Weapons and the feeling of armour/defensive equipment

In the first post of this series, I had given an introduction to this series and defined some basic concepts that will be revisited during subsequent posts. In the second post, I had looked in greater detail at the “Ten Chi and Jin”, which is considered the “basics” of the Bujinkan. In the third post, I discussed in brief the 5 styles of fighting and the 9 schools that make up the Bujinkan system of martial arts. In this post I will discuss the use of weapons as a part of training in the Bujinkan, which in my opinion is the most important aspect of the martial arts. This is one of the 4 aspects I had referred to as the “physical aspects” of the Bujinkan. These are seen in the screenshot below. The topic highlighted is the focus of this article.

A bit of a disclaimer before we start. A better title for this post would perhaps be “Martial Art, as I see it”. This post is a brief look at weapons as considered in martial arts as a whole, and is not specific to just the weapons used in the Bujinkan system alone. I might write an article about the weapons specific to the Bujinkan (there are a lot!) at a future date.

There is another serendipitous connection for this post. Three days from today is the 76^th Republic Day of India. Traditionally, the parade during Republic Day of India on Kartavya Path (previously Raj Path) is when a lot of India’s modern weapons systems are on display. They are accompanied by the marching contingents of various units of the Indian Defence Tri-services and various law enforcement organizations. So, a post about weapons so close to the annual display of India’s weapons, seems apt! 🙂

Weapons have always formed a vital part of both self-protection and evasion. All martial arts teach the use of weapons, except perhaps if they have evolved exclusively into sports. Even in this case, if there is a sport version and a traditional version of the same martial art, the traditional version tends to retain training with weapons. Of course, the weapon based fighting itself can evolve into a sport as well.

Once a practitioner has a fair knowledge of oneself and how to affect the opponent (from the Ten Chi and Jin in the case of the Bujinkan), she or he can start training with various weapons. The weapons used can generally be classified based on the range offered by the same. These are,

• Short range weapons like the knife, kunai, wakizashi and other short swords, batons, yawara sticks, bagh nakh, katar, ankusha, war hammer and the like.
• Medium range weapons like the walking stick, hanbo, jo, longer swords, tachi and katana, dand pata, gada and the like.
• Long range weapons like the bo, quarter staff, spear, naginata, halberd, glaive, great sword, vita, dane axe and all the other pole arms.
• Projectile weapons like dart, throwing axe, bow and arrow, throwing knife, shuriken, javelin, chakra and other similar weapons that are discharged.

Projectile weapons – Chakra (on the outside) and Shuriken (on the inside)

There are a few additional categories that could be considered. One category is flexible weapons. The weapons that fit into this category can be fit into one of the “ranges” based on how they are used. These include weapons like the urumi, nawa (rope), rope dart, manriki guzari, ball and chain, flails, large flails (almost pole arms), kusari gama (sickle and chain) and others that I might not even know of.

Left – Manriki Guzari, Right – Rassi Gola (Rope with Ball)

One other categorization of weapons that is very important is that between offensive and defensive weapons. The examples mentioned previously and categorizations consist entirely of offensive weapons. Defensive weapons include shields of various types, body armour and helmets of various kinds and protective clothing of any kind. This includes all protective equipment irrespective of which part of the body it protects from harm.

Defensive weapons are perhaps more important that offensive weapons as they are less likely to be illegal to either wear or carry around. Of course, they are also more important as they simply allow all practitioners to train with fewer injuries and more obviously, they are vital because they allow self-preservation with lesser experience in fighting. By this definition, bodyguards would be defensive equipment with offensive capabilities 😊 (this becomes more important I suppose for the near future, when drones take over these roles).

Dhal or Shield – this example is made of metal

Obviously, practitioners train with replica or training weapons without sharp edges and blunt or rounded points. This remains true almost always, irrespective of how experienced the people sparring or training with each other are, as the risk if injury is always to be mitigated when injuries are potentially fatal. Additionally, practitioners might wear protective equipment while training weapons (more so than with unarmed training). In cases where training happens without protective equipment, even with training weapons, practitioners learn to pull blows at the last instant or go slower with the attacks to mitigate injury and enable learning.

