Adam Mitchell [00:00:00]:
I wanna welcome you to this episode of the Shugyo podcast. My name is Adam. I'm the host of the podcast, and today's episode is gonna be fun. It's gonna be triggering, and it's gonna be pretty ninja. The episode is on the topic of the weapon, the kind of the hallmark of the modern ninja, the Kyoketsu Shoge, that weapon that everybody associates to the ninja today, and whether it's in cartoons or whether it's in, nineteen seventies and eighties ninja books, you always see the Kyoketsu Shoge. But it's very, very seldom that you actually see anybody using that weapon properly or actually using it in a manner in which it could you could say, yeah, that that's a pretty effective tool for warfighting or for doing covert operations of any kind because of how that student or that instructor is using it and teaching it. Well, in this episode, I want to demystify a lot of the, from my position and from my study of the Kyoketsu Shoge with the Linsui sensei. And I wanna kind of dig into some history, what I understand this weapon as, and I'm gonna hopefully, maybe help all of us or anybody to kind of inspire you to think about a new way of looking at this tool.
Adam Mitchell [00:01:22]:
So let's get started with this episode of Shugyo and the Kyoketsu Shoge. So this tool is so steeped in modern history, lore, and fantasy that it's it's from my perspective, it's kind of ridiculous. However, I really do believe that there are some kinda interesting historical artifacts to explore in this quote, unquote weapon, and I hope the outcome of this episode and our time here together today is gonna help all of us sort of better understand the possible and actually kinda quite simple history of the Kyoketsu Shoge. Now we can start with the literal translation of the word Kyoketsu and Shoge. However, I'm gonna point you to some links in this episode.
Adam Mitchell [00:02:16]:
I'm not a linguist. I'm not a Japanese. You know, I'm not fluent in Japanese, so I'm not gonna pretend to be anything. And admittedly, anything that I'm gonna share with you is something that I'm gonna be taking either from the Wikipedia translation, or other translations around the Internet. There are a number of different translations, and you can use whichever one you want from running wild through the mountains or running running wild long hair and so on and so forth. And there's also the the long hair with the spur. There's a number of different kind of unique translations actually out there for this weapon. I will tell you that some years ago, though, Sharon Nakazato sensei, who was the partner in the Yasuragi Center, she ran the language school at the dojo.
Adam Mitchell [00:03:03]:
She has her degree and, you know, degrees in Japanese language and has been a lifelong career in, language teacher and, shoto master. We talked about the, we talked about the word, and she agreed that it was sort of like running wild through the mountains. So that's sort of what I've been teaching my students, the translation to be, and that's kinda what I stick with. So let's just get started with the fact that these were tools that probably have some origin, being used or some something similar to these tools being used by the Shinobi no Mono. And though I'm not really aware of any Densho or, historical documentation that speaks about this weapon particular other than the, work that, Hatsumi Soke has put out there, and what my teacher has presented me with. It's, you know, it's just sort of according to our traditions. However, it is my belief, and we're gonna kind of unpack this a bit, that these were not refined instruments of battle. These weren't weapons that were made by a swordsmith and that were crafted for, you know, for a ninja to keep on his side at all times.
Adam Mitchell [00:04:19]:
It wasn't that kind of thing. They weren't even regarded as weapons by these, covert war fighters of the time. Now I am keenly aware of the Shinobi Nobuki as it's, written in a lot of the documents in the books by our teacher in the Takamatsu Den arts, and the different weaponry and tools of the ninja as it's written. I have my own personal issues with a lot of this history, but this episode isn't about that. It's strictly about the Kyoketsu Shoge. But for the sake of this episode, I would like to shift, again, the concept of using it as a weapon to one of utility and a tool in the hands of someone who's trying to get a job done outside of the orthodox cultural protocols and even the complex politics, of the time, you know, all for the sake of just staying two steps ahead of an adversary, if that makes sense. So if we go in and we review the list of shinobi no buki as recorded in the Togakure Ryu densho, we will quickly see that the, quote, weapons listed are nothing more than simple tools used in the ordinary and daily lives of an agricultural society. Spikes, sticks, shims, levers, rope, etcetera, with the exception of the sword and the yumi or the the bow and the arrow.
