During Friday’s class, I asked Sensei to write: “It is not about fighting, it is about controlling.” What I got was “Chochō Hanami Maai” or “Butterfly, flowers, distance.” (1)Since then I tried to see the link between my request and his answer. During the Sunday class, he spoke about the butterfly. It helps to shed some light on the hidden meaning of this cryptic calligraphy. Sensei said that we should move like a butterfly and don’t give any feedback to the opponent. When you don’t use strength, the adversary cannot react and wonders what is happening to him. This activation of his mental process slows him down and allows us to take the advantage. Uke of Hatsumi sensei and Senō sensei, I felt no physical contact at all on my arm and body. The way they touch you is similar to the touch of a butterfly. There is nothing to feel, and as Tezuka San put it “it is like fighting alone.”
Sensei often defines his art as “the martial art of distance.” I finally understood it yesterday. Distance is not limited to our leg movements. It also implies the quality of the contact between Uke and Tori. A butterfly landing on a flower will not bend the flower. In this allegory of Chochō Hanami Maai, we have to become the butterfly. Uke is the flower, and the distance is the quality of the strength or the lack of it that we apply to the movement.
Demonstrating this with Adonis Mitrou from Greece, he asked him to explain what he felt. Thinking for a moment, Adonis came up with a Gyokko Ryū concept. “Kokū no Naka ni no Kūkan,” or to find the emptiness in the centre of space. (2)
Sensei welcomed this interpretation. It was showing the connection between his body flow and the Gyokko Ryū. This concept is central to the understanding of this essential Bujinkan fighting system. The quality of your control is what matters. It is your ability to find the perfect distance between you and the opponent. Like the butterfly landing on the flower.
I miss the old days where training was only about the mechanical aspects of technique. But I have to admit that this more profound approach to Taijutsu is much more fulfilling. The butterfly attitude is far more complicated. But the results are beyond your wildest dreams.
It is very high-level Budō. It explains why Sensei said that the 50 years of the Bujinkan arts, led us to get the real essence of Budō.
Kantan desu. (3)
Everything is easy when you become a butterfly, so I wish you a happy flight. Ganbatte!
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1 – 胡蝶, 花実, 間合い, butterfly, flowers, distance
2 – 虚空の中にの空間, the emptiness in the centre of space
3 – Kantan desu: 簡単, simple; easy; uncomplicated
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