There will be training on Monday, April 5.
Volunteer night at the Calgary Foodbank is Tuesday, April 13.
Please let me know if you can participate.
Thanks!
Chris
Monday, March 22, 2010
Friday, March 19, 2010
Lineages and history
It is a result of the complex pathways of thought which led to the enlightenment, according to the German Continental philosopher Hans-Georg Gadamer (1900 - 2002), that our modern society has come to believe that history has and continues to move in a linear path of progression. Furthermore, these 'ascending' lines of history are constructed and perceived as simple lines, that is to say, as lines with discrete points of progression marked by what are considered to be significant historical figures. This oversimplification of the concept of what history is, is easily seen in the way history is often taught in schools, exemplified in textbooks, and in our conversations about many topics, for example, lineages in the martial arts.
The false idea of a simple, sustained, and unfaltering line of historical progress is often expressed in the arguments, often heated, among martial artists over whose line is more 'pure' or the 'true' line of an art. Although few arts can show a lineage of headmasters which is unbroken from the first record of the art, as Kim Taylor sensei has concisely stressed (http://swordforum.com/swords/nihonto/js-training.html) the living nature of the arts make them arts which exist within the times and places of the headmasters and thus, as is necessarily the case in all human understanding, undergo interpretation.
This is Gadamer's key point: that human understanding is an act of interpretation. Interpretation is not a method, nor a science. It is contingent, complex, multiple and changing. It is also not relativistic: the headmasters do not show up one day at the training hall and teach entirely new techniques, made up over night, within a vacuum of knowledge. Their teaching comes from somewhere, from the traditions they have been immersed in and which have become part of what Gadamer calls their historically effected consciousness. We are all historically effected. Earlier German thinkers brought this idea to us in different terms, though the idea is essentially the same: we are not able to get behind our own history, our immersion in the world, in order to say something completely objective and final, and distanced from it. It is necessarily the case that our understanding of the world is influenced by our place and time in the world, by our own history.
So it is that the arts come to us as traditions which are organic, and like all organisms, somethings die off while others grow forth. And in each presentation of the art, which we might describe as each new generation of headmaster, the art is brought forth both anew, as if for the first time, and yet embraces its heritage as well. It turns out that the martial arts are exemplary forms of what Gadamer spends almost 500 pages arguing for in his tome, his magnus opus, Truth and Method. He argues that the move towards history as progress, as seated in the power of humanity's reason (Immanuel Kant), has shifted our traditional understanding of truth, especially in the human sciences, away from the inheritances we receive in things like works of art, myths, and powerful stories, towards the sterility of method within the empirical sciences. Along the way, the arts became places of taste, merely subjective, as acts of sudden genius, or acts of imagination by those we see as 'different' and not as works which tell us something true about the world, about how we understand in the world and how we understand through a sense of community. For those of us immersed in the martial arts for a few years and more, we know that the arts do have truths to tell us about the arts as lived in the here and know, and about living in the world with one another.
The online forum wars over lineages are often simply sympomatic of the modern idea that a lineage means simple, pure, true knowledge of an art as it was originally, and that the pure line is the 'true' line and all other lines have no legitimacy. Although it may be the case that lines are not given permission from a headmaster to be as they may, this does not exclude them from the truths their studies in the arts offer, and it does not also give them license to claim the only truth, as well as give us reason to not be wary of the lines which have been created overnight, products of the imaginations of those who watch too many movies and wish to be more than what they are.
One should do their homework before signing up with a martial arts teacher, if doing the homework is important to them. One should not expect however, that the instructor is instructing the original art as it was when it first started. An original art is being offered however, as it lives in the time and space of the instructor and the interpretation that instructor necessarily makes during instruction as understanding. As Yamomoto sensei has told me all along, one must also consider that time and space continously changes for a headmaster so that if one watches video of Nakayama Hakudo sensei over the years, one sees different Muso Shinden iai. Each time and space of the performance is true of the art,and thus it changes as it lives in the instructor.
The false idea of a simple, sustained, and unfaltering line of historical progress is often expressed in the arguments, often heated, among martial artists over whose line is more 'pure' or the 'true' line of an art. Although few arts can show a lineage of headmasters which is unbroken from the first record of the art, as Kim Taylor sensei has concisely stressed (http://swordforum.com/swords/nihonto/js-training.html) the living nature of the arts make them arts which exist within the times and places of the headmasters and thus, as is necessarily the case in all human understanding, undergo interpretation.
