関長老作
By the Elder Kan1
夫兵術者、保身、亡敵、斉家、治軍、制国、平天下之道也。
The martial art is the way by which one preserves oneself, destroys the enemy, brings the household into order, governs the army, rules the realm, and brings peace to all under Heaven.2
庶人得之則保身、勇士得之則亡敵。大夫得之其斉家。戦将得之則治軍。諸候得之則制国。天子得之平天下。
When the common man attains it, he preserves himself; when the warrior attains it, he destroys his enemy. When the gentleman attains it, he orders his household; when the general attains it, he governs his army; when the lord attains it, he rules his realm; when the Son of Heaven attains it, he brings peace to all under Heaven.
以戦止戦之意也。是故銃士勇将、欲立威於天下者、無不由兵術。
It is the principle of using war to end war. Therefore, the valiant warrior and the brave commander — all who would establish their authority under Heaven — must rely upon the martial art.
而兵術之要、莫大於必克彼此相対、臨下欲交鋒接刃端皈彼可以来我可以往。彼人也。我人也。
Now, as for the essence of the martial art, there is nothing greater than this: when he and I face each other, on the verge of crossing blades, he may come and I may go. He is a man; I am a man.
蜂蠆猶有毒、況於人乎。而又兵不両勝、不両負。強弱所分、生死所罹、危之至也。可不慎乎。
Even bees and scorpions possess venom; how much more so human beings. And moreover, in battle, both sides cannot win, and both sides cannot lose. Where strength and weakness are decided, where life and death come to bear, danger is at its extreme. How could one be anything but cautious?
于此時欲決勝於白刃之前、則自非得剣闘之妙術者、豈能得必勝之利乎。
At such a moment, if one seeks to decide victory before bared blades, then unless one has truly attained the subtle art of sword-fighting, how could one possibly gain the advantage of certain victory?
仮令雖有人膂力迥人、如抜山扛鼎、陸地盪舟。亦不得剣術者、必為敵所捿。
Even if a man’s physical strength far surpassed that of others — able to uproot mountains, hoist cauldrons, or move boats upon dry land — if he has not mastered the art of the sword, he will inevitably fall to the enemy.
仮令雖有人持如于将・莫耶・大阿・竜泉、天下之妙剣、亦不得剣術者、必為敵所擒者也。昔荆軻為秦王被誅者是也。故史記云、荆軻惜不講刺剣之術。
Even should a man bear in his hand the finest swords under Heaven — Ganjiang, Moye, Tai’a, and Longquan — if he has not attained swordsmanship, he will surely become the prey of the enemy. In ancient times, Jing Ke, who was slain by the King of Qin, is an example of this. For as the Records of the Historian say: “Jing Ke’s regret was that he had not studied the art of the thrusting sword.”
大史公亦貴剣術如此。楚項羽学剣不成曰、剣一人敵、不足学、我学万人敵。此言似是非者乎。不能学一人敵、豈能学万人敵。
The Grand Historian3 likewise held swordsmanship in high esteem. Xiang Yu of Chu once studied the sword but did not master it, saying: “The sword is for facing one man — not worth learning. I shall learn how to face ten thousand.” Yet is this not a saying that seems right but is wrong? If one cannot learn to face a single man, how could one possibly learn to face ten thousand?
一人万人、多寡雖異、至亡敵道者一也。項王身死国亡、取笑於天下者亦宜哉。
Whether one faces a single man or ten thousand, though the numbers differ, the Way of overcoming the enemy is one and the same. Xiang Yu lost his life and brought his state to ruin, becoming a laughingstock to all under Heaven — this too was only fitting.
君不見、漢高提三尺剣、平天下、開炎運四百年浜基、不亦快哉。
Do you not see how Liu Bang of Han, bearing a sword of three shaku, pacified the realm and opened the mighty foundation of the four-hundred-year Han destiny? — was this not indeed a splendid accomplishment?
凡賢士大夫、染志武名者、是不学孰可学。雖日学之、非一朝一夕而得其妙。
All cultivated men who set their ambitions upon martial renown — if they do not study this, then what else should they study? Even if one learns it daily, its subtleties cannot be grasped overnight.
