Jessy y su hermano fueron muy respetuoso con el gran maestro Segal experto en todo. Hacer un video con el fue una jugada muy arriesgada, al final uno lo ve solo para ver las mentiras que va a decir el maestro, japo-mongo-ruso-nativo americano.
Jesse Enkamp is a real good youtuber. If you want to see more historical inclined video, he made a real good one on the french influence on karate and another one, extraordinary, on the chineese origin of karate.
Jesse has a “glass half full” approach to most of his videos. He tends not to criticise but instead emphasises the positives. This approach can be refreshing change as a lot of martial arts you tube content is about attacking bad practice in one art to make a presenters art look better in comparison.
As a subscriber of Metatron and Jesse Enkamp, I never dreamed that I would actually see a video with both of them. May I suggest a collaboration between Metatron and Jesse regarding Japanese martial arts with plenty of spoken Japanese.
We all want it. Have been waiting for the day they would run into each other for a while. It would be, if done right, one of if not the best episode of both channels. But Id need a 3 hour podcast with them. 10 20 mins is def not enough to do justice to either of these two giants of human beings. I would even pay for such an exchange between them.
No you should not "lower" the head like Jessie did the last time (the first time was a bit better). The neck should be in a straight line with the back but the weight of the head/helmet - or rather the whole body - is still used in the chop like Kacem said (in this particular style; Kukishin ryu). More of a poor execution then anything else, creating a unfortunante missunderstanding. Karate, commonly have much more upright stance, hence the comment about the head leaning forward. It might have been better to say that the back leg, the spine and the neck should all be in a straight line, whith the front leg bent; making the body (and head) lean forward - but everyone has perfect hindsight. Many weaponbased styles all over the world (not just japanese) do use this principle as it gives advantage in reach, power and endurance. The same principle can be seen in old style of japanese running (often depicting in manga and looks kind of funny funny) when you use the gravity to your advantage (the running technique almost make you constantly "fall" forward towards the ground but the step forward redirect the fall forward instead - sound wierd and is kind of hard to explain in text) which conserves energy but do not maximize speed (hence not used in modern competative running).
Do note that Jesse is a competent fighter. His brother is a MMA fighter in Bellator, and Jesse is in the corner! But Jesse is also always extremly polite. No matter who he trains with in his videos he shows a positive view. Like he realy tries to find their point of view. The dude did two days with Steven Segal and was all praise. That shows a deeper level of politness than I could ever manage 😅
@@GothPaoki segal is a legit aikido master, one of the first westerners to teach in japan. Your thoughts on aikido asside. He was a legit guy in aikido.
I’d recommend looking at Let’s Ask Seki Sensei’s videos. He is the 22nd Headmaster of a Kabudo style called Asayama-Iciden-Ryu which dates back to the Sengoku Period. I remember seeing some techniques of him taking the enemy’s sword. But I’m pretty sure they had some context to them. Oh, and also, he did make a video on your HEMA vs Kenjutsu video. Perhaps you can react to some of the criticisms he had for you? (Would be funny to see it the other way around 😂) Also, about the Samurai using a fan to defend himself in a camp. There is the story of Uesugi Kenshin attacking Takeda Shingen at the Fourth Battle of Kawanakajima, and Shingen had to defend himself with his Gunbai Fan. But then again that’s if you believe the story, I personally do cause it’s epic.
I would love to see them start interacting more with each other's content, maybe make a live together (possibly remotely) talking about their Historical Martial Arts experience.
@@computron808 Id also give some credit to Kenshin. Considering he had the balls to charge straight into the enemy camp and try and kill his rival, IN THE MIDDLE OF A BATTLE.
@@TheGhost-7002 most definitely. Takeda and Kenshin,will always be known as honorable warriors. Just about equally matched on the battlefield. It’s funny how they had such a respect for each other, something that’s a foreign concept in modern times. I guess with good reason,depending on the enemy,especially when we’re talking terrorists like isis.
