Tanren (forging) sequences form a large part of the Kurikara Ryu curriculum taught at Fudokan to enable students to move freely with the sword and access the tanden. The rhythms and shapes of the movements of the first sequence (Tanden-Tanren) are designed to trigger ‘abdominal breathing’, and emphasis is placed on strong exhalation in squatting movements to achieve this triggering. The second sequence involves the conscious manipulation of the abdominal breathing and the emphasis is on inhalation during movement. Abdominal breathing is a complex subject and the cultivation of it requires clarity of understanding and a step by step approach.
“However “abdominal” one’s breathing becomes, air moves in and out of the lungs and does not enter the abdomen. Yet the pressure changes caused by the filling and emptying of the lungs affect the pressure in the abdomen. This in turn affects the circulation to the limbs, brain, and organs. It is manipulation of this pressure that localises heat in the belly, increases blood return to the heart, stabilises the forces in the trunk, increases power to the back and limbs, and strengthens the nervous system. It is the skilful enhancement of these natural patterns that creates the shapes displayed in the images of the Kongo Rikishi. Musashi uses the term “squeezing the wedge” to describe this, meaning that the firm fullness of the lower hips squeezes the scabbard of the swords against the obi (belt).“
Kurikara – The Sword and The Serpent 2010
The cultivation of abdominal breathing has a long history in Japan and has been of particular interest to practitioners of meditation and martial arts as well as those interested in the health benefits. Most propagators of this method have drawn inspiration from the account given in the Zen teacher Hakuin’s Yasenkanna (1757). This describes his search for a cure for his ‘Zen sickness’ and the instruction he received from the hermit Hakkuyu. Perhaps the most famous exponent was Hida Harumichi (1883-1956) who created a comprehensive and systematic series of exercises centred on use of the breathing in a ‘ball’ positioned between the back of the hips and the lower abdomen (the Yofuku – see blog article). A close contemporary of Hida who was similarly inspired was Futaki Kenzō (1873–1966) a professor of medicine at Tokyo Imperial University. Futaki was also a friend and student of the founder of Aikido, Morihei Ueshiba and founded the Misogi no Renseikai 禊の錬成会 The Purification* Training Associaiton.
A-gyo, one of a pair of guardians (Kongo Rikishi, or Nio) 13th century, Todai-ji Temple, Nara, Japan
*Although Misogi (禊) means purification and is most often associated with purification rituals using water, various methods of deep breathing are used for the same purpose and under the same term
二木 謙三
Futaki Kenzō
Futaki Kenzo’s contribution was to make a serious attempt to describe the method scientifically. A renowned expert in infectious diseases, Futaki was educated at Tokyo Imperial University and had a distinguished career in the field of microbiology and infectious diseases. In 1955, he received the prestigious Order of Culture (Bunka Kunshō) from the Emperor for his academic contributions, which included identifying a subtype of Shigella, the infectious agent of dysentery; identifying spirillum minus, the infectious agent of rat-bite fever; and taking the lead in distinguishing Japanese encephalitis from encephalitis lethargic. His work earned him a place on the shortlist for the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Over the same period he also invested considerable time and energy in describing the health benefits of abdominal breathing and in giving a scientific account of the methodology. In particular he employed this method as a therapy in the treatment of neurasthenia.
Neurasthenia is a term that was first used in the 1800s to label a weakness of the nervous system manifesting in fatigue, lassitude and neuralgia and would become a major diagnosis in North America during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Although still recognised by the WHO as a disease the term is now largely redundant although the increasingly popular diagnosis of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome consisting of multiple psychiatric and somatic symptoms bears a striking resemblance to the nineteenth-century diagnosis of neurasthenia.
Futaki Kenzo related that he had been born with such a feeble constitution, and afflicted with so many diseases in childhood, that his father always feared that he would not survive. He remembered that he grew up jealous of his siblings’ health and vigor and often felt bitter and resentful about being left behind. Desperate for good health, he could not find an effective way until coming across a health method in two eighteenth-century books that he incidentally picked up from the shelf. No sooner had he put it into practice than his health improved miraculously, and before long he had been able to physically compete with other children. The health method came to his rescue again several years later when he fell ill with retrospectively self-diagnosed neurasthenia in his first year of senior high school. Having failed most of his subjects because of his mental conditions, he turned to his childhood panacea and in no time found himself not only cured of neurasthenia, but also more composed and lucid than ever before. Thanks to the health method, he was able to go on to study medicine at Tokyo Imperial University and overseas. On his return from Germany, he found that in Japan, as in the West, there were an increasing number of people suffering from neurasthenia. He therefore decided to share his experience and started to study and promote the abdominal breathing method that had helped him so much.
