The
Iaido Journal July 2006
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!
