Features of Tenshinsho Jigen Ryu Hyoho
Joukoryu-Kashimanotachi-Hakugenryu founded by Jigensai-Ittou-Jiichibou is the origin of Tenshinshou- Jigenryu-Hyouhou. This is during the Era of Emperor Suzaku, 2nd year of Jouhei (931A.D.) which is around the same period of the Rebellion of a warlord, Taira-no-Masakado.
Tombo-No-KamaeThe major characteristic of the system is Ichinotachi-no-Gokui, the secret of the first blow, which is in the Tenchiichi-No-Tachi, the secret sword of the heaven and the earth. Its unique form, Jigenryu-Tombo-No-Kamae, takes a posture in the following way. Above your centerline, raise the sword highly over your head pointing the tip of the sword towards the sky. Ichinotachi, the first blow is performed from the Tombo-No-Kamae, the form of dragonfly. Using gravitation, weight transfer, and precise techniques that are only transferred through oral instruction, Ichinotachi, the first blow will show tremendous power.
The logic of sword art is simple and at the same time its depth is immeasurable. That is why Tenshinshou-Jigenryu-Heihou, regards the innermost secret of the first blow as the very basic and sets its goal on mastering this secret. And to master this secret of Ichinotachi, Tachikiuchi-tanren has had been practiced, a practice in which one hits a tree with a wooden sword countless times. This practice has been said, from the olden times as “3000 times of hitting practice in the morning, 5000 in the evening”.
As the saying goes: “The secret of the sword art is in the sheath”, from ancient times every Japanese Kenjutsu (sword art) school came up with various ideas on how to draw a sword without letting the enemy knows. The art of Iai-Jutsu gave birth from such conception “fast drawing” and developed it to a technique “defeating an enemy at the same time you draw the sword”. This technique has been handed down to various schools of the present “Iai-do”.
Tenshinshou Jigen Ryu Hyoho, in its history of the system, is one of the schools in which the emphasis throughout is put on the acquisition of this movement of “Nuki, drawing a sword”. Therefore in our system, we also refer to Iai-Jutsu as “Nuki, drawing a sword”“Nuki” is put a special emphasis same as that of the secret of Ichi-No-Tachi. The strictness in the training of “drawing and sheathing a sword” in the past is beyond imagination. "Ban-Noh-Touba", Satsuma-Hayato's sayings, who were the old samurais of Satsuma region, is said to have performed ten thousand times of training every day. And only after three years of such hard training were they initiated one kata, a form from the master for the first time.
As for the logic of the sword art, one must put the saying “One needs one thousand days of practice to be able to perform one simple form but needs ten thousand days to understand its logic” into action in order to acquire the truth of the sword art. The logic of the sword art has its soul in Ichinotachi. A sword art system in which one cannot cut an object at the first blow of the sword, or at the time of “Nuki”, is useless in actual fighting.
Slow skills are useless. The light speed action of drawing a sword to catch the opponent off his guard is to be done in less than a second. The speed should target one twenty-fifth of a second. Such ultimate technique to defeat any defense is for the first time truly called the logic of the sword art.
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