Menuki (what?)

A fellow student and I recently discussed the placement of menuki as part of a sword's koshirae. The question at hand was whether menuki were actually placed to align with the palm of the hands on the tsuka. None of the iaito in our dojo had the menuki placed thus, but that constituted only anecdotal evidence. Ross' book 'In Search of Mishima's Sword' claims that real swordsman placed the menuki to support grip, but he doesn't cite a source, making it hard to establish the veracity of his claim. So I went looking elsewhere, and came across this reference, which states that:

"From a pure functionalist point of view, menuki was basically born out of rather pragmatic demand to serve primarily as “mekugi osae” or the cover (or lid) over mekugi pin. Examinations of old Kara-tachi and Kazari-ken koshirae made in Nara through early Heian periods, such as the ones in Shosoin Museum and Tokyo National Museum, tend to confirm this functional origin of menuki among the earliest styles koshirae. (See Ogasawara, 1994 for photos.)

However, soon its secondary function to serve as a pair of ornaments began to be emphasized equally (Suzuki, 1995). Additionally, many other “latent functions (i.e., not originally intended or obvious but still important eu-functions)” were discovered (e.g., tactile indicators to tell the correct orientation of the edge or correct “tenouchi,” palm swells, status/rank symbols, religious charm, etc.). Then over the course of the evolution of Nihon-to koshirae, those secondary and latent functions of menuki seem to have taken over its “manifest function (i.e., originally intended and well recognized purpose)" completely."

This offers an explanation of sorts.  

My Daemon 'Hermonystra'

I've just finished reading Northern Lights, filmed as The Golden Compass. Visiting the movie site, principally to see if they were making the sequels, I realised I could answer some questions and get my own daemon, so I did. You'll have to read the book to know what that means, but here she is nonetheless...cute, huh? And the description of me is spot on. Right? Right!?

Places of note

I've come across a great blog for those of you interested in reading about ancient Japan written by 'Nagaeyari, an amateur historian with an interest in early Japanese history'. Ancient Japan is full of snippets of information, as well as a serial introduction to Japanes history from the (almost) mythological past through to more recent events. The Samurai Wiki is another great resource. This wiki has a number of interesting links, including to the Samurai Archives History Journal, a soon-to-be-published journal on that topic we all know and love. Guidelines for authors are included for all those professional and amateur history buffs out there. Frog in a Well/Japan is another informative blog, and it includes plenty of links to sites that delve into all things oriental. Plenty of good reading. Subscribe using RSS and you'll always have something fascinating in your e-mail tray. I've included links to these sites in the Links section, for convenience.

The Problem With Synthesis

OK, here is my rant against journalistic fairness. The other day, I was listening to a journalist report both sides of the Climate Change debate. On the one hand, the journalist referred to statements from, amongst others, the IPCC panel, Ross Garnaut and Graham Pearman. On the other hand, the journalist listened to a range of other commentators, including representatives of the automative transport industry, leading businessmen and so on. The idea was to present a balanced view of the climate change debate; you know, 'is it due to human activity or not', 'will it have a significant impact on us', 'what can we realistically do about it?' I suppose journalistic integrity calls for both sides of an argument to be heard, but I think we're taking synthesis a little too far. Sometimes, one side really is just wrong. The irritating thing about this particular coverage was that one side (the side disputing the evidence for climate change) was appealing to ideology to justify its arguments. You know, something like, 'but when I was young we had terribly hot summers' or 'what about all the rainfall in Queensland at the moment'. When science was quoted, it was misquoted. 'The weather is cyclical and has been for forever', meaning of course that this time is no different. 

Well, look at the hard science, the facts, the things we observe and measure. Put aside the ideology. This is different. No cycle has ever been this dramatic before. No evidence exists, indeed, of any change in temperature or greenhouse gas levels that mimics what we're seeing today. Putting even that consideration aside, we know that the uptake rate of greenhouse gases by the deep ocean (which is the primary method of removal of these gases) is considerably slower than our rate of production. It isn't an issue for debate. It's just reality. So all those journalists who give the ideologues a voice to maintain journalistic integrity may as well be giving a voice on climate change to two year olds (apologies to all well informed two year olds who might be offended by this). Synthesis, this notion that both sides might have a point, is valid when we're talking about entirely subjective matter -- you know the sort of thing I mean: which movie is better; whether classical is worth listening to more than pop; whether crocodile really does taste like chicken -- but not when we're talking about observable phenomena. Anyone who argues that the sky isn't blue, despite the evidence to the contrary, isn't presenting a valid alternative view. They're just delusional.

Ichigo, Ichie (一期一会)

The term ichigo, ichie is inscribed on the side of my bokuto, just below the tsuba. I see it frequently, about half the time that I draw my bokuto from its saya, but I don't always notice it. Recently listening to an interview with Dave Lowry, the author of (amongst other things) 'Autumn Lightning: the Education of an American Samurai', I was reminded of the ichigo ichie concept and why I'd had it put in such an overt place. 

Ichigo, ichie is literally 'one time, one meeting', but it might also be interpreted as 'one moment, one life' or 'one chance in  lifetime'. [1] In the interview, Lowry was using the concept specifically to emphasise the distinction between western fencing and Japanese fencing: in particular, that western fencing tends towards a battle of attrition, with fencers succumbing to prolonged blood loss from many deep cuts and lacerations, while Japanese fencing tends towards short and brutal. 

