Bujinkan Budō Taijutsu Kaeru Dōjō

Image created by AI.

If there is a better, more accurate way of doing our art we should change how we train to improve.

Fred Sensei

Alongside this website being a place to advertise the Kaeru dōjō, the aim is that this will be a place to share thoughts on martial arts, mostly the arts of the Bujinkan Budō Taijutsu organization, but occasionally others might sneak in.

For this first one, I wanted to start simple. These blogs will, unless stated otherwise, be written by Fred Sensei. Therefore, it should be understood that the writings of Fred are based on the understanding he has at the time of writing, not the time of reading. If there are mistakes or inaccuracies, corrections are appreciated as long as they are based on fact rather than opinion.

In his famous work, the Book of Five Rings, Miyamoto Musashi (b. 1584 – d. 1645) wrote that the

“[t]ruth is not what you want it to be; it is what it is, and you must bend to its power or live a lie.”

So, as martial artists, we must accept the truth when we are presented with it. If someone shows us that what we are doing is wrong or incorrect, we must either accept it and change or continue to do as we have been doing.

Equally, Shimadzu Tadayoshi (b. 1492 – d. 1568) wrote the document Jisshin-ko Iroha-no-uta, in which he begins by saying

“listening to or repeating the wisdom of old is useless without action.”

Both famous samurai in their days, there is something that we should learn from each of them in these quotes. Firstly, from Musashi, we cannot escape the truth; we can only hide from it. So we must accept it, even if it goes against what we believe to be true. However, this should be counterbalanced with the statement from Tadayoshi; it is clear that we shouldn’t take wisdom and advice at face value without putting them into action.

For me, as a martial artist, this means that we shouldn’t keep performing moves and actions simply because that was the way we were taught. If there is a better, more accurate way of doing our art, we should change how we train to improve.

After all, the point of martial arts is to get better in multiple aspects: physically, intellectually, and philosophically.

So, with that food for thought, I will leave this post here. More will come.