Editor's Note: The following was originally posted to the Iaido-L
mailing list.
Kim Taylor wrote:
I'm trying to tease out the specific ways in which martial arts
produce their unique results while other activities do not... or are
there any... yes I think there are indications that there are,
according to the research literature anyway.
I'd argue that bugei study ("martial art" is really too broad a
phenomenon to discuss coherently here) doesn't produce unique
results -- in fact that's the whole point of why you can't learn the
bugei without a teacher. What it does do (or is supposed to do,
anyway) is guide a learner toward a universal/common result, by a
unique and very specific path.
Any given bugei system is just one form of budo, which is in turn just
one of a theoretically infinite variety of michi that lead to the kind
of universalized state of understanding of Things posited (in one form
or another) by Taoism, Confucianism, and Buddhism. In the medieval and
early modern Japanese conception of things (which is the crucible in
which bugei thought and culture was formed), Buddhist religious
exercises, Taoist and other meditation practices, and whole-hearted
devotion to any number of other pursuits -- including chanoyu,
calligraphy, music, painting, etc. -- all represent essentially co-equal
routes to the same place. Hence the metaphor of michi, and the related
terminology of the arts that conceptualizes it as a path up a
mountain.
Attempting to navigate that path on your own is like attempting to
find your way up a very treacherous mountain on your own and in the
dark. There are lot's and lot's of routes that will get you to the
top, but even more that will lead you off a cliff, or leave you
stranded under impassible overhangs.
Hence my point: in bugei learning, it's not the goal, it's the process
that's critical. And getting the process correct -- getting on the right
path -- absolutely requires a guide. Without one, there's no way to be
sure that what looks like a perfectly good route up the mountain -- what
looks like essentially the same route someone else has successfully
followed -- doesn't actually deadend -- or worse -- somewhere.
Now, again, if you want to define martial art as having fun swinging a
sword, or even as acquiring skills that will lead to success in
combat, then the role of the teacher becomes much closer to that of
the coach in basketball -- and the need for one lessens considerably.
In basketball, there is a clear and simple goal, that is readily
understood and easily explained: getting the ball into the hoop while
preventing you opponent from doing so. There are parameters set by
other rules -- the boundaries of the court, the time limits, the
prohibition against picking up the ball and running with it, and the
like -- but beyond that, getting good at basketball is really just a
matter of getting efficient at shooting, setting up shots, and
preventing the opponent from scoring. All a coach really adds to this
process is hints drawn from experience -- he can teach you moves and
plays that speed up the process of learning how to score. But with
enough talent and enough time, you could probably get very, very good
on your own.
Learning to fight per se is, in many respects, a similar sort of
thing: The goal is clear and simple (to kill the other guy, and avoid
being killed yourself) and the value of the methods used are
determined by how well they work, period. With enough talent, you
certainly can become an expert sword fighter entirely on your
own. (The biggest difference between this and learning basketball is
that the odds are pretty heavily stacked against even the most
talented would-be swordsman; it's much harder to survive enough
mistakes in lethal combat to learn from them than it is to lose
basketball games!)
But bugei study is not just about learning to fight -- in fact
learning sword skills is pretty silly, if this is your primary
goal. Learning to fight, in a very particular way is a
tool used to attain a more subtle purpose. That's why books and
videos aren't much good for learning -- other than for polishing up
stuff you already know. It's not what you do, it's how and why you
do it that really matters. Learning techniques and tactics in
bugei study is like learning the alphabet in pursuit of becoming a
writer or learning arithmetic in pursuit of becoming a
mathematician. It's where you start, but it's only a tiny first
step.
Karl Friday
Professor & Undergraduate Studies Coordinator
Dept. of History University of Georgia Athens, GA 30602