Are you dead or alive? Many years ago I was asked this very question by a Japanese instructor. At the time, he explained that although I was performing the required exercise well, I had been concentrating on the technique so much that I had forgotten to "feel" the exercise and had not given it life.

This can be one of the more perplexing things about training in Japanese martial arts. The sensei will pick you up on the smallest detail, and the criticise you for being too robotic. He will say your back is not straight enough, then tell you to relax; or tell you to move in a very particular way and then tell you that you are not flowing.

The particular kenjutsu (swordsmanship) instructor's method of teaching was to make us practise our cuts while standing in rows without facing an opponent. He would then make us repeat the action time and again, paying very close attention to the numerous small technical points that are required to make it correct. In some cases, this would take what felt like hours before everyone would be doing it in a manner that would meet his approval.

He would then extol the virtue of our new-found expertise, but add that our movements were all still "dead"...

He explained that simply making a cut in the correct manner was not enough, and that it was necessary to imagine an adversary standing before us and that we should then cut them down "with feeling", and only then will our actions become what he called "alive". He would push the point that we should always make our training alive, and that we should never practise dead movements, as it was not only our actions that we needed to bring to life, but our sword as well.

I must interpret here slightly: to this sensei, to strike with feeling did not mean with emotions like fear, anger, hatred, etc. To him, 'with feeling' meant to perform the action with purpose, with intensity and with meaning. This concept of giving or doing something with life is one of those odd Japanese intangibles that can be found in all Japanese pastimes. They practise this concept in their martial arts, but it is found in everything from the performance of a Kabuki actor to the practice of shodo (Japanese calligraphy).

Shodo is the artistic version of writing kanji, Japan's Chinese-based writing form, and as such there are strict rules to its practice. On my trips to Japan, I have taken opportunities to visit a number of Japanese elementary and high schools where I have been shown what I considered to be very nice examples of shodo, only to be told by the teachers that because the students were young, the work was technically correct, but lacked life and that the students did not understand the spirit of the brush.

As I've said, the concept of an action being alive is not to be confused with emotions, nore is it to be confused with being performed in a lively manner - this would imply speed or haste, which is also not the case...

A good example of this would be kyudo - Japanese archery. In kyudo, every action is performed in a slow, methodical manner; from the slow measured way in which the archer walks to and from the firing line, to the actual release of the arrow. The belief is that one perfect shot is worth 1000 bad shots.

We have all heard the cliches, "Be one with the arrow" or "Be one with the target". It is from the practice of kyudo that these came. In kyudo, a student is taught to imagine that the arrow and the target are not dead, inanimate objects but living things - to be exact, an extension of the archer themselves. In this way, although in a rather reserved way, life is brought to every action. The same should be true in all the arts.

How do we make our martial arts alive? There are a number of ways that can help; I've seen reference to the sue of meditation and visualisation. abdominal-centred breathing, even the use of exercise regimes. But to me, the most successful method I have found to put life into my martial arts has been to put life into my life. To me the way that kenjutsu instructor saw things was the answer: to do all actions with feeling; to perform every action with purpose, with intensity and with meaning. This is the way to give life to everything we do.

Shihan Wayne Henley

Kokoro Ryu Martial Arts Centre