Monday, June 20, 2011
It's been a long time since I last wrote about martial arts, mainly because my departure from the school where I used to train and teach has meant I've been focused on other pursuits... but an article popped up in today's Martial Arts Daily e-mail (really a daily ad for Black Belt magazine and associated products from both Black Belt and paid sponsors) about Samurai Facts vs. Samurai Myths & Legends. I checked it out really for two reasons. Hanshi Masayuki Shimabukuro and Carl Long are cited as sources of information, and I've had a lot of respect for Hanshi Shimabukuro for many years based on his excellent book Flashing Steel and his video series from Century Martial Arts. I was also a bit curious to see how much of the misinformation is stuff that we used to hear from the instructor and assistant instructors at the iaido classes I used to attend. The article is something of a fluff piece, which is about what I expected from Black Belt - and of course the motivation for posting it is mainly to advertise Shimabukuro & Long's Samurai Swordsmanship book and DVD series, published by (you guessed it) Black Belt (though of much higher quality than the fluff usually printed in the magazine, as many of Black Belt's books and DVDs are.) And I'm pleased to say that most of what's there is silly enough that even the often misinformed folks I used to study with hopefully would have laughed at most of it. Then again, given that a portion of their "knowledge" apparently came from action-adventure and chanbara films... maybe I'm being too generous.
It did get me thinking about another article I read some time ago, a rather cutting and at times humorous review of a History Channel documentary about samurai. I haven't seen the show, but it sounds like the usual flashy dreck the various cable channels pass off as researched martial arts documentaries, half fluff and half nonsense. It's interesting how the wildly-romanticized vision of samurai and bushido continues to flourish, to the point where there's even a term for the folks who practice this silliness - Modern Sammyrai. Then again, it's a much prettier picture than the more accurate one portrayed in films like The Twilight Samurai and Bushido: The Cruel Code of the Samurai (or even the brief hints in Shogun that the samurai code has a dark side to it.) And we do seem endlessly fascinated with knights and their like, don't we? (Despite the fact that most of us, had we lived during those times, would have been very miserable peasants.)
I'm not going to repeat all the points made in the various articles cited above - check out the links and enjoy. If nothing else they provide ample reason to take the many "historical facts" presented in martial arts schools with a king-sized grain of salt. Do your research and find out the truth. And if your school requires you to check your brain at the door and accept such nonsense without question - perhaps it's time to check out another school.
Update: Wow, Black Belt is really trying to drum up interest in their upcoming Advanced Samurai Swordsmanship DVDs... or is there a samurai-themed movie hitting the theaters that they're trying to capitalize on? Two more days of Samurai Facts vs. Samurai Myths (part two, part three) and this rather amusing tip of the day:
FREE Shipping on Samurai ProductsJMH
No matter your profession or calling, the samurai approach to life deserves close attention.
