Misogi
 

I took part in a misogi for the first time recently (we did an hour of shomen cuts with bokken.). It was an interesting experience (at one stage I wanted to go hit somebody with the bokken- I decided not to....)Very strange what goes through your mind, and I hope to do it again soon.

So, to people who've done and do simular things in training, what went through your minds? (Apart from "Boy, this is making me tired")

andrew

Hi Andrew,

I thought Misogi was ritual purification through diving under waterfalls - I didn't realise it could be done in the way you describe. Sounds quite a good idea though. Most people wimp out of bokken cuts after about 400. Did you have an idea of how many you did in an hour and could you keep it up for an hour? ( I would guess about 3,500 if you can do one around every second).

Also, did it improve your bokken cutting or any aspect of technique or do you feel more positive in your aikido (psychologically?). Or maybe it made your bokken cutting worse?! I've often thought about doing an ocean Misogi where we dive in to the water off the coast here, but maybe this bokken cutting stuff would be a laugh as well.

Ian

P.S. I used to do 300 bokken cuts every morning (although now I do 10 minutes of 'standing exercise' i.e. standing in a specific chi-gung stance with my arms out in front of me and my shoulders relaxed).

With both of these I find that you forget you are actually doing the activity and it can actually make you relax and clears your mind (though sometimes this isn't the case). Definately very much like meditation but instead of concentrating on breathing you concentrate on cutting.

N.B. did you do the same type of bokken cuts all the way through?

Ian

P.P.S

Also, a great excercise I find which is rather hypnotic but is great for instinctive reactions is the one where you stand facing someone (armed with bokkens) and as you cut they do a shomen-uchi movement (without moving their feet) and then cut you, and then you do shomen-uchi etc. it can get quite fast and the body co-ordination can get so good that you could literally have an in-depth conversation without having to interupt your movement. In fact it soon becomes hard to stop.

Ian

I believe you can do pretty much anything, but obviosly shomen cuts are more feasible than most things.
We did over 3000, but probably not close to 3500. It's easier with a group to help keep you going, but after five minutes it's more a mental exercise than a physical anyhow. (Your body sorts itself out and relaxes, but your mind keeps on telling you you can't last.)
Our sensei told us the time after 20 and 40 minutes, and nobody believed him. The first twenty is far far worse than the rest together.
Some of the people I did it with said the wall started moving on them. One couldn't stop his rear leg jumping. My rear leg went numb a few times. A few people got little blisters on their palms.

It was actually quite enjoyable, once it was finished.

andrew

Yep.

I've done a few simular bokken exercises too. Most of the clubs in Ireland don't seem to do much, but we have some guys from France who visit each year (well, one of them does anyhow) who would be specialists in that field. On the last course I attended one of them demonstrated a bokken exercise at a frankly scary speed. (I later dozed off on my feet- no, honestly...)

andrew