The title 'bugeisha' is inclusive. It refers to all those adherents now and
from the past who have sought to discover through a serious pursuit of these
noble arts a more worthwhile way of life.
(Dave Lowry)
Dave Lowry
Dave Lowry has written several excellent books concerning the
martial arts, but his consideration of calligraphy is perhaps the most
interesting.
He examines significant
Japanese words
(characters) in an attempt to unravel a deeper root significance.
The book is called Sword and Brush.
It is a magnificent accomplishment.
Movement (sabaku)
This is what Dave Lowry had to say about movement:
The bugei of Japan are a panopoly of movement.
Exponents jostle and clash... Weapons of steel, bamboo or wood, twitching
and flashing... Fists and feet flicking, lashing out... The jolt and lunge
of sumo or judo grapplers in their efforts to topple one another... The arc
of the blade's draw, the thrust of the staff, the flight of the arrow...
The key to all these motions, from the perspective of the calligrapher's
brush is found in cutting a bolt of silk for the making of a kimono. If a
kimono maker cuts with judicious care, he will get every piece he needs from
one length of silk without any of the precious cloth being squandered.
The character 'sabaku' is
literally "to judge decisively a cut."
The movements of the bugeisha are
imaginatively described with this word.
Sabaku is not random motion.
The bugeisha does not engage in the kind of nervous fidgeting or displacement
observed in untrained men or animals when faced with the stress of aggression.
All his movements are calculated.
Energy is conserved.
Sabaku is the the movement of the predator.
Tigers never posture or roar when attacking; hawks in the act of taking their
quarry do not flutter or scream.
The actions of the predator are the essence of economy.
In the midst of chaos, fear, and
mortal danger, they appear to be almost relaxed.
Perhaps it is this ability to
relax, to move without superfluity, to release a burst of power only at the very
instant it is needed that allows the expert bugeisha to continue his practice
long after an age when athletes have retired from their activities. Indeed, the
senior exponent of the martial ways moves with a grace that is almost leisurely.
While younger, 'stronger' practitioners are exerting all their power throughout
every movement or exhausting themselves in unessential motions, the senior
bugeisha's actions seem in comparison sedate and almost parsimonious. Even so,
his attacks always find their target; his parries materialise languidly yet with
stunning effectiveness. Always he is in exactly the correct place he needs to
be, never a moment too soon or too late.
It is no coincidence that the lives of most master bugeisha have been ones full
of activity, even in old age. When death comes, it is rarely at the end of a
long and debilitating illness. Instead, they are engaged in a physical pursuit
of the way almost until the moment of their demise. They live completely, not an
hour dissipated, until finally, like a candle burnt to the very end, their flame
is quietly extinguished. In training, as in life, the sabaku of the bugeisha,
cutting with complete and absolute precision, wastes not a shred of cloth.
(Dave Lowry)
Page created 9 April 1998