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Seni Show 2007 Report by Dr Duncan Cadd

The SENI 07 weekend exhibition in London’s cavernous Docklands Excel centre over the 19th/20th May attracted tens of thousands of martial arts fans from all over Europe. The exhibition occupied just one of the vast halls in the centre, which was filled with stands selling everything from food supplements to clothing, equipment and videos. There were several areas set aside for the contests and demonstrations of a range of martial arts ranging from karate to kick boxing, also areas set aside for instructional use by visiting masters including Chinese and Korean martial artists, but surprisingly there was no iaido or kendo on offer, which I thought was a little odd.

The show ran for sixteen hours in total over the two days and initially I felt that perhaps two thousand people had visited the Cyber Budo Art stand on which Abe Kazunori Sensei and Ono Yoshimitsu Tosho appeared, but upon reflection that number needs to be revised upwards to perhaps as many as four thousand, who stayed for at least five minutes, with around three hundred who remained for a quarter of an hour or more. I base these figures on the fact that I remained on the stand for most of that time and there were seldom less than twenty people in and around it and often as many as forty.

Paul Martin was rushed off his feet trying to deal with the crowds, and many thanks to those from the To-Ken Society of Great Britain and the Northern Token Society who shared out the workload and helped explain things nihonto to the many interested enquirers. One can only hope it made a lasting impression on some.

A large plasma screen on the stand showed details of sword polishing by Abe Sensei, sword forging by Ono Tosho and the making of a kogatana by Paul Martin, sponsored by Japanese television's Sakura Channel. On sale was a range of books on the Japanese sword, including Ono San's "World of Juka Choji" with a translation on cd by Paul. Also on sale were sword cleaning kits, choji oil, microfibre cloths, uchiko, samples of tamahagane, kogatana, knives, and sword pillows.

On display were two blades by Ono Yoshimitsu, an example of his famous recreation of the Yamatorige, plus a Bitchu Nambokucho O-tanto in dazzling saka choji. There was also a step-by-step "in the flesh" illustration of the kobuse forging technique, starting out with a lump of tamahagane and then showing each successive stage side by side ending up with a tachi blade covered with clay all ready for yaki ire. This drew a lot of attention from the crowds, many of whom had evidently never seen how a Japanese sword is forged.

Ono San spent a few hours of the weekend personalising copies of his book with beautiful calligraphy, and also engraving names on steel paperweights. The rest of the time he gave demonstrations of tsuchioki. It was interesting to see him conferring with Abe Sensei on some aspect of the coating process, perhaps they were discussing the effect this particular pattern would have on the hardness of the steel and the requirements this might place on the stones needed for polishing.

Abe Sensei spent the weekend together with his son Soichiro San polishing a variety of swords. Some of these were owned by visitors who, forewarned that there would be a mukansa polisher present, had brought along a sword for a window to be opened or simply for a professional opinion. He and his son could be seen discussing some aspect of a particular blade from time to time, his son was evidently keen to learn from the opportunity.

For most of the weekend, Abe Sensei concentrated on one sword he had brought with him, a Shizu nagamaki naoshi, which had been polished by a different polisher. Abe Sensei left one side of this blade as it was, and spent the weekend concentrating on the other side, which he had already brought to the nugui stage from the hamachi to around half way up the blade and also including the boshi. It was impressive to see how he was bringing out the detail in the hamon. Without his work it was just possible to trace the hamon by means of an incandescent bulb, but very difficult. Once he had been over the area with the next stone, the same things were visible but without effort. I had the rare chance to stand behind his shoulder at SENI and watch as he rubbed the sliver of stone around the hamon again and again and could see all the activity coming out almost as a time-lapse movie. I wish I had had a movie camera for that one opportunity. This was truly beautiful.

I had a chance to ask Abe San about this particular blade, and I wondered if it was necessary to use different nugui for this style of sword. I think this is one of those cases where you get the best answer from the Delphic Oracle only if you ask the right question. Abe San said that with this particular style it is very demanding to reveal the true detail and it can take him as long to bring out the true hamon in a Shizu blade as to polish some other types of sword from start to finish. I asked him about his hobbies, and he told me that because of his work he suffers from many tension-related problems around his shoulders in particular, and therefore he enjoys playing indoor volleyball. Apparently, his team won second prize in a tournament recently.

