The (Un)Reality of the Tanto

So, I was told a long time ago never to learn about knife fighting from someone who had not been harshly tested and was not a veteran of many knife fights.  I am not that guy.  I have never disarmed someone with a knife in a real situation.  A few blunted small tools have been taken away from weakened, partially sedated and cognitively altered individuals and most of the time I had additional people assisting me.  So, I might not be the guy you even want to read, and maybe you just want to go on to the next blog.  I’m okay with that, and sorry to have wasted your time.  Wannabe terrorists:  I actually tried to say very little of use.

The Tanto is one of the three main weapons of Aikido officially, but it is given much less weight than the Bokken or the Jo.  I think history and philosophy have conspired to reduce our knife work to questionable levels.  It is still required for the USAF Ikkyu test, and frequently asked for on Dan tests.  Think of this essay as a disclaimer, but also hopefully the start of a conversation.  Some of the new generation of Shihan are critical of our knife work, but little is being done to correct that.  The rich, deep systems for Jo and Bokken practices do not seem to have their Tanto counterparts in Aikikai.

The earliest videos I could find with Aikido using a Jo were from the 1950’s.  The 1930’s book by O Sensei actually had no mention of the Jo, but instead mentioned bayonets, rifles, and spears.  It is my belief that the technology changed during the war, but also that the American occupation of Japan led to a change in practice.  O Sensei’s eventual anti-government stances and the arresting of his religious advisor, the government sanctioned attempts to destroy his chosen religion and his enlightenments during the worst fighting of the war advocating peace undoubtedly played a role, but Aikido practice would have continued to be outlawed if students were routinely practicing Aikido with rifles and bayonets.  Rifles vanished, and Jo appeared within a few years of Japan’s surrender.  Atemi also became very de-emphasized post war.

I believe these above-mentioned factors also heavily changed what Aikido does for Tanto work.  Aikido practices had to be pasteurized to avoid ending up in trouble with the American military.  In the Second Doshu’s book on Aikido technique, he makes mention of three ways the Tanto is practiced:

1.       Uke has the Tanto, and Nage defends

2.       Nage has the Tanto, and throws or controls Uke

3.       Both have Tanto

This would seem to imply that there was a type of Tanto-suburi in Aikido at one point.  I have never come across another mention of the second type of practice, Tanto Nage, except in Tomiki Aikido (a style with extensive roots predating WWII and the American Occupation).  I have never seen Aikido teachers demonstrating the third type of practice.

In Budo, Tanto Dori is demonstrated, but the training manual mentions that these techniques are also useful against pistols.  I have my doubts.  One thing worth mentioning is that logistics and field conditions were not great prior to the end of WWII.  For example, in the Battle for Singapore, Japanese against the British, both sides were running out of food and ammunition hours before the surrender after only one week of fighting.  The front lines were treated with contempt by their superiors.  The Japanese were moving faster than their supply lines, and the British had not even stockpiled the necessary ammunition nor deployed the necessary number of soldiers to repel an attacking force, nor did the British even think the jungle was passable and built their defenses accordingly.  Field care of weapons was highly individual, and still an issue that had to be addressed years later in the war in Vietnam.  While there is some validity to the use of these techniques against firearms, the firearms and military of today are very different (far superior) from the early 1900s when O Sensei had his firearms training.  I strongly advise against trusting Tanto Dori against a pistol if you have any other choice.

The two weapons we make the most use in Aikido of are two-handed weapons.  A few movements like Hasso-Gaeshi and Tomae-Uchi exist in Jo, but these are not the primary way the Jo is used.  Bokken also have a handful of one-handed techniques, but again the hands are best working together and usually only a few inches apart.  Tanto work allows for a single-handed use of a tool and the second hand is not tied to the movements of the first.  Tanto is also different from the Jo and the Bokken in that it is not a weapon associated with an enlightened person:  Miyamoto Musashi is associated with the Bokken and Sword, Muso Gonnosuke with the Jo.  There is no Tanto-Do to my knowledge, but there is Kendo and Jodo (The Do implies a way of life and an enlightened path).  I have not heard of Tanto being given the veneration that the sword is.

The small size of the usual Tanto means it does not develop momentum.  Deep cuts or hard impacts do not come from the physics of the weapon, but rather the structure and strength of the user.  This is also different from the sword and the Jo.

Tanto has a few defining characteristics in most Aikido:

·                         A single edge and a point, with no gut hook or partial blade on the back edge.  Stripping motions on the back edge are relatively safe, as opposed to a two edged knife.

·                         6” roughly uniform blade length – a one inch long knife can kill, but it is difficult to strip with so little available leverage.  Techniques like Shihonage or Kotegaeshi Omote are possible at this length, but more dangerous with a one foot or longer blade.  (The Katana has a longer length, but a longer handle that is manipulated to do Shihonage safely.)

