Tozai - School of Iaido - Art McConnell

Tozai Iai Kai

Chief Instructor: Art McConnell, 5th Dan
Member of New York Budokai

Shohato: The Gateless Gate
By Art McConnell

Shohato is the entry level form of the Omori Ryu school of Japanese swordsmanship. It is the template that combines the four primary elements of sword kata; the drawing of the sword from the scabbard on a horizontal plane / the follow up vertical cut / the splay / the resheathing of the sword.

All movements must be synchronized and all katas must be scrutinized. To practice this sword form year after year requires nurturing an emptiness, not annual but perennial goals must be set and maintained as you drill the spirit form. All the space you need is a 4x8 x 5/8 thick piece of plywood, good one side. An 8’ ceiling works since it is a ground form. It is best to box out the bottom perimeter with 2x4’s sideways, not on the flat, and then add cross members to strengthen the frame. Now you have a 4&1/8’’ trimmed platform to train on. It should rest on a level area or it can be fastened down with ‘L’ brackets and made stationary. A Swain mat also provides a good surface for doing this form but it is a bit shorter and narrower. Just as the sword maker polishes his blades on the wet stone, the practice of Shohato sharpens the dullness of inaction while cutting with the long sword in a meditative state. This rudimentary form is the Sil Lum Dao (little idea) of the Japanese sword. It is the pedestal on which all things must be balanced. Shohato is the Taikyoku (first cause) of swordsmanship. The form can be broken down into five parts or two three part sections. It is learned mechanically in the first phase but later on the form must flow. Sensei Otani taught that the form was like a bamboo staff, jointed at intervals, yet flowing and continuous…unbroken.

When a working knowledge of the form Shohato has been acquired, it is time for the process of critique to begin. This form of learning is time consuming yet very beneficial to everyone. Not to criticize but to re- energize; to observe and understand the gears and the mechanics of this bottomless well known as Shohato. When the major errors are adjusted, then the form can be nit-picked until it is performed reasonably clean. After this, the training transcends to various levels. Shohato is only the first of twelve forms practiced in the Omori Ryu school; all of which originate from ‘seiza’(kneeling flat) with the exception of #10, Koranto, which is the standing version of Shohato, although not as involved. Shohato begins while kneeling in ‘zazen’ (Zen meditation) whereas Koranto is similar to doing ‘kinhin’ or walking meditation which is done after kneeling in ‘seiza’ for extended periods of time, to help the blood flow circulate in the legs.

I remember when my teacher came to our dojo for seminar training. I hadn’t seen him for five years and had been training for twenty. In the middle of the class he put me on the spot and had me do Shohato. Sensei mentioned a few little details that I should tighten up in my kata but this was done later on in private, not in front of the class; Sensei was very professional in his approach to martial arts study. I worked hard after that to clean up my form while appreciating the benefits of returning to the beginner’s mind. There are many lessons and parallels, numerous analogies and philosophical discourses, but at the end of the day, it’s you, your sword and Shohato. Practice helps to perfect and protect the spirit. One of my young black belts in Karate moved to California many years ago, his name was Tom and he was a very conscientious student. He has been fortunate to have trained with Master Oshima’s group for over two decades. It is a rank requirement to have done the kata Bassai Dai 5,000 times before taking the examination for Shodan. You can’t practice enough if you want to morph out of your old skin and move forward to future levels. Shohato is quite a bit shorter than Bassai Dai, so 10,000 repetitions are not really asking that much…is it?

Iaido (e I dough) is based on the idea of moving while in a state of meditation. A form of ‘moving Zen’, (the title of a book by C.W. Nicol about Karate training in Japan) Shohato must be practiced seriously to expand the mind, the scope of knowledge and…the soul; definitely all of the above. Even though you’re constantly cutting, the mind must remain calm and detached, but it is difficult to find and maintain this state of attitude. One needs to shut off the distractions in the mind in order to see the light of the form outside. While I was staying at the Daibosatsu Temple in the Catskill Mts. for a several days, the headmaster, Eido Roshi called a few of us into his office one night. We all talked for awhile when Roshi suddenly stopped and told his secretary to turn out the light, after which he raised the already open blinds on the window to reveal the moon outside in the dark night sky. I never realized that it was there. It was a revelation that I wouldn’t understand for the next ten years. I’ve thought about that experience many times though while practicing the sword kata known as Shohato. Now I watch those that I’ve taught and learn something new each time someone enacts the form. The key to learning the martial arts is about mastering fundamentals. All one needs to do is take correction, making subtle adjustments, to polish and excel in this special Zen exercise. No matter how long you study Iaido, you will always be drawn back to the matrix; the form named Shohato that grants us passage through the ‘gateless gate’.

by Art McConnell - Tozai Iai Kai

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