The Relationship of Kigurai and Maai to Iaido
and Teaching Iaido to Beginners
Robert D. Stroud
June 8, 2008
Note: This was written by Robert Stroud Sensei for his fullment of the written portion of the shinsa requirements for the rank of Iaido 6 Dan.
- What is Kigurai?
- What are ma and maai?
Describe their application in one or two All Japan Kendo Federation Iaido kata? - What is important when teaching Iaido to beginners?
1. What is Kigurai?
Kigurai 気位 means pride. It is composed of two characters ki 気, feelings, spirit, or mind, and kurai 位 level, or rank. Kigurai is a strong confidence that results from intense repetitive training. In kendo and iaido the attitude is often one showing kigurai. It is often explained that the feeling of kigurai is used when fighting aite, the opponent.
In the Go Rin no Sho 五輪書, Book of 5 Rings, Miyamoto Musashi wrote a lot about kigurai. For example in matches it was important to examine the stature of aite. Against a taller aite one should look strongly up at them, and against a shorter aite one should look down on them. The real battle is a mental fight to not just control the opponent but dominate them.
Demonstrating kigurai in iaido can only happen after lot of practice. Confidence will result from familiarity with each kata and proper movement, and with this confidence you can easily demonstrate correct movement, and action against aite.
Kigurai is confidence but not arrogance. A feeling of kigurai will allow one to demonstrate with Kihin 気品 dignity & refinement, and therefore have proper technique, correct understanding of the relationship with the opponent, as well as polished conduct in all aspects of iaido.
2. What are ma and maai? Describe their application in one or two All Japan Kendo Federation Iaido kata?
The word MA 間 means literally the space or interval distance between objects, events, or times. This is a concept that incorporates both time and space. In iaido this is used to understand the relationship with aite, the imaginary opponent. Ma implies a dynamic relation of objects and situations that are defined by their mutual interaction and existence. This implies rhythm, timing, and balance.
Japanese culture shows a great interest in the concept of interval as opposed to fixed boundaries. For example a lucky person has a good interval ma ga ii 間が良い, while the unlucky soul has a bad interval ma ga waruii 間が悪い. In the Go Rin no Sho (Book of 5 Rings) Miyomoto Musashi stated that there is rhythm everywhere. A successful attack is dependent upon proper timing which is a measure of changing interval. In iaido practice the aite is imaginary but that does not make it any easier to create and use this relationship properly.
MAAI 間合い means the spatial or physical distance between oneself and aite. It is further broken down into close distance chika ma 近間, one step striking distance issoku ittou no maai 一足一刀の間, and far distance tou ma 遠間. Maai can be used to understand the distance and position of targets, or placement of body and sword.
If the first Seite Iai Gata, MAE 前 is taken as a study of how to use Ma and Maai, some insights of how to apply these concepts can be seen. The situation in Ippon Me, Mae, is that you are sitting in seiza and facing an aite also in seiza. As the aite make an effort to attack, you seize this moment as an opportunity to delivery a forestalling counter attack. This provides an opening to deliver a finishing cut.
Where the opponent is located in relationship to your position is the actual distance. This could be measured using a tape measure. And as a first approximation, this is enough to understand where to cut and where to place the monouchi cutting section of the iaitou. But a study of the distances and positions is not relative to a real situation.
In a “real situation” aite is alive, and can move independently or contrary to what you want him to do. For this, a use of the interval Ma is needed. As the aite starts his attack you have to find the chance within his movement to strike when he is at a unique place in space and do so at a unique moment in time. Maybe one way to think of this is as a way to deliver a cut with the right part of the sword not where aite is sitting but where he will be when you finish your cut.
Finding this chance to deliver the correct cut must also take into account how aite is attacking. Is he coming at you quickly or trying to wait for you to show an opening or dead spot in your readiness to attack are consideration that have be examined in the moment they happen. With the forestalling technique nuki tsuke, it must happen before the aite has fully attacked. If it is too late then you have missed your chance. If it is too soon you give him his opening to strike.