Adam Mitchell [00:05:55]:
But even then, these tools such as the sword, we can get into the unconv like, what is the short sword about? What is the straight sword about? Well, that's a whole another episode that I could talk about, and I truly believe that it's not what you think it is, and and for good reason and also with conversations with my teacher. But my point here for this episode at is that these, quote, shinobi no buki were merely simple tools that every home might have had. And even in, Hatsumi Soke's early books, he talks about this in, the chapter on the kusarigama, and he talks about the the the ninja or the shinobi would use and they would make their own tools with their own hands with the materials that they had at hand. And this makes I mean, this is just sort of common sense. So, you know okay. So even the revered shuko or the climbing claws of the ninja supposedly used to catch swords and scale castles and, you know, shred an evil opponent to bits. Not really. They were most likely used to pick up large bundles of reeds and rice bales and load them onto a wagon or onto an ox.
Adam Mitchell [00:07:11]:
And the ring around your wrist wasn't really to hide the you know, I see this like the hide the lethal ninja claws inside the shinobi's kimono while disguised for some safe passage through security. They were probably, there so that the farmer could quickly bind and lash down bales with rope and then quickly return to loading more. So they'd flip them off their hands. They'd be able to tie a quick knot and then flip them back onto their hands. There are tools, and, I'll even include some in the links to wherever you're listening to this episode for you to actually see tools even today, like that that are used by farmers. So, look, I apologize if, you know, any dreams of the ninja just kinda went up in ninja smoke, but it, you know, it does get pretty interesting, when we when we get into this. You know, like the Shuko, the Kyoketsu Shoge is really simple, and all of this historical crap that's come out since the nineteen sixties. And I know I understand what I just said.
Adam Mitchell [00:08:14]:
There's there's all these claims to make something historical, and it's really nonsense. And there's a lot of people out there that are trying to counter the history and trying to support the history, but it's really simple. These are farming tools, and I think Hatsumi Soke even clearly said that in his books. The tools were simple. And given the lack of wealth, they needed to be sturdy yet constructed from affordable and accessible resources, just as in written in the documents in the books of our art. They were not highly tempered metals with elegant hardwood handles or like a mother of pearl, scion or encasements finished in gold leaf. They were cut and dry, sturdy, and simple. That's it.
Adam Mitchell [00:08:59]:
That's but, again, this is my opinion. This is what I've seen, and through my conversations with my teacher, this is what I understand them to be, and this is all I'm sharing with you. So understanding this from a tactical perspective is actually kind of important, and we're gonna get into that now. The Togakure Ryu is strictly composed of unorthodox escaping methods. I may even go as far as to say that there are some unique kata within this lineage that makes me feel as though there was some some relevancy towards ambushing tactics, waiting long periods of time, and then fast tack and escape, almost like hit and run techniques. Because when you study the other, like, for example, in the Togakurie Ryu Bikenjutsu. If you study a few of those kata and you really, really truly understand them, not the henka and the variations and all that, but if you actually look at what was written by the predecessors of our our art, there's no two ways about saying this nobody just made this up. Because if you understand Japanese sword, if you understand that tactically the progression of training and how the kata are presented and why, then you see a sequence and a comprehensive order of techniques that follow an ascension of learning and particular use cases for a particular type of weapon during a particular type of circumstance that someone needed to use that weapon in.
Adam Mitchell [00:10:36]:
To simply say that maybe Takamatsu made this up, is just wrong. It just it it actually kinda shows that you haven't done your homework. You haven't actually taken sort of an unbiased look and actually studied what is there in these scrolls. And if you did, you'd say, well, I don't know. This actually had to have come from somewhere. To me, there is an essence of ambush rather than escape, which is really interesting because the overwhelming majority of the kinetic forms within this unique tradition, that has so much argument about its is it true? Is it fake? Is it false? Well, I'm going to tell you it is true and at the same time so much of it was made up. However, the Densho were not simply made up. They come from somewhere and they make perfect sense if you actually do the work of training and studying them.
Adam Mitchell [00:11:37]:
So there's nobody who's going to tell me that these were simply made up or they're fake, unless I can say, okay, do this kata, do this kata, do this kata, let's talk about the technique, let's talk about the kakihiki or the tactics within the technique, and then you tell me that that's made up. I'm gonna kind of get off my soapbox here but I'm I'm saying this to validate my point a little bit because so much of this lineage are escaping techniques. However, there is this ghost of ambush that exists within the forms. And if you study study deep enough, if you study thorough enough, if you actually do the repetitions rather than watch videos and do a couple techniques and then walk around in a circle so that everybody can see you and and and go oh and ah to you. But if you actually get hit by someone with a sheen eye and you actually train to the point of madness, then you will say to yourself, oh, okay. I see something different here, and I invite you into that. You really should do that. Okay? So as I've said, in the forms, there's, like, there is really in togakure you, there's no there's no fighting.
