Hey guys a question I picked up a copy of Carsten kuhn's 'ten ryaku no maki' and was browsing through it when I came across two kamae I haven't encountered before. One is called 'Ryuhyo no kamae' and the other is called 'Ryuhyo fusetsu no kamae.' I've not seen these taught in a class before and I also haven't found much online or in other books referencing them. I have two main questions 1. Which schools do they belong to? 2. What are the applications of them? Are they linked to any particular techniques or waza? Here are pictures if it helps
The top kamae is for when you throw your haduken. You must be grounded and have your tongue on the roof of your mouth for it to be effective. Gyokko ryu, though to answer your question.
Gyokko ryu has a lot of interesting kamae, mostly associated with mikkyo, so for the average practitioner, you may never come across them.
The picture that says Fusetsu is in fact hanin from the gyokko ryu I think and in more superstitious times was meant to represent a demon with the hand symbol to strike fear into the attacker, the fingers being the horns and in fact for some applications an actual mask in the hand can be used, a metal version can be used to block swords. The gap between the fingers can be used to control the attackers arm, to say rotate their arm so it moves from your inside to your outside.
The finger positions in Gyokko ryu are in(hand seals) used in mikkyo that mean different things. This is as SKH as I'll get, if you want more details ask a Japanese Shihan.
Ignore this lot, they are clueless. Obviously it is evidence that shows Metal to be far older than originally thought, context is important of course because this particular kamae can only be done in the front row of a concert.
Back in my days in the Bujinkan, before 1994, I was shown a way to distract/momentarily blind an opponent with the bottom posture. A small round object, like a small pebble, would be where the middle finger and ring finger is joined with the thumb, and then you would flick these objects from both hands towards the eyes.
Wow, I just realized... I've been doing Takamatsu-den for 30 years, albeit the first 1 year was a waste, since we were doing godai stuff.
you can see from this mask in Ninjutsu History and Tradition a resemblance to it and the hand position. http://www.bujinkan-brighton.co.uk/bb/wp-content/uploads/mask.jpg congrats GK on your 30 years!!
When I first started training buj around '95, Bo munthe days, we had a kamae kata. Bit of a masterbation I think. But it did show various kamae and that second picture was one of them. I remember it phonetically called 'rooso foosetsoo' but the retracted hand was more upright, a bit like doko Mind you in those days they pushed the 'elements' nonense, ie. 'this is a fire technique' 'This has an earthy feel to it...' Etc Edit: jeez it's coming back to me; hira- hira ichimonji- ichimonji- doko-ryuso- ryuso fatatsu-jumonji-???
Lol, I remember my teacher at the time used to always say with this kamae " your mother [ gets intimate] with donkeys"
He illustrated the 9 starting kamae in issue 8, the term "kamae no kata" was made up by Brian McCarthy of the BBD I think.