Some Reflections Upon Kata Tenzen

Tenzen Level 1

Kata Tenzen is unique (as far as I know).  It is the only kata I have ever encountered that has totally peaceful connotations; nowhere within its fifty four steps is there a closed fist, a strike, punch or kick.  There are no holds, twists, locks or breaks, neither are there any pain compliance techniques.  Every response to violence is totally peaceful, from simple evasions, checking, guiding and redirection strategies through to peaceful trapping and releasing techniques.  The kata teaches a powerful message that not all assaults demand a destructive or debilitating response.  In my work I have seen many assaults and the majority have been relatively low key born of loss of control in the moment, frustration, agitation, anger, a short outburst that can be quickly calmed.  This kind of violence I call ‘reactive’ violence, it is a reaction to some underlying cause, trigger, event or stimulus that engenders high emotion.  In the average person’s world we can simply walk away from this kind of violence or talk.  

Another kind of violence, that which I call ‘intentional’ violence is different in nature.  In all cases of intentional violence one has to draw a line and say “No, you cannot do that to me, I will not allow you to do that to me, you are violating my fundamental right not to be hurt by you.”   A more extreme form of intentional behaviour that is fortunately comparatively rare, represents a whole different ball game; that which often gets to be called ‘predatory’ violence.  I should mention that there is a pre-emptive stage before this that you should not forget;  don’t be there.

Tenzen Level 2

At first glance Kata Tenzen would seem to have its low key uses albeit limited; however, this is not the whole story regarding Tenzen.  The peaceful nature of Tenzen is wonderful, but it must be used appropriately in accord with a sound assessment of the situation.  If used inappropriately, that is against the relatively rare ‘predatory’ assailant, your response will leave the attacker totally unharmed and he will simply turn and wipe the floor with you.

I have from time to time alluded to the fact there are ‘hidden’ techniques within Tenzen that are not at all ‘peaceful’ but have rarely gone further on the grounds that my idealistic standpoint leads me to protect Tenzen as a peaceful response form alone.  After all we have other old classical kata with martial connotations that serve well to teach us how to make an assailant’s day extremely distressing and with a wish that he had stayed in bed.

However, I cannot deny reality because of an idealistic standpoint.  I probably don’t even need to express my thoughts regarding this matter, for any thinking Shinseidoka will be able to recognise much of what I am about to say for him or herself; and one thing we teach our members is to be possessed of an ability to assess situations, to be analytical and to think independently and logically.  Our members are not good at kou tou-ing to a sensei (don’t I know it) and that makes me very happy.  Being a sheep and having respect are different things altogether. 

I think anyone who has seriously studied Kata Tenzen will have realised the potential for taking things further than the kata suggests.  Every move throughout the kata puts the practitioner in an ideal position to continue the response into a succession of strikes and kicks or a lock, takedown etc.  It is worth checking this out for yourself; work through the kata and for every of the fifty four steps, once the seito (orthodox) move has been completed, add on techniques that you feel would be appropriate from the position you are in, in order to neutralise the attack.  This will hone your visualisation skills too.

Tenzen Level 3

However, there could be a problem with the ‘predatory’ attacker.  The process I have just described is all well and good and would probably work in most situations.  It still lacks one important aspect that is fundamental to Shinseido: Time.  A majority of assaults come from some emotional hiccup and so are easy to recognise before the event.  The ‘predator’ is a different beast and may not show any intent at all before the moment he strikes.  This is a problem with the reality being it will take a trained practitioner ⁷/₁₀ of a second to respond to the assault and maybe a whole lot longer for an untrained person with no conditioned reflex mechanisms in place.  ⁷/₁₀ of a second is a very long time in this kind of situation.  Maybe not even enough time to intercept the attack with any kind of defence.  All those years of ‘blocking’ a pre-arranged long range attack going straight down the pan.  If only there were a way of getting some stopping technique in, in the moment we respond, that may just buy us time to see our defence through successfully; maybe a distracting technique, better maybe a weakening technique, better still the mythical “one punch kill” technique.  I am not about to tell you how to achieve the one punch finish response because I would think myself very lucky if I ever achieved that.  However, the fact is Tenzen has this one move response built into it.  Look again at each successive move and reflect upon how the initial peaceful movement can become both a defensive movement and also a counter offensive movement all at the same time without any significant change to the shape and nature of the movements. 

You are already switched into the right mode of response because your training has programmed you to adopt a situational mind-set.  When I am at home and one of my dysfunctional family members (believe it) decides to jump out on me, wop me or whatever, in a deliberately predatory manner, (remember Clouseau and Kato?) despite the inconvenience I am still in my peaceful mind set.  I love my family members very much and would never wish to harm them, and so my response is peaceful.  If I am at work and someone looses it and becomes violent (I often work with people with learning disabilities or mental health problems), I am in my peaceful mode.  However, if I am in a public situation the peaceful mindset is tempered with the realisation that any stranger could assault me with intent to kill or maim.  That realisation quite simply changes my preparatory mindset.  My response mechanism is primed and ready to deal with an attack situation on a higher level. 

Back to Kata Tenzen and its built in simultaneous defensive and counter active movements.  Take each successive step and this time examine how the associated hand movements can represent a simultaneous defence and counter strike.  For examples (and remembering that steps 1-3 are preparatory in nature) take steps four and five the evasive steps with guiding hands.  It is easy to see how the leading hand can be directed to the face of the assailant rather than to redirect his upper arm.  The lead hand takes on the job of looking after the upper arm.  Step six, the stranglehold release over and under becomes two single knuckle thrusts to the eyes (for example) followed by a left hand control and right lead hand thrust to the face.  Work through the kata move by move and examine if it is possible to interpret the move as a simultaneous defence and counter.

Conclusion

In the case of both level 2 and level 3 responses the counters should be pursued until the situation has been neutralised.  Don't get into the training habit of just doing one of something and expecting it to do the job.  Get into the continuation mindset of not stopping until the threat has been eliminated.  This is the reason for practising our buttataku waza (destruction method).  Simply stick this onto the end of any single counter and you have the mindset required to finish the job.  Ultimately you will be able to follow through with your own instinctively triggered counters.

Note:  Buttataku literally means: to beat vigorously; to rain strikes upon someone; to tan someone's hide; to mercilessly pummel; to beat the daylights out of.