ryû in private. As part of the training for teachers, Nitta was told that the
most important thing was to boost the girls’ morale and strengthen their
spirit in case of an enemy landing. Nitta said that the girls professed to en-
joy the training, which was done in place of “enemy sports” such as base-
ball or volleyball.
Training after World War II
In 1945 the war ended for Japan. The occupation forces were fearful of any-
thing that seemed to be connected to Japan’s warlike spirit, and the Ameri-
cans severely restricted martial studies. Thousands of swords were piled on
runways, run over with steamrollers, and then buried under concrete con-
struction projects. Donn Draeger, noted martial arts practitioner and scholar,
recalled the sight of those swords, flashing in the sun in shards of gold and
silver, crackling and ringing under the roar and stink of the steamrollers.
After a few years, however, these bans were lifted, and the first All
Japan Kendô Renmei(federation) Tournament was held in 1953. At a
meeting held afterwards, Sakakida and several of the leading naginata in-
structors of Tendo-ryû and Jikishin Kage-ryû made plans for the institution
of a similar All Japan Naginata Dô Renmei. It was decided to adopt the Ed-
ucational Ministry kata as the standard form of the federation, with only a
few minor changes. They also decided to eliminate the writing of naginata
in the traditional characters, which had meant “long blade” or “mowing
blade,” and, to indicate their break with the past, they used the syllabary,
whose characters only have sound values. This martial sport has come to
be called atarashii naginata(new naginata).
This change in the way of writing naginata may seem to be a trivial
one, but it is not. The change in how naginata is written states decisively
to practitioners that atarashii naginata is no longer a martial art, using a
weapon either to train combat skills or to demand, through its paradoxical
claim as a “tool for enlightenment,” a focused and integrated spirit. In-
stead, they have created a sports form, martial in both appearance and
“sound,” but not in “character.”
Atarashii naginata is composed of two elements: kata and shiai. Ac-
cording to some of their leading instructors, particularly those of this gen-
eration, the kata were created by taking “the best techniques from many
naginata ryûha.” This is propaganda at best, absurd at worst: The forms
of the various ryû are not mere catalogues of separate techniques, to be se-
lected like bonbons in a corner candy store, but interrelated wholes, per-
meated with a sophisticated cultivation of movement and designed for
combative effectiveness and spiritual training. Sakakida herself only states
that she observed the old ryû and tried to absorb their essence. Then, for-
getting their movements entirely, she devised the new kata.
Women in the Martial Arts: Japan 703