GaijinPot

So what exactly am I as a martial artist contemplating this day in the New Year? There are two words that capture some of the mystery, and therefore one of the paramount attractions, of the Japanese martial arts. One, gasshuku, symbolises a very prosaic approach to the martial arts, yet is profoundly challenging, enough at least to hint at the mystery to be found in yourself: a description which could be said to encapsulate the Japanese martial arts in general. The other, shugyou, has deeper connotations and a more mysterious resonance. Gasshuku: essentially, it means ‘shared lodging’. Looking at further meanings, it can also mean ‘boarding school’, or ‘training camp’. So it has definite, pragmatic definitions. The first gasshuku in which I took part in Japan was arranged by my kendo instructor for the middle of summer. He was talking about eight hours plus training a day, with guest i-ai instructors and a visit to the temple for morning obeisance. First day, morning practice: lots of warming up, he says we have a long three days, then some focused basics, but enough to bring back that familiar blister on the ball of my left foot. Then he brings out the extra weapons cases, heavy, tapering… I’m steeling myself for the real training to begin. He slowly unzips one… “Anyone for tennis?” he asks. “We’ll have a break first, cool off in the pool outside.” Who am I to argue with my sensei, especially while he is brandishing a tennis racket? Shugyou is even more of a challenge. As with much Japanese, the word itself has a certain ambiguity, which looking at a lot of Western websites’ definitions seems to open it to any old interpretation. And to be honest, a lot of Japanese sensei too, who don’t know of its origins, or who pander to the Japanophiles, will invent their own definitions. And as with much Japanese, homonyms abound! Shugyou can be ‘pursuit of knowledge’ with the kanji for ‘to polish/master/discipline oneself’ and ‘business/vocation/art’. Or, it can be the same ‘shu’ plus ‘going/journey’. In the second version it always means ‘austere/ascetic practice’ but the first case can do too! The original meaning of the second one was literally to polish yourself by walking the way and was used originally by Buddhist monks and later by samurai adepts, who on reaching a certain basic level of understanding, would be encouraged to travel from master to master or even seek other students with whom to test their knowledge or technique. So again, we have a completely practical method of training which came to get a more esoteric meaning, and nowadays the road travelled is usually the mental/spiritual one. As with gasshuku, the modern practice of shugyou can take many forms, but that’s for another day’s post. So what did I end up doing this New Year? With a young daughter to look after, I didn’t have a gasshuku I could go to, and shugyou would have to take its most pragmatic form. So just a quick mention for another laudable Japanese New Year’s tradition: O-souji (‘spring’ cleaning!). I washed the bathroom in horse stance, and  scrubbed the kitchen floor in ab-roller fashion, trying to keep to the traditional 108 wax-ons/wax-offs! The road is not always as severe as you would think, and nor is it as mysterious. I have beliefs, but I’m no monk. I have had to defend myself, but I’m not training for self-defence. I have some discipline, but I’m no samurai. Just as I am no ring fighter, no action star, no yamabushi, nothing special. But with the right attitude, the severity can be there in whatever you do, and the mystery will follow in the depths you can push yourself to. For an ordinary man, not in search of anything in particular but definitely on the road, your home can be your gasshuku, and the mundane and everyday your shugyou. A blister from kendo basics and a blister from scrubbing the floor feel pretty much the same, though a word of warning: a kendo blister after a soak in the pool is a new kind of severe! As my good friend, sometime kungfu student, sometime action teacher, and established Gaijinpot blogger Chuck Johnson said here, there are many paths, and they are all different and yet the same.