no-swordsword

When Bokuden was crossing Lake Biwa in a rowboat with a number of passengers, there was among them a rough-looking samurai, stalwart and arrogant in every possible way. He boasted of his skill in swordsmanship, saying that he was a foremost man in the art. The fellow passengers were eagerly listening to his blatant talk, while Bokuden was dozing as if nothing were going on about him. This irritated the braggart very much. He approached Bokuden and shook him, saying “You also carry a pair of swords, why not say a word?” Answered Bokuden quietly, “My art is different from yours; it consists not in defeating others, but in not being defeated.” This incensed the fellow immensely.

“What is your school then?”

“Mine is known as the mutekatsu school” (which means to defeat the enemy without hands, that is, without using a sword).

“Why, then, do you yourself carry a sword?”

“This is meant to do away with selfish motives, and not to kill others.”

The man’s anger knew no bounds, and he exclaimed in a most impassioned manner, “Do you really mean to fight me with no swords?”

“Why not?” was Bokuden’s answer.

The braggart samurai called out ot the boatman to row toward the nearest land. But Bokuden suggested that it would be better to go to the island further off because the mainland might attract people who were liable to get somehow hurt. The samurai agreed. The boat headed toward the solitary island at some distance. As soon as they were near engouh, the man jumped off the boat and drawing his sword was all ready for a combat. Bokuden leisurely took off his own swords and handed them to the boatman. To all appearances he was about to follow the samurai onto the island, when Bokuden suddenly took the oar away from the boatman and, pushing it against the land, gave a hard backstroke to the boat. Thereupon the boat made a precipitous departure from the island and plunged into the deeper water safely away from the samurai. Bokuden smilingly remarked, “This is my ‘no-sword’ school.”