A student learns to first move with the weapon and then to use the weapon. Learning to move with a weapon correlates with the “Ten” aspect of unarmed combat and the “taihenjutsu” aspect of the styles of fighting mentioned in my previous article. Similarly, learning to use the weapon correlates with the “Chi” aspect of unarmed combat and the “daken taijutsu” or “jutaijutsu” aspect of the styles of fighting mentioned in my previous post.

Learning to move with the weapon is to learn of oneself with the weapon as an extension. This is very important as self-harm with a weapon is a real risk and to mitigate this, one needs to learn to be aware of or mindful of the weapon. This allows control of the weapon. In the initial stages, this awareness has to be practiced and can be tiring. Obviously, with experience, this becomes easier.

The use of the weapon is equivalent to learning how the weapon can affect an opponent. This is a reason why beginners start with shorter and lighter weapons, which are closer approximations of an extension of the human body. A knife or a kunai or a baton increases range beyond that of a fist, while still not being unwieldy for a student, in terms of momentum and weight.

To reiterate, learning to use a weapon is to realize how it can affect an opponent. A sword is not a staff with an edge, not is it as axe or a hammer where energy is concentrated. It is a device which is to be used with relative motion to cause damage. Similarly, an axe or a hammer requires momentum to cause damage. A staff on the other hand can be used as hammer if the tips of the same are deployed for the attack or it can be used to manipulate the balance of the opponent if it is used to manipulate the spinal structure or to apply joint locks on the opponent. The two can be used together in various ways. This is where one realizes that a weapon can be used with either daken taijutsu or jutaijutsu or a combination of the two (koppo justsu and kosshi jutsu).

An assortment of some weapons used in the Bujinkan system of martial arts

Just as a staff of different lengths can be used in different ways, a sword can be used as something other than a cutting implement as well. A sword could be a shield, an axe, a hammer, or a knife based on the scenario. Consider an opponent who is armoured. There is no way one can cut through the armour. Stabs into gaps in the armour are possible and causing blunt force injuries through the armour are possible, but not cuts. When the tachi was taught initially, this fact was always emphasized. The tachi was an earlier iteration of the nihonto (Japanese sword) compared to the katana. The tachi had its heyday during the Muromachi** period when fighting in armour was prevalent. So, the strike with the back or the blunt edge was also used.

This brings us to the next aspect of weapons training. Armour is the key. There are several aspects of traditional fighting that evolved from the use of armour and shields. Even if one is not wearing armour, it is important to learn its influence and fight like one is wearing the same, at least sometimes. This idea is something that we were reminded of from time to time in training.

To emphasize again, even if one is using a sword or a spear, the same will be used as a shield first, especially in the absence of or the presence of light armour. Protection is always of paramount importance, especially against weapons, even if one has access to one’s own offensive weapons. So, learning the ability to receive an attack from weapons with one’s own, in a defensive manner comes before using the weapon to cause damage to the opponent (the Ten and the Chi with the weapon). This is the “uke nagashi” (ways of receiving an attack) that we described in post regarding the “Ten Chi and Jin”, with weapons of course.

Yoroi – Japanese armour

A last point to note regarding armour and weapons is this. If an opponent is unarmoured, or at best lightly armoured, daken taitutsu would be feasible. If an opponent is well armoured, only jutaijutsu and its allied styles (kosshi jutsu) are feasible. In this context daken taijutsu refers to cutting and stabbing with a sword, stabbing with a spear or any other weapon, and of course striking with blunt force with any weapon is always feasible. If an opponent is well armoured, cuts are ineffective, stabs are only possible in openings which are not easy to access. Blunt force is viable, but is less effective than in the case of light or unarmoured opponents. Grappling is vital, even if one is using a sword or a spear against armoured opponents, as getting them on the ground or exposing openings in the armour has to be achieved only with manoeuvring the opponent’s protected frame.