This is Gadamer's key point: that human understanding is an act of interpretation. Interpretation is not a method, nor a science. It is contingent, complex, multiple and changing. It is also not relativistic: the headmasters do not show up one day at the training hall and teach entirely new techniques, made up over night, within a vacuum of knowledge. Their teaching comes from somewhere, from the traditions they have been immersed in and which have become part of what Gadamer calls their historically effected consciousness. We are all historically effected. Earlier German thinkers brought this idea to us in different terms, though the idea is essentially the same: we are not able to get behind our own history, our immersion in the world, in order to say something completely objective and final, and distanced from it. It is necessarily the case that our understanding of the world is influenced by our place and time in the world, by our own history.
So it is that the arts come to us as traditions which are organic, and like all organisms, somethings die off while others grow forth. And in each presentation of the art, which we might describe as each new generation of headmaster, the art is brought forth both anew, as if for the first time, and yet embraces its heritage as well. It turns out that the martial arts are exemplary forms of what Gadamer spends almost 500 pages arguing for in his tome, his magnus opus, Truth and Method. He argues that the move towards history as progress, as seated in the power of humanity's reason (Immanuel Kant), has shifted our traditional understanding of truth, especially in the human sciences, away from the inheritances we receive in things like works of art, myths, and powerful stories, towards the sterility of method within the empirical sciences. Along the way, the arts became places of taste, merely subjective, as acts of sudden genius, or acts of imagination by those we see as 'different' and not as works which tell us something true about the world, about how we understand in the world and how we understand through a sense of community. For those of us immersed in the martial arts for a few years and more, we know that the arts do have truths to tell us about the arts as lived in the here and know, and about living in the world with one another.
The online forum wars over lineages are often simply sympomatic of the modern idea that a lineage means simple, pure, true knowledge of an art as it was originally, and that the pure line is the 'true' line and all other lines have no legitimacy. Although it may be the case that lines are not given permission from a headmaster to be as they may, this does not exclude them from the truths their studies in the arts offer, and it does not also give them license to claim the only truth, as well as give us reason to not be wary of the lines which have been created overnight, products of the imaginations of those who watch too many movies and wish to be more than what they are.
One should do their homework before signing up with a martial arts teacher, if doing the homework is important to them. One should not expect however, that the instructor is instructing the original art as it was when it first started. An original art is being offered however, as it lives in the time and space of the instructor and the interpretation that instructor necessarily makes during instruction as understanding. As Yamomoto sensei has told me all along, one must also consider that time and space continously changes for a headmaster so that if one watches video of Nakayama Hakudo sensei over the years, one sees different Muso Shinden iai. Each time and space of the performance is true of the art,and thus it changes as it lives in the instructor.
Sunday, March 14, 2010
4th annual summer seminar
Details for our 4th annual summer seminar are now online:
http://calgaryiaidoclub.net/summer%20seminar%202010.html
Looks to be another exciting year with Kage ryu being introduced to us for the first time, as well as our standard Hyoho Niten Ichi Ryu and Jodo sessions. Absolute beginners and old pros are welcome!
Early registration and payment makes life easier for us and is appreciated!
Chris
http://calgaryiaidoclub.net/summer%20seminar%202010.html
Looks to be another exciting year with Kage ryu being introduced to us for the first time, as well as our standard Hyoho Niten Ichi Ryu and Jodo sessions. Absolute beginners and old pros are welcome!
Early registration and payment makes life easier for us and is appreciated!
Chris
Travelling Swordsman
Joe, who has been running things for us on Thursday nights for the past many months, has now left us for a few months of travel in Europe. While there he plans to visit some Iaido dojo in Italy and England. We wish you safe travels Joe and look forward to your return!
While Joe is away, Keith will once again take over Thursday nights for us. Thanks Keith!
Chris
While Joe is away, Keith will once again take over Thursday nights for us. Thanks Keith!
Chris
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
So You Are Training in Koryu eh?
I thought I should share a great page from koryu.com, a budo/bujutsu website I visit on a regular basis. It is run primarily be Meik and Diane Skoss, both well-respected and high-ranked martial artists from the states.
http://www.koryu.com/koryu-training.html
The link features a variety of articles by various noteworthy martial artists that provide insight into the samurai culture and perspectives on training in koryu.
I think if you are having any difficulties in your training or if you wish to understand the Japanese warrior, this is a great resource.
Joe
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Sei Do Kai Spring Seminar
Visit this website to see details for this year's seminar:
http://seidokai.ca/iai.seminar.html
The head of the ZNKR Iaido division will be present and he happens to be Muso Shinden Ryu and trained in Nakayama Hakudo's dojo. Excellent opportunity for us indeed.
Kim Taylor sensei is hoping for early registrations...send yours in for pricing advantages.
http://seidokai.ca/iai.seminar.html
The head of the ZNKR Iaido division will be present and he happens to be Muso Shinden Ryu and trained in Nakayama Hakudo's dojo. Excellent opportunity for us indeed.
Kim Taylor sensei is hoping for early registrations...send yours in for pricing advantages.
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