Learning outside the dojo

The Samurai never stopped learning. It did not matter whether he was improving his sword technique or practicing his calligraphy or spending time at the temple. He was always seeking more knowledge. Today there is so much information available that the modern martial artist has no excuse for not continually gaining knowledge.

The bulk of my knowledge of martial arts has been build up over many hours in the dojo. All the while picking up more bruises and bumps, striking makiwara or rehearsing kata. This is the way it must be. Or is it?

As an engineer I have spent the eleven years after my graduation continually learning about engineering, but not always in the class room context. Some has been research, some by working with other engineers, some by making lots of mistakes; bumping my head repeatedly and some from various publications and forums dedicated to engineering. I have even learned some engineering from watching discovery channel. Why should my martial arts be any different?

Musashi wrote in Go Rin No Sho (The Book of Five Rings): "It is said the warrior's is the twofold Way of pen and sword, and he should have a taste for both Ways. Even if a man has no natural ability he can be a warrior by sticking assiduously to both divisions of the Way."

This can be interpreted as seeking knowledge not only in the sword, but in the book is the way of the warrior. Today we have vast resources at our disposal. We have vast libraries with many books on martial arts and history. You are reading this thanks to the Internet which also has many pages which have varying degrees of authority and are a source of learning. A google search for "Kenjutsu" came up with 292 000 pages while "Samurai" has more than 37 million. The information is available.
Here however you do need to be careful. Do not blindly believe anything and everything you find when searching the Internet. That is so important I am going to say it again.

 Do not blindly believe anything and everything you find when searching the Internet.

Most of the content is not in any way audited or moderated so it is very possible that it is of little value. But even identifying what is obviously false is a form of learning.

So apart from what my sensei teaches in class, what other sources of instruction do I use?

I'm very glad you asked. First and foremost, I read quite a bit. Many of the books I have I read many times over. I also enjoy watching films. Some old classics like Seven Samurai, Yojimbo and Sanjuro have interesting lessons on character and history and the way of the Samurai. Yes Kurosawa san, the director of the films I have just mentioned was born into a samurai family. I also watch and re-watch some of the instructional videos in my collection. Video's like 'Crimson Steel' by Obata Toshishiro and Donald J Angier's 'Kenjitsu' series are full of great value. Lastly I use the Internet.

I find that reading a description of a technique in a book to be the most difficult way to learn, and this only really works when I have someone to train with me so we can try and put the words into action together. Obviously this will hold true for any written word, since it is very difficult to describe every movement and attitude of the body in the written word. The next is from videos. Here too there are varying degrees of benefit. I have seen some video's with very poor production quality; The artist stepping out of shot to reposition camera, and technical quality; The artists are not very skilled in the performance of the particular techniques. These can still be beneficial in that even seeing what someone does incorrectly may be key on perfecting the technique or helping me to better explain something to a student. It is also realistic to believe that even if a martial artists is particularly skilled at martial arts he may not present that well on camera. If you are able to look past this and still find value in a piece of video you have a great source of additional and differing technique.

Now comes a warning. Do not let what you learn outside the dojo distract from what your instructor or sensei is teaching. It is very disrespectful to your sensei and the other students to interject in a class with; "but Sensei... James Williams does it like this in his video." or "Don Angier said this or that." The correct response should you do this is to go outside and cut your belly - Harra Kiri! In the dojo you follow what your instructor does without any disrespect. If you would like to offer a different point of view or highlight a different insight then make very sure you have permission from your instructor before you raise it in the class context. It is probably best to discuss this in an informal setting before you bring it up during a class.

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If you would like to get your own copies of the videos I spoke about in this post. I really recommend them. You can get them by clicking the links below. 

Crimson Steel DVD by Toshishiro Obata
CLICK HERE TO ORDER

Kenjitsu DVD 1 by Don Angier
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