Shu-ha-ri didactics, or the stages of assimilation through Kata.

C. Barioli

The education method as expressed in the practice of Kata is summarized in the expression shu-ha-ri . The first to talk about it was Kawakami Fuaku (1784 – 1855) founder of the cha-no-yu school Edo-senke; but it is implied in the teaching of Zeami Motokiyo (1363 – 1443) the creator of noh theatre.

In Japan the ceremony of tea: chanoyu (hot water for tea), sado , or chado , is a ritual influenced by zen Buddhism in which the green tea powder ( matcha ) is brewed by an expert and served to a few guests in a calm atmoshere. In this event it is possibile to trace religious and aestethic experiences which influenced Kimono, calligraphy, flower arrangement, ceramics, incense.

A striking feature of chanoyu is that at the end of civil wars (1600) it was a prerogative of the warrior class, while today it appeals mostly to the female world.

Out of the traditions of Chinese circus and religious dances was born dengaku , an elegant and refined art. The shogun's patronage allows Motokiyo Zeami (1363 – 1443) to emphasize its “quiet elegance” thus giving birth to noh . This is a traditional style in Japanese theatre marked by a religious and aristocratic conception of life. It consists in essential and symbolized lyric drama: sounds and gestures are stylized.

By Zeami, actor, author often compared to Shakespeare, and founder of a school still in activity we have an Italian translation of Fushi-Kaden : passing on the flower of Interpretation, contained in Il Segreto del Teatro No – Adelphi 1966.

Nowadays shu-ha-ri is applied to schools of painting, dance, calligraphy and, with some difficulties, to budo. I mention difficulties because:

•  judo was born out of kata and randori , but the sport made this forgotten.

•  Some iai groups try to talk about it

•  Aikido applies it with too much elegance to achieve some effectiveness

•  Karate plays with it without a real trust

•  Usually, this method is not rewarding for teachers

From the dissertation of Keiichi Takawa: On the connections between imagination and education: philosophical and pedagogical perspectives :

In Japanese traditional arts, it is commonly said that the ideal path of learning is a three-stage progression of shu, ha, ri, which means:

- 1) copy masters' kata or their ways of performing/doing,

- 2) breaking with masters' kata; but at this stage, learners have not totally achieved their own style in that they are trying to break free of their master's influence (they are psychologically not independent yet),

- and 3) the creation of their own kata

(cf. Minamoto, pp.30-31; also, Ikuta, pp. 45-47).

To give a definition of shu-ha-ri , we propose not as similar but as analogous the following points: a passive study , then an active experience and finally an accomplishment .

The kata is a synthetic rappresentation of the art, where the deep experiences of the school are expressed. The first formulation may seem determinant; but the subsequent interpretations, maintaining the appearance, add experience, deepening the analysis of reality. In this way the school goes beyond the limits of the individual who created it and acquires value in time.

For those who practise judo: the canonical kata were born out of the intuition of a profound reality and are performed with excusable imprecisions. But those who have practised them for a long time have gained an experience which appears in the subsequent transmission, therefore in the continuity of the form there is a higher awareness.

In relationship with zen, Transmission is something “that must change so that everything remains as before”: there is an essential continuity concerning the spirit (kata) and this must remain; and there is a superficial change due to the passing of time (when staying in the same place) or the change of place (as in Japanese zen in the Western world).

Some Chinese parable has “condensed” the process of learning saying that to become a master you must kill your master. Somebody accuses teaching of plagiarism, thus you have to break free to be yourself.

It is told that tha stage “shu” is long, the following “ha” is hard and the last one “ri” is rebirth.

Such issues cannot get attention in our approximate and standardized school system. Nevertheless sometimes a student finds his “master”, a figure that is going to be with him his whole life, a source of imitation and energy; maybe the student will surpass his master.

These episodes, we have heard about, suggest that the event is natural, though rare. By recognizing its mechanism we can make it more frequent, benefiting study results.

In the arts, craftsmanship and traditional Eastern disciplines the transmission process is for an elite. Mr Kano's judo offers this process to large numbers, with the suggestion to pay more attention in order to employ it for the Best Use of Energy.

“ Shu ” comes from the verb “mamoru”: defend, protect; keep, observe, obey; abide by; stick to; be true to .

It is the stage of technical understanding; comprehension of tradition.

The master shows the form, the pupil pays the utmost attention to his gestures and then reproduces it adjusting it to his own body. It is exactly this extreme accuracy which implies adjusting.

This stage requires “observation”, “complete devotion”, “intelligence”.

The observation is not what is suggested by scientific tradition but “complete participation”.

During this stage the pupil has no objection, no questions to ask.

In the essay " Kata to Nihon Bunka " (Kata of Japanese Culture) professor Minamoto Ryoen (1920 - ) historician and sociologist says: shu is the stage where you reproduce the kata to absorbe the foundations of teaching. It is a passive study… When you consider how gekken has taken this stage from cha-no-yu you quote Chiba Susaku's words : “ Shu-ha-ri exists. Shu means ”protecting” that is “preserving the experience of the school” According to Itto-ryu this is the position seigan -low, for Munen-ryu it is the position seigan -common. This means you attack and strike from the basic position of the school or the school branch you belong to.

