The basic philosophy of Togakure ryu ninjutsu is kyojitsu tenkan ho or the interchanging of falsehood and truth to confuse your enemy.
Friday past during class our theme was “Kyojitsu Tenkan Ho” working off a grab. This lead to many discoveries. When I think about the last sentence, I get this image of a dark place in my mind with the illumination of my tamashii (soul) + kokoro (heart) as the light, the way to freedom and safety. Anyway my students traveled a lonely road – I say this to say, when I used their momentum and attack with the idea and concept of me putting something out there in space that appears to be something to them or should I say the naked eye yet, in actual reality, there was nothing for them to grasp which later lead them down the path of confusion and fear – this in my opinion or level is the very beginning phase of kyojitsu. I took the same movement and added the sword and each time the technique was demonstrate another layer of the “tenkan ho” idea was developed.. Thus leaving a far greater margin of confusion the lead uke into orbit disabling his / her ability to survive. This is a form or Bujinkan freestyle movement that defines gravity in a comprehensible way. The interesting thing was, in spit of everyones frustration with not being able to understand what was being conveyed via the “Shin Gi Tai” – no matter what, they courageously trudged the path.
“Art is self expression, if you are expressing someone else’s personality, that is not art” ~ Quote!
