Mudra in the Martial Arts
by Wayne Muromoto
c. 1999. Special to Furyu Online

  One
  of the more curious things that I encountered in my martial arts
  training was the use of mudra in combative arts. Mudra
  (Japanese: in), for those who aren't familiar with them,
  are these weird hand gestures that are derived from esoteric
  Buddhism (mikkyo), particularly the Tendai and Shingon
  sects. These gestures are supposed to generate spiritual focus
  and power which then are manifested in some way externally.
  Unfortunately for the greater amount of martial artists in
  the modern budo (martial ways), mudra are not part of
  their training. Most <modern> budo are based in some
  way on modern concepts of physical education and sports training,
  and do not include, unless a particular teacher is himself/herself
  an adherent of a Buddhist sect, the use of esoteric Buddhist
  rituals, such as mudra, mantra (chanting or words of power),
  and mandala (inscriptions, paintings or scrolls that can
  create spiritual energy). This, by and large, includes judo,
  kendo, iaido, kyudo, karatedo, and even aikido as it is presently
  formulated.
  Ueshiba Morihei, the founder of aikido, was a devotee of a
  Shinto sect called Omoto-kyo, which made use of some unusual
  rituals, including the use of chinkon and kotodama
  and several body exercises to generate spiritual power (including
  a rowing motion with one's arms to project spiritual energy),
  but by and large, in my opinion, most of the esoteric nature
  of aikido goes back to Omoto-kyo and esoteric Shinto rituals.
  Although esoteric Buddhism and other sects such as Zen share
  the same goals, that of the salvation of the soul, their routes
  to this end differ somewhat. Mikkyo makes use of rituals and
  rites that go back to tantric sources, which some say predates
  Buddhism itself, and may even be as ancient as prehistoric magical
  shamanistic rites of Asia, as found in India, Tibet, China, Mongolia
  and Japan. Zen stripped Buddhism of the importance of these arcane
  rites, and instead focused on the intellect, on direct experience,
  in the emptying of the mind rather than of the filling up of
  the mind. I know that this is really a simplistic statement that
  does neither mikkyo or Zen much justice, but that's about as
  basic as I can get with the differences in this short span of
  pages. (Lest anyone get all upset in the mistaken notion that
  I'm taking sides, I prefer to be open-minded about all sects;
  my family was originally Soto Zen but sent me to Hongwanji and
  Jodo Shinshu temple schools to learn Japanese--which didn't work.
  But they also allowed Christian missionaries to preach to the
  neighborhood kids in our backyard, I attended a Baptist summer
  school once, and my Filipino and Porgtuguese friends even took
  me to Catholic church a couple of times. I'm really messed up.)
  In any case, I had known of the use of mudra in koryu
  (<old> martial arts) since the time I was privy to
  a discussion with the training master of the Tenshin Shoden Katori
  Shinto-ryu, Otake Risuke, and the late Donn F. Draeger. Otake
  sensei described some of the mudra used in his school, which
  is one of the oldest martial ryu still in existence in Kanto
  (Eastern) Japan.

  For us martial artists involved in the koryu, use of mudra
  sometimes explain some odd movements in the middle of kata that
  we cannot logically understand as being necessary in a particular
  fighting technique. In the case of the Katori Shinto-ryu, Otake
  sensei was replying to a query one of us observers had of a naginata
  form in which the naginata wielder pointed an open palm at a
  swordsman. We thought that if the distance was shorter, he'd
  have his hand cut off, so why introduce a needless opening? Because,
  Otake sensei said, in that palm, the naginata person had inscribed
  with a pass of his fingers a secret mikkyo sign to ward off evil
  spirits and then directed that force at the attacker. Of course,
  samurai being practical-minded warriors, they did so at a distance
  far enough away so that if the magic didn't work, their hand
  wouldn't get chopped off in the process.
  Otake sensei also described other mikkyo-derived rituals that
  his system used before a battle and even apart from martial arts
  in general, such as rituals used to heal people with various
  ailments and so on. Some years later, when I was training in
  the Takeuchi-ryu, my own sensei informed me that I had to place
  my fingers a certain way when returning the sword to its scabbard.
  I thought it was simply an affectation of our particular style,
  but he then told me that I was secretly inscribing a mudra with
  my fingers to finish the combat, to ward off evil spirits, and
  to offer prayers to the dead.
  <Even if the attacker was your enemy, once he's dead,
  he becomes a Buddha, so you should pray for his enlightenment,<
  my sensei said. <That is the compassion of a warrior. Battle
  is battle, so you had to slay him, but afterwards, pray for his
  spirit. That is the spirit of being a bugeisha.<
  The use of mudra and other aspects of mikkyo are found in
  many instances in many koryu, because mikkyo and Shinto were
  the religions of the samurai who founded those ryu that were
  created before the 1600s. Subsequent ryu developed after the
  imposition of the Tokugawa government were heavily influenced
  by Neo-Confucianism, and then later by Zen Buddhism. Although
  Zen was popularized among the warrior class in the Kamakura period,
  the 1300s, it did not greatly affect martial arts until the latter
  part of the Edo Period, with the writings of the Zen priests
  Takuan and Hakuin. And even at that, Edo Period (1600-1868) martial
  arts were equally influenced by Neo-Confucianism and even, in
  the latter part, mystical Shinto.
