Tsuri-Nuki

This time please allow us to introduce 釣抜 (tsurinuki), a tennuki technique.

But before that, I’d like to shred light on the circumstances around 釣抜 (tsurinuki).

The situation is as follows: we meet someone and greet them. When doing so, they start reaching for their sword. 釣抜 (tsurinuki) is the technique to deal with that kind of situation.

Well then, let’s perform 釣抜 (tsurinuki).

First, we’ll perform 真の礼 (shin no rei).

While we’re performing 真の礼 (shin no rei), the opponent puts their hands on their sword.

There, we, too, place our hands on the sword, reverse it and while we draw it upwards cut their forearm. Then we go into seigan.

After the 残心 (zanshin), we perform chiburui and noutou.

We are not limited to a certain 納刀 (noutou). This time let’s perform 転柄血振るい (tenkachiburui) and then 逆手納刀 (sakatenoutou).

Please watch from the side.

First perform 真の礼 (shin no rei).

After the 真の礼 (shin no rei), place your hands on the sword, reverse it and draw it to the front.

We draw it to the front, but midway we go upwards and cut the opponent’s forearm.

After cutting up, assume 青眼 (seigan) and take 残心 (zanshin).

Now please watch from the other side. Bow down, reverse the sword, cut up. At this time please make sure to raise your arm about until your ear can be seen again.

Regarding the head’s positioning, since we can check on our enemy from this position just with upturned eyes, please make sure not to raise your head.

Please let me explain a few things about the noutou you should be wary about.

In 釣抜 (tsurinuki) this time but also during other techniques, we have this reverse drawing movement. In this case, if you do the noutou just like that, it won’t work due to the sword curvature and the flipped saya. Therefore you always need to return the saya to its original position.

In Tenshinryuu in order to check whether the saya is flipped or not, we simply run along the saya with our left hand and check whether or not the 栗形 (kurikata) is there.

If we touch the saya with our left hand and there is no kurikata, the saya is upside-down, so here we’ll make sure to turn it around.

As we keep on training, even without checking on the kurikata like this, we become able to tell simply from the rule of thumb “during this technique the saya gets turned upside-down” and will automatically turn around the saya again.

On the current level where your body might not have that kind of experience or memory yet, please make sure to check on the kurikata with your left hand and perform the noutou going by the rule of turning around the saya whenever the kurikata isn’t there.

Also, you might be tempted to actually look at the saya like this to check whether it’s flipped or not. If you do that, you’ll lose sight of your opponent, which is very dangerous. Please be sure to not do that and instead incorporate checking with your left hand whether the kurikata is there or not and then returning the saya to do the noutou into your normal training.

Please allow me to explain the meaning of the name 釣抜 (tsurinuki).

The 釣り (tsuri) in 釣抜 (tsurinuki) means “fishing” as in “fishing a fish”.

After cutting the opponent’s forearm upwards, the arm in this posture represents the fishing rod and the sword the thread. Then regarding where we actually cut with the sword as the prey, this entire form resembles that of going fishing, and thus we call this technique by the name of 釣抜 (tsurinuki).

I’m now going to explain what to be careful about when cutting the opponents forearm.

I bow down and my opponent reach for his sword. In this very moment I reverse mine own and cut his forearm upwards. At this time it’s important to stop right here.

You might be tempted to think: “Isn’t it fine if I just cut all the way up?”, but here is where the peculiarity of this technique shows.

We stop right here where we just cut right into the arm. In Tenshinryuu we refer to this as “cutting to inflict the pain of getting your fingers squashed in a door”.

If you cut up without stopping, regardless of whether or not you hit the forearm, the sword will run into the opponent’s throat or face. Also, when they raise their sword your sword will end up going down here.

Tossing around your cut does bring several demerits with it.

With this technique we are not seeking to kill the opponent. Therefore, thoroughly cut the forearm, then stop while taking into account your opponent’s situation. This contains the meaning of 活人剣 (katsujinken – “life-saving sword”).

Even if you have the desire of doing a strong cut, make sure to automatically let the kissaki move by only raising your arm and your fist up high to cut your opponent’s forearm and then stop.

Please continue your training as you keep those things in mind.