Martial Arts Of The World - Webs

764 Written Texts: Japan
of them have been published (see reprints in Imamura 1982, etc.; Sasamori
1965). These documents provide the most detailed and the most difficult to
understand accounts of traditional Japanese martial arts.
Martial art initiation documents vary greatly from style to style, from
generation to generation within the same style, and sometimes even from
student to student within the same generation. They were composed in
every format: single sheets of paper (kirikami [40]), scrolls (makimono
[41]), and bound volumes (sasshi [42]). There were no standards. Nonetheless,
certain patterns reappear. Students usually began their training by
signing pledges (kishômon [43]) of obedience, secrecy, and good behavior.
Extant martial art pledges, such as the ones signed by Shôgun Tokugawa
Ieyasu [44] (1542–1616), provide invaluable historical data about the relationships
between martial art styles and political alliances. As students proceeded
through their course of training they received a series of written initiations.
These writings might have consisted of curriculums (mokuroku
[45]), genealogies (keifu [46]), songs and poetry of the way (dôka [47]),
teachings adapted from other styles (to no mono [48]), lists of moral axioms
and daily cautions (kokoroe [49]), diplomas (menjô [50]), and treatises.
In many styles the documents were awarded in a predetermined sequence,
such as initial, middle, deep, and full initiation (shoden [51],
chûden [52], okuden [53], and kaiden [54]).
A key characteristic of initiation documents, regardless of style, is that
they were bestowed only on advanced students who had already mastered
the techniques, vocabulary, and concepts mentioned therein. For this reason
they typically recorded reminders rather than instructions. Sometimes
they contained little more than a list of terms, without any commentary
whatsoever. Or, perhaps the only comment was the word kuden [55] (oral
initiation), which meant that the student must learn this teaching directly
from the teacher. Many initiation documents use vocabulary borrowed
from Buddhism but with denotations completely unrelated to any Buddhist
doctrines or practices. Moreover, initiation documents from different styles
sometimes used identical terminology to convey unrelated meanings or to
refer to dissimilar technical applications. For this reason, initiation documents
cannot be understood by anyone who has not been trained by a living
teacher of that same style. Recently, however, it has been demonstrated
that the comparative study of initiation documents from a variety of styles
can reveal previously unsuspected relationships among geographically and
historically separated traditions.
Martial Art Treatises
Systematic expositions of a particular style’s curriculum or of the general
principles of martial performance also were produced in great numbers.