• Mikey Ryu
• November 8, 2023
• 0

Mikey: My Start to Kenjutsu/Bojutsu: My First Month

For as long as I can remember the Katana and Samurai have been an all-time favourite of mine. Japanese culture has played a big part in my life and I’ve always wanted to learn the ways of the Samurai. So I asked my Dad if we could train in the art of the samurai (Iaido, Kendo, Aikido, Judo and karate) as I enjoyed the idea of it and I found a really good YouTube channel Let’s Ask Shogo Your Japanese friend in Kyoto who also studies the art that I wanted to learn.

So we started searching for anywhere that did any of these types of arts and it turned out there was one close to us called Panthers MMA. Sadly this was Kenjustu and not Iaido but it was the only place close to us, so we inquired online and they told us to come and have a trial session. That was that before we knew it we were in and we both were enjoying it, all the people who attended the class were wonderful and our sensei (teacher in Japanese) is amazing and understands that not everyone can see something once and get it correct instantly.

Week One:

Week one was the introduction to the art so most of this lesson covered the basics such as how to hold the katana, how to draw the katana, basic footwork, and the basic cuts that you can do with a katana. All of this I found fascinating, being able to learn a skill that the samurai practised and relied on during the times of the Sengoku period was incredibly awesome. During this first lesson, we also got to practice the kata (a system of individual training exercises) that we would eventually learn and master as well as take part in arrow cutting. The arrows we used had suction cups on the end of them so no one was hurt, while we weren’t allowed to cut the arrows as we hadn’t got our insurance yet we still got to attempt to cut them.

Week Two:

Week two was when we started to learn some of the techniques as well as practice the kata some more and this is when things started to get interesting as the more I practised the more I understood how much time it takes to truly master these techniques. As I practised I realised just how truly spectacular and dedicated the samurai were to their lords. The samurai were known for many things and other pure skill and talent for martial arts was certainly one.

Week Three

In week three we spent some more time practising the kata and working on the techniques, I was getting pretty good at one of the techniques we were first shown, and as the lesson progressed we started to be taught other techniques, some of which didn’t involve the Katana. I’ve always been aware of this principle if you can’t protect yourself without a weapon then how can you protect yourself with a weapon?

Week Four

Week four was the start of our Bojutsu training, we started by learning how to spin the bo staff in both directions (anti-clockwise and clockwise) and how to spin it on the side of our body as well. We then learned how to do the figure of eight spins and how to swap it from one-hand-to-another, by doing this we could then learn the basics of how to use the bo staff. This is when we learned about the concept of using what you have to its full potential, we were taught to use all of the BO staff that we could without losing control of it, for if your weapon is out of control it is your enemy that has the upper hand. We were also taught how to hold the staff and some basic strikes, while the movements I did were slow at first I eventually started to pick up the pace, and I would practice at home a lot too so I could eventually master the staff as well as the sword.

This concludes the first tapestry of my journey into the teachings of a samurai and my dad both decided that we would continue the art, so we paid, got our licenses and learned how to wear the clothes given to us by our sensei. This marks the start of my journey into the world of the highly disciplined samurai and marks the beginning of a new chapter of my life.

Thanks for reading, stay tuned for the next month of the journey.