日問月学、旬鍛季錬、朝打三千、暮打八百、自然非得之手応之心、豈能尽其妙乎。
Day by day one asks, and month by month one studies; ten days of forging, a season’s tempering; three thousand strikes in the morning, eight hundred at dusk. Unless one’s hands naturally come to respond in accord with one’s mind, how could one possibly exhaust its subtleties?
得其妙者、与郢工斵泥、輪扁斲輪、輪扁斲輪異曲同工、寔夫剣術之士得神勢妙術、臨敵決戦、無有猶予。
When one has grasped its subtle essence, one becomes like the craftsman Ying4 cutting through clay, or the wheelwright Bian5 shaping a wheel — different crafts, but the same mastery at work. Truly, when a swordsman attains the mysterious art of divine posture and momentum, then upon facing the enemy and deciding the battle, there is no hesitation.
軽足善走、一左、一右、一向、一背。倐而往、忽而来。或撃其表、或撃其裏。若従地出若従天下。
His feet are light and he runs swiftly — now to the left, now to the right; now forward, now behind. In an instant he goes; in a flash he returns. At times he strikes from the outside, at times from the inside. It is as if he rises from the earth, or descends from the heavens.
其疾如風、其暴如雷。非人所識、行無窮之変。凛々威風逼人寒。
His swiftness is like the wind, his sudden force like the thunder. Beyond human understanding, he moves through endless transformations. With awe-inspiring majesty he presses upon a man and chills him to the bone.
白刃始合、正按・傍提・横斬・竪截、一刀両断、赤肉白骨電光影中斬春風者乎。嗟至哉。
When naked blades first meet — pressing straight, lifting from the side, cutting horizontally, the vertical severing stroke; a single blow cleaving in two, red flesh and white bone — it is like cutting the spring breeze in the shadow of lightning. Ah — how consummate!
粤有上泉武蔵守秀綱公者、東関之豪英也。遍扣天下剣客之門至其閫奥。最於陰之流、升堂入室。
Now then, there was a man called Kamiizumi Musashi-no-kami Hidetsuna, a heroic genius of the Eastern Provinces. He knocked upon the gates of swordsmen throughout the realm and reached the innermost threshold of their arts. In the Kage lineage6 he ascended the hall and entered the inner chamber.
世謂之新陰流。以弱制強、以強勝弱、以長入短、以短入長、横按吹毛、金翅劈海、竪拓莫耶、怒雷破天。天下無当其鋒者。
The world called his art Shinkage-ryū, the New Kage School. With weakness it subdued strength; with strength it overcame weakness. With the long it entered the short; with the short it entered the long. It lightly stroked across a single strand of hair; it split the sea like the golden wing; it struck down like Moye7. With the fury of thunder it rent the sky. Under Heaven there were none who could stand against its blade.
柳生氏但馬守平宗厳公者、和州之英産也。自齠齔遊志於剣術、泝諸流也淵源。
There was also one called Yagyū Tajima-no-kami Munetoshi of the Yagyū clan, a prodigy born in Yamato Province. From early childhood, before his milk teeth had even fallen, he devoted himself to swordsmanship, tracing the various lineages back to their sources.
知新陰之最秀。而従秀綱公而遊者幾温涼。造次於兵、顚沛於兵。是以得其妙、探其頤、見迥於師遠矣。
Knowing that the Shinkage school was the most excellent of all, he travelled and trained with Lord Hidetsuna for many seasons. Whether in sudden crises or in times of peril, he was always in the art of war. Thus he attained its subtle essence and sought out its hidden depths, yet when he looked back and measured himself against his teacher, the distance between them was still great.
到其用兵者、七縦八横、千変万化、半合半開、双発双収、如見風使帆、似見兎放鷹。
When it came to applying the art of war, he displayed free movement in all directions8, a thousand transformations and ten thousand changes; half joining, half opening; paired initiations and paired withdrawals. It was like seeing a sail filled by the wind, or like watching a hawk loosed after a fleeing hare.9
揮一刀三千剣客改容失色。振長鎩則八万豼貅動心駭目。如虎靠山、似竜拏雲。
With a single stroke of his blade, he made three thousand swordsmen change their bearing and lose their colour. When he brandished his long spear, he shook the hearts of eighty thousand warriors and brought fear to their eyes. He was like a tiger crouched upon a mountain; like a dragon clutching the clouds.