In all of the iai kata the relationship with aite uses this concept of ma and maai to allow proper interaction with aite in various situations.
A form like Seite Iai Gata Roppon Me, Morote Tsuki 諸手突き, has multiple attackers so it requires more attention to the maai between not one but two attackers. Although requiring more attention to the multiple aite, it can be seen as a more complex application of using the interval concept to deal with the situation.
After the first forestalling cut to the front aite’s face, there is an opportunity to face the rear attacker and close the distance (at the right time) to finish him, and then move back to the front attacker and finish him.
I think it is also important to consider using the concept of maai to understand how the iaido practioner interacts and relates to his surroundings at other times as well. For example, during rei, or when doing basics or warm ups in a large group, these all require a use of maai in order to understand what to do within the context of the situation.
3. What is important when teaching Iaido to beginners?
Basics and a strong foundation are very important for future development. Beginners should be shown clear and straight forward examples of movement, and a limited amount of detail. If too much is introduced to fast it will make it harder for the new student to create a strong base to build upon.
Because reiho & manners are a central concept of iaido practice, these should be presented and used as a way to frame the practice of iai, as well as the starting and ending points of each training session.
After reiho, a focus on iaido forms as an assemblage of four sub-parts, nukitsuke, kirioroshi, chiburi, and noto will help the beginner understand how each section of kata fits together with the other parts.
Once a student understands roughly what kata is and how to approach his study of the forms, work can begin on the key body and sword movements that make up iaido.
Posture is important, so drills should be used that emphasize posture. Proper tai sabaki body movement will result from clear foot work and an understanding of how to move the body from the hips.
To understand proper te no uchi grip and suburi swing, the beginner can first learn to manipulate the bokutoh, which is much more simple to use compared to an iaitou. After the student show a good understanding of proper swing, with a focus on cuts using the kissaki and monouchi. They should be focusing on sword movements that follow the hasuji weapon edge. A mixture of basics foot work and swinging practice can be used as a majority of the training as a way to prepare the student for kata.
If the student is shown kata at this stage it should be done as a way to keep him interested and allow him to mentally explore the forms as he builds basics. Once skill is demonstrated at an appropriate level, more forms can be introduced and the use of an iaitou started.
From this point, the student might better be considered an intermediate beginner, as this is when his study of timing, flow of techniques, and relation to aite the imaginary opponent will start. Overall when working with beginners, the most important thing is to focus on the most basic issue and provide them with drills, advice, and proper examples to improve and correct their fundamentals. It can be counterproductive to try to change too many things all at once or to focus on first one item, then another, then something else with out a clear strategy to build step by step each person’s iaido skills. At the same time the instructor must provide good positive examples of correct iaido.
The above teaching philosophy can be applied to the outline below.
- Teach manners and give the reasons for their use. Iaido begins and ends with manners.
- Explain the mechanics of how each class will be formatted, what will be taught.
- Footwork and body motion. Use drills to get people moving without worrying about their hands.
- Seiza practice. Explain how to sit and how to move from seiza.
- Introduce the bokutoh. Show the student how to properly grip the weapon, and introduce kamae.
- Explain how to swing and cut with the weapon
- Combine footwork with sword work.
- Demonstrate Ippon Me, Mae. Show the student the 4 parts. Nukitsuke, Kirioroshi, Chiburi, Notou.
- Drill the student in each sub-part until they can do them at a functional level. Combine this with other swinging/cutting practice and footwork.
- Put all parts together in a standing form version of Mae, so they can learn the order of movements.
- Move the student into seiza and introduce Mae in a controlled way.
- Guide the student to improve his kata working on the most basic items first.
- Introduce the use of the iaitou.
- Continue to introduce other kata, and provide drills and advice to focus efforts on maintaining proper basics.
- As the student progresses more advance skills like maai distance, timing, and rhythm can be introduced.
