The Spears of Hozoin

I must say, I feel extremely lucky to have the opportunity to live and train in Japan. It’s my firm belief that understanding the culture of a martial art is just as important as studying the art itself. I use my free time training Japanese arts and reading about Japanese history in order to get a better idea of where an art came from, the circumstances under which it developed, and what events changed the art as necessary to cope with the changes that time brought.

This month I was fortunate to go to Nara and train in the spear of of the Hozoin Monks, a Buddhist branch of fighting monks. The spear is unique in that the end of it has a crescent shaped blade just before the point. With this the spear wielder can not only thrust, but also slash and even catch the opponents spear and disarm him. The art was founded by a monk named Hozoin Kakuzenbo Innei. He loved martial arts and trained in sword arts as a child before making the interesting choice to become a monk. A monk that loved martial arts. Legend states that he saw the reflection of his spear in a pond which made it appear to have a cross-shaped spearhead. Thus the style was born.

The first thing I noticed was that the practitioners train hard with a deadly seriousness. Of course when they talk they smile and even make jokes, but during practice they looked as if they would not hesitate to disembowel their opponent should opportunity arise.

My two friends and I arrived early and met the Soke. We were instructed to sit in seiza (kneeling position) on the wooden floor of the training hall until class started. Another practitioner came along and greeted us in English. He was very friendly and talked to us a bit before telling us to sit in some folding chairs that were near us on the wooden floor of the training hall. As soon as we started to get up the soke turned around and vetoed that idea. We were to remain in seiza until class started!

Class started after about 15 minutes and we bowed in with the rest of the members. After that we were paired up with a few different instructors who took us to one side of the deck and started instructing us in the proper way to stand, hold the spear, and thrust it. The first thing I noticed was that the spear was extremely long and heavy. I don’t know how the fighting spear differs, but the practice spear is entirely made of wood, even the point and cross section at the top. The “attacker” had a spear that had no cross but it was a bit longer than any staff I had ever used. Most staffs I have used are about 6 feet long. These were easily twice as long and very heavy.

The training was intense and lasted from 10-noon. Two hours of pain from the deep stances and heavy spears. Both my arms and legs were jelly. But I loved the hard training and hope to go back again someday. All the members I talked to were extremely friendly and helpful.