On August 5th and 6th, 2000, the staff and students of the Itten Dôjô in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, were honored to host Rod and Mitsuko Uhler for seminars addressing Daitô-ryû aikijûjutsu (Hakuhô Kai) and Ono-ha Ittô-ryû (Sokaku-den) kenjutsu. The Uhlers currently live in Osaka, Japan, and are direct students of Okabayashi Shôgen, the founder and chief instructor of the Hakuhô Kai and the Kobu Kai (the sub-organization within the Hakuhô Kai devoted to kenjutsu).

For the Saturday classes, the Uhlers focused training on the concepts of maai (distancing) and kuzushi (unbalancing). Training began with a series of unique stretching and warm-up exercises which, while not an “official” part of the Hakuhô Kai curriculum, were new and very interesting to the attendees. Next came kote-shirabei (“wrist research”), a drill in which participants work their way around a circle of their fellow students, applying a set a basic techniques to get a feel of the differences in effect on (and the limits of flexibility in) their partners. The drill is at once a means to augment combat effectiveness and increase the safety of practice.

The Uhlers started the core of the training with one of the hallmarks of the Hakuhô Kai: bushi-no-hôkohô (the body mechanics and method of walking that were employed by the bushi in ancient times). Unlike modern peoples, who walk with a swinging of the arms that places shoulders out-of-line with hips, the bushi were trained from the time of their first steps to walk with shoulders and hips in alignment vertically, allowing a sword to be drawn from any point in their gait. This manner of walking and maintenance of what Rod Uhler termed “the internal lines” of the body has profound implications for technique. The Hakuhô Kai believes that adaptation of classical arts to modern body mechanics destroys a priceless heritage, and Okabayashi Sensei is determined to preserve Daitô-ryû and Ono-ha Ittô-ryû in an unadulterated form.

Next, the Uhlers taught an introduction to Ippon-dori, and worked through a series of techniques that illustrated the effects on combat of variations in the distance at which opponents engage. The students learned different means to close or control the distance, and in the process became acquainted with a variety of pins and atemi-waza. The students also began to catch glimpses of the staggering depth of the Daitô-ryû.

In the afternoon, the focus of training shifted to kuzushi, with a series of idori (seated) techniques and attention to sensing the degree of balance of the opponent. As we transitioned to standing techniques, the majority of waza taught were fundamental, but there were occasional oku-waza (secret techniques) presented that engendered a fair degree of astonishment throughout the ranks.

The women of the dôjô took particular — and rather sadistic, I’d have to say — pleasure in watching Mitsuko-san bounce various men off the mat. She had most of us whimpering at one point or another. Come to think of it, she seemed to be grinning most of the time herself...

On Sunday, participants picked up bokken (some of them for the first time) for an historic event: the first time the Ono-ha Ittô-ryû kenjutsu preserved by the Kobu Kai has been shared with anyone outside the organization, anywhere in the world.

We began with some suburi (cutting exercises) designed to introduce some of the basic cuts and footwork. When I say “some,” I mean a couple of thousand cuts in the course of about half an hour. Mr. Uhler had planned more, but Okabayashi Sensei (God bless him) suggested the intended diet might be a little rich.

Most of the senior kenjutsu students from the Itten Dôjô brought proper, Ittô-ryû style bokken, figuring that the size and shape of the wooden sword could be critical to the kata we’d be learning. These bokken have a differently-shaped tsuka (handle) than the bokken we normally use, and they rest at a slightly different “groove” in the hands. Within minutes, we all had gigantic blisters lying a fraction of an inch from our carefully developed calluses. Following the first break, the kenjutsu seniors were readily identifiable by the athletic tape wrapping their left hands...

Watching the Uhlers demonstrate the kata and kumitachi they presented was pure joy. I’ve seen some impressive kenjutsu, and theirs is consistently fine: powerful, precise, and just exuding spirit and aggressiveness.

In the section of training addressing kawase (avoiding or dodging), students were required to move in such a way as to cause their opponent to miss a full-power cut by an inch or less, leaving the opponent utterly vulnerable to the counter.

As if there wasn’t enough tension in the dôjô already, the techniques the Uhlers employed to convey the principle of suriage (sliding up) were the most aggressive of the day, leading more than one participant to the painful realization that a bokken is a weapon in its own right.

Training concluded with the kata Kobushi-no-Harai, which embodied some fairly complex footwork, kawase, and a couple of suriage. It was a very dynamic finale to a day which flew by in a blink.