·                         Despite the text in Budo, Tanto-Dori does not necessarily take into account any projectile weapons.  If tanto really can be substituted for a pistol, then I would not want to pass a pistol in front of my abdomen with the barrel pointed at me for any length of time.  Again, Shihonage or Omote Kotegaeshi.

·                         No pommel, no hand guard or tsuba.  A longer handle or another grasping surface means someone else can manipulate the knife effectively in your grip.  Some other fighting knives have a skull crusher on the pommel, some will have a second spike or a second blade, some offer protection to the hand or an additional striking surface.  Some devices like the Kubaton keychains had a flexible attachment that would be harder to block and use for control.

Additionally, I did have a Japanese Kenjutsu student tell me that the Tanto is only used in the right hand and never in the left hand.  This might be true; I don’t know and it’s not how I practice.  This was not Musashi’s example, nor is this how knives are used in European, Filipino, Chinese, Okinawan systems…the list is probably very, very long.  Too many Tanto-Dori students do not pay attention to any danger from the second hand.  No paired weapons, no stick and knife, no shield and knife, no combination barehand hold and knife work…

We have a very determined practice of attack and defense.  The few knife attacks I have heard of, the few tools I have seen used in a fight; there was no warning.  No bad 70’s movie dialogue, “I’m gonna get all knifey and knife fight you with my knife!”  No telegraphing, threatening or posturing before the stab.  Even our ushiro techniques are threats rather than killing motions.

The Tanto is a very clearly and strictly defined tool, structurally not much different from a steak knife.  A knife or a shiv can be made out of anything (the Indonesian Kris traditionally has arsenic folded into the metal during forging), and then dipped in anything.  A prison guard I once worked with said he would rather be stabbed with “hand-forged metal, folded one thousand times” rather than the devices he had seen inmates come up with.

Knives are dangerous at close range.  A small motion can cut you badly, as opposed to a Jo, which is not as harmful when the distance is closed.  Many styles like to slash and stab and move continuously with multiple attacks.

Most of the Tanto-Dori taught now in Aikikai involves only the Uke has the knife (and only one knife, of a specific design and length), and makes a single, well announced, usually face-on attack, usually only with the knife hand.  The Uke is then controlled and pinned without injury, and then the knife is removed and retained by the Nage while the Uke is kept pinned.  Graduated responses are seldom taught.  Realistically, this may not be practical.

One source of concern for me is the difference in styles.  In the CAF, Ikkyo to Yonkyo appeared on every test, giving these pins the same weight and required practice time as Iriminage, Shihonage and Kotegaeshi.  Throws like Shihonage and Kotegaeshi often ended up in pins too.  Control techniques are not emphasized to this degree in other associations.  If you are someone who is better at a throw than a pin, you might not want to get down on the ground with an armed attacker.  You might well be better off disengaging and running.

Some people have borrowed from other styles to flesh out their own Aikido Tanto work.  The second rule for O Sensei’s practice is to be ready for an attack from any direction at any time.  Some of the very effective Jujitsu movements where both attacker and the attacked are laying on the ground are not effective for multiple attacker work but might save your life.

A couple of Aikido styles like to slash the brachial artery, causing the Uke to bleed to death in roughly five minutes and probably damage the triceps and biceps to the point the Uke will never handle a weapon effectively again.  At least, that is the physical motion made and most of the people I see doing this have no sense of what they are actually doing.  My Sensei was against mutilating someone pinned and helpless.  The law would also condemn such an action.

A small one-handed tool is, in my opinion, a more common weapon to come across than a long stick or a sword.  Tools are not less important or less common in combat today, the tool just might be a cell phone or a radio or a flashlight instead.

No one should study Aikido Tanto Dori and expect to be able to disarm a knife wielding attacker, let alone an attacker armed with a pistol.  So, if our knife work is so questionable, why do it? 

I learn to be at a disadvantage.  The students who try to block every punch or ignore every atemi now realize they need to move more when the practice knife comes out.  Every movement of someone’s hands is now treated as a potentially a deadly threat no matter how much bigger or stronger we are.  We get to re-explore the basics and fine tune them and become more aware of what our basics actually mean to us martially.  We get an additional stressor and learn to calm down and deal with it.  We learn to be aware of just one more thing and take it into account while we train.  Some movements need to be performed differently, but the physical principles and our mental approach should not be any different from our practice without weapons.  We learn a deeper level of awareness that hopefully leads us deeper into our practice in general.

So, for me, Tanto work is really not about the knife, it is about revisiting everything in Aikido.