Takekiru (Bamboo cutting) with Bokken
This practice comes to us originally from Tempu Nakamura sensei of Tempukai. Soshu brought it into the ShinshinToitsu world. While I have not experienced it at Tempukai * I did have occasion to train with a group of Tempukai students attending a Ki Aikido seminar in Japan which included Takekiru. They had just come from an intensive training at Tempukai including bamboo cutting. While they were all successful in performing takekiru, they did so while losing some of the basic principles. It occurred to me that this was an example of different goals. The goals as Soshu taught were to use the practice (any practice) to better see our understanding of the principles. The following videos show some unsuccessful attempts and then with a little correction, successful ones. The last student demonstration in the first video (Dana) shows the progression of understanding with input from sensei. Note the similar end posture of all the successful attempts. Takekiru, like all of our training, helps us to see where we stop our minds, rely upon skills and stay separate from others. It is possible to simulate or even duplicate a certain aspect of a technique without “seeing” but the purpose of our training is still to be more aware of the state of our mind and body. You can clearly see the different mindset between the unsuccessful attempts (concentrating on breaking the bamboo) and successful ones. Even when the physical result is not “clearly” successful, the change in mindset and therefore the “seeing” can be. I hope this helps.
*I am unsure about exactly what was being taught at Tempukai during the time Soshu interacted with them. They now have a Jujitsu component which I don’t believe was there during Soshu’s time. Soshu’s influence may have had an effect there. However, my experience with those senior students of Tempukai in our seminar during Takekiru and Ki Aikido practice convinced me that they were doing something very different from the direction of Soshu’s principles of Mind/Body coordination.
This practice comes to us originally from Tempu Nakamura sensei of Tempukai. Soshu brought it into the ShinshinToitsu world. While I have not experienced it at Tempukai * I did have occasion to train with a group of Tempukai students attending a Ki Aikido seminar in Japan which included Takekiru. They had just come from an intensive training at Tempukai including bamboo cutting. While they were all successful in performing takekiru, they did so while losing some of the basic principles. It occurred to me that this was an example of different goals. The goals as Soshu taught were to use the practice (any practice) to better see our understanding of the principles. The following videos show some unsuccessful attempts and then with a little correction, successful ones. The last student demonstration in the first video (Dana) shows the progression of understanding with input from sensei. Note the similar end posture of all the successful attempts. Takekiru, like all of our training, helps us to see where we stop our minds, rely upon skills and stay separate from others. It is possible to simulate or even duplicate a certain aspect of a technique without “seeing” but the purpose of our training is still to be more aware of the state of our mind and body. You can clearly see the different mindset between the unsuccessful attempts (concentrating on breaking the bamboo) and successful ones. Even when the physical result is not “clearly” successful, the change in mindset and therefore the “seeing” can be. I hope this helps.
*I am unsure about exactly what was being taught at Tempukai during the time Soshu interacted with them. They now have a Jujitsu component which I don’t believe was there during Soshu’s time. Soshu’s influence may have had an effect there. However, my experience with those senior students of Tempukai in our seminar during Takekiru and Ki Aikido practice convinced me that they were doing something very different from the direction of Soshu’s principles of Mind/Body coordination.