But Ichigo ichie is clearly of broader relevance to martial artists. For example, it shapes our attitude to the practice of koryu. When we practice kata, we must respond to the moment that is and not to the moment that was or that might be -- in other words, we need to avoid the tendency to intellectualise during the event, to pause and analyse, or to deconstruct as if deconstruction makes sense within a kata that is sensible only as a whole. Furthermore, each kata in Tatsumi ryu [2] ends with a moment of zanshin, a state of relaxed alertness. In zanshin, we are open to the moment and what it holds, not revelling in our victory or thinking of the battle's end. Again, this is a perfect embodiment of the idea of ichigo ichie.  

Ichigo ichie extends to guiding our everyday attitude. We experience each moment only once, and so we should live within it, notice it, respond to it as if it is the only moment we will know. The message is simple and yet, in our hectic lives, we seem to regret and hope, when we might just be. I'm as prone to this as the rest, and so I had the characters engraved on my bokuto. Now all I have to do is notice them when I see them. 

[1] See Dave Lowry's article here for further discussion. 

[2] Keeley, L 1999. 'The Tojutsu of Tatsumi Ryu, Murphy's Law, and the K.I.S.S. Principle', Sword and Spirit: Classical Warrior Traditions of Japan v2, Berkeley Heights, NJ:Koryu Books 

iPhone and iPod Touch -- less can be more

OK. I finally went out and bought an iPod Touch. I'm an Apple fan (I guess) and I've always wanted a pda/iPod converged device (I would have bought an iPhone, but Australia still hasn't received it -- officially, at least). Since I've bought it, I've received a litany of 'this is why the iPhone/iPod touch is crap' from people who don't own either. In response to this, I'm about to voice my opinion on this ill-informed and unwanted rhetoric. So, here are the arguments and my rebuttals:

1. The iPod Touch (iPhone) is rubbish because it doesn't do x, where x is anything from GPS to record video to cut-and-paste to have a SD card slot. Clearly the iPhone doesn't do everything. Now, I'm not an everything type of guy. I don't cary a Swiss Army Knife in my pocket. I drive a car that doesn't have climate control or seat warmers or an mp3 player or an electrochromic rear vision mirror. But even if I were, this argument is specious. Just  because something does three times as much doesn't mean it's three times as good. In fact, functionality count is almost completely unrelated to utility. Ever tried using a Swiss Army Pocket Knife to build a fence? Ever bought an all in one drill/saw/angle grinder? Why not? Because sometimes, more is less. The iPhone is a great device not because it does lots of things, but because it does what it does well. It is designed with the human in mind, with use in mind, not with an exhuastive feature list in mind. Its usability is supported by the significant rise in the iPhone as a mobile browser: it has achieved something like 0.13% of all browsing market share within 6 months of its release. Compare that to the approximately 0.06% achieved by Microsoft mobile over the last 10 years. See the figures as of January 2008 if you don't believe me. Why? Try browsing on the iPhone or the iPod touch and you'll find out.

2. The iPod/iPhone touch is rubbish because it's a generation 1.0 device. In other words, it has a whole host of problems and omissions that will never be fixed, and the next version of the device will therefore be better. If the iPod Touch were like most other mp3 players (and if the iPhone were like most other phones), this would be true, because then its feature set would be etched in stone from the day it was sent into production. But it is more like an Apple computer: with each update to the OS, new features and functionality are added. When it first came out, the two devices lacked the ability to support GPS-like location in Google maps. As of update 1.1.3, they now have that capability. When the iPhone first came out, it couldn't send multiple SMS messages. Now it can. At the moment, they don't have a cut-and-paste function. They soon will. Unlike most equivalent products, these two devices are evolving with each update, becoming easier to use, adding new features, but never aiming for Swiss-Army-Knife-levels of functionality.

3. There are no applications to add to the iPod touch or iPhone. Suggesting, of course, that this indicates that the iPod Touch/iPhone is not feature rich enough already. First off, refer to point 1 above, and consider that most of the apps (which, of course, are available, despite peoples' claims) are games and things that are, ultimately, more for amusement value than anything else (of course, my opinion only). Secondly, a vibrant third-party apps community with hundreds of apps exists for the iPhone and iPod Touch, post jail breaking. Thirdly, an SDK is due out this month which will see the rise of officially supported apps. Fourthly, webApps already provides additional functionality through a web interface.

4. The IPhone isn't 3G. Of course, this doesn't apply to the iPod Touch, but nevertheless, the argument is: it isn't 3G, so it's slow. Perhaps it is slower than a broadband connection at home, but try browsing on the 3G N95, and you'll find that it isn't so much about the connection speed as it is about the speed of browser rendering. The lack of 3G is one aspect of the iPhone that won't be changed until version 2 is released, but unless it is vitally important for you to send streaming video or very large images any second of the day, this really isn't an issue. Browsing is fine, and e-mail is more than fast enough. And of course both devices support wifi, and when you're attached to wifi, 3G really is the poor alternative. 

5. The virtual keypad doesn't work properly -- it's too slow. The spelling correction on the iPhone/iPod Touch, plus the predictive key enlargement, make typing a breeze. I have had several phones, including a Palm Treo with full keyboards, and they are no faster. Try it first. Like anything, you need to get used to it to really appreciate its effectiveness. 

So, given all this, is there anything wrong with the iPhone or iPod touch? Of course. They're comparatively expensive. It might be argued that they (the iPhone in particular) has too little storage (although if you want your entire music collection on the go, get an iPod Classic). And finally, they aren't completely compatible with older accessories. But having used the iPod Touch for some time, I can say that it is probably the most effective converged mp3 player/pda I've ever seen. Try one for more than  few days and you'll discover that less really can be more.