19th-century samurai training text deciphered

Can you imagine hundreds of Samurai charging towards you with their swords raised ready to strike? Can you feel the fear that would have been felt knowing you were up against these masters? Today it’s far to easy to pull a trigger, but the skills these guys had surely put them up there with the best of the best. With a bullet, things are over in seconds and from great distances, but a sword is a different matter.

A training text, used by a martial arts school to teach members of the bushi (samurai) class, has been deciphered, revealing the rules samurai were expected to follow and what it took to truly become a master swordsman.

 

The text is called Bugei no jo, which means “Introduction to Martial Arts” and is dated to the 15th year of Tenpo (1844). Written for samurai students about to learn Takenouchi-ryū, a martial arts system, it would have prepared students for the challenges awaiting them.

“These techniques of the sword, born in the age of the gods, had been handed down through divine transmission. They form a tradition revered by the world, but its magnificence manifests itself only when one’s knowledge is ripe,” part of the text reads in translation. “When [knowledge] is mature, the mind forgets about the hand, the hand forgets about the sword,” a level of skill that few obtain and which requires a calm mind. [See Images of the Last Century of Samurai Swordsmen

In 1844, only members of the Samurai class were allowed to receive martial arts training. Szabó explained in an email to LiveScience that this class was strictly hereditary and there was little opportunity for non-samurai to join it.

The newly translated text sets out 12 rules that members of theTakenouchi-ryū school were expected to follow. Some of them, including “Do not leave the path of honor!” and “Do not commit shameful deeds!” were ethical rules samurai were expected to follow.

The text offers only a faint glimpse at the secret techniques the students would have learned at this school, separating the descriptions into two parts called “Deepest Secrets of Fistfight” and “Deepest Secrets of Fencing.”

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19th-century samurai training text deciphered