@@computron808 eh, at that point in their wars they probably hated each other, I believe it was after this battle that they began to respect each other, or it may have been after the 5th Battle. What really solidified it though, was after Hojo Ujiyasu embargoed the Takeda by not trading salt with them, Kenshin opened up trade, despite the two still being at “war” (though they werent really fighting, they ere just in a state of war). You wont see commanders doing this stuff nowadays cause if they did they’d immediately get shot. Also, you dont want your men respecting the enemy, cause then they would hesitate, and its a lot harder to convince people to fight an enemy if they respect them. So people will dehumanise the enemy, which has been done for thousands of years, but especially nowadays through propaganda.
Glad to hear you enjoyed Jesse's video! I highly recommend his channel, especially his documentary on the origins of karate. As you may have surmised from this video, Karate is his main subject which he knows the most about. He does branch out and make videos where he learns about other martial arts, but those videos (much like this one) can only be as good as the guest he has.
Yes! I finally found something I can one-up Metatron on; I can read Classical Japanese without a dictionary. . . mostly. But in all seriousness this was a surprisingly enjoyable museum tour, though if you really want to train like a samurai (particularly a Heian and Kamakura period samurai) you should look into yabusame, (流鏑馬) which is traditional Japanese horseback archery. Maybe the next video we send our boy is one of people trying yabusame?? Regardless, a fun video from both creators, as always Metatron's commentary is always great.
Just wondering, are differences between classical Japanese and Chinese very big? Cause as a Chinese who can't speak Japanese, I read and understand (or I thought) like more than 70% of the classical Japanese text.
@@williamberne Well I understand a grant total of 0 Chinese so I can't say with 100% certainty. What I can say in brief though is that Classical Chinese was to Japan what Latin was to most of Europe back in the day; the language of the educated elite. For the Japanese, pretty much all their "official" written works (family histories, law codes, imperial edicts, temple dedications, etc.) were written in essentially Classical Chinese with some leniency for names and other places that it was appropriate, so I'm guessing you'd be able to understand a lot of that. But they wrote their tales and stories in their own language often using kana instead of kanji. So basically, I wouldn't be surprised if you understood something like Prince Shotoku's 17 Article Constitution or maybe even something like the Nihon Shoki, but I'd be very surprised if you could understand something like Taketori Monogatari or Makura no Soshi.
I practiced ninjutsu a long time ago for almost 5 years and even though I don't recognize the specific techniques shown here, your assumption that "all of this hiding" seems like ninjutsu is spot on. I practiced many types of martial arts in my life and in my experience, those who have trained for years in one style are often bullish about the benefits of that particular style and unwilling to concede that other styles may have any real merits. When this guy got his museum gig, he should have broadened his practical skills before claiming expertise in this way.
What's the story about ninjustsu? I don't really know much about them but I always assumed most of it must be modern where they've guessed what techniques and tricks they used. Because wouldn't it be almost impossible to find the secrets of ancient secret espionage and spying techniques? And I don't mean that in a bad way, it sounds really cool. Edit: I totally agree with your point about the museum guy should have expanded his knowledge and not remained hyper-focused and bullish on his personal favourite.
@@Wintermute909It’s more or less completely made up bullshit. You know, the kind of “martial art” where you can be considered a “master” despite never having had a real fight.
Ahhhhhh watching naruto and doing funny runs and hand signs does not mean you practice ninjitsu. Is like someone saying had modern warfare combat experience by just playing call of duty lol. But anyways cool story bro!!! XD
@@Wintermute909There is no evidence of any distinctly Shinobi martial arts besides the addiction of subterfuge and guerilla warfare techniques, which are generally oriented around tricks for invading places or fleeing, not for combat or assassination per se. Most of what we know about ninja scrolls are more along the lines of applying Sun Tsu's _Art of War_ than martial arts in the conventional sense.
