InYo:
Journal of Alternative Perspectives Dec 2007
Copyright
© Deborah
Klens-Bigman 2007. All rights
reserved.
Kim Taylor, Editor of the EJMAS website,
suggested that I respond to "A
Critical Assessment of Deborah
Klens-Bigman's Performance Theory of Martial Arts" (Harrison
2007) which discusses my article, "Towards a Theory of Martial
Art as Performance Art" (1999, reprinted 2002). I have accepted
the invitation as an opportunity to further explore some of the
issues brought up in my original article.
The critique is based on the idea that I
was introducing a comprehensive theory for examining all martial arts
practice. However, I was simply setting out some ideas, based in
performance studies theory, by which certain martial arts forms could
be examined. The term "performance art" - which to me
conjures up images of a naked Annie Sprinkle lecturing Lower East
Side hipsters on their sexual hypocrisy - was a decision made by the
editor at the time. My word choice was "performing art"
(as in the current title) which better represents my original concept
of framing certain martial arts practices in terms of performance. As
flattered as I am by the assumption that I was reaching for an
overarching theory, that is, to this day, well beyond me, as I shall
explain later.
The second point of digression was
confusion of performance studies theory with dramatic theory. While
the two fields have themes in common, they are not the same thing.
Dramatic theory, as the term implies, has to do with works created
for the stage; an increasingly irrelevant art form (it's true, no
matter how much some of us may regret that). Performance studies, on
the other hand, though it may include theatrical works as part of its
purview, is an interdisciplinary study that also includes, among
other fields, anthropology, sociology, psychology, folk history,
dance and religious studies. Performance studies scholars examine
the performative elements in human (and sometimes even animal)
activities. We may examine significant events from everyday life,
such as religious services, weddings, graduations, or funerals. Popular
entertainments, including carnivals, circuses, sideshows,
television, video games, parades, mass protests and sports are also
regularly dealt with by scholars in the field. More consciously
performative venues such as dance, Western and Non-Western theatre
and film have also been under the PS microscope. Some PS scholars
argue, as I stated in the article, that people are conscious of an
audience even in their most private activities. The spate of reality
shows we have been enduring on television bear out that not only is
the private performer capable of being watched, he can be well aware
of, and even enjoy, being on exhibit. Performance studies scholars'
interest in alternative theatrical forms led to a natural interest in
investigating avant garde performances, including performance art -
outre' presentations, usually by artists or others with little or no
theatrical training - more likely to take place in galleries rather
than a legitimate theatre space.
As an emerging field, there was a great
deal of creative energy in my department that led to all kinds of
theoretical experimentation, including ethnographic description,
micro and macro movement analysis, facial expression, theories on
structure, gender and sexual identity, as well as various history
courses on popular entertainments and avant garde movements, and
survey courses on various performance genres - trust me, it is a very
long list. Here, I thought, was a wide-ranging discipline that could
possibly provide an alternative way to examine non-Western
performance forms apart from the necessarily categorical mindset of
accepted Western methodology. It was as an extension of non-Western
performance genres that brought me to an examination of martial arts
as a form of performance, though I was not the first to do so (see,
for example, Jackson (1993) which I cited in my article, and there
are others). My interest in applying performance studies theory to
martial arts fits in with other treatments by anthropologists in
their attempts to discuss martial arts in the US and elsewhere (for
an overview, see Jones (Ed.) (2002)).
The author questions the idea of taking
an aesthetic look at martial arts. He quotes Bolelli (2003) as
suggesting that only frankly "performative" martial arts
forms, such as Chinese wushu and Brazilian capoeira, should be
examined in an aesthetic sense, but apparently that other martial
arts forms do not lend themselves to such analysis (Harrison 2007,
1-2). (As for not consulting Bolelli, I note his book was published
in 2003, well after my article appeared - both times). While I would
certainly agree that it is not useful to examine all martial arts
forms in an aesthetic way (remember I was not mounting anything like
a comprehensive theory) dividing martial arts forms into hardened
categories, though useful at times, is a necessarily limited point of
view.
