This is how we train in the sword section of the school. We are working on the main patterns and a few variations “Henka” for most of the patterns. For more information about the school look us up at www.Patreon.com/usninpo
Kukishinden ryu was one of the first schools I was taught ( as fat as traditional swordsmanship). Ohh what a fun time. Nothing but love and respect. Traditional samurai kenjutsu. Thanks 🙏
That's henka. Good stuff for diversity. Thanks a lot! When will video about two swords(ryoto-jutsu) and nawa-jutsu? We don't have goods materials on this theme. Thank you again!
Sensei Stevens, there isn't an explanation for Tsuki Komi in the video, merely various examples shown. Is there a definitive (textbook) form of this as in a densho, or does Tsuki Komi cover an umbrella of various Tsuki under one name? Thank you so much for providing so much quality material on the Takamatsu-Den, it's so refreshing to see and learn from.
1. Tsuki Komi - Jodan vs. Seigan - (u) cuts Daijodan, (t) in Seigan move your sword a little to give him an opening to cut. Step slightly to the left and drop to your left knee, Tsuki to the throat. Sayu - (u) cuts Daijodan, (t) in Seigan, move to the outside of the cut and parry the cut down and reset, (u) cuts again, move to the inside and parry the cut down. As the (u) starts to lift his sword bring your up to his throat and Tsuki. (t) in Ichi, knocking the attack to the left or the right. (u) cuts Daijodan, (t) in Ichi no Kamae step to the side and cut to the neck while walking.
Generally it means specialized or secret. Kukishin Ryu uses a specialized sword. Longer then a normal katana. So the timing and distance is different then most schools. I would say the blade and the handle are a few inches longer. Making the total length bigger then a traditional Katana. I do not know the exact length off the top of my head. But I’m sure it’s easy to look up.
Lolz. A sword was probably one of the last weapons you would see a ninja wield. Unless you were a samurai or in the military...swords were mostly illegal in feudal Japan. Ninja would use weapons disguised as farm tools...like a kusari gama...to get the job done. And the high stances some of these scenes show are just ridiculous. Hows about I leave myself open in as many ways as humanly possible? A sword is not a baseball bat. Lolz. Fast and low with grace and flow is what my teacher always said. He's dead though so what does he know? Cancer's a bitch.
1, this is a combination of samurai and ninja schools and styles in bujinkan, many samurai were ninja and many ninja were samurai, its more of a job/skillset descriptor. Kukishinden ryu is the battlefield school, its designed for the battlefield vs an armour wearing opponent. The sword being high over the head, ie jodan no kamae is the stance before an overhead strike, the sword is high up in preparation for an attack k because the maedate, or helmet ornaments were usually quite big so they could get in the way. These kata/demonstration is showcasing a concept, what I took from one of the techniques was as the enemy assumes Jodan for an overhead cut you should attack with a tsuki as they raise instead of as they strike. Funnily enough if you knew more about traditional Japanese samurai swordsmanship you would know High and low stances are quite common, a good swordsman who has trained his whole life (many samurai did this especially in more warlike periods) was fast with a sword even in armour. And these stances seem 'open' but that's the idea, a lot fo these stances are purposefully leaving open targets so that they can counter a technique, a lot of swordsmanship is feints, strategy and mind games as much as it is technique. If you look at any swordsmanship style, especially with less sport focused point based ones and more 'practical sparring' training you will see they have similar low and high stances that are very effective and are used in full speed sparring effectively. In HEMA the right guard of the lady looks super exposed, yet this is used with great efficiency in modern sparring, nevermind in duels by masters of swordsmanship in history who were likely much more skilled. Also consider sword guards change a lot in fights too, a lot of these techniques demonstrate principles that can work 9n full speed sparring. Also realise that many ninja weapons too were samurai weapons, metsubushi, jitte were samurai police weapons (sai was more okinawan/Chinese along with sai, hence why its a common karate weapon but not so much fuedal japan) the kusarigama was used by samurai as a duelling weapon as it was very good vs a sword in a 1 on 1, but did also have applications from samurai too. The katana and tachi, wakizasbi and tanto are all obviously trained, there are styles of this, the bodyguard school, vs the battlefield school vs togakure ryu school tend to employ these weapons in different ways as their te hniques have different focuses scenario wise. Weapons such as the naginata, yari and such are also trained, because at the end of the day ninja were almost synonymous with samurai, samurai was just a social class after all, which is why bujinkan is similar to koryu and trains samurai weapons and tactics along with stealth tactics, espionage, ambushes and such (all things many samurai did openly btw this stuff was not considered dishonorable, most of bushido isn't historically true anyway and is romanticised). Many shinobi were just samurai who specialised in this stuff, ninja were going to avoid fighting as much as they could though yes. The most famous njnja hattori hanzo was a samurai and ninja clan, they are practically one in the same, because many rival Lords didn't like these clans they would invade and basically chase these samurai/ clans into the mountains, which is why many of these clans ended up training more jn secrecy in villages using non suspicious weapons to do their spywork, such as they kama, the happo egg, and stuff.