The following table is a reasonable summary of the above observations.

There is one final point to consider regarding weapons; weapons that are not explicitly weapons. In my opinion, the most important of these are the laws of the land. These are weapons too, that are a protection if they are a deterrent to physical violence, or offensive weapons if they can cause trouble through punishment or the cumbersome legal process itself, which one has no training in. These are similar to the “generic competition” in the Porter’s Five Forces Model if that model is applied to weapons. 😛

From what I have heard, there are laws in places where a martial artist can be considered to have assaulted someone with deadly weapons, even if one did not use a real weapon. The knowledge and experience of the martial arts itself is considered a weapon! Similarly, in the case of bouncers, they are supposedly not allowed to initiate a physical encounter in some countries. There are also places, from the little that I know, where bouncers are not allowed to strike anyone, they are only allowed to use restraining and subduing techniques. In other words, they can only use kosshi jutsu or more specifically jutaijutsu even if the attack is daken taijutsu. So, awareness of laws and other such “non-weapons” might also be a part of mindfulness (or even Sakkijutsu*!) and martial artists, especially experienced ones cannot be oblivious of these aspects!

This non-weapon concept can also be expanded to using the weather and the terrain to one’s advantage, making knowledge and the ability to be mindful of the terrain and the atmosphere weapons as well. This is, in some ways, not unlike using the reflection from a sword to blind an opponent or using water gathered in the fuller of a sword to gain a moment by distracting the opponent. This then leads to using a cloak or a lantern or pocket sand/blinding powder as an accessory to weapons, which might lead to significant changes in the physical exchange.

I am ending the post with something I posted at the beginning of the first post in this series. Seen below is the reason I am posting this series of articles. This segment will be present at the end of each of the posts in this series, just as a reiteration.

The purpose of this series of posts is multi-fold. Firstly, it is a resource I can share with people who are not practitioners of the martial arts. For most of us, a majority of the people we interact with do not practice any form of martial art. Sharing ideas and practices about martial arts might require some “first principles” like definitions, overarching themes and ideas and objectives of the art form. Hopefully this series will be that resource.

Secondly, it is an opportunity for me to look back at my own thoughts about the Bujinkan. The thoughts are a document I can refer in the future to see if I my thinking has changed or evolved.

Lastly, practitioners of the Bujinkan who are relatively new to the system and long-time practitioners who might need a look back at aspects from earlier years could use this as a starting point for further discovery. There are several practitioners and Sensei of the Bujinkan with a lot more experience compared to me, who share content about the art form and the system. I strongly recommend that everyone consume the content from those sources. This series is possibly an index to search further in those sources.

So, this series in not a deep dive, more like a primer of my thoughts with scope for expansion in each aspect. Most importantly, whatever knowledge can be gleaned from this series is a conversation starter or direction pointer at best; it does not in any way replace actual training in a dojo with fellow budoka and a teacher who can help one progress.

Notes:

* Sakkijutsu – intuitive ability, awareness, mindfulness

** The Muromachi period is contemporaneous with the Vijayanagar kingdom in India

The Schools and the Styles of fighting

Wish you all a happy new year and a wonderful 2025! 😀

On to the post now. 🙂

In the first post of this series, I had given an introduction to this series and defined some basic concepts that will be revisited time and again during subsequent posts. In the second post, I had looked in greater detail at the “Ten Chi and Jin”.  In this post, the third in the series, I will look at the different schools that make up the Bujinkan system of martial arts. This is the second among the 4 aspects I had referred to as the “physical aspects” of the Bujinkan. These are seen in the screenshot below. The topic highlighted is the focus of this article.