実為兵道冠冕。天下剣客靡然無不入其門矣。
Truly he became the very crown of the martial Way. Among all the swordsmen under Heaven, there were none who were not drawn to him and did not seek his instruction.
当時宗厳公凝思於兵術曰、持刀剣以制敵者非格外玄術。豈不有赤手殺人手段乎。
At that time, Lord Munetoshi devoted his thought to the martial arts and said: “To subdue an enemy by wielding a sword is no art of extraordinary mystery. Surely there must be methods of killing a man even with bare hands?”
於是、工夫日積、煅煉累年、別出新意、忽得白戦之術。鍛然彼揮剣撃我、飜然飛去、右転左転、歩々風起、在前忽焉在後。
Thereupon his training accumulated day by day, his forging and tempering over the years increased, and he brought forth fresh insight, until all at once he grasped the art of unarmed combat. At the instant his opponent swung his sword to strike him, he slipped away in a flash, turning right and left, each step stirring the wind. One moment he was before him; in the next, suddenly behind.
手不持寸刃而却抑逼人。身不施寸縄而却縛殺敵、如赤手捕長蛇、不施控勤騎生馬掠奪他刀剣刳却侘眼晴。一時捉敗者、寔出人意表。
Without even an inch of blade in his hand, he could subdue and press back an assailant. Without binding him with even an inch of cord, he could seize and kill his enemy. With bare hands he caught foes as one might grasp a writhing serpent; holding nothing back, he mounted live horses, snatched away the enemies’ swords, and gouged out their eyes. In an instant he had seized the defeated enemy — actions truly beyond all human expectation.
非超然之才、絶倫之識、豈能如此乎。于此時魔外乞命、賁育拱手、下車10搏虎、項羽叱人、亦立下風者也。
Without transcendent talent and peerless understanding, how could one possibly achieve such things? In such moments even demons would beg for their lives; even the strongmen Ben and Yu would fold their arms; even he who stepped off his carriage to grapple a tiger; even Xiang Yu, who cowed men with a shout — all would stand downwind of him.11
天下学兵者捨之何求乎。吁盛哉。睠夫師之伝道、不識其人而妄伝則却受其害。后羿伝射於逢衆、飛衛伝射於紀昌者是也。
If those in the world who study the art of war were to discard this, what else could they seek? Ah, how abundant it is! Yet when one reflects on the transmission of the Way from master to disciple: if one does not discern the person and passes it on recklessly, one will only incur harm from it. This is like Hou Yi teaching archery to Feng Meng, or Fei Wei teaching archery to Ji Chang.12
若以剣術伝人則撰庚公之斬者、伝之可乎。非其人勿伝其道。蓋聞、師資相承、恰似瀉一器水於一器、如分一燈成百千燈。
If one would transmit the art of the sword to another, should one choose a man like Geng Gong, who used his blade for murder? Would such a transmission ever be acceptable? If he is not the right person, do not transmit the Way to him. It is said that the succession of master and disciple is like pouring water from one vessel into another, or like dividing one flame to make a hundred or a thousand lamps.
始無殊異。雖然、依有工夫浅深・鍛錬厚薄而其術亦有工拙軽重。
From the beginning, there is no real difference. Yet depending on whether one’s effort is shallow or deep, and whether one’s training is thick or thin, the art itself will likewise show refinement or clumsiness, lightness or heaviness.
業精于勤、荒于嬉、行成于思、毀于随。
Skill is perfected through diligence and ruined through play; accomplishment is realised through reflection and destroyed through mere following along.
研精罩思、而後可至其至微也。
Only by honing one’s endurance and concentrating one’s thought can one arrive at its utmost subtleties.
精微要妙者、不可以言宣。只在乎熟而已。
These finest and most essential subtleties cannot be expressed in words — they lie solely in familiarity born of long practice.
