Y-Chromosome wrote: Bowing to the spirit of judo, the idea of judo? It does tend to smack of idolatry don't you think?
Honestly, I don't think so. There can't be idolatry, adoration or worship, as long as one hasn't idolatry or adoration or worship in mind. Regarding
Jūdō and a portrait of
Kanō-shihan, I don't believe that any right-minded, mature
jūdoka regards him as an idol or even god, who has to be worshipped. IMHO, to bow in the direction his portrait may be located, also means neither just bowing before his picture, nor to just bow before (t)his deceased person. Neither does it constitute chauvinism to bow in that direction, if, for example, a flag is mounted there. I think they all are just symbols for something much more comprehensive. The "spirit", the "idea" of something? May be that this comes a bit closer, but I don't think that this wording imparts a much better comprehension. Easier explained, the location of such or other things just show which side of the
dōjō is regarded as
shōmen(front) or
kamiza (seat of honour, upper-, or chief [not "gods"!] seat).
Y-Chromosome wrote:If the meaning of a symbolic action is clear and justifiable, then by all means proceed if you are comfortable with the justification. If the meaning is unclear, then don't think it's unreasonable to question it. How can an action be justified if we don't even know what it means?
Absolutely correct. I don't think it's unreasonable to question it. Quite the contrary! Why should we even practice something, if we have no idea what it means? To do that nevertheless, may be the correct attitude for a beginner, for whom most of what happens in a
Būdō-class may be new and unknown. But later, one should know what is done and why it is done. To act otherwise, I think, may even be in violation of the important
Jūdō-maxim
seiryoku zenyō. I would call such actions "pseudo-Asiatic mumbo-jumbo". Of course - we all know, that exoticism is something that has played its role in the dissemination and popularization of Asian martial arts in the rest of the world. Nevertheless, at this point in time I think we already should be beyond that, all the more, as it involves the danger of misuse.
So why practicing
reishiki (here confined to
shōmen-ni-rei, which seems to be the actual topic of this thread)? As far as I understand it, bowing to the front-side (
shōmen) of a
dōjō has nothing to do with religion or cultism. It's all about manners, courtesy and respect, done the way they are usually displayed in that culture, the respective art/sport is rooted in. Within Japanese rooted arts/sports, this are the different forms of bowing, like equestrians may lift hats, Western fencers move their weapons in a certain way, or boxers may touch each others gloves. The much bigger frequency of analogous actions in
Budō is simply due to its cultural heritage. They always mark something that is (a bit or much) more formal, than other ordinary behaviour.
Therefore I regard the performing of
shōmen-ni-rei as the formal act that marks the mutual, "official" begin or end of a
budō-class. It means "now something special starts", or "now something special ends". It's also a sign of togetherness, of modesty, of humility, of being a part of a group, of striving for a "goal" together, instead of just acting completely selfish, with only personal success in mind. In the Japanese culture particularly, being "inside" or "outside" of a group makes a big difference, perhaps more than in other cultures. For
Jūdō, I think, this common bow could even be considered as one outward expression of its second maxim,
jita kyōei. It's also a tradition, but not a religious act. Considered from an individual point of view nevertheless, it is, what an individual makes out of it.
That said, I think it's time to make a little restriction. If, in a
dōjō, a
kamidana or a
butsudan is present, bowing in that direction MAY also have a religious meaning for Shintoists or Buddhists. However, even the designation "religious" involves different connotations with regard to Shintoism and Buddhism on the one hand, and Judaism, Christianity and Islam on the other. Anyway, a simple portrait of the founder of
Nihon-den Kodōkan Jūdō is neither a Shintoistic nor a Buddhistic, nor another religious symbol, nor is the bow performed in its direction meant as adoration of the person or its picture.
Let me finalize this post with two personal experiences: In the Seventies, I also practiced
Gojūryū Karatedō. When some people left the original
dōjō to establish a new club in a public school's gym (in order to be able to get the official federation's ranks and to participate at official tournaments), the Austrian teacher resumed the original ceremonial with
shōmen-ni-rei,
sensei-ni-rei and
otagai-ni-rei. But we had no picture, no flag, nothing that represented
shōmen or
kamiza there. When
Ogawa-shihan, our chief-teacher, noticed that, he asked: "Why are you doing
shōmen-ni-rei?", and we stopped practicing it. I learned: You only do
shōmen-ni-rei, if there is a symbol present, a symbol for what I explained earlier. But it is not the symbol itself, you are bowing to. Therefore it isn't always important (for certain schools it may well be), WHICH symbol is used. It may be (a) portrait(s) of (a) person(s) important to the respective art, style, or dōjō, it may be a flag, it may be a
kamon, it may be a certain calligraphy, or whatever, something with meaning for that art, style, school, group or
dōjō. When, some twenty years later,
Ogawa-sensei was invited to teach at a camp organized by a certain Federation of
Jūjutsu, where a federation-flag was mounted, and
shōmen-ni-rei was performed in the direction of the flag, he showed himself impressed, and applauded that kind of manners, which obviously meanwhile had fallen into complete disuse in the circles he usually taught.
The second story exceeds the simple meaning of the three bows already mentioned, and usually performed as some kind of standard in many
dōjō of different Japanese arts, and it indeed touches the "religious" sphere. Towards the end of the Eighties, after about twenty years of training in different
budō, as well as some years of interest and self-training in sword arts, I learned about a group practising
Iaidō/Iaijutsu not far away from my place. I wanted to join them, but decided to watch a class before joining, and was admitted to do so. At this time
Harada-sensei, the founder of the school, was in Vienna, and taught the class himself. At the beginning they started to recite something with peculiar voices, the students reading it from papers they held in their hands. After the recitation they did
rei with
gassho (hands held together like in prayer). I was a bit dismayed. Should I have encountered some cult? I certainly don't needed something like that! However, I didn't want to judge too early, and after the training ended, which after the strange beginning looked like I had expected, I asked one of the apparently advanced students, who also had taught, what that was, I've caught at the official start of the class (before that, they'd done
suburi, the usual cutting exercises). "We read
Hannya shingyō, the Heart sutra, a buddhist text." Again, I was dismayed. But then, he continued: "Look, our teacher is a Buddhist priest, so for him this ceremony also has "religious" meanings, but everyone else may just regard it as a kind of breathing exercise, that precedes the short period of meditation, following it." You know what? I could very well live with that explanation, and I still do so, until today, when I, meanwhile second generation head of the
Jūjutsu-section of that school, lead the ceremony myself, and from a position, which absolutely allows me to decide what is what in that regard. Today, of course, it isn't done just as breathing exercise, but also as continuation and respect of a tradition our late teacher has introduced in his school, as well as in loving memory of him, for all that have known him in person, at least. So much, in my case, for "being comfortable with the justification"
. I admit, of course, that all this may be a bit harder to argue, to explain and to accept, than the performance of a simple
shōmen-ni-rei.
I find it difficult to express such thoughts in English, but hope I was able to do that understandable enough.
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