The SENI exhibition was in a sense a bit of a mixed bag. From a nihonto purist's point of view it was not ideal, primarily because of the sheer volume of noise associated with the various combat competitions and the marketing of various products all around us. However, I am inclined to see this differently, and from the point of view of doing some nihonto evangelism, it was a very much better deal all round. I have, of course, an ulterior motive in saying this.

We are currently contending with a bunch of hysterical journalists and publicity-craving politicians who want to ban swords just for the sake of selling newspapers and being seen to be doing something. Such wretched behaviour can only succeed when the general public is kept ignorant of the truth, and preaching solely to the converted is going to do us no good whatever in this matter. “All that is necessary for evil to prosper is that good men do nothing” and at least over this weekend, good men have not ceased from mental fight nor have their swords slept in their hands. Haja kensho, or something like that. SENI may not have been ideal for the diehard sword lover, but for the purposes of communicating with others it could scarcely be improved upon.

For two days we had what was pretty well a captive audience, and of all the people we need to talk to about our love of swords, martial artists generally are closer to us than a good many others, have a built-in appreciation of history, tradition and craftsmanship and are very easy to enthuse. I think that all those who stopped by the stand for a chat went away pleased that they had done so, and irrespective of whether they bought any souvenirs I am confident that their impression was positive and moreover something they would be likely to share with their friends in the world outside. This is exactly the kind of thing which needs to be repeated, and I hope the experience of doing the SENI exhibitions last year and this year will flourish into something lasting and of enduring benefit to all concerned. Other countries which suffer from a bureaucratic overburden might look to introducing their own variants on this theme, and its outreach potential should not be ignored by those lucky souls who currently enjoy less disruption to their hobbies. "What befalls others today may be your own fate tomorrow" as Nakadai Tatsuya's destitute samurai says to the gathered members of the Iyi clan in Kobayashi's 'Hara Kiri'.

Those who could make it on the Monday had the joy of handling some of the British Museum’s finest blades, due to the efforts of Paul Martin and his former colleagues at the BM who opened up one of their back rooms to us for the duration. Our warmest thanks go to Lucinda and her team for allowing us access to these treasures.

The swords we saw at the BM were, from right to left in 578b:

Ko-Bizen Yoshikane
Ko-Bizen Kageyasu
Katayama Ichimonji
Masamitsu
Motoshige
Morokage (Omiya)
Yasumitsu
Norimitsu
Sukesada
(just to break from the Bizen tradition) Shintogo Kunimitsu (tanto)

I think Paul included number 10 because it is probably the finest blade in the whole collection. The concentration on Bizen was of course because of Ono Yoshimitsu’s work.

Ono San showed the two swords which had been on display at the SENI exhibition, and Abe Sensei displayed the Shizu blade he had been polishing. Some of the museum staff were able to get a good look at these and evidently appreciated the opportunity.

That pretty well sums up the SENI weekend, except for one small addition. On the preceeding Friday I went to Kew Gardens, although the entry to Kew is now more than twelve quid and when I first went in the late 70s it was only one penny, but Kew is still worth it and it still takes two days to walk around it all thoroughly, plus Kew is still my favourite place to go in the whole of the UK. A good reason for the visit is the minka - a traditional Japanese farmhouse straight out of "Seven Samurai" which was built in 1900 and used by two Japanese families up to 1997. In 2001 it was donated to Kew by the Japanese Minka Recycling and Re-use Association, and aside from being thatched with Norfolk reeds, is the authentic item in every other regard. A team of Japanese carpenters reassembled the minka which is built around an impressive timber framework and based on elaborate joints which use no nails or glue. Inside the minka are various silk farming implements and items from everyday life, such as cooking pots and shoes. Well worth a look, and new to me as I had not been to Kew since the minka was rebuilt.