  When Japan modernized, the modern derivatives of martial arts,
  the -do forms, needed spiritual underpinnings that were
  not as particularized or esoteric as mikkyo, so Zen became widely
  adopted because many of its practices and philosophies, such
  as zazen, could be taken out of context and used as part
  of a training regime without having the practitioner necessarily
  needing to become a devout Zen Buddhist. Budo, with Zen underpinnings,
  could therefore become a national and international pastime without
  regards to religious affiliation.
  The same, in some way, holds true of the koryu; you do not
  necessarily have to be a card-carrying member of a particular
  religious organization. But it does require a certain suspension
  of beliefs, or at the very least, an acceptance of different
  ways to understand the spiritual universe for non-Buddhists.
  Can you be a devout Christian and still do koryu that are influenced
  by mikkyo? I have friends that do so, and they don't have much
  conflict with that, but they are what I would call <general>
  Christians who belong to mainstream sects, such as Protestantism.
  They can accept the possibility that the rituals they perform
  in practice may not be part of the Christian orthodox beliefs,
  but neither is it the tool of the Devil. Mikkyo may, in their
  minds, be another expression of a universal belief in a spiritual
  world. (Even Jesuit priests, when I was living in Kyoto, visited
  Daitokuji, a Zen Buddhist temple, to learn zazen as perhaps another
  way to reach an understanding of God.) If, however, you are a
  fundamentalist and cannot accept a different cultural or religious
  interpretation of God, then you may have a difficult time correlating
  your beliefs with the use of mudra and other mikkyo practices
  and beliefs in koryu, and perhaps these martial arts are not
  for you.
  If any of you have seen those Star Wars movies, you
  will understand what kinds of power the samurai thought a knowledge
  of mikkyo may endow them with. In the recent movie, <The
  Phantom Menace,< Jedi Knights are supposed to be able to
  sense other people's thoughts, peer into the future, have a sixth
  sense of their surroundings, influence people by the use of their
  words, or gesture and send out an invisible force that can send
  objects flying through the air. These are similar to attributes
  that a skilled bugeisha would have, once he achieves a kind of
  martial enlightenment and develops his <ki> energy.
  Such power comes naturally out of martial training, if done properly,
  but only after devout and arduous commitment. I can't say I've
  seen a real manifestation of such powers in myself except in
  my dreams, although I have heard some of the oddest stories from
  several usually reputable sources of some very, very unexplainable
  powers wielded by martial arts masters in Asia. Quite naturally,
  these masters are not the ones you will read about in the latest
  issue of <Killer Kuh-rottee-Kick-Boxing-Kung-Fu and Pro
  Wrestling' Magazine.< They by and large eschew such tacky
  publicity and continue to remain somewhat in the shadows. And
  forget those bizarrre books written by New Agey aikido-ninja-karate
  types who claim that they can see <colors> and sense
  people's thoughts after one or two years of practice and no study
  of mikkyo thought. That's called living one's delusions. Real
  super-sensory powers from koryu training are more subtle than
  that and they obviously take much, much longer to develop.
  Mikkyo uses mudra most often in combination with various rituals,
  chants and so on. One common mudra is that of the <knife
  hand,< or shuto. The first two fingers are extended
  while the thumb and other fingers are clenched. If you look closely,
  you may see this movement subtlely hidden in some koryu kata,
  especially by old schools such as the Tenshin Shoden Katori Shinto-ryu,
  or in statues of divine Buddhist beings. This represents the
  sword of enlightenment, which cuts away all delusions. Sometimes
  the tips of the extended fingers are grasped in the fist of the
  other hand. There is a symbolic meaning for this, derived from
  mikkyo.

  Another common mudra is the kuji no in, or the nine hand
  signs used in conjunction with nine words of power that generates
  spiritual strength for the user. The two hands weave a series
  of nine gestures, at the same time you utter nine words derived
  from Sanskrit (bonji).
  Other than seeing a mikkyo priest or a koryu practitioner
  perform a mudra, you may even see it in a cheesy Japanese ninja
  movie or the like, because in popular culture, ninja were like
  magicians in the eyes of common people.
  There are tales, even in modern historical times, of some
  adepts who could shout (kiai) and knock down birds in
  flight. Then the mystical kiaijutsu master could shout again
  and awaken the birds from their stupor. Ueshiba, it is said,
  could dumbfound his attackers, literally disappearing from their
  view, by the use of his ki energy. Tai chi chuan masters are
  supposed to be able to repel attackers with their spiritual chi
  energy. Mudra, like these fantastic powers, are found in many
  koryu as part of their esoteric nature.
