Traditional reasons to commit Seppuku (Medieval Japan) Hara o warra hanasu [literally "to open one's stomach and speak"]: to speak sincerely 1. To prevent being captured in battle. 2. To make amends or express apology. 3. To assume responsibility. 4. To add emphasis to advice to a superior. 5. To correct a disciple. 6. To criticize a superior or an enemy; to express hatred. By the legal code of 1536, the person thus criticized in a suicide note would be punished. 7. To follow one's lord in death. Prohibited in 645 and again in 1633, but still followed as late as 1912. Arguably followed by Mishima in 1970. 8. To follow one's husband in death. Usually a wife would not cut her belly open but rather slit her jugular vein or drown herself. Never legally prohibited. 9. To become a guardian spirit by dying inside the foundation of one's lord's new building. 10. To recieve a warrier's capital punishment. The property of such a one would not be lost to his family. 11. To retain one's honor when accused--guilty or not.
O2, the KKK referrence relates to the rapid growth of 'white Power' skin headed Nazis and the bile which they spew. I live in Ca. The numbers of swastikkkas and lightening bolts are obvious. Ask a black. Ask a Jew. Ask a gay. THe damn fundamnentalist Xtians, aspiring to power, want to make USA over in their own intolerant, ugly, hateful image. The signs are rather obvious. But, off topic.. so.. I remember "Go Rin No Sho" (Book of Five Rings) to be a book of 'applicable' strategy rather than like an 'OHara' Book with "turn 45% to the left.. grab his left lapel, etc..." Perhaps it was just me...
Ah, no, I didn't mean that "Rings" was like an instruction manual for performing a kata, just that it specifically dealt with fighting technique and shouldn't be passed off as new-age mumbo-jumbo feel-good psychology. What part of California do you live in? We're in the Central Valley, and aside from one swastika painted on a fence in a back alley (prongs backwards, like most of those idiots do it) there's just not much overtness. I know it happens, but so does militant activity in any racial group. When I lived in San Jose it might as well have been in another nation for the lack of English in many of the areas I had to do business in (except for the black neighborhoods). When I lived in Santa Cruz, it seemed like everybody was so stoned that they didn't care what color your skin was. Even the skinheads were laid back Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!. Only the troll-hunters messed things up by killing homeless people just for kicks. I guess the view on racism depends on what you're looking at. If you're looking primarily at white militants, you're going to have emphasis on white supremacy growing. If you're looking at black militants, you're going to have emphasis on black supremacy. My opinion is that racism is ugly in any color.
emptyforceofchi/ i to have studied the way of the samurai,but i find it hard to beleave that there were female samurai, i have read that a female armed only with a naginata, put to flight the samurai who attacked her home, there fore claiming to be a female samurai,it is also written that femalemembers of the samurai clans often displayed a fighting spirit, and a concern for honour and duty matching that of the men. have you read anything, and do nyou know any book's on this as i am very intrested, and would like to know more.
I agree with you about 'ugly'! I don't go looking, but if I walk into the library restroom, for instance, there is all kinds of hateful graffiti. Swasts to Mexican gang stuff to homophob.. This is a growing community and the instances of this crap (coming up from the big city) is proliferating. Yes, ignorance IS ugly! (I'm about 100 miles N. of SF, on Clearlake) Peace...
the female samurai i think were called "ronin" male samurai were also called ronin, they are samurai without a master. rogue wandering samurai if you may. peace.
i train in ninpo and ninjutsu, i learned alot about feudal japan and the samurai ways through my master, i have studied many martial arts from many cultures, my main focus is shaolin gong fu, but i train in anything i can. i know alot of masters worldwide i love all martial arts, modern ancient anything, i teach self defence i do teach people about the samurai, because i think they were one of the best hand to hand warriors ever to have lived, the skill the samurai have with the katana is amazing. i actually just purchased a nice hand forged katana for myself. called the "kami" katana, it is a nice work of art. and very effective for cut training (tameshigiri). http://www.blades-uk.com/large_pic.php?product_id=115 theres a link to the blade i just got, peace.
Cool link, interesting weapons! What made you pick that one? Besides that it's the most expensive? I want a Zatoichi sword made to look like a plain walking stick!
