PUBLIC MARKS with tags budo & rei

Several years ago, I had an opportunity to speak with Takashi Ezaki sensei, one of the founding members and an instructor at the Kendo Club at the University of Michigan. A few weeks before he left to return to Japan, we were discussing our motivations for doing kendo. Ezaki-sensei made a remark that has stayed with me since. He said, "Kendo in America is very interesting. Sometimes in Japan I find kendo a little boring. But in America it is fascinating to hear Americans try to teach things like "rei", which we don't teach in Japan because its already widely understood."

In feudal Japan, a society that fully understood the realities of violence, developed reigei (not Bob Marley) which roughly translates as etiquette art. In a time and place where accidently bumping into someone (touching saya) could mean a fight to the death you better understand the rules.

The following text has as its core a translation of a chapter in Nishioka Tsuneo's book Budo-teki na Mono no Kangaekata: Shu, Ha, Ri (Budo Way of Thinking: Shu, Ha, Ri). Direct translations from the Japanese are frequently problematic because of the ambiguity inherent in the traditional Japanese style of essay writing. In order to clarify the author's ideas and best present his thoughts in English, we have supplemented the original text with a series of personal conversations.[1] The result thus intentionally suggests the flavor of teachings passed down from master to disciple.