@@Wintermute909 You're right that it's supposed to be secret knowledge and it supposedly was for a long time until they started to practice more openly about a century ago. Nobody really knows if any genuinely ancient techniques really made it all the way through to present day. The Ninjutsu style I practiced was called Bujinkan Budo Taijutsu and it included 9 different schools. In my humble opinion, it's similar to karate but with more focus on balance, on finding the vulnerable points and on hiding your intent. It includes a lot of jiu-jitsu-like grips and wrestling moves, twisting joints and throttling. We practiced about 15 different strike techniques with fingers, knuckles and hands. For me, it was a bit annoying that they kept requiring us to graduate to the next level (10th kiu to 9th kiu and so on) and by the time I was graduating for the 1st degree black belt, my heart just wasn't in it anymore. I was young and restless and wanted to move on.
The Wakizashi wasn't upside down. What he was showing there was a movement from Niten Ichi-ryu. I don't think there's anything from ninjutsu being shown here, but there are several schools of Japanese sword fighting and he's dipping into several of them.
Hello, I hope this comes across as respectful, the majority of martial arts was shown from the bujinkan, but I am interested in your Nito ichi ryu statement? Could I please have a link to see the difference in wakizashi style?
The wakizashi is not worn with armour, and neither was a belt worn over armour for that matter. Instead the uchigatana was used which was slung down. Niten Ichi-ryū being a rōnin style incorporated suhada kempō - swordsmanship without armour. I do not recall any drawing techniques from that, but I didn’t see much . . .
I've definitely seen tanto in reverse grip, both with edge forward (better "ice pick" stabbing, i.e. the curvature of the blade follows the arc of the stab) or edge backwards (for a downward raking attack). Historically, there's a fuzzy gray area between what is considered a tanto and what is considered a wakizashi (it's only modern Japanese commerce law that separates them by length), so it isn't necessarily wrong in the video, although Jesse wasn't holding it at an effective angle in that brief moment.
@@Sean-tb2zz thank you for the answer, I'm aware that miyomoto created the school in the Edo period , where the Tokugawa shogunate had imposed laws on wear and use of katana, do you have anything that shows the uchi katana being worn blade down? I also can't find a reference to Ronin style school? I can't find any references to suhada kempo, pre 1910? Could I have a reference to it please?
@@dovidtauber7977 Then plz note that "Ninjutsu" and "Bujinkan" are two very different things. 6 of Bujinkan's 9 schools are more traditional Bujutsu schools and only 3 are labeled Ninpo/Ninjutsu schools. Of those 3 only 1 has been widely taught outside of Japan. The word "ninpo" has been swapped for "budo" in the name Bujinkan Budo Taijutsu since around 25 years back or so. What was shown here is most likely from Kukishin Ryu (as it is responsible for much of the armored fighting within the Bujinknan), which is a recognized koryu that exists both inside and outside Bujinkan and has several different rather old and well established branches. As such it is absolutely wrong to label Bujinkan as Ninjutsu even thought Bujinkan includes some Ninjutsu. Just as it would be wrong to claim that Ninjutsu is Bujinkan (there are several different schools of Ninjutsu and Bujutsu schools that include Ninjutsu or Ninjutsu like methods in their curriculum). So yes, much of what was shown here was most likely from Bujinkan (as Kacem Zoughari is a very high ranking practitioner that that have trained since 1987 and are are personal student of Hatsumi Sensei), but not Ninjutsu.
Jesse is one of those people who is eager to learn new stuff all the time despite how experienced he is himself. I believe he also has a video where he tries to overcome late 14th/early 15th century plate harness with the weapons he is familiar with (mostly Japanese weaponry), if that is of any interest to you. Enjoyable analysis. It is always good to get a second opinion from someone who knows their stuff when it comes to museum showcases or documentaries, just in case.
@@metatronyt I would absolutely love to see you react to his video called "I Fought A KNIGHT With Real Weapons" which may be the video the OP is referring to, It's good but there are some very questionable things in it that I'd like to hear your opinion on!
Its not real samurai training and dietary conditions until you get beriberi from a lack of thiamine fortitude and then having a chonmage to cover your hair recession.
Beriberi in Japanese context is a distinctly modern phenomenon, it came from eating solely white rice in the Meiji period, as opposed to the less tasty but more nutritionally rich brown rice more common the the earlier periods.