The Bujinkan system of martial arts teaches five styles of unarmed fighting. These styles are fairly universal when it comes to humans fighting humans without firearms and projectile weapons. The Bujinkan system comprises of 9 schools of combat of which six are taught routinely. Of the remaining three, no regular teaching takes place. As I understand it, the schools are less important than the styles of fighting they encompass, as multiple schools can teach similar or related concepts. So, I will focus on the fighting styles and share a few words regarding the schools later in this article.

The five styles of fighting can more realistically be considered to be two styles of fighting, one layer of fundamentals and two other styles which are a combination of the other three, to achieve interesting objectives. The five styles are mentioned below.

• Taihenjutsu
• Daken taijutsu
• Jutaijutsu
• Koppo jutsu
• Kosshi jutsu

Tainhenjutsu – This is the base layer and involves learning the ability to move the body as desired to achieve favourable outcomes in a fight. It could be said that this is comprised of the Ten Ryaku no Maki and quite a bit of the Chi Ryaku no Maki which I explored in the previous article in this series.

In the martial arts, without the correct positioning of the body, nothing can be achieved in a fight. And positioning can only be achieved with the ability to move the body as required in a given situation. Since Taihenjutsu is all about body movement, this is perhaps the most important layer in the Bujinkan. I would suspect that the equivalent of Taihenjutsu is the most important layer in all martial arts around the world.

A representation of Taihenjutsu, showing movement and body positioning. Sketch by Keane Amaral

Daken taijutsu – Daken taijutsu refers to the style of fighting that involves striking. By that definition, martial arts like boxing, kick boxing, mushti yuddha, sanda, taekwondo and the like are also expressions of daken taijutsu. Striking an opponent with any part of the body would qualify as daken taijutsu. This is not to preclude locks and throws. It is just that striking takes primacy in this style of fighting.

Striking effectively of course, requires one to be in the right position to execute the strike. Also, one needs to move out of range of any strike the opponent may carry out. This part of daken taijutsu is of course, still taihenjutsu. So, daken taijutsu is an additional layer over taihenjutsu.

A representation of Daken Taijutsu, showing potential strikes. Sketch by Keane Amaral.

Jutaijutsu – Jutaijustsu refers to the style of fighting that involves grappling, throws and joint locks. Based on this definition, Olympic wrestling, judo, Brazilian Jiujitsu, malla yuddha, kushti, aikido, sumo wrestling and the like, are expressions of jutaijutsu. The opponent here might be grappling or striking or using a combination of both. But the defence has a primacy towards immobilising the opponent using grappling, locking and throwing the opponent. Like with daken taijutsu, jutaijutsu does not preclude striking, but the focus in not towards striking is all.

Again, taihenjutsu is the base layer with jutaijutsu, even more so than with daken taijutsu. Getting an opponent to the ground to mitigate an attack, requires far more efficient body movement and positioning than striking, as physics and leverage play a very important role in the same. So, jutaijutsu is an additional option available to a practitioner of Budo apart from daken taijutsu, after taihenjutsu has been understood and executed.

An exaggerated representation of Jutaijutsu, representing taking down an opponent . An image I commissioned in a past Comic Con in Bangalore.

The next two fighting styles are expressions of the combination of the above three layers.

Koppo jutsu – Koppo jutsu is generally explained to be a fighting style that uses striking in a specialized manner. One strikes an opponent to affect the skeletal structure of the opponent. In other words, the strike is applied to displace an opponent from the position she or he was in. Alternatively, the strike could be to take the balance of the opponent. Once the opponent has been displaced or has lost balance, a follow through happens where additional strikes are applied, or a throw or lock can be applied as well. All of this could take the opponent down to the ground or the process could continue until the opponent ceases the attack and retreats.

In my opinion, koppo jutsu is a case of referring to taihenjutsu and daken taijutsu together. So, as a simple definition I would state the following.