Futaki always insisted that the health method was a legacy from the past, and described himself as a scientific researcher attempting to understand its therapeutic effects. Across cultures and countries, he pointed out, there were a variety of breathing methods known under different names, such as susokukan(literally, counting-breath introspection), naikanhō (literally, method of introspection), and nentanhō (literally, method of making pills). They were employed in a wide range of fields, including medicine, moral education, religious practice, and the training of martial arts. In the new era, however, Futaki did no think that his testimony alone could arouse people’s interest in it, since it was “a time when people won’t believe in anything unless it has been proved by science.” He was therefore determined to prove and explain the efficacy of abdominal breathing by science. The first step that he took was to rename it as the “abdominal breathing method” and the “method of enhancing abdominal pressure” (fukuatsu zōshinhō).
Speaking at the annual conference of National Association of Physicians, Futaki contended that the two new names better captured the essence of the ancient method. He reported that he had invented a device called “abdominal pressure meter” and applied it to compare the abdominal pressures of neurasthenic patients and healthy subjects. The result showed that there was significant reduction of abdominal pressure in neurasthenic patients. It, Futaki held, was because modern lifestyle, particularly wearing Western-style clothes and sitting in chairs and at desks (instead of on tatami mats), restricted the movement of abdominal wall, resulting in modern people often unwittingly abandoning abdominal breathing. This, in turn, led to wasting of the muscles of the diaphragm and abdominal wall, which caused the reduction in abdominal pressure. Futaki differentiated two groups of neurasthenic patients by observing their breathing. One group of patients, whose bellies caved in during inhalation, suffered from “floppy diaphragm”; and the other, whose bellies bulged during exhalation, suffered from “flabby abdominal muscles.”
Futaki held that the reduction of abdominal pressure was the fundamental cause of neurasthenia through a number of mechanisms, the most important of which was that it compromised circulation. Good circulation, Futaki explained, depended not only on the work of the heart, but also on sufficient venous return. Sufficient venous return, in turn, relied on maintenance of venous pressure, which was determined by a number of factors, including the functioning of venous valves, the tone of vessels, and the squeezing forces on veins applied by the surrounding tissues. As the first two factors were involuntary functions, Futaki argued, it was only through enhancing the squeezing forces that people could manage to increase venous return for better circulation. Since the abdominal cavity contained a large number of veins and was the largest reservoir of venous blood within the body, abdominal pressure had a decisive effect on the amount of venous return. He compared the abdomen to a massive venous valve that was crucial to blood overcoming the resistance of the portal venous system and returning to the heart. The abdomen, Futaki argued, was in effect the “abdominal heart” or the “venous heart” and no less important than the heart proper to good circulation. Should the abdominal pressure be reduced to a degree not sufficient for pumping blood back into the heart, the blood would stagnate and accumulate. The resulting uneven distribution of blood flow caused “functional anemia,” from which the brain, the most delicate and sensitive organ, would suffer most. Functional anemia, moreover, could affect all other organs, which would become either congested or anemic, and cause the diverse symptoms of neurasthenia.
Apart from its effect on blood circulation, Futaki succinctly explained the other mechanisms by which abdominal pressure could affect the nervous system. First, should the tension of the diaphragm be reduced, it would be shaken whenever the body was moving. The heart, sitting on the diaphragm, would in turn be rocked as if on a swing and become prone to palpitation. Second, a weak diaphragm and abdominal wall were hypersensitive to stimuli. When something frightening occurred, a flabby diaphragm would relax and rise upwards, and a weak abdominal wall would contract and retract, to a larger degree than under normal tension. In other words, the “frightened reaction” of the body would become more violent than it normally should be. This was one of the causes of the emotional symptoms of neurasthenia, Futaki argued. He agreed with the theory that the mental components of emotion were secondary to the physical ones. It was not that the former induced the latter, but that the former was merely the mental representation of the latter. In a fearful situation, for example, it was the withdrawal reflex that first took place. People would first bend their bodies, which pushed up the diaphragms to press the hearts and induce palpitation and cold sweating. Only when they perceived these physical changes would they realise the emotion of fear. Futaki argued that if people could maintain tension in the diaphragm and abdominal wall and inhibit the withdrawal reflex in the first place, they would be fearless and able to keep composure in any situation. Neurasthenic patients were anxious and fearful all the time because their flabby musculature led to instability of the body. Lastly, Futaki held that adequate abdominal pressure could activate the whole nervous system by “massaging” the nerves within the abdominal cavity. If pressure was low, the nervous system would be left in an inactive and sluggish, that is, neurasthenic state.
Kenzō Futaki
(January 10, 1873 – April 27, 1966)