This school is known for using heavy bokuto. Also this school was made famous due to higher ranks of the Shinsengumi having menkyo in this school. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tennen_Rishin-ryū [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HwoNw3u-1tg&feature=PlayList&p=A4E36070492F891C&index=50"]YouTube - tennenrishin ryu kenjutu 天然ç†å¿ƒæµå‰£è¡“[/ame]
I have to admit, I only got up to the 2 min stage. Why do they practice with them so heavy? Neither man can hardly lift them, and it cuts off their movement. I didn't really see the point.
Because when they use normal blades it seems so much easier. A few years ago there was a year long series on the Shinsengumi, the guys that made this school famous. There was a lot of documentaries on this school at that time and I did a bit of looking into things. Trust me, these guys are some of the last I would want to mess with a sword. And Dean, AFAIK they do not do nito, but they do things like jo and jujutsu.
Tennen Rishin-ryu's bojutsu is quite interesting, they call their discipline Konpo (根法) I think only one of the lines practices that now. Their jujutsu techniques are all situations based upon where you would be either armed with a tachi or kodachi.
If it was good enough for the Roman Legions, then it's good enough for ANYBODY. 'Nuff said. They're training swordsmanship after all, and real swords are between two and three pounds, give or take. So using the "legionnaire" method, that would dictate a wooden trainer between four and six lbs (I'm good at math, hey?). So at least for one elite fighting force, that method produced excellent results. Why not for this ryu? Best regards, -Mark
It just seemed to hinder them. There didn't seem much technique as they were struggling to hold them. Like I said, there was no movement. It wasn't as technical as say, Otake's work or Kuroda.
Don't judge ryuha by mere appearances. It just doesn't work that way. You could look at Nen-ryu and say something similar, but it won't be true. Case in point - Look at some of the lines of Yagyu Shingan-ryu Heijutsu. There are several skill sets in Tennen Rishin-ryu's kenjutsu curriculum. The omote, where they use the "elephant tusk" bokuto is just the beginning of training. In some of the extant lines, the use of regular bokuto as well as shinken or habikito are used in skill sets higher than omote and the technical level is very different.
I've just added a review of the Tennen Rishin Ryu DVD at my Budo DVD Reviews site. You can read it here: http://www.gekiken.sg/dvd/?p=65 Comments and help welcome.