The martial art forms I chose to examine
were primarily traditional ones - iai and kenjutsu (forms of
swordsmanship), kyudo (long-bow archery) and, to a lesser extent,
empty-hand arts; however, all of my examples were devoid for the most
part of sporting elements. Japanese koryu (lit. "old style")
forms (iai and kenjutsu, kyudo, jo, naginata, and early empty-hand
forms, among others), which is where my interest and experience lie,
are steeped in Japanese aesthetics, while still keeping an element of
potentially deadly practicality intact. One can certainly analyze
these forms without considering their aesthetic elements, but such an
analysis leaves out an aspect of practice that is often consciously
taught. I cite below several examples of commonly accepted aesthetic
elements in Japanese koryu practice:
Johakyu, is a structural element,
sometimes inadequately translated as "slow - medium - fast,"
also suggests a rising level in intensity. As Peter Boylan (2007)
points out, the earliest references to johakyu came from the
writings of Zeami Motokyo (1363-1443). Zeami notes the rising level
of intensity in both the structure and performance of noh,
though it exists in other Japanese theatrical forms as well. The
kata in many koryu art forms also include johakyu.
Specifically, I have written elsewhere about how iai kata contain
both an overall sense of johakyu, as well as individual
portions of the kata showing the same rise in intensity (for example,
the accelerating sword draw that ends in a cut). Johakyu is
taught as part of the kata in Tamiya Ryu Iaijutsu, among other styles
(for a good comprehensive article on johakyu as it applies to
iai, see Boylan (2007)).
Ma can best be described as being
similar to the concept of the interval in music; i.e. the timing
between notes. It is expressed in Japanese kanji as the sun
glimpsed through a gate. In Japanese performance, ma can be a
synonym for talent (sometimes it is also referred to with the English
word "timing"). A dancer with poor ma has no
talent, no matter what his technical ability. The same could be said
of a martial arts student whose timing is off in a partner, or even
solo, kata. Though ma can be improved upon, it cannot be
taught; which is why high-level people can make partner kata look
exciting, even when, as kata, the outcome and even the moves to get
there, are pre-ordained. Poor ma in a partner kata is awkward
at best; in solo kata the result may be simply boring to an observer.
InYo (or yin-yang) is the
complementarity of opposites, and almost needs no introduction to any
martial artist (note the name of this journal). In Muso Shinden Ryu
iaido, for example, the drawing of the sword is facilitated by
pulling the saya (sheath) back around the body as the sword comes
out. In other words, push and pull work together to create an
effective technique. InYo is so important that a kata from the
shoden (beginner set) of Muso Shinden Ryu bears the name Inyoshintai.
InYo is important to aesthetic movement and pictorial art as well.
It is difficult to determine when these
aesthetic elements first appeared. By the Genroku period
(1688-1704), they were so much in evidence in swordsmanship that some
feared beauty was replacing efficacy, and such practices were decried
as "flowery swordsmanship" (Hurst 1998, 66). The struggle
between simple practicality and the aesthetics of swordsmanship can
still be found today in the arguments between, for example, Toyama
ryu* practitioners and virtually everyone else. However, the extant
styles I am familiar with have retained their practical aspect as
well as the aesthetic one.
Further evidence for aesthetic
expression can be found in the venue for the exhibition of the koryu
arts I mentioned above. The venue for an enbukai (which combines,
"en" for performance, along with "bu" as in
martial and "kai" meaning gathering) is as likely to be a
public hall or theatre as it is a gymnasium. Practitioners wear
formal clothes similar to what they might wear if they were members
of a Japanese wedding party. The extreme formality of koryu
practitioners in Japan (echoed to a certain extent by their
counterparts in the US) reflects the seriousness with which they take
their practice as an art form, rather than mere sport or physical
exercise. As I stated in Klens-Bigman (2002), some enbukai include
special lighting effects and performances of other traditional
Japanese arts – further evidence of their performative nature.
Beauty may not be an overwhelming
element of, say, a judo match, though I have met practitioners who
get an aesthetic charge out of either performing or seeing a
perfectly-executed technique in the course of one. For the forms I
was considering, however, aesthetic considerations are part and
parcel of the practice.
