Houten Ryu Sword

After an intense and tiring morning of spear training, what better thing to do than train some more in the afternoon! I am not sure if I envy professional martial artists who train 6-7 days a week and twice a day! We arrived in the Hattori, Osaka training center. First we trained about 2 hours of Bujinkan arts. Of all the arts I’ve trained its the most painful. Sure I’ve been banged up and gotten injured in various arts, Kenpo, Brazilian Jiujitsu, boxing, etc., but I must say nothing ever prepared me for the painful pressure point strikes and excruciating joint locks that the Bujinkan employs. I have a newfound respect for the art of ninjitsu.

After that we went upstairs to the training hall used for kendo. With wooden training swords (bokuto, bokken) my friend instructed us in a few of the fine points of Houten Ryu. Houten Ryu is an art that I have not been able research very well in English. There seems to be a dearth of information. I’m surprised because from what little I’ve seen it seems like an excellent art.

Previously I had been shown a bit of the Kusarigama and Fundou. The Fundou is a chain with a weight attached at the end. I would NOT want to be struck with it! But this day we focused on the lightening fast sword kata. Well, I certainly didn’t perform it lightening fast, but I can imagine that when done by experienced practitioners that it must be fantastic.

We started with 5 simple block and counterstrike kata and then moved to kata that have numerous block block block, strike steps. I found the strikes to resemble what I’ve seen in the junior high school kendo program, but the blocks were unlike any that I had seen before. I definitely want to learn more about this art. Sadly, the Soke (head) of the lineage passed away last month. He was 92 years old. Rest in Peace great master. I never got to meet him, but my friend has retold me amazing stories of the man’s life that he heard from the soke. I am also impressed that the Soke made my friend do Japanese calligraphy homework each week. Truly a man of the arts.