  That is why, too, I wince when I see karate students at a
  tournament who scream out a nonsensical <ki-yah!> or
  some sort of odd shout that they made up on their own. A kiai
  is different from a kakegoe. A kakegoe is a simple shout.
  A kiai is a shout, to be sure, but its older meaning is to <meet>
  (-ai) <each other's spiritual energy> (ki-). Each ryu,
  therefore, had special kiai that signified their own style's
  use of spiritual energy as expressed in a vocal explosion, or
  kiai. There were only specific sounds, such as <ei,>
  <toh,> <yah,> or so on, that had certain
  martial meanings in esoteric mikkyo, which were used in koryu.
  Kiai, therefore, were like secret mantras to the koryu; special
  words of power that should not be used lightly. When you did
  a kiai, you were directly attacking your opponent's spirit with
  words of power that would literally shock them into defeat. The
  kiai <yah,> for example, pronounced in a certain way,
  represented the force of a released arrow (in Japanese: ya).
  Your voice was supposed to penetrate the person's spirit like
  an arrow. The other kiai had other meanings and were used for
  specific movements.
  I earlier noted that most modern budo are bereft of mudra
  and other esoterica. But I am actually not so sure that they
  are totally without any mikkyo influence. Look at the karate
  kata Kusanku (Kosokun). The opening movement has sometimes been
  described to me as a stylized example of how to break a grip
  and strike an opponent's kidney area when he tries to bear-hug
  you. But in esoteric Shinto, a similar movement, with a hand
  clap, welcomes the Sun Goddess. By doing that movement in the
  direction of the rising sun, you absorb the sun's positive spiritual
  energy. Is it possible that there are other mudra and esoteric
  movements hidden in other karate kata? Okinawan karate, after
  all, was related to ancient Okinawan dance and court rituals,
  which themselves incorporated some aspects of Okinawan folk beliefs.
  I'm not sure and not even positive that this one example or any
  other has any real significance. I leave that up to you, the
  reader, to figure out.
  However, I digress. Besides the basic examples I have described
  above, I hesitate to actually describe the specific way some
  mudra are performed, because I don't think it's proper for anyone
  who doesn't know what he's doing to fool around with them. You
  should learn them from a proper instructor, a Buddhist minister,
  or the like, and not from some silly web site like this one.
  And the efficacy is also dependant on whether or not you truly
  believe it works.
  And let's put it this way, if mudra do really work, it would
  be like giving a loaded hand gun to a baby. After all, it wasn't
  called mikkyo (<secret teachings>) for nothing. Some
  of the methods were considered too dangerous for any old fool
  to learn. And if they don't really work because they are only
  superstitious traditions, then at the very least, some idiot
  is going to steal those techniques and start making up his/her
  own mish mash of esoteric mudra for their karate-gung-fu-jujutsu
  classes that would embarrass me and the other more straight-laced
  martial arts students.
  There is a danger here for anyone who is used to taking techniques
  and then making up their own <instant> koryu. Although
  my teacher was quite open about imparting some of the esoteric
  methods in my ryu to me, I had a discussion with a Shingon priest
  about the abuse of religion and religious ritual in today's society.
  He noted that if by chance such rituals truly do have spiritual
  signficance, then someone who abuses them will cause very negative
  energies to accumulate around him/her. The negative energies
  may not manifest themselves in the form of those horror movies,
  in which a monster appears from out of the netherworlds. But
  at the very least, a person's deceptive actions will eventually
  come home to roost and affect him in proportion to the wrong
  that he has committed. Woe be it to anyone who end up near that
  person, because they, too, will suffer from the fallout. Shingon
  also holds that unless you are properly trained, the powers that
  you attempt to channel may go out of control and consume you,
  which is why it stresses long years of priestly training before
  one can perform such rites.
  This danger extends not only to the abuse of mudra and other
  religious practices, but also to other aspects of the koryu,
  including the <stealing> of ryu techniques without
  permission, such as kyusho (weak points on the body),
  and then declaring it's your own style. --Or making false claims
  about your ryu in order to make more money or generate more publicity.
  Karma has a way of creeping up on you, whether you're Buddhist
  or not. In Christianity, we'd call it divine retribution.
  In any case, even if you practice only a modern budo, you
  should bear in mind that many of the rituals and practices arose
  out of older, more esoteric forms and movements. That being the
  case, modern budo is therefore more than just punching and kicking,
  or seeing who can beat up who. Even with a more practical, scientific
  foundation, budo's highest goals were to develop a more humane
  individual, not necessarily a better fighter. Its origins lay
  partly in a very religious, spiritual world view, in which even
  the direction you walked, the steps you took, the way you held
  your fingers and hand, could create a ripple in the fabric of
  the spiritual universe. That's quite a responsibility, don't
  you think?