In my discussion of koryu arts, I was
not addressing sports or martial art sport forms. That sports have
no narrative drive and that it is incorrect to assign one to them is
obvious, as anyone can tell who is not interested in a particular
sport but sits through an endless, mind-numbing, "must see"
game with an enthusiast. To the extent performance studies considers
sports, they come under the rubric of public entertainments or
spectacle, which was not appropriate for viewing the koryu martial
arts used as examples in my article. Kata in many koryu arts (as
opposed to more modern martial arts forms) are stories of
attack and defense. Their narrative element is fairly evident to
anyone who sees a high level practitioner perform.** Considering
these forms in their aesthetic sense, therefore, was certainly one
possible way in which to attempt an analysis.
My use of performance studies theorist
Richard Schechner's analysis of workshop (1988) to describe a martial
arts dojo is sound as it stands. However, the assigned roles
participants might play in a dojo situation are not necessarily
"fixed" (nor did I state that they were). I have been in
many situations where a teacher in one class in one style might be a
student - even a beginner - in another. My own dojo experience, in
which a several koryu arts are practiced, puts a number of us on
different sides of the room, depending on what is being taught. Though
the model of dojo structure - the role of teachers and the
hierarchy of students in traditional martial arts dojo - is well
established, who occupies those roles can certainly change. As for
the idea that dojo practice is separated from the outside world, in
the world of koryu weapon arts, where practitioners often wield
swords, knives, sticks, glaives, bows, arrows and spears, it had
better be.
Stanislavsky's idea (1989) that a
performer (i.e. martial artist) "lives" his role is an apt
description of the performance of koryu kata. As I have noted above,
koryu martial artists are often enacting a story of attack and
defense; the extent to which they commit themselves in these actions
can be very similar to a someone in a more performative venue. Lack
of concentration on the techniques and story line being enacted can
result in one or both parties suffering an injury. I frankly do not
follow the argument that this analysis leaves nothing to strive for.
Surely it is understood that one takes up a study of a martial art
form of whatever kind seeking improvement in some way (though
striving for rank, in my world, is secondary to improvement of
skill). Unfortunately those who don't know much about theatrical
training consider it a form of "playacting" rather than a
serious art form. I cannot help that some people who think "acting"
think of Paris Hilton rather than Meryl Streep. And, while
Stanislavsky was European, I could just have easily used kabuki
actors' commentary in The Actors Analects (Dunn and Bunzo (eds.)
1969) or even Zeami himself (Rimer and Yamazaki (tr.) 1984), as the
discussions of the interior sensibilities of performers are
surprisingly similar, even as the external results are vastly
different.
I disagree that considering enbukai from
the aspect of being a spectator is an example of "objectification"
of the subject. Since I already considered the practitioner's point
of view in the beginning of the article, why not consider the
spectator's? There are many more spectators (i.e., people watching
an enbu performance) than practitioners (the koryu martial artists),
after all. Moreover, spectators are an integral part of performance
- there can hardly be one without someone to watch. Considering a
performance from multiple perspectives is messy, but not invalid. In
fact the advanced martial arts student should be constantly
monitoring her execution of the form, learning to make corrections on
her own in the absence of a teacher.
My viewpoint was narrowly focused in
that I was considering traditional and mostly koryu art forms in
terms of performance theory. This set of principles may not
necessarily be appropriately applied across the vast realm of martial
arts practice. Let us consider the scope of "martial arts"
for a moment; not simply as an activity with a geographic spread that
includes Japan, China, Korea and "other martial traditions"
(which actually is a modern way of looking at something that predates
political boundaries of nations). Specifically the "others"
include Africa, India, Indonesia and the rest of south and southeast
Asia, the Middle East, Europe, and Native America (north and south) -
in other words, the rest of the planet. Current martial arts
practice also reflects various periods of historical development -
hence we have Tendo Ryu naginata along with Atarashii Naginata, iai
and kenjutsu alongside kendo, modern sport fencing along with the
study of French small sword. Depending on the point of view, a
survey of martial art forms could also include fight choreography and
digitally-enhanced techniques and styles developed and perpetuated
for virtual characters in cyberspace that mere humans are in no way
capable of. That said, it is reasonable for me to limit the scope of
my discussion, if for no other reason than that by doing so, the
discussion can be had at all. I am by no means alone among scholars
of martial arts who impose similar limits on their work.
