Just how long is this thing?
It’s one thing to use a six foot stick- rokushaku bojutsu,
but now add another few feet, and the stick changes to the spear- yari in the
Japanese martial arts.
Studying the importance of kamae with the spear- how body
postures are important, especially given that our practice with this historical
training tool is outside.
With virtually unlimited space, compared to the artificial confines
of being inside, it’s natural to want to slip past the spear thrust, and enter
to get to the person…
…while at the same time, using footwork through kamae to
keep your training partner at the end of the spear at all times.
This thing seems longer than nine feet?
There is a mysteriousness with the spear, always being at
the end of the spear with no ability to move past it, despite nothing but space
to move.
How is that possible?
The yari is one of the historical training tools of the
samurai that we practice with in the dojo, and despite being a historical tool,
it has a very modern application.
Naturally we are learning about historical samurai culture
through the transmission of the spear, but there is a practical reason behind
it- the essence of budo.
Martial arts as a way of moving the body, a particular body
art, a particular taijutsu, taking a spear in hand, the quality of the movement
should be the same. If you have correct and good taijutsu, that will naturally
come out in the use of the spear, a natural transmission, a test of sorts.
If you take the spear in hand, and you don’t have good and
correct movement with it, one needs to redeploy and examine taijutsu.
The spear as a training tool to test your movement in that
moment.