The Sword on the Bridge of Heaven

In the legendary mists, the god, Izanagi, stood on the Bridge of Heaven. He held a sword and dipped it into the sea and raised it up. Droplets from its tip fell to become islands on the water. The god’s jewel blade fathered the land of Yamato, which we call Japan. 1 Later, Izanagi’s son slew a great dragon and from its severed tail discovered a sword imbued with many powers. This prize, The Cloud-Cluster Sword, became part of the regalia of the royal family of Japan, oldest monarchy in the world. Blade imagery affects the Japanese psyche as deeply as Achilles’ golden spear and Excalibur of the Round Table mark the mind of the West. Though always present, the sword was not the weapon of choice in the earliest days of Japanese warfare. As civilization advanced, farmers battling bandits to protect their food crops were transformed into personal armies loyal to land-holding clans. Called “samurai”, these selected warriors fought as individuals in something like cavalry charges from horseback using archery as the first skill. The word “Bushido”, which has come to signify martial arts, originally meant “The Way of the Horse and Bow.2

Tales of brilliant archery fill the oldest stories. A favorite tells of Nasu no Yoichi. During the wars of Taira and Minamoto, the Taira tied a fan to the mast of one of their ships and taunted the Minamoto to shoot it down. Young Yoichi galloped into the waves and shot his only arrow. Its U-shaped tip sliced the silken cord and the fan floated out over the water, cheering the Minamoto to victory. 3

After the opening volleys of arrows, samurai wrestled each other on horseback in a manner called yoroi-gumi (armor grappling.) When one or both were unhorsed, the fight continued with the tanto or dagger, a favorite weapon of close-quarter fighting. The sword appeared only at the end to decapitate a vanquished enemy or to take an opportunistic stroke during an archery duel. 4

At the battle of Ichi-no tani in 1184, armor-grappling sounded like techniques of Aikido, “…they grappled so fiercely that both fell from their horses…one gripped his adversary and pinned him down so that he could not rise. Thus prostrate beneath his foe, try how he would to shift him or draw his sword, he could not so much as stir a finger to the hilt. Even when he strove to speak, so great was the pressure that no word would come forth. 5

One of the first accounts of sword fighting doesn’t involve samurai, but a “sohei” or warrior-priest. Named Jomyo, he fought at the First Battle of Uji in 1180. The retreating Minamoto army, along with their warrior monks, tore planking from a bridge and stood their ground on the other side. The Taira samurai attacked through fog. Many fell down the hole in the bridge, but individual combat developed on the broken beams. Having fought with bow and naginata (a type of poleax with a bayonet-like blade), Jomyo drew his sword. He “…[wielded] it in the zigzag style, the interlacing cross, reverse dragonfly, waterwheel and eight-sides-at-once style of fencing, and cut down eight men; but as he brought it down on the ninth with an exceeding mighty blow on the helmet the blade snapped…then seizing the dagger which was his only weapon left he plied it as one in the death fury. 6 This account confirms a recognizable variety of kenjutsu or sword-fighting techniques at an early date.

Swords favored by samurai are the daisho pair: the katana (slightly shorter of the two) and the tachi. As swords became easier to obtain, authenticated schools or ryu appear. Iizasa Ienao founded one of the first. Born by a shrine dedicated to deities of martial arts, he started a school in the 1400s, which still exists today. In these academies, dummy weapons were used for training such as the tampo-yari, a practice spear with a padded end, and a wooden sword called bokuto or bokken, such as used now in Aikido.

The story of a sensei of this school provides an interesting glimpse into Aikido. An excellent teacher, Morooka Ippa, fell ill with leprosy and was abandoned by all but three students. They pledged to care for their master and preserve his teachings, but one of them, Tokaku, fled. The remaining two showed loyalty for the deep kindness of their sensei with the devotion that became characteristic of bushido. Marooka and one of the two students died. The last, Iwama Koguma, had fallen into poverty from his obligations. Tokaku, hearing of his former master’s death, proclaims himself heir to the ryu. Koguma challenges him. They would fight with bokuto on a bridge.

Koguma, gaunt and ragged, carried only an ordinary bokken. Tokaku, haughty in his silk hakama and iron-edged weapon, appeared an easy winner. He danced around while Koguma, a small man, kept his weapon in the high position called jodan. Sensing the moment, Koguma lowered his elbows, appearing unguarded. Accounts differ, but it is believed that when Tokaku tried to land a blow, Koguma stepped off the line, allowing the momentum of the heavy sword to take Tokaku’s own balance. Koguma then hoisted him below the hips and tossed his rival into the river.

In the 18th and 19th centuries, bushido underwent a soul-searching. The peace of the Tokugawa Shogunate saw the decline of samurai armies, which, at their height, were never more than six percent of the population. The restoration of the Meiji in 1868, only 15 years before the birth of Morihei Ueshiba O’Sensei, rang the death knell for the samurai way of life. Without land or trade, some turned to instruction as a livelihood. Only those gifted at teaching and able to present a rationale for the study of martial arts as separate from hostile warfare succeeded. O’Sensei, descended from samurai and a student of several martial masters, brilliantly combined the ancient warrior skills with a philosophy uniquely suited to the turning millennium. He spent the years during and following World War II as a humble farmer training a small group of students isolated at Iwama. There Aikido was perfected by men who combined the study of martial arts with a life close to the earth.

Like Izanagi on the Bridge of Heaven, their swords affirmed life and creation. One of O’Sensei’s disciples, Mitsugi Saotome Sensei, summarizes the founder’s synthesis of the ancient and modern. He says, “It requires creativity to learn how to take care of things and how to fight hostile forces of many different kinds…We must begin to see that experiencing the creative force in life and caring for living beings is the charge of the warrior… 7

1 Nihongi, translated by W. G. Aston
2 Ibid
3 The Lone Samurai and the Martial Arts by Stephen Turnbull
4 Legends of the Samurai by Sato, Hiroaki
5 Ibid
6 The Lone Samurai and the Martial Arts by Stephen Turnbull
7 Mitsugi Saotome Sensei “Budo and Farming” interview by Susan Perry, Aikido Today Magazine, #34; Vol. 8, No. 2