There are terms in Japanese and in the traditions of the Bujinkan that do not translate directly very well. They usually need to have a bit of an explanation. Unfortunately, some people have jumped the gun and tried to come up with their own interpretations for the terms and in the process have added to the confusion.

One such term is Shizen Gyou Un Ryu Sui (自然行雲流水). A friend contacted me about this, trying to understand some notes someone had sent him. I helped him, and thought that there are probably others who have the same confusion and so I am attempting to put the concept into a form that can be understood. In reality, it is kind of a short hand term for a concept, and to explain the concept I will have to use examples.

"Shizen" is nature, and can mean the natural way of things. The next four characters essentially refer to the natural cycle of how water evaporates, rises, turns into clouds and then rain to start the whole cycle over again.

Some of you might be saying, "So what does this have to do with smacking someone?" I'll get to that. This might take a while.

As fancy as this image may be, it really isn't that hard to grasp. It may be hard to understand at first, but very simple in execution once you get it down. The key is understanding that this is often discussed with the term "changing fists" (And 'fists' is not limited to a clenched hand) and includes a reference to how they used to wrap straw around a tree and practice punching it.

In one of the early videos from Quest, Soke Hatsumi had Noguchi- sensei (a teacher I respect greatly) strike this type of improvised target. His sequence is telling. He punched in, then collapsed the lead knee to continue the forward motion and hitting with the elbow of the arm that had been punching. This motion brought the hand back up to Nogushi's face, in effect cocking it for a open hand strike and he moved back.

It is a great example of continuous attack with no wasted motion given to cocking or positioning the strike.

In my blog about Kyojitsu Tenkan Ho, I realize I spent too much time talking about how the attack you are using needs to be dropped at any second for another attack and not discussing how important it is to always have those other attacks "on deck" and ready to launch. Quite simply, while doing a move you need to train yourself to always be aware of what other attacks you can immediately go to without any further preparation.

When rain hits the ground, it is water and not rain. It does not rise up and again come down without a good amount of transformation beforehand. In the same way, if you punch, re-cock your hand back and throw another punch, you are not working in accordance with Shizen Gyouun Ryusui. Compare what Noguchi did with the typical attack you see on the street. The use of only one type of blow, with time taken to reset it, is the most common thing you will see. But it is not that efficient.  And this is not what what we are talking about. 

So, while you only throw 70 percent of your attention into any one attack, as I mention in the Kyojitsu article, the remaining 30 percent is being aware of what the other guy can do and what else you can hit the guy with.

There are some other things I can mention that might help see this and incorporate the ideas.

For example, when rain hits the ground it becomes water and then cycles back into rain again eventually through evaporation. That does not mean that water has no use. In the same fashion, a punch that has been launched should not always be immediately brought back to launch again. In the Bujinkan, many techniques start with a strike and flow into a throw. So that punch might turn into a grab or something else.

Here is another example. The way we punch in practice is useful for more than just the way most people use it. It is, in fact, more useful in another way.

One of my teachers was always preaching about how we should hit with the "hayai" punch. This term always caused problems with translations. You see, there are two words that could be used in that situation. The first one, 速い means "to travel fast." the other, 早い means "early."  So, in a conversation about a train (densha in Japanese) we could be talking about an "express/fast" train or an "early" train. What my teacher was talking about was not hitting with an attack that travelled the fastest but rather the attack that would get there the earliest.  That means that the hand that has ended up nearer to the other guy is often used to shift forward and connect with him. Since many of the striking techniques in Bujinkan are geared more toward displacing the other person rather than dealing snapping- type damage attacks, this works well. The resulting push allows the throw to be set up better.  Water evaporates, rises, becomes a cloud, and rains. 

In any case, when you do taijutsu you should always be thinking about the potential attacks you have ready to launch. When you launch those attacks, you should be concentrating on continuing the attack with other strikes and with as smooth a transition as possible. Any move that only sets up an attack is wasted motion and should be made part of another attack. Or, to put it another way, you do an attack and then figure out (through practice) what you can do from there and just let it loose.

This is not something that comes from reading about it. The kata we do and the training we engage in should have lessons in abundance- if you only look for it.  (The waza "koyoku" from the Koto Ryu Shoden is an possible example of this.  You could look at this waza as having four steps, just like the four characters mentioned earlier: 行雲流水  Then study how each step transforms "early" 早い into the next one.)  

If you have been unaware of this aspect until reading this, then start looking for it. Try to find any examples in the movements of Soke Hatsumi or the senior Japanese shihan. Start thinking about it in training. Work slowly to get the idea down. Don't do this by stopping a form or a drill and then starting it up again like a kid learning to use an automobile brake. Do it slowly enough during this training so that you don't have to stop the momentum of your movements and you slide from one move to the next.

The above sequence hopefully shows what I am talking about. From a grab, my lead hand goes straight to the throat and my fingers start tickling his windpipe. For a target like that, it does not have to be a blow powerful enough to break boards. From there, my elbow comes up and starts to rotate his arm. My left hand is running down his arm to insure that he doesn’t just let go of my shirt and have the hand fly away. Oh no, he started this shit and now I am going to make him my bitch! The hand eventually grabs in what we call ura- gyaku, this was made easier by the constant contact with the arm. (Yeah, try to disengage and then put your hand in the perfect position to grab like that. Braille isn’t just for reading anymore.) As soon as I have a decent grip with my left hand, my right hand goes straight out to hit in the floating ribs before cycling up to put pressure on the elbow. The strike to the ribs also helped push him out, making the arm easier to hyper-extend. In all these cases, there is no chambering for the next blow that isn’t another attack in itself. There really isn’t any planning to set up the next move, it just happens because the opening presents itself.

This is one of the things that makes the Japanese shihan so formidable, and one skill that many seem to lack compared to them. It isn't hard to see once you know what to look for.  And once found you can start to try to make it your own. While you can't learn taijutsu from videos or blogs, I hope I opened a few eyes to that people can start to see this stuff in their training instead of overlooking  and ignoring it. I know that is easy to do.

In closing, I would like to share a quick and dirty translation from Masaaki Hatsumi book, “Togakure ryu Ninpo Taijutsu” on the matter. If you look for what I am talking about, you can see where it is.

The ways of using a 'fist', Inashigata (method of non-intention.)

The use of a ken must not be simple. There is the idea to deal damage with just one ken, but the ability to change from ken to ken, and flow between them, is an outlook that needs to be cultivated.

There are many that think that 'ken' only means fist, or perhaps foot as well. But the entire body can be used as a weapon, and thus is called a 'ken.'

Many think that hitting with a fast fits is the key, but this is a mistake. In the old ways passed down to us, proper targeting of vital points from the closest distance and using the whole body is the secret. By use of this method in training, you understand how getting the punch in early is more important than speed. Hitting the targeted area is a given as being important, but to come at the target from a blind spot is not to be forgotten.

There are habits to using ken. There are those throw punches in a curve, and those that use things like elbows from angles we may not be used to. You must make this realization a big part of your training.

The practice of using the ken starts with hitting the vital points in the proper manner.

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