Adam Mitchell [00:12:46]:
There's no you swing at me. I cut here, then you counter, and then I cut. There's no, like, koppojutsu or koshijutsu or jujitsu. This is why I think we see we back up into the koto ryu and the gyokoryu for their use of taijutsu as sort of a formula for us to train the taijutsu. But inside of the Togakure Ryu, I personally have not witnessed any fighting technique, and I've gone through this tradition many times. This is really important to understand. This is really important for me to put in contextually as we go forward talking about the Kyoketsu Shoge and understanding its place within this tradition. There's simply no fighting.
Adam Mitchell [00:13:28]:
Like so what I mean by that is if you're fighting you're fist fighting someone, if you're a ninja and you get caught or, you know, and and you're grappling and you're throwing and you're fighting and, and then you escape, none of that is part of Togakure Ryu. It those techniques aren't there, at least not that I've seen. If we understand that, then we understand that, you know, each mission had its own set of needs, its own, tools, and these resources had to be really easy to disguise. They had to be easy to transport and then discarded without cost or a risk of being able to be traced. So the tool that we know as the comma is not a weapon, as I'm sure you probably already know. Rather, it's just a sickle that was used for harvesting rice and straw among many other uses. So sort of it was a tool that, would basically be hanging on the wall of every barn. It it you know, the sickle, it's kind of the the actual sickle part is the most notable part of the Kyoketsu Shoge.
Adam Mitchell [00:14:32]:
However, we see that this tool also has a double edged blade, almost like a yari. And in Hatsumi Soke's book, it talks about the two different types of kama, at one of them being with a spear tip coming out of the front end with a comma attached to the side. Now, I've heard it said that this unique ninja weapon was fashioned from a broken piece of spear. I kinda find that hard to believe because the metallurgy required to actually craft it this way, it would really be unreasonable to do, given its use and given its cost. So I don't know. I've heard I've read it. I don't I don't believe it. My own personal research has led me to kinda confidently assume that there were indeed farming tools of this type at that time as current rice harvesting tools featured an edged plow and a sickle similar in function to the Kyoketsu Shoge.
Adam Mitchell [00:15:27]:
Meaning, that that spear part that we talk about, that would actually be used in certain conditions where the rice was there was a lot of thick growth around it. And that part of the spear would be used to kind of plunge down into the the base of the rice, and then it would be cut with the comma. And I'm gonna share with you in the details a couple of links for modern tools that are identical to that use as we see in the Kyoketsu Shogai. So as you can imagine, having this tool on you while traveling, with goods to the market or walking with your ox, you know, it just be you you wouldn't raise any suspicion, and it would be able to, allow you to have a versatile tool, at your side, something that would go far beyond, cutting rice. Would it be tied to a rope though? Like, would this comma actually be tied to a rope? Yeah. Yeah. It would. It makes sense.
Adam Mitchell [00:16:21]:
You know, that in all large rice fields that a farmer would be harvesting more than his own weight in produce. Right? So therefore, in order to carry and transport it, one needed a vehicle. And there's no way that someone was gonna roll a wagon into these rice fields. So this is precisely why an ox would be near like, nearby every crop harvester, and their team and people that are working in these fields. And I'm gonna provide you with some old photos, from the turn of the century, some old block prints of just this. So, I mean, this is a very this is a very common thing that you'd see. And you would have that you'd be, you know, holding the rope in one hand and, you know, guiding your ox, and this is where we see, like, almost 18 feet of rope specific with this weapon. Now if you've ever watched rice being harvested, then you know it's not really a standstill event.
Adam Mitchell [00:17:15]:
As I was just saying, those farmers are gonna be they're gonna be on the move and then rather than keeping an idle ox in the field, a cord of about, you know, 15 to 18 feet in length, maybe longer, it all depends, that would be fastened to the farmer to keep the ox close by. Fastening the cord to the farmer's body would probably be problematic because if the ox suddenly became startled, it would create a you know, obviously, there would be some risk there. So attaching it to a tool in hand made it easy to, to drop or to fasten it to a tree, when the farmer wanted to take a a nap or a rest. It would just be easy to use the comma, and to just sort of lash the rope to a tree branch or something. Okay. So let's talk about the rope for a second. Look. Rope was a, rope was a commodity and not something that people would just simply discard.
