What a fine thing it is to have a Lantern Festival, which is what Auckland did last night. I had a splendid time eating deep-fried morsels and watching the dragon dancing and fireworks. My companions in this venture, Stephen and Olly are kempo practitioners so we, along with Stephen’s mum Val and their friend Alistair, spent a good deal of time watching martial arts demonstrations.
I was particularly struck by the Japanese art of Iaido, which was new to me. As far as I was able to discern, it consists essentially of ceremonially sizing up an enemy (in this case a pole made of bamboo), drawing your sword with great deliberation and a beautifully smooth motion, and then putting it away again because you have decided not to use it. It is hard to describe how impressive it is to see person after person approaching the bamboo pole then retreating again, leaving it entirely unmolested.
Towards the end, a couple of the more experienced sensei did have a slice each at the pole, but they did it in such a perfunctory manner that it seemed clear that this was really beside the point. If anything, it was just to show that the swords were really sharp, and to underline that any one of them could have utterly destroyed the bamboo pole at any time had they chosen to do so.
I do like the idea of a martial art form that encompasses a realistic assessment of the minimal level of threat presented to its practitioners by bamboo poles, and teaches them to react with a proportional lack of violence.