Aside from magical spells, the alchemical practice most widely found
in Japanese martial arts is embryonic breathing (taisoku [125]). Daoist
texts associate breath with a cosmogonic material life force known as qi
[126] (chi,Japanese ki) and teach special breathing methods as a means of
cultivating the youthful vigor and longevity derived from this force. Mar-
tial art treatises teach that mastery of this material force enables one to
control and defeat opponents without relying on physical strength. Hakuin
Ekaku [127] (1685–1768), an influential Zen monk, helped popularize em-
bryonic breathing by publishing a description of it in his Yasen kanna[128]
(Evening Chat on a Boat, 1757; translated by Shaw and Schiffer 1956). In
this work, Hakuin describes how he relied on Daoist inner contemplation
(naikan [129]) to congeal the ocean of qi within the lower field of cinnabar
(tanden [130]; i.e., lower abdomen) and thereby restore his own health af-
ter he had become ill as a result of excessive periods of Buddhist sitting Zen
(zazen [131]) meditation. Hakuin said that he learned these techniques in
1710 from a perfected Daoist (shinjin [132]) named Hakuyû [133] who
was then between 180 and 240 years old. The fact that Hakuin and his dis-
ciples gave firsthand instruction in these breathing methods to many
swordsmen is often cited by historians as a link between Zen and martial
arts (e.g., Ishioka 1981, 180–181). One must not overlook, however, the
clear distinction in Hakuin’s writings between Buddhist forms of Zen med-
itation and Daoist techniques of breath control.
Hakuin’s methods of breath control came to form a core curriculum
within the Nakanishi [134] lineage of the Ittô-ryû[135] style of fencing.
Swordsmen in this lineage labeled instruction in embryonic breathing the
Tenshin(Heavenly True) transmission. Tenshin [136] (in Chinese, Tian-
zhen) is the name of a Daoist deity who, according to the Baopu zi,first dis-
covered the technique for prolonging life by circulating breath among the
three fields of cinnabar and who then revealed these secrets to the Yellow
Emperor. A fencer in this lineage, Shirai Tôru Yoshinori [137] (1783–1843),
wrote perhaps the most detailed account of how embryonic breathing is ap-
plied to martial arts in his Heihô michi shirube[138] (Guide to the Way of
Fencing; see Watanabe 1979, 162–167). Shirai defined Tenshin as the orig-
inal material force (qi) of the Great Ultimate and as the source of divine
cinnabar (shintan [139]; i.e., the elixir of immortality). Shirai asserted that
his mastery of Tenshin enabled him to project qi out the tip of his sword
blade like a flaming aura. His instructions for duplicating this feat, how-
ever, are so cryptic and laden with Daoist alchemical vocabulary that they
are impossible to understand without direct guidance by a teacher.
While Daoist breathing techniques remain popular to this day, the sin-
gle greatest Chinese influence on Japanese martial arts undoubtedly was
exerted by Confucianism. During the Tokugawa period the study of Con-492 Religion and Spiritual Development: Japan