Adam Mitchell [00:18:06]:
So it took time and money to make good quality rope. And, however, it was pretty easy to harvest a few handfuls of shed horse hair, from a tail of a horse just kinda while walking by or to cut it from a dead horse's mane and tail. Or or also cutting hair from an opponent's head. That was a thing. Like it or not, it was a thing. Women had long hair at the time, and thus, we get the whole women's hair thing of the Kyoketsu Shoge. I don't know how much of that is true, but what I do know is horsehair rope is a very common thing to use. And, it's easy to make, and it was easy to come by.
Adam Mitchell [00:18:46]:
It could be done quickly. It's lighter. It's less expensive. It's more flexible than the heavier ropes, and there's no mystery about this. And contrary to what the ninja boomers might have you believe, it was just kinda cheap common sense to do this. And in, again, in the description, and in the details wherever you're listening to this episode, I've included a couple links about, different cultures use and how to quickly make horsehair rope. It was something that that someone could make very, very fast. And like I said, it was easy to discard.
Adam Mitchell [00:19:23]:
You could just you could just throw it away and, you know, like disappear. So something else to consider is when we talk about the rope, look, we have to understand that that roping, it was a daily skill for every person living in those times. You know, I don't know. Today, we're lucky if three of us can tie a board to our Prius with roof racks compared to, you know, single handedly tying a trucker's hitch to a horse's saddle while carrying 80 pounds of wet rice slung over your shoulder. So we have to consider that that that when we're doing when we're training with the Kyoketsu Shoge, a lot of these moves and a lot of these techniques of of binding and hitching and lashing, this was stuff that kids learned. It was just so common, to a farmer and to an everyday person, and it's something that is far removed from from modern needs. Okay. So the ring, this was simple.
Adam Mitchell [00:20:18]:
This was a nose ring to guide an ox, most likely. Most likely. I have seen in, Hatsumi Soke's books that ring is like a flat ring, which is pretty cool. I think that we see a comma, a farming tool with about eight to 15 to 18 feet of cheap rope that would be hitched to an ox to guide an ox, and you've got a great and versatile tool here. Now as you can imagine, in the right hands, these three tools combined as one easily disguised, sneaked into a commune any community, via merchant routes and crowds of, other workers and used to do many, many different things. My guess is that most of the uses we see of this weapon on things like YouTube are very, very far from what the real world use cases that this tool was used for. We need to replace that with all the the the shadowy lure of the ninja. I just don't believe that's true.
Adam Mitchell [00:21:22]:
I think it's very simple. I think that it was a common tool that when you took the sickle, the rope, and a heavy ring, and you combine them, you have a very easy to disguise, a very common tool, and something you would be able to do a lot of different things with climbing, throwing, binding, and you could get it in and get it out and also discard it for cheap. That's what I think. The most expensive commodity of that weapon was probably the rope, which is why we hear it was made from horsehair or women's hair. I think the women's hair is kind of a I mean, maybe. I don't know. But, hey. Whatever.
Adam Mitchell [00:22:04]:
So, like alright. So where does this tool hold value in authentic training of our kobudo? Or is it just a myth? Is it something made up during a time when the shadow warrior could sell out any Sunday afternoon theater or empty the bookshelves when a new issue of Ninja Magazine drops? I don't know. And, like, frankly, in this episode, I wanna state it very clearly, I don't care. What I do know is this, is that the likelihood of this quote unquote weapon being real and converted from a farming tool into an effective and cost efficient and very capable kind of Swiss army knife for a specialized soldier one in need of disguise and versatile equipment for the short term is quite high. These people were very real, and so too was farming hardware. Lastly, I trust my teacher. I trust my teacher. This is something that he has personally taught to me, and it's not only my privilege to absorb what he has shared.
Adam Mitchell [00:23:07]:
It's also my responsibility to preserve it the best that I can, unblemished by romantic, pseudo, made up history. It simply is what it is. As I leave this topic, I'd like you to consider this tool, the Kyoketsu Shoge, as indeed a historical component of our study traditions. Absolutely. It's one that is very important. And in true ninja fashion, this tool has manipulated an entire community into thinking it's something that it just isn't while remaining hidden in plain sight for generation after generation. And in truth, it's something very simple, very useful, and quite honestly, it is something that we can all learn from. Truly, ninpo.