Koppo jutsu = Taihenjutsu + Daken taijutsu

But in practice, koppo jutsu is as follows,

Koppo jutsu = Taihenjutsu + Daken taijutsu + Jutaijutsu

The above formulation can be explained as follows. Taihenjutsu is the basis of the movement. A strike is applied (daken taijutsu) while moving (taihenjutsu) to affect the opponent’s balance or position. This is followed with jutaijutsu to mitigate the attack effectively. This is the reason I have put jutaijutsu AFTER daken taijutsu in the above formulation.

Koppo jutsu’s defining feature is to strike with effective movement to affect the physical structure of the opponent. In other words, koppo jutsu seems to me to be designed to defeat the taihenjutsu of the opponent, or, the BASIS/ORIGIN of the opponent’s movement/attack. Any aspect of the earlier fighting styles can be used after this is achieved. So, there is no need for this fighting style to be visually different from daken taijutsu, or even jutaijutsu based on the finishing method applied. The difference can only be experienced by the people involved in the martial exchange that occurs.

A representation of Koppo Jutsu, showing a strike putting the opponent off balance. Sketch by Vishnu Mohan.

Kosshi jutsu – In simple terms, Kosshi jutsu can be termed as “specialized jutaijutsu”, in my opinion of course. The focus of this style of fighting is to affect the balance of the opponent by attacking her or his vertical or horizontal axis or the intersection of the two axes. Yes, this sounds awesome and farfetched at the same time. In reality, the attack is mitigated by attacking the hips, shoulders, knees and face of the opponent. Of course, the uke nagashi or receiving the attack without injury is very important here.

Uke nagashi occurs simultaneously with attacking the opponent’s balance. One moves the opponent’s hips or shoulders, knees or face while surviving the attack. This breaks the opponent’s balance even as the attack is being completed. The attack to the opponent’s axes (plural of axis, not the tool) can be with a strike or a push, it often is something in-between, which translates as a soft strike. Once the opponent has lost balance, she or he can be taken down with further daken taijutsu or jutaijutsu. If this is not achieved in the first move, the process continues until the attack is mitigated.

I guess it is obvious that taihenjutsu is again the origin of this fighting style. For uke nagashi has to be achieved while attacking the axes of the opponent. So, good, safe movement is the key to get into a safe position to apply an effective attack against the opponent.

In my opinion, kosshi jutsu can be explained as seen below.

Kosshi Jutsu = Taihenjutsu + Jutaijutsu

Here I use jutaijutsu to refer to “the taking of the balance” and not necessarily with a strike. In reality, the formulation could be thus,

Kosshi Jutsu = Taihenjutsu + Jutaijutsu + Daken taijutsu

Here, I add daken taijutsu AFTER jutaijutsu, as the primary objective of breaking the opponent’s axes, & hence balance, is geared more towards jutaijutsu rather than daken taijutsu. But the finishing, after the opponent’s balance is taken, can be achieved by applying additional jutaijutsu or daken taijutsu, as the situation warrants. So, in the above formulation, jutaijutsu and daken taijutsu can be interchanged or added twice! It really does not matter. Here again, a bystander might not see a visual difference between kosshi jutsu, daken taijutsu, jutaijutsu and kosshi jutsu. It is purely something experienced by those physically involved in the martial exchange.

An exaggerated representation of Kosshi Jutsu, representing taking an opponent’s balance by misaligning the vertical axis (the spine). An image I commissioned in a past Comic Con in Bangalore.

I must add a qualifier here. These explanations are based on my learning from my teacher and mentors. It is not even necessarily the opinion of my teacher and mentors. There could be other interpretations of these fighting styles from other practitioners who have a lot more experience as compared with mine. Also, people studying the history, origins and evolution of these styles within the context of even just the Bujinkan could have a different interpretation of these fighting styles.

Now we return the schools mentioned earlier. The Bujinkan system comprises of 9 different schools. I will not expound too much on these, but share a few lines about each. One has to physically train and experience the schools for a deeper understanding. Also, since description of the sighting styles fairly encompasses what could be described in brief about the schools. Also, I will revisit the schools in a future article, when we look at some of the non-physical aspects of the Bujinkan, which involves how historical context shapes what we learn in the martial arts.

