move on to kesa giri, which is a bit more intriguing. Starting with the last word, giri. This is an alternate way of saying kiri, to cut. This is the same word as the one used in kiri oroshi, the overhead cut, and other kata names, like sanpo giri, shiho giri, sougiri and others. The first part, however, is less obvious. The kesa we have here was actually a Buddhist priest's stole, and so the cut in this kata is said to follow the angle of the priest's garment, similar to how your uwagi drapes diagonally from your left to your right. Now, not only do you have a way to remember that this is the kata with a diagonal cut across the chest, you also know some nice trivia about the name you can share during a seminar!

Among the rest of the Zen Ken Ren kata, there are a number that relate directly to the kata and are pretty easily remembered. Sanpo giri and shiho giri are two of those. We already know giri means cut. Both san and shi are Japanese numbers; you probably already know san from sanbon-me. It means three. Shi is another way to say the number four. Thus we have “three something cut” and “four something cut”. It should be getting pretty clear. Of course the meanings are “three-direction cut” and “four-direction cut”. The words po and ho are the same character with a pronunciation change similar to giri/kiri, and mean “direction”. Similarly, we have sougiri. While sou is not a number, it has the meaning of “total” or “full”. It is easy to remember this as “total cut”, and simple to associate with the kata that has 6 cuts one after the other.

The sixth kata of the set is morote tsuki. Again, this is a pretty simple description of the kata in question. Those of us that know some kendo or have seen matches might remember tsuki, the thrust to the throat. The word tsuki simply means “thrust” in this case. Morote is composed of two parts; moro, which means “together”, and te, which means “hand”. Thus the kata name simply means “two handed thrust”. Another kata name that refers to the hands is soete tsuki. This is a bit more complex to translate, however. We know tsuki and te already, of course. The soe comes from soeru, a verb that can mean “to accompany”, “to add to”, “to attach”. With a bit of mental gymnastics, we can translate soete tsuki to “accompanying hand thrust”. It's a mouthful, and perhaps there's no reason to say this translation out loud, but if you remember the words you can remember what the kata is like. There are then only two kata left in the set. The first is ganmen ate. We have already seen the latter part in tsuka ate and so we remember that it means “to hit”. Perhaps you have heard of men in kendo, the strike to the head. Ganmen is a related word which means forehead. Simply put, this kata is a strike to the forehead. The image of what the kata is should come to mind immediately. The last kata is nuki uchi. This is a pretty straightforward one. The nuki part is from nukitsuke, the action of drawing the sword from the sheath and striking. Specifically, nuki is the verb meaning “to draw”. Uchi in this context is “to hit”. The translation is then “draw and strike”, which to me brings to mind the very action of this kata.

All these words and expressions may not be easy to remember. However, they are often terms that will be used in many different situations and that you may well come in contact with during a seminar with Japanese sensei. Directions such as mae and ushiro, and also migi and hidari, which are kata in Omori ryu and are also simple directions for right and left. Actions such as kiru, ateru, tsuku. All of these can help you communicate a bit more with sensei. Of course, they will also help you remember your kata and the meaning of their names. As you try and understand more and more kata names, however, you will realize that the older the name of the kata, the more poetic and less straightforward it is. You will find makko, of course, which means “directly in front”, but you may not get a very clear image of what uroko gaeshi, “scaling a fish”, means. You will eventually have to make up links between the image you get from the name of a kata and the kata itself. But who knows, perhaps you will come to understand some kata better, perhaps not from the name itself, but from your attempt to understand it. Even if not, this is a great way to start learning some of the language, and have a closer look at this culture we're involved in. It is my sincere hope that you will all enjoy the journey!



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TIN July 2006