Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Getting Rid of The Self
Getting Rid of The Self
Not only was Ogawa sensei kendo hanshi kyudan (teaching posts at Kokushikan and Keishicho)
and an Itto-ryu and Jikishinkage-ryu swordsman, he was also one of the few distinguished kenshi
known to have a truly deep involvement in buddhism. I think only Yamaoka Tesshu and Omori
Sogen top him in this regard. His ideas about the purpose of kendo as well as his rationale for
practising budo, was influenced heavily by this, and can be seen in The Concept of Kendo, which
he helped write.
I’m not sure if you will be interested in the translation, but it spoke to me on a private level. I
hope you enjoy it.
“Winning”
An inexperienced or immature person reading the above (I fall in to both of these categories!)
might think that aiming to win in shiai is the be-all of kendo according to Ogawa Chutaro. This is
not exactly what Ogawa sensei is saying, rather, he is implying that whatever it is you do, be it
kendo or cooking, you should try to focus at the task at hand, and only that. By doing so you can
free yourself up to complete it without distraction.
If you read Ogawa sensei’s writing it is obvious that, for him, kendo (budo) was simply a means
of getting closer to the state of being free of worldy thoughts and desires, and nothing else.
Sounds great to me!
Source
現代生きてる糧・刀耕清話:小川忠太郎の遺した魂。杉山融。体育とスポーツ出版社。
平成22発行。