There are two schools of Daken taijutsu. These are the Shinden Fudo Ryu and the Kukishinden Ryu. The difference between the two is that the Kukishinden Ryu has a lineage of fighting while wearing armour, while the lineage of the Shinden Fudo Ryu is from fighting in wooded areas. Hence, one would expect to be lightly armoured, if at all, while having more obstacles than in the case of the Kukishinden Ryu.

Representative Japanese armour, an example we have at our dojo

Koppo jutsu is represented by the Koto Ryu and the Gikan Ryu. The Koto Ryu is the source of a lot of the basics in the Ten Chi and Jin described in the previous article in this series. The Gikan Ryu supposedly has no densho (scroll/manual) or defined forms/techniques and is not explicitly taught in the Bujinkan.

Kosshi jutsu is represented by the Gyokko Ryu, which is supposed to be the oldest of the schools taught in the Bujinkan. Its historicity is supposed to be from fighting in the small spaces in the interiors of royal buildings and applied by nobles for self-protection.

Jutaijutsu is represented by the Takagi Yoshin Ryu. This school was used by bodyguards of the nobles, and they had a need to immobilize and arrest attackers for later information gathering. Killing the attacker would result in the identity of the person ordering the hit being lost. Of course, this is the objective, it does not mean that assassins were always captured alive.

Lastly, there is the style of Ninpo taijutsu. This is not mentioned in the five styles of fighting as I understand the system. The Togakure Ryu is a ninpo taijutsu school and is taught routinely in the Bujinkan. Based on my experience of the same, it has elements of taihenjutsu (surprise!) daken taijutsu and jutaijutsu.

Two other schools of ninpo taijutsu are a part of the Bujinkan system. One is the Gyokushin Ryu, which does not have a densho, but Soke taught the essence (key points) of this school to a few Daishihan who have shared the same with the rest of the practitioners. The last school of ninpo taijutsu is the Kumogakure Ryu, which also has no densho. I have heard it said that this school had teachings related to disguises, hiding and such. But I have no real knowledge about this school to comment further. This again, is not taught in the Bujinkan despite being a part of the system.

Ninpo taijutsu includes training weapons, espionage, meteorology and use of firearms and explosives, from a historical perspective. These are not commonly taught in most dojos. However, Ninpo Taijutsu is also a source of several concepts that are not just for application in a physical fight. These are aspects I will likely look at in a future article.

So, of the nine schools, six are taught and practiced routinely, while three are not. Of these, practitioners have access to the essence/key points of one, while of the last two, nothing is really known, at least by me.

I am ending the post with something I posted at the beginning of the first post in this series. Seen below is the reason I am posting this series of articles. This segment will be present at the end of each of the posts in this series, just as a reiteration.

The purpose of this series of posts is multi-fold. Firstly, it is a resource I can share with people who are not practitioners of the martial arts. For most of us, a majority of the people we interact with do not practice any form of martial art. Sharing ideas and practices about martial arts might require some “first principles” like definitions, overarching themes and ideas and objectives of the art form. Hopefully this series will be that resource.

Secondly, it is an opportunity for me to look back at my own thoughts about the Bujinkan. The thoughts are a document I can refer in the future to see if I my thinking has changed or evolved.

Lastly, practitioners of the Bujinkan who are relatively new to the system and long-time practitioners who might need a look back at aspects from earlier years could use this as a starting point for further discovery. There are several practitioners and Sensei of the Bujinkan with a lot more experience compared to me, who share content about the art form and the system. I strongly recommend that everyone consume the content from those sources. This series is possibly an index to search further in those sources.

So, this series in not a deep dive, more like a primer of my thoughts with scope for expansion in each. Most importantly, whatever knowledge can be gleaned from this series is a conversation starter or direction pointer at best; it does not in any way replace actual training in a dojo with fellow budoka and a teacher who can help one progress.