White rice used to be something people in high positions (like retainers, samurai etc.) ate. It's Ironic that it's actually less nutritious xD but I guess they also had more of it available.@@radekvavricka5382
Yeah it's not like he really did any training, they just fiddled with a few things to keep in mind and there was no constant repetition for hours to build that neuro pathway as if he was training For an upcoming event. The title should have been I spent good afternoon with a samurai historian and this is what he taught me
Regarding the situation were one has to fight with a fan, there is a famous historical precedent : during the fourth battle of Kawanakajima, Uesugi Kenshin rushed Takeda Shingen, who had to defend himself with his signaling fan. From the wikipedia page : "Eventually the Uesugi forces reached the Takeda command post, and one of the most famous single combats in Japanese history ensued. Uesugi Kenshin himself burst into the headquarters, attacking Takeda Shingen who, unprepared for such an event, parried with his signalling fan as best as he could, and held Kenshin off long enough for one of his retainers, Hara Osumi-no-Kami, to spear Kenshin's mount and drive him off"
I remember the artistic representation of Takeda Shingen, he uses a slightly different kind of iron fan, it is in the gunbai style, instead of the folding fan style. Which makes more sense as an emergency defense tool. Edit: i hasten to add that the depiction may not be historically accurate and may be stylized, or is subjected to artistic liberty.
@@86FallowcpHistorical chronicles are regularly not written for journalistic purposes, but to glorify certain characters. And in that, even someone's death may be romanticized. All the more in a culture like the Japanese at the time.
I understand your frustration at the amount of curators that know very little about their charges. I spent a lot of years going to roslin chapel for research and the curator would spot me and send visitors with serious questions directly to me. I had so many over the years just approach me and start asking about the chapel that I became habituated to filling in my latest conjectures and discoveries. I ended up being given privileged access to parts of the chapel reserved for the lord st clair and family. unfortunately, the curate didn't elect to follow us, or he would have had far more information himself.
That is why martial arts works all teach you how to judge reach and maintain proper distances to avoid getting hit in first place, while allowing you to be able to get in a strike when there is an opportunity to do so.
"Ninjutsu" isn't a historical martial art. It is a style created in the late 20th century to emulate what they thought that was taught to ninjas in the feudal Japan. Historical ninjas did not had a dedicated martial arts taught to them. If they were to fight, they'd learn any martial art that was already available to samurai, such as kenjutsu or jujutsu. The whole "hooded-pajama-wearing" ninja is a myth that was imagined by fiction writers and seared into Japanese popular culture. The ninja would appear as being either a farmer or a samurai in their disguise.
the popular ninja clothes come from the kabuki theater stage hands who wore black to signal themselves to be invisible to the play. Thus the ninja clothes in pop culture signal the same.
You'll absolutely love Jesse! he's very humble and polite and as he's always trying to learn new things, he doesn't get confrontational. He's trying to get other people's perspectives and really shines when he's with people who know what they're doing! Thanks for reacting to this and don't forget, always re-stomp the groin!
I watched the original some time ago and found the martial instructions weird at the time. Now you highlight that he did/does ninjitsu, it makes perfect sense. From the little I know, these moves of same arm same side are very characteristic of ninjitsu movements.
jesse have a grat channel. training the okinawa style karate, but he goes around alot to different places and learn stuff. and in his videos he let the instructor tell him and his stuff, even if he doesnt agree with him he lets him with a smile on his face. very good channel!
It is so nice to have a 100% positive channel. The internet is fueled by outrage. But Jesse? He just keeps on smiling and being genuinley interested in what he does.
Such a great video. Looking more into Dr. Kacem Zoughari it appears that rather than actually studying even Ninjutsu he studied Bujinkan Budo Taijutsu under Ishizuka sensei. So a smattering of Koryu sadly obfuscated by decades of Hatsumi's well meaning but largely perfomative gap filling.