The most innovative thing, i.e. the main thrust (pun intended) of musashi's book of five rings, is that to be mentally prepared for a specific attack is to lose because the mind is too slow and you need to be able to react to any situation with a free response, thereby ensuring a "faster than the mind", speed of execution. This idea can be applied anywhere. I have taken it to mean that sometimes the best response to a situation is to not mentally prepare - when dealing with something with too many variables it is perhaps better to just flow. I am not sure whether this is the most effective stategy, but sometimes it saves mental energy that would be lost in planning. This of course may not be the best nugget of info an actual sword fighter can grab from the book - they probably find other things I wouldn't even know about, i.e. "stab your opponents foot" or somesuch specifics to use in a fight. edit- i didn't explain that very well - here is a link to book of five rings online. http://users.tkk.fi/~renko/gorinnosho.html
see recently i got into buying and selling swords/blade weapons/martial arts equipment on the side. and i have been looking around for a little while to get a handforged katana for myself, and i came across the kami katana and to me it stands out from the rest in the under 1k price range, i love the design on the blade itself engraved into the steel. it just looked like a really nice work of art, also with great practical use to. i think i will most likely become a handforged sword collector i want to get anouther already. i will post some links to blades that have caught my eye ont he net so far. (i like all kinds of swords not just japanese blades) cold steel look liek they have some good practical blades for test cutting. i will get some links now. peace.
http://www.blades-uk.com/large_pic.php?product_id=638 http://www.blades-uk.com/large_pic.php?product_id=1075 http://www.martialartsmart.net/455x54.html http://www.martialartsmart.net/455x52.html the 2 taiji gim swords are not hand forged but i think they look stunning, i will post some more swords i like the look of i might start a thread so everyone can share swords weapons they like or own etc. peace.
Humor! Thanx! *__- Bye the bye, All, I'm hearing a very one-sided discussion of Samurai. What about the 'gentle' arts also studied by our intrepid warriors? Zen would seem quite important? Calligraphy? Painting? Healing arts? Poetry? Flower arranging (ikebani?)? (It is said that M. Musashi encountered a Flower Master and refused to 'fight' him, knowing that mastery of Flower Arts is mastery (of everything) of the Sword.) You Samurai sword-swingers out there? Are you studying the 'gentle arts' also? Is your 'education/life' thusly 'perfected'?
http://www.tenshinichiryu.com/samurai_philosophy.htm i do it all, mental, physical, spiritual, if its linked to martial arts in any way i will try it aslong as i dont die, if you know any methods of any kind i will try them out, i am a very peacefull person deep down. i just for some damn reason love to fight. you fight with your mind, the body just follows, peace.
EmptyForceOfChi.. I kinda thought so. You seem rather 'passionately focused'. While stones remained, I, too, left none 'unturned'.
These quotes from that website seem to relate to what I learned from musashi- To be swayed neither by the opponent nor by his sword is the essence of swordsmanship. Miyamoto Musashi and The mind unmoved by external distraction produces physical mobility. Yagyu Renyasai MY QUESTION- How does one become disciplined? I became disciplined in my art because I loved it passionately, and later because I had to pay my rent and because I sometimes still loved it passionately. However, I love to do yoga and go surfing, hiking, etc. but never can become disciplined to do these things consistently. In all the things you have all heard about discipline - which must be many since there is so much focus on discipline in the martial arts - where does one find discipline that one cannot find? Or even, where does one find the BEGINNING of true discipline, not a discipline that comes and goes with the wind?
By recognizing that your life is not as good as you wish it would be, wanting to improve it, setting a goal, considering all the implications you foresee it will take to reach the goal, and setting a plan to reach this goal. Discipline on its own, for its own sake never works, it eventually burns you out. Discipline is only a tool.
The only 'chains' that we wear, are the 'chains' we forge ourself. The only way that one can 'understand' that the 'goal' is not the Goal, and cannot be accomplished, is to sincerely and honestly exhaust every resource in its attempted attainment. How can one become disciplined? ...was your question that you immediately followed by announcing that you actually, somehow, managed to become disciplined, being immediate followed with the negation of said discipline. Insoluble paradox. As soon as we think that we have it, our hands close on air... ("I had it all figured out! Then they changed it!" - George Carlin) That is exactly how the 'seeking' of discipline works. Like a Zen koan. Every path is the same. At a certain point we will reach the end of our 'chain' (if you haven't given up or got caught in a trap); each link an earnest attempt (at Truth?)... And when we hit the end, at just the right time, with full holy-momentum, at that moment, the whole universe feels the jolt, just before..; Discipline, huh? How about a proper Horse Stance for about a half hour? Of course, 45 min would be the next 'goal'... Brings to mind.. Once upon a time (when I was a bit younger) there was a Lay's potato chip commercial touting that they "bet that you can't eat only one!" So I bought a bag (to test my dicipline!) and ate only one. After about three weeks I called the Lays company and asked them how long till I won the bet. They told me that three weeks was enough. Shit, they were gettin' stale by then!
