Theme 2008 - Menkyō Kaiden

Entering a new paradigm

What I love concerning our Soke Hatsumi Masaaki, is his ability to play with the words. When we studied Menkyo Kaiden in 2008, Sensei made a pun with the name.

For the majority of Japanese martial arts practitioners, the term "Menkyo Kaiden" refers to "full transmission". This is what the advanced student of a given system would get when finishing his studies with his master.

But the way Sensei wrote it, did not have the meaning of full transmission, playing with the sounds he turned it into the ability to be "playing with the attacker's mind". Menkyo can be translated as "think, wrong" and Kaiden as "transmit, fog". Therefore, the attacker will be lost in a mental "fog" through tori's actions.

Here is what I wrote on my blog in 2008:
With “Menkyo Kaiden” or 面 虛 怪 伝 as the yearly theme ... somehow (...) a new magic has arrived, a magic leaving the sole mechanical movements, to enter something more mental, more spiritual. Techniques are easy, but this evolution (revolution), this new paradigm is much more difficult and impossible to grasp. Menkyô Kaiden introduces us to a reality that exists behind reality; it (makes us enter) a 世界 sekai (world, society, universe) that exists only beyond the physical world.

In this new series of videos, I try to explain on a physical level what this new mental state could be. I hope that you will like it as much as I had fun recording it in India.

There will be 48 sequences in this new streaming block, and we will upload them by sets of five every week. If you choose to get this "Menkyo Kaiden" set by itself or if you are an all access member, you will have access to 5 new videos per week.

Blog articles: HERE