It is extremely rare for any academic to have any practical experience in what they teach. Those who teach Greek Comedy for example are not usually also stand up comedians. Presumably when he does his academic write ups he plays the game of peer review and is more tentative in summarizing scholarship and suggesting areas for farther study. And when he does youtube videos for laypeople he turns more into the peforming arts LARPer that is martial arts in a way unless that upsets people in which case if you want to challenge me to any actual combat to the death I shall yield and bow to your superior mojo
You probably already heard about Czech V.O.X. channel because of some interviews about Kingdom Come they did with developers, one guy from this channel also tried to do the samurai training with our the most known sensei and not only for day, for few weeks I think. Spoiler: he ended in a pond during his fight with his master after few weeks of training 😀
The french guide ,giving a tour to Jessie, is Kacem Zoughari. I actually met him in a ninpo seminar like almost 20 years ago,if I remember correctly he showed us how to evade sword attacks , how to execute counters and takedowns while being armed with katana, tanto or wakizashi. Why his attacks look very weird is because he's a Bujinkan 'shidoshi' ...that should tell you a lot. Bujinkan swordplay is very poor no matter how they have 6 samurai styles in their curriculum. It's comical how bad it is for sustained combat. Footwork is particularly bad. They have some cool tricks.
The Samurai Museum in Berlin is amazing, they have this fun mix of historical pieces and a high-tech war to present them, kinda fits japan really well. They have this 3-d sculptet map of japan, where the clans and rulers are projected on, like in a video game.
I find the head hunting practise among samurai fascinating. I'm currently writing a historical Japan-inspired fantasy novel and head hunting is a plot point in the opening chapter. The protagonist (a mercenary ronin) is bemoaning the fact that he wasn't able to take a head during the battle that had just finished.
Don't forget to take inspiration from history such as the Siege of Kawagoe where a relief force of 8,000 and 3,000 soldiers within the castle staged a lightning night raid against the 80,000 man siege force and their tactic was literally don't headhunt or you'll give the enemy time to respond.
Sadly, Jessie Enkamp haven't visited the Chiba Dojo in Munich in order to experience samurai training / Koryu Bujutsu with samurai armor etc. TBH, this would've been a better video for him in the end.
im glad you said your skeptical of martial arts and only like what actually works, knowing your history in martial etc its really good to hear a realistic perspective from someone of you bona fides in karate etc.
I have yet to watch the rest of the video, so im going to do that in a moment, but to clarify to you that in Bujinkan ninjutsu, we call it ninjutsu as a colloquial term. In actuality a more proper name for it woulkd be Bujinkan style budo taijutsu, or budo. The bujinkan includes 9 seperate schools and lineages of martial arts which date back to different time periods in japanese history, think of it almost like how modern mma includes multiple styles into 1 art, the same goes for with the bujinkan. 6 of the schools we train are samurai ryuha. These being Gyokko Ryū, Kuki Shinden Ryū, Koto Ryū, Shinden Fudo Ryū, Takagi Yoshin Ryū Jūtai jutsu and Gikan Ryū, and many of these have lists of the lineages and the dates for each Soke, though of course i cant speak accurately for if these can be proven definitively of course. What you might notice is that a few of these styles are old jujutsu styles, Shinden Fduo for example supposedly tracing back to the year 1130 being created by Ganpachiro Temeyoshi. The 3 "Ninja" schools which are Togakure-ryū, Gyokushin-ryū and Kumogakure Ryū dont in all honesty have that much known about them, kumogakure being mostly passed on through word of mouth rather than densho scrolls. So as a clarification, Bujinkan ninjutsu is more of a samurai art than it is a Ninja one. With the most likely theory being that most shinobi no mono would've come from the samurai class anyway, and would've sometimesperformed spycraft as an extention of their regular samurai duties, with some clans such as the Hattori or Iga/Koka clans supposedly specializing in this. Though of course the lineage is not really as traceable as many styles of Koryū, so skeptecism is understandable. Hopefully this clarifies some things for you from the perspective of the art as a whole. Knowing you I should.ve probably typed this after finishing the video because you are usually very thorough with your research, I can't wait to watch your response to this though since I watched the original video