Everyone who’s taken kendo for more than a month or so has some familiarity with the kirikaeshi drill. Like most things in kendo, there are many hidden elements in it. You can learn valuable lessons in kirikaeshi if you do it correctly, and you can also learn a lot if you do it wrong.
As they say, learning from one’s mistakes is the best way to learn. Fortunately, I’ve had many good teachers. Some people may dispute what I’m about to share, but I think these concepts are worth discussing.
Kirikaeshi is a drill with 21 strikes to the men (head). Of those 21 strikes, 18 are parried. Sometimes motodachi parries. Sometimes they don’t. I think some of the “unwritten rules of kendo” come into play when discussing parrying in kirikaeshi. Here are some perspectives.
In kendo, many have heard of the terms sempai and kohai. Sempai often refers to someone who started kendo before you while kohai refers to someone junior to you. Within the dojo, the sempai kohai relationship is set for life. Even if someone who was your kohai attains a higher rank than you, you are still their sempai and they, your kohai.
There’s a hierarchy in the dojo. Sensei at the top, then sempai, then kohai. Knowing your place in the dojo’s hierarchy is important because it subtly permeates everything. Even kirikaeshi.
What I’m about to say applies to all practicing with a sensei, but I’ll limit the discussion in this post to kirikaeshi.
When you’re doing kirikaeshi with a sensei, they are expecting you to do your best technique. Sometimes, a sensei will not parry your yoko-men strikes to show you that your strikes are not accurate. They do this because they want to point out the error you’re making in your technique. It’s very helpful when they do this. The same can not be said if you do not parry your sensei’s strikes when you are motodachi in kirikaeshi.
One sensei in Japan explained it was an “insult” to the sensei when a student did not make their maximum effort. Nobody wants to insult a sensei. Not parrying can be perceived as an insult in a couple of different ways.
By not parrying in kirikaeshi, you’re not doing an important part of the drill. You’re not making the most of the training opportunity. This lack of effort is an insult to your sensei.
Another insult is that by not parrying, you are essentially telling your sensei their technique needs improvement. I think you can see how this could be a bad idea. Some of the worst poundings I’ve received have been during kirikaeshi when I didn’t parry.
One Japanese sensei in particular made it very clear how he felt about me not parrying: we repeated kirikaeshi a few times more than everyone else and when I didn’t parry, he proceeded to make each strike exceptionally precise and sharp. Ouch. By not parrying, I felt I was emulating him as he didn’t parry for me. Little did I realize his interpretation of my actions. He explained it to me later. That was an incredibly hard lesson, but an important one: don’t insult a sensei.
In some dojos, sempai hold similar attitudes toward their kohai. They want maximum effort and will be insulted with anything less. Sempai can also feel insulted when kohai don’t parry during kirikaeshi. It may not be fair, but it is what it is.
From my observations, there are also some dojos that run a modified version of kirikaeshi where the first set of 9 yokomen are received without parries. The second set is parried. There are lots of variations in kirikaeshi and in dojos, so not all sensei or sempai will feel insulted if a student or kohai doesn’t parry during kirikaeshi. That being said, depending on where you go, there are some who will be insulted with a lack of parrying, so you should be aware of this.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this post. If you would like to share your thoughts on this, please leave a comment. Thank you!