Saya no Uchi On a recent seminar Ohmi sensei mentioned saya no uchi so I thought Id write a bit on it. Among many things, Sensei said that his secret was in the scabbard, that one should win before drawing the sword, that to draw 100 times and win 100 times was just luck, to not draw was skill. Students frowned in confusion. So a bit of background. Saya no uchi was one of the old names for iaido, and it would perhaps have originally meant exactly what it says. Stuff you do when your sword is in the scabbard. Kono Hyakuren said that the secret of iai is in the scabbard, it would be masterful to defeat an opponent without drawing the sword but if forced, the crucial moment is when the sword leaves the scabbard. To win 100 times in 100 encounters is not the way of mortals, to win without drawing is the secret. Yokoyama Hiromichi, in a letter from 1996 said that his teacher, Yamamoto Harusuke made this very clear. Iaijutsu is saya no uchi, Iai exists until kenjutsu takes part. Iai exists in the saya. If you fail to kill without quick kiritsuke and nukitsuke he draws his sword and now it is kenjutsu against kenjutsu. Ohmi sensei said that you must obtain victory while the sword is still in the saya. This is a familiar concept to kendo, hit the opponent, then swing your shinai. It means, in a very practical way, that you must put your opponent at a disadvantage before attacking or the outcome will certainly be in doubt. It can also mean having the correct attitude, you will not win if you dont see a victory in your mind. Sun Tsu stated that victorious warriors obtain the win before going to war. Losers go to war and then seek to win. Think about the past few asian wars to understand this. Think about Afganistan, what was the mission? What were the parameters of victory? The very mention of mission creep usually means a war is about to be lost, or at the least not won. Saya no uchi no kachi is sometimes interpreted as a moral, spiritual victory by not drawing the sword and this is often contrasted with the more battle ready idea of winning before striking. The Kendo Federation states that those who practice iai will develop a well trained, indomitable soul where the morality and character of budo is calmly possessed and this will so overwhelm the enemy that one will win without drawing the sword. They also mention winning before drawing of course. This overwhelming of the opponent is expressed physically in iai in the concept of nuki tsuke in Omori Ryu or the first two kata of kendo federation iai, to suppress the opponent with the draw so that if he backs down before saya banari, the point where the sword leaves the scabbard, all is finished. Up to now we have saya no uchi simply being the name for iaido. We have the idea of iaido being that stuff that happens when the sword is in the scabbard, that iaido is saya no uchi. Then we have the idea that iaido exists because the sword is in the saya, and that victory is already present in the saya. The fight is yours to lose. To extend this a bit further, the idea of saya no uchi can be considered as a metaphore. You have a sword in a saya, you have skill in the budo and can defeat any opponent, you have a strong army, a nuclear weapon. Big Dogs dont pay much attention to small dogs, so a man with skills in iaido doesnt need to draw his sword out of fear. He can withold it and thus defuse the fight. A small dog is scared and declares his willingness to fight the big dog, the big dog accepts or declines, only if he accepts will there be a fight. If you have no weakness, no openings in your kamae there can be no attacks that succeed and so no reason to attack (and thus open yourself up to a counterattack since no attack is ever without an opening). It is fear that is the problem. Fear causes attack and there are many types of fear. There is much talk lately about the end of the American Empire and one of the main features of the end of any empire has been that series of small indecisive wars which occur as the empire tries to maintain its dominance and does nothing more than prove it no longer has the heart for a fight. The USA has a military which is stronger than the next five or six largest militaries combined, but it (thankfully) has no will to use it. I say thankfully because my country is, and has always been, a logical target for expansion. With the loss of the Soviet Union there is no challenge to the firepower of the USA and no reason to get into small proxy wars so all should be peaceful, a big, big dog sunning itself on the front steps. Yet this giant has gone into Iraq, Afganistan and who knows where else, expending old munitions, granted, but chasing whisps, bits and scraps of something called terrorists and creating far more of them than it has eliminated. There is nothing like a decades long war on the borders to prove that the old Roman Army hasnt got it any more. And why? Fear, fear from the leaders who wont commit to a major war of extermination and expansion (those days are over), fear that is cynically used to keep the leaders in power and distract the population with dangerous enemies. Better to keep the sword in the scabbard, better to simply ignore the little yapping dog nips around the heels. The little cur will run out of bravado and the fear will take over, or perhaps its owner will drag it away for fear that the sword will be drawn. Saya no Uchi Kim Taylor Nov 6, 2014 sdksupplies/
Posted on: Thu, 06 Nov 2014 14:07:43 +0000
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