when it released. (Edit, So when it comes to striking the chestplate with the palm of the hand, it's not used to injure the opponent because of course you cant with a chestplate on, but rather to create distance and space between you and your opponent and to stop them from advancing, it is used as a setup for throws as armoured fighting is all about the kuzushi which is the taking of your opponents balance, with armour on its much harder to keep yourself from falling when your centre of gravity is taken. Palm strikes into the breastplate are used in techniques mainly from Kukishin Ryū, It is used to attack places where there is armour, because as you know if you punch a chestplate, even with kote on, you are gonna mess up your hands pretty badly. Of course any samurai worth their salt isnt going to let you take their sword easily so that's absolutely fair, but if you are the better fighter you can absolutely create the opportunity to steal a sword, we have many many techniques for muto dori, which are techniques for fighting against an opponent with a weapon when you yourself do not have one, for example if you were disarmed. The lowering the head part I agree with, im assuming this was more to explain the concept of "sinking your weight with the strike" and using the weight of the armour to aid in your cut. Though we wouldnt lower our head usually, the posture is always kept straight and looking towards your opponent, In kukishinden which encompasses most of the nujinkans armoured fighting techniques, we would lift up the front leg and almost stomp and sink down into the attack in the same way other styles do. In terms of discussing it being kenjutsu, I would say yes, as Kukishinden ryu is a samurai school that teaches kenjutsu, the ninjutsu stuff would be called "bikenjutsu" and comes from togakure ryu, in which we use a shinobigatana or a togakure ryu style sword. In modern terms we would call it a "ninjato" but its of course not historically accurate, and no sensei I have spoke to has claimed that a ninjato would be a hollywood style sword with a straight blade and square tsuba, but rather a regular katana handle with a shorter blade, or sometimes with a long wakizashi blade used but I digress. In the case of Kukishinden, the sword is usually a tachi or a long handled uchigatana as it uses "battlefield" swords in its kenjutsu techniques mostly. In our training we absolutely do suffer from the "time freezing" in kata, but this is mainly just to learn the movements in a theoretical attack pattern, we will also usually practice these techniques then at full speed, and will perform henka, which are variations on the technique. So it opens a lot of possibilities on different things that could happen. The bujinkan, at least with all the training I have done so far, greatly emphasizes adaptability and discourages being stagnant as is seen in many styles of Japanese martial arts. Hopefully I have clarified some things for you as a Bujinkan Budo practitioner and given some context to things that weren't explained in the video. Also the video was really amazing btw, I would love to see you react to some more videos, perhaps some more of the videos from "lets ask seki sensei" and his use of HEMA weapons from the perspective of a kobudo master, if you havent already. Perhaps one day you could also have a look at some Bujinkan stuff, and preferably avoid the bullshido aspect that can be seen in some Bujinkan dojos unfortunately, I have seen somebody training techniques with a giant log and was actually perplexed at what I was watching)
I'm not a martial artist myself, but, from the perspective of a street fighter, it makes sense to me that you would use any technique that you have at hand at the moment of a massive battle between armies. Soldiers do that all the time. I have no reason to think it haven't been that way since the dawn of war. I can even say that, most ninja techniques look just like that: tricks that someone used to survive certain situation and a ninja heard about it and incorporated it into its personal fighting style.
Loving your videos. Bummed I didn’t find you sooner, but now I can binge everything! As someone who works in corrections, and has a standard of training to do in a system of martial arts… the first thing I tell my trainees is “well I’m supposed to show you this, but it’s actually bullshit, here’s why. Learn this… but expect more of this… until enough training allows ‘this bullshit’ to actually click.” I have about 20 years now of martial arts experience and know that a few days basic training isn’t going to cut it for many scenarios.
Funny thing: there once was a competition to design a fifth turtle. I came up with a female. Name: Mona Lisa, pink mask and weapon: a fan. People were like: female, pink mask ... OK, but a fan to fight with?