Chiba Susaku (1794 – 1855) founded Hokushin-itto-ryu: he promoted shinai-shiai, that is competition with bamboo swords; he had women armed with halberds face men armed with swords.

Shu is the elementary stage, the beginning of learning, addressed to the body. We relate this to “ushin” the condition of someone whose attention is focused on something.

Ryoen says: … it is not the simple act of observing as modern natural sciences require. The pupil perceives a hidden mastery and tries to imitate it, adjusting his gesture to the way he is (body and mind) …According to Zeami this was the first stage where learning is achieved only through imitation .

… as with children…

this is the elementary study, which in the Noh imitates gesticulation and takes into account only what is perceived by the five senses .

This stage of learning is based on example, on contact as body communication, on mental pictures. It is the stage of plagiarism and, if it becomes final, it leads to an exact imitation which, reproducing in subsequent generations, crystallizes the school. The repetition year after year mummifies the expert.

In judo we say: if at sixty, someone practices the same form he used to practice when twenty he is a zombie: a body without a spirit .

“ha” from “yaburu”: tear, rip, rend; break, crash, destroy; violate, transgress; defeat; baffle, frustrate .

Comes a time when certainties vanish and comprehension is adjusted.

Once form has been perfectly learned, when it has really got under the surface of conscience, kata is applied to life. In this stage form is ignored by conscience and reappears, as a creation of the unconscious, in the essence of fight –ki-. You experience the reunion between form and spirit, the centre of conscience, avoiding the obstacles you would meet with the mere listening of conventional lessons from a teacher at his desk.

In this stage the pupil has got no one to ask questions to. His mind is in the state of mushin where there is no place for desire or fear. It is in the present time, it is when his body creates action.

Let's go back to Minamoto Ryoen: How can you act while learning?

The kata being passed on to you has been in its turn received by the master, with his personality and his own experience drawn from the teaching received; it is natural that you find things which are not congenial to you. Nevertheless if you dwell too long upon the physical acquisition of the master's kata, without testing some of its parts in real occasions, you will limit you creativity. This makes real the need to “disform” the form and characterizes the “ha” period . Chiba Susaku in the Way of the Sword: “Ha” means to destroy, to abandon your previous objective and vision; there is no place in the “empty mind” for your master. The master himself proposes a separation to his pupil: he sends him to a contest, he proposes him a duel, he leaves him to the public, he exposes him to criticism. The pupil is gradually left alone with the kata to cling to, and yet it is not the fomal kata, but the experience of the masters of the past in a new circumstance, getting real through his personality and his body.

Everything is new, the kata gets real, the master is just a vanishing shade. To kill him means perceiving him on the leave and not turning to look at him.

It is a difficult time, a pupil can be under the illusion that success is mastery. How many times judo has lost its champions in such a circumstance!

Here is the final stage: “ ri ” from hanaru. To separate, part from, come off, become disjoined; digress; get free; become estranged; be 3 miles away…

It is yearning for freedom both for the master and the pupil. It is birth; we have two bodies facing reality separately. Kata re-establishes its power on a former pupil, now an expert who may become a master.

In this final stage the question is legitimate and the answer rises from within.

But it is not the repetition of the kata that the pupil would observe so intensely in his master expression. It is a lived kata, at least in some details,which sometimes can be outwardly alike but it is inwardly different: at first it would get laboriously to the pupil now it springs naturally from him.

According to zen: In the beginning the mountain is a mountain and the river is a river, then mountains are not mountains anymore nor is the river; but in the end mountains are still mountains and so is the river .

In the Posthumous Work of Chiba Susaku : how to classify Masters; “Ri” means to part from, to go away, denying”shu” as well as “ha” without a chance to get back to the past, nothing higher to aim to .

It is not hard to recognize these stages in the Western world.

The student carefully studies the past; in physics he follows theoretically and in the laboratory previous experiences, the same as a kata. He can be satisfied with this accomplishment and simply repeat formulas and laws all his life.

Or he can try to go further, working in the world of industry where he will face production and organization problems, devoting himself to research achieving new interpretations of reality.

And once experienced, maybe he will add something new to the old formulas, or he will expose them in a new and better way.

Certainly the kata is not the subject for a competition (in physics or religion there aren't competitions on formulas and prayers) and the young people must understand what is its use and how it works. The kata competition requires the choice of a unified model, ignoring the relationship master/pupil and the experience.

When the model is steady, the experience is useless.

It would be a return to the Aristotelian ipse dixit or to the Ptolemaic creation.

Let's leave the last words to Minamoto Ryoen: the pedagogics of the model (kata) which gets complete through exercise (randori) requires balance. In the gekken of Jikishin-kage and Itto-ryu this training system is handled skilfully and Chiba Susake is its prophet. In modern times Kano Jigoro is the one who gave it life in judo…