賢士太夫以武名世者、不可不学。光陰荏苒、可惜時也。老而悔、何及哉。勉旃。
The capable and worthy gentleman who would make his name in the martial arts cannot fail to study them. Time slips away unnoticed — it is a pity to waste it. To grow old and regret is too late. Apply yourself.
The identity of this Elder Kan (関長老 Kan chōrō) is uncertain, but he would have been a Rinzai Zen elder associated with the Yagyū, possibly even Takuan Sōhō himself. ↩
This passage is a reference to a famous line in the Confucian book The Great Learning (大學):「修身、齊家、治國、平天下」. It describes the ladder of ethical priorities with which a ruler should be concerned: better the self, bring the household into order, govern the realm, and bring peace to all under Heaven. ↩
Sima Qian, early Han-dynasty historian and author of the Records of the Historian (史記 Shiji). ↩
Ying the craftsman (郢工) is classical figure from the Zhuangzi and later Chinese literature. To “cut clay like Ying” is a proverb for effortless mastery: the blade moves without resistance because the skill is perfect. ↩
Bian the wheelwright (輪扁) is another famous artisan from the Zhuangzi, who explains that true skill cannot be transferred by words, only realised through embodied practice. ↩
Kage-ryū was a school of kenjutsu founded by Aisu Ikōsai Hisatada. ↩
These three images draw on Chinese literary and Buddhist motifs: “stroking a single hair” echoes a Chan expression for extremely delicate, precise action; the “golden wing” evokes the Golden-Winged Great Peng bird whose wings part the sea; and “like Moye” invokes the legendary Spring and Autumn sword of that name, one of the most celebrated blades in Chinese lore. ↩
The actual phrase used is “seven vertical and eight horizontal” (七縦八横), denoting movement in all directions with complete tactical freedom. It can also mean total disarray of an army thrown into chaos, scattering in all directions at once, but the former meaning applies here. ↩
The technical expressions in this passage draw on classical Chinese martial and literary idioms. “A thousand transformations and ten thousand changes” (千変万化) expresses limitless adaptability. “Half joining, half opening” (半合半開) describes ma-ai (間合) the dynamic midpoint between engagement and release, while “paired initiations and paired withdrawals” (双発双収) signify the rhythm of simultaneous striking and withdrawing: a hallmark of Yagyū Shinkage-ryū. The metaphors “as a sail filled by the wind” (如見風使帆) and “as a hawk loosed after a hare” (似見兎放鷹) are classical Chinese images of effortless responsiveness and sudden, decisive pursuit. ↩
This character 車 is not given as such in the source document; instead we have two transcriptions of characters that don’t appear to actually exist. However, Mencius’s parable of Feng Fu descending from his carriage to grapple a tiger would have been quite well-known. This story was commonly referenced in the set idiom 下車搏虎 — “to step down from one’s carriage and grapple tigers”. ↩
This paragraph contains several allusions that an erudite contemporary reader would have recognised from the Chinese classics. Meng Ben and Xia Yu were famed for their physical strength yet dismissed for their lack of cultivated virtue; such men, for all their might, could only fold their arms in helplessness. Feng Fu, celebrated tiger-grappler-turned-scholar, once rolled up his sleeves and stepped down from his carriage to fight another tiger — an act of empty bravado that delighted the common people but drew the derision of other scholars. Xiang Yu’s overbearing shout could cow other men, yet — as noted earlier in the text — his want of true martial skill ultimately led to his ruin. These figures, each lacking in essential understanding, cannot be measured against Munetoshi. ↩
This sentence invokes two well-known cautions from Chinese antiquity about the dangers of teaching the wrong disciple. Hou Yi (后羿), the divine archer, taught his art to Feng Meng (逢蒙; the manuscript gives the corrupted form 逢衆, a common Edo-period miswriting), who later turned his skill against his master and killed him. Likewise, Fei Wei (飛衛) taught archery to Ji Chang (紀昌), whose skill soon surpassed his teacher’s and brought him to harm. Both stories warn that indiscriminate transmission invites danger. ↩