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INTRODUCTION Brian Van Speyebroek has been a kind and generous friend for some time now. Others would eventually call Brian controversial for his non-conformist attitude, but it is exactly this stance that brought me to ask his generous help in getting started into polishing a sword, which was met with the utmost availability and patience in carefully explaining every step. We never met in person, though there was a big possibility for this to happen in January 2003. However, modern technology, cyberspace and the natural instinct that matures with age brought us to a level of understanding that knows no geographical barriers. Brian, a native of Moline, Illinois, recently received wide media exposure in the news about his vision of Japanese swordsmanship on occasion of the latest Tom Cruise movie, The Last Samurai. This was just the leit motif for me to approach this electronics professional, Shinkendo practitioner and Teacher and sword craftsman. REALITY AND IMAGINATION Brian, this piece of news linking the Far East to the Mid West and the connection between Shinkendo and the Last Samurai movie by Tom Cruise. Do you perceive any connection? Only from the aspect that the movie depicts Japanese swordsmanship and we practice it here in the Midwestern US. The intent was to show people that it (the swordsmanship) is not only available in Japan but also right here. Our original intent was to get ahead of the folks that see movies like this and then run to the local mall and buy a $60 stainless steel katana and then cut their fingers off. I have been studying sword arts for over 15 years and it would upset me greatly to see neophytes injure themselves when there is competent instruction available.  The
movie is a fantasy mixed with some hints of scattered historical events.
As a mature martial artist, do you view the movie as being misleading?To some people it may be. It depends on what you went to the movie looking for. Everyone approaches these things with a different perspective. Some go to the movies to see the filmmaker’s art, some seek enlightenment of some kind, and some merely seek entertainment. It is dangerous to try and get too much from a simple film. In what ways? Actually, I see the movie as entertainment. Typical Hollywood stuff. It is fun and interesting but not necessarily historically accurate. The Samurai are depicted as bigger than life, better than life not just in the movie but also in general. If you need a code to live your life by, then the code of Bushido is worth considering in part but the way the movie portrays it is not practical in the 21st century in my opinion. Nothing is ever as simple as it appears in a movie. Movies like this often seem to bring out the child in people. Fantasy is a good thing and I myself spend a good deal of time dreaming about how my life could be better or improved or more fun. I have also been motivated to change my life after viewing a movie. But seeing these kinds of things on the movie screen and then taking them for historical fact or assuming that you understand the entire context of what you are seeing can be a form of ignorance.  I
have noticed in the trailer some dangerous sentences such as the land of
Honor and Courage, which tends to lead some viewers into thinking that
Japan had the absolute monopoly of ethics.Well, I expect that anything less would not draw an audience. I feel that people should be smarter or less ignorant than to allow themselves to be convinced that certain cultures or individuals have a monopoly on anything let alone ethics. But, again, it’s Hollywood and it’s the hype that sells movies. I worry that people really believe everything they see in the media as being true or having at least a foundation in truth. It’s a movie. It’s not necessarily real. One needs to spend quite a bit of quality time studying history and art before a person draws definitive conclusions about what nations, races, or people have a monopoly on certain attributes or flaws. Here we go. Any word of wisdom and advise for the so-called Samurai wannabees apart from the fact reminder that these feudal warriors, like in so many other cultures, pillaged and killed farmers, plotted against each other, and later the Japanese army committed brutal murders like the Nanjing massacre or the surprise bombing of Pearl Harbor? I’m not a big fan of the wannabee mentality. Especially the guys who think that they are going to study martial arts and such in the 21st century and somehow become transformed into a feudal era Japanese knight of sorts. I have seen this type at the dojo…they are obsessed with all things Japanese or samurai because they perceive themselves or their own culture to be defective or deficient in some way. Some people view the ultra disciplined way of the samurai (as depicted in many films and history) to be a Magic Bullet of sorts…a fast way to fix all of their own inadequacies or lack of discipline. The samurai are a romantic part of history and their impact on Japanese culture is still evident today. Not all of it is good. Not all of it is bad. Life and history show us that few things are as cut and dry as good/bad or black/white. There are powerful things to be learned about one's self by studying swordsmanship seriously and a lot to be gained in terms of self-discovery, focus and discipline. But studying to become a Samurai is unrealistic and really impossible in the real world in this day and age. My suggestion is for people to leave fantasy at the door where the practical use of a katana is involved. To study any art means to open the mind and empty the cup so that new ideas and enlightenment might occur. People who study anything in order to prove what they already think they know to be a fact are often surprised or misled. THE SWORD AND THE 21st. CENTURY This brings us to the analysis of the Japanese style sword in the 21st. century. How do you view it? The only practical reason to study any form of swordsmanship in this century is as a form of self-improvement. I cringe when I hear of people who study sword arts as a means of self-defense or as a means of indulging a fantasy. I have heard knowledgeable people say that an art that has stopped evolving is a dead art and I have