As for different ways of looking at
martial arts, of course there are more than even the three concepts
the author outlines in his conclusion. While he did not posit any
overarching theory for examining martial arts himself, any
overarching theory will of necessity generalize or simplify. Any
number of scholars will then gleefully point out exceptions, perhaps
to the point of making any "general theory" all but
useless.
Given the enormous scope of martial arts
practice, both on the human scale and beyond, I am not surprised that
we have not seen some general theory, and I am even skeptical that
such a theory can be discerned. We are understandably "behind
the curve" if for no other reason than the daunting prospect of
trying to bring some sort of reasonable sense to the claims to the
term "martial art" that swirl around us. If the proof of
any theory (or proto-theory) is in its applicability, at least my
small analysis showed some possible means of looking at a particular
set of art forms, by taking into consideration their aesthetic
aspects.
Notes
*Toyama ryu, in its
various forms, was created in the early 20th century as part of
Japan's rising militarism and corrupted sense of Bushido. It pared
down sword techniques to their practical essence, and provided
military officers, who still carried swords, with a crash course in
how to use them. Though its current practitioners (and there are
many in the US) have done quite a bit to establish Toyama ryu as a
legitimate style of swordsmanship, the enduring historical image for
me is that of a sword-wielding officer about to decapitate a hapless
Chinese prisoner, bound, kneeling at his feet. Interestingly, for
enbukai in Japan and demonstrations in the US, the Toyama Ryu
practitioners are the most elegantly dressed of all. For more on the
Imperialist corruption of Bushido, see Friday (2001). For more on
Toyama Ryu, see Klens-Bigman (2007).
** The one exception
here might be kyudo. Kata in Heki Ryu Bichu Chikuren ha, for
example, do not at all seem to be narrative-driven, except in the
sense that a moving target appears, and the archer shoots at it.
However, kyudo does include as part of its practice the aesthetic
elements that I noted and can therefore be considered in an aesthetic
sense.
Sources:
Boylan, Peter
2001 "JoHaKyu"
The Iaido Journal (March) www.ejmas.com/tin/tinframe.htm
Dunn, Charles J. and Bunzo Torigoe
(Eds.)
1969 The Actors' Analects NY: Columbia Univ. Pr.
Friday, Karl
2001 "Bushido or
Bull: Am medieval historian's perspective on the Imperial Army and
the Japanese Warrior Tradition" InYo: Journal of Alternative
Perspectives (March) www.ejmas.com/jalt/jaltart_Friday_0301.htm
Harrison, L.
2007 "A Critical
Assessment of Deborah Klens-Bigman's Performance Theory of Martial
Arts" InYo: Journal of Alternative Perspectives (Nov.)
www.ejmas.com
/jalt/2007/jcsart_Harrison_0711.html
Hurst, Cameron G.
1998 Armed
martial arts of Japan: Swordsmanship and archery, New Haven; Yale
Univ. Pr.
Jackson, S.
1993 Representing rape:
Model Mugging's discursive and embodied performances. The Drama
Review 37(3): 100-141.
Jones, David E. (ed.)
2002 Combat,
Theory and Performance: Anthropology of the Martial Arts Westport:
Praeger.
Klens-Bigman, Deborah
2002 "Towards
a Theory of Martial Arts as Performance Art" in Combat,
Theory and Performance: Anthropology of the Martial Arts (Jones,
D. E., Ed.) Westport: Praeger.
______
2007 "Toyama Ryu:
Swordsmanship of Imperial Japan" FightingArts
www.FightingArts.com/reading/article.php?id=543
Rimer, J. Thomas and Yamazaki Masakazu
(Trs.)
1984 On the Art of No Drama Princeton: Princeton
Univ. Pr.
Schechner, R.
1988 Performance
Theory New York: Routledge.
Stanislavsky K.
1989 An Actor
Prepares NY: Routledge/Theatre Arts Books.
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