I’ve always been passionate about swords. It’s what initially drew me to Kung Fu. While Kung Fu remains my primary practice, I consider myself more of a swordsman than a Kung Fu man. Before my watch at KungFuMagazine.com, I fenced NCAA at SJSU and earned a Provost at Arms degree in fencing. I also did Kendo for a few years, as well as Iaido. What’s more, I’m now a board member at Terra Prime Light Armory, which propounds lightsaber fencing. Consequently, I’m launching another new blog series here on KungFuMagazine.com called ‘Blade Sharp’ which will address cross-cultural concepts of sword practice.

Submitted for your approval, my first installment of Blade Sharp.

It was strangely liberating for me when Kung Fu Tai Chi, folded. While sitting the publisher’s chair for our newsstand magazine, I felt obligated to stay focused on the Chinese martial arts. Nowadays, publishing online doesn’t take as much effort as print publishing. Cumbersome tasks like buying paper, negotiating with the printers and distributors, and dealing with subscribers are no longer issues. Hence publishing is no longer a full-time job for me. That post-pandemic shift freed up my sense of duty to remain a purely Chinese style practitioner and inspired me to return to one of my other martial passions - Japanese sword.

After nearly a four-decade break I returned to Iaido, the art of Japanese sword drawing. I enrolled at Santa Cruz Todokai under Sensei Merek Dorf.

Imagine my amusement to find myself doing the Eight Section Brocade in the Iaido dojo.

The Brocade

I’ve written about my relationship to the Eight Section Brocade (a.k.a. Baduanjin 八段錦) in another of my KungFuMagazine.com blog series, Shaolin Ways (see Shaolin Ways Episode 6: Baduanjin). To summarize, the Brocade has been part of my daily regimen for years. To find it again in Iaido feels like the universe is trying to tell me something, or at least, it's a gentle reminder.

Being in Santa Cruz, Dorf Sensei has a diverse background. Beyond being an Yondan (4^th dan) in Iaido, Dorf is a surfer (it’s a Santa Cruz thing), a blue belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, and a certified Level 1 Instructor of Qigong.

“Most of my original Qigong training was from Lee Holden here when he used to have the Santa Cruz Center on Portola Drive,” explains Dorf. Holden is an American pioneer of Qigong, having brought it into some 50 million household through his PBS programs. He is still in Santa Cruz, teaching through his school, Holden Qigong. Dorf furthered his Qigong studies under Dr. Yang, Jwing-Ming as well as some Wudang Master Chen in Colorado. This broadened the scope of his Qigong practice, especially his Brocade.

At first, I attributed the inclusion of Qigong into his Iaido curriculum to this, but the source goes much deeper. “Actually,” reveals Dorf, “the Brocade, part of it came from Phil Ortiz Sensei.” Ortiz is Dorf’s Iaido sensei. As one of the nation’s leading Iaido proponents, Ortiz is a veteran master who’s witnessed the progression of martial arts in America over the last half century.

The Samurai from New York

Philip Ortiz Sensei began training as a youth sometime around 1958 in New York. He began with the Filipino-based hybrid system Vee Jitsu, founded by Florendo Visitacion (1910-1999), known to the martial world as Professor Vee. Ortiz went on to study Karate, specifically Shorin-Ryu (Shorin is Shaolin in Japanese) and Shotokan, as well as Judo.

However, his martial journey took a turn after he saw a demonstration of Iaido at the Madison Square Garden showcase called the Oriental World of Self-Defense. Promoted by the diverse influencer, Aaron Banks (1928-2013), Oriental World of Self-Defense was a historic martial arts extravaganza that ran for over twenty years. Ortiz estimates that the one when he saw the Iaido demonstration was around 1962. He had just discovered Japanese Chanbara (samurai movies) “There weren't a lot of Japanese movies in New York at the time. There was Kung Fu movies.”

Ortiz has fond memories of sneaking over to Chinatown to catch the latest Kung Fu movies. Kung Fu intrigued him, but back then it wasn’t readily available to non-Chinese beyond Tai Chi. He remembers hearing about the seminal Tai Chi master, Cheng Man-ch’ing, but never had the opportunity to study under him. “I didn't even understand ki (qi in Mandarin 氣) and they always talked about that,” reflects Ortiz. “But you know when you're that young and you're full of piss and vinegar, they say.”

It wasn’t until 1972 when Ortiz began studying Iaido under Yoshiteru Otani Sensei (1929-2004) and since then, he’s studied several schools of Iaido along with a wide variety of complementary samurai arts including Jodo (short staff 杖道), Kyudo (archery 弓道), Shuriken (throwing stars 手裏剣), Tanjo (walking stick 短杖), and even Yabusame (horseback archery 流鏑馬).

“So many years later,” adds Ortiz, “that's when I got involved with Tai Chi.” His path later led to Qigong, which eventually led him to incorporate the Brocade into his warmup regimen for Iaido.

The Yin and Yang of In and Yo

In Japanese, Yin (陰) translates to In and Yang (陽) translates to Yo, however when the two characters are coupled like yinyang, it becomes onmyo in Japanese. Just as Yin and Yang figure prominently in Chinese martial arts, In and Yo are essential in Iaido. “In our system of swordsmanship,” explains Ortiz, “we do incorporate the energy in terms of the opening and closing and the physical opening and closing in the body when we draw the sword and when we cut with the sword.

“With the cut going in, closing, squeezing the body and the back opening, but not rounding. So there's a lot of the qi energy within the mechanics. Even if you don't find the internal energy, you're on the right path. It's kind of the gateway to finding your center, you know, the elusive center or the people talk about.”

Given Dorf Sensei’s extensive background in Qigong, adding the Brocade to Iaido is a natural fit. “I feel like with the breathing techniques and the body techniques, the combination of both, are very all-encompassing when it comes to centering,” says Dorf. “And then also getting the body moving in the proper way, warming up all of the various muscles and tendons.”

Shoot the Eagle

The second movement of the Eight Section Brocade is the most iconic. Called “Draw the bow, Shoot the eagle (kai gong si she diao 开弓似射雕), the movement simulates the dynamic tension of drawing a bow and the focus of aiming at a distant target. Archery was a major part of historical Chinese martial arts, however nowadays, despite some concerted efforts to revive it, it has largely fallen to the wayside with modern practitioners. It's ironic that the Brocade, one of the most popular forms of Qigong in the world, bases its second movement on a martial art that is on the edge of extinction.

Beyond Iaido, both Ortiz Sensei and Dorf Sensei are avid practitioners of Kyudo, Japanese archery. Kyudo is far more than just shooting the target. It is very formal and ritualized, so much so that it becomes pure Zen.

Does Kyudo help the ‘Draw the bow’ technique in the Brocade and vice versa? “Absolutely,” states Ortiz. “I mean, although the structure is a little bit different, it's definitely incorporated in there.”

“That second move in the Brocade very much replicates the way that you open the back to open the chest,” continues Dorf. “Expand the lungs and expand the body. I do dig deeper for that relationship when I’m doing both techniques. It’s exactly that in and yo.”

“You know, if you just rely on just learning the form, that's one thing,” adds Ortiz. “but learning the form and incorporating the in and yo – the yin and the yang – and the breath. I always start my classes with doing Qigong but I don't do the Kyudo. And nobody ever questions it. I guess they make that connection, you know? Because you're expanding, you're able. You're settling into the floor or the ground if you’re outdoors.  

“It's a good connection.”