the same mind set. Japanese sword arts, like any form of self-discipline, can go a long way towards creating a better human being. But to study only an archaic or obsolete form of any art is to limit ones self tremendously. I have always wondered about folks who study Iaido only and draw from a kneeling position or use Zen like motions and philosophy. Art is dynamic. It changes and evolves continuously. Finding the things that “just can’t possibly work” is the challenge. Japanese sword style in this century is a mixture of preserving what has worked in the past and integrating it into the modern world so that those who train in the warrior arts can continue to benefit from the advantages that such intense focus and self-discipline can bring. But to simply use the same old stuff without thought about how it relates to modern times is a big mistake and a very narrow way of thinking and training. I have been silently admiring your work as sword maker, a craftsman and something that I have noticed is that your fittings have the simplicity of the late 20th and 21st centuries design, and your swords don’t even bear a hamon, while when you polish other’s swords you mainly rely on hybrid polish.  I feel that the main purpose of the sword in this century is as a training
tool. I admire collectables, antiques, and fancy craftsmanship as much as
the next guy but feel that the highly carved and decorated fittings, gold
flake lacquered scabbards, and $3000 traditional stone polishes are not
necessary for a training tool or a weapon. The original Japanese sword was
differentially hardened to show a hamon to exploit two mutually exclusive
aspects and characteristics of steel…hard to take and keep an edge and
tough to resist damage in combat. They were doing the best they could with
what they had, which was steel that was only marginally hardenable. This
is not the case in this century and modern alloy steels can exploit this
advantage without differential hardening, in my opinion.Too much gingerbread on a working sword is indicative of a person who has purchased the sword to present an image…not to use it as a tool to improve himself. In my swordsmanship training I perform hundreds of cuts each training session. The sword comes in and out of the saya dozens of times and is subjected to serious forces of degradation. Fancy gold encrusted goodies won’t and don’t last very long in the hands of a serious and powerful swordsman who is training at the limit of his ability. So, they are a waste of time for serious swordsmen in my opinion. A sword is a tool that the swordsman uses to improve himself inside and out. My opinion is that serious swordsmen have better ways to spend their money than on expensive polishes and gold encrusted and fancy doodads on the sword that can’t long survive the hard knocks and sweat that comes their way. In terms of sword crafts I strive to create one of a kind and well made tools that are meant to be used by serious swordsmen. I don’t see any advantage to extra embellishment and it adds a tremendous amount of price to the product. I fully support folks who think they need all the extras and feel that they should procure the services of those sword crafters who work in this style. But mostly I have seen this severe desire to posses fancy swords in wealthy individuals, collectors, or in those who have no sincere desire to train hard and often. There are a lot of very talented and prolific artists and craftsmen already making fancy stuff. I don’t know of many who do what I do and deliberately simplify the sword to the least common yet effective denominator. SHARING KNOWLEDGE Your site shows what you do, yet you don’t offer your services to the public. Why is this? At present I am still developing my style and my skills. While I have a severe desire to make my living wage from sword crafting and make it the center point of my life I realize that my standard of living will suffer from it. This will lead to my having less “mental space” for experimentation and testing. I hope to retire to crafting swords full time but for now must maintain my “day job” in order to have the funds to further my ability to test and improve. The web site primarily exists to help other potential craftsmen and artists with alternative methods and to function as a support mechanism for those who are seeking a different way. I have no plans to commercialize at this time but eventually I hope to offer a wide variety of tutorials on how and why I do certain things the way I do them. I had hoped initially that the website would serve to inform traditionalists of what my goals and ideology was so they would not be “threatened” by what I’m doing. Sadly that has not been the case as the negative rhetoric about what I do had a significant negative impact on the way some folks view my work. I have seen several tremendously talented artists completely derailed during my lifetime by trying to make their art or their craft the center of their lives. I feel that it can be a terrible mistake to become a full time professional and be forced to live within the means of a struggling artist. I have watched friends take commissions that they were not prepared to take or push their style in unhealthy directions in order to satisfy clients and get enough money to put food on the table. So, while they ultimately succeed in their desire to be professional full time artists and craftsmen they often have destroyed their integrity, happiness, and ability to indulge their creativity by doing what is necessary in order to survive financially. Like a moth drawn to a flame and destroyed, artists must be careful not live in a fantasy world. Talent is not enough and the world is full of people who had potential but failed miserably because of poor planning. Still, I ache inside to sometimes leave a sword craft project alone for weeks at a time while I perform menial tasks for my employer in order to buy more art supplies, make the rent, or buy food and provide for my retirement security. It is my hope to offer some completed swords for sale in the not too distant future but right now I am very focused on developing Samonji’s Way and offering top notch working swords for serious swordsmen. |
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