I own a copy of the FRPG Bushido, and there is a metal fan that is used to slash opponents. Its advantage is that it can be hidden in plain sight until deployed as a weapon; its disadvantage is that it is just a fan, hardly a battlefield weapon :-)
So weighing in as another ninjutsu practitioner. First off the use of the term ninjutsu I feel is more a colloquialism than an actual style as the word means more or less "the art of endurance" as the kanji used for nin(or shinobu) is sword over heart and means "patience" or to endure something. Now modern ninjutsu is not necessarily koryu imo(as it is my opinion take it with a grain of salt), and falls more under gendai budo, and an amalgamation of the various schools that have all been gathered into one place. All of the stances and techniques taught are based off of the use of various weapons and then how you would also use the same attack empty handed. The first one that is mostly learned is Ichimonji and its mainly reminiscent of wielding a spear. All in all what is taught it based off of samurai budo, not any specific koryu despite, in the bujinkan association, there being 9 koryu schools claimed most of which overlap with each other teaching strikes, grappling, and weapons. Its basically "medieval MMA." My personal experience with ninjutsu is not necessarily how do the techniques actually work, but rather how do you apply the concept of said techniques. I go out to other gyms and spar with them using these concepts and sometimes blow people minds with the "how did you do that?" reactions, its quite invigorating :) There was one instance where Dr. Kacem showed how he would make a couple strikes before he pulled the sword from his opponent, either hitting the vital neck spot between the armor or a palm strike to the do. If you just take that for what you see then yea doesn't seem very practical, but if you think about it for a second he's not hitting the armor with a full strike like you would a punch, he's more doing with the intention of unbalancing or pushing his opponent and then taking his weapon. That said most Koryu today are a very small sliver of what was taught back during and before the Sengoku Jidai. Samurai learned the spear, bow, horse riding, kenjutsu, tanto-justu, bo-jutsu, empty hand and many other types of ways of combat. As time went on during peace time people went off and specialized in teaching just Bow, or sword, or spear, and all the way up today you have the very splintered specializations. There are some like Katori Shinto Ryu that still incorporate many different weapons into their curriculum, but they are I feel the exception of today not the rule. Most koryu schools practice a single aspect of combat, whether it be karate, kenjutsu, kyudo, iaijutsu, etc. Back to regards of the video and Dr. Kacem. He is indeed a very knowledgeable individual when it comes to samurai history and budo in general. That being said what I know of the man is that his knowledge is very broad and his knowledge on the use of each weapon is not based on specific koryu styles, but the most practical application of said weapons. His explenations in the video were meant to be very broad and conceptual in natureYou mentioned to go and find an instructor from japan to talk about how the samurai fought, but even that will be colored in a very specific bias based on the style that instructor specializes in. Those styles are based off of what was taught to samurai of a specific province. Ryuha techniques are based on a plethora of factors from how large the blade of your sword is, to deciding if its the left or the right foot forward. This is a very long winded way of saying just because you don't necessarily agree with his explanations doesn't mean he's wrong. I'm sure there's a lot more I can say here but I'm not trying to do a whole ass TED talk :p
Metatron and Jesse occupy different style platforms. Metatron is the debunking fact checker and Jesse more the respectful listener with beginner's mind who makes entertaining youtube videos for the casual hobbyist or someone who came across it by accident. An expert is always going to be disappointed with anything done for a lay general interest audience. All very confusing mind but this is the interweb
Jesse is awesome His channel is all about his martial arts journey and he goes around the world learning the real history of different martial arts and karate.
Your first impression was right : Dr. Kacem Zoughari is indeed French. He's very famous in the French martial arts circle. But he's very focused on Ninjutsu indeed. And here I think there is a big conflict of interest : on one hand, he's an historian. But on the other hand, he's a member of Bujinkan Ninjutsu... Which is many great thing but not strongly based on actual history. I think his credibility as a historian suffers from the fact that he's pushing the Bujinkan bandwagon (they claim they have direct connection to Ninja martial arts dating centuries ago, but there is absolutely no solid proof of that... The affiliation beyond Takamatsu sensei is pretty blurry). Also, as you said, many techniques he demonstrated (for example the defense with the Tessen) are not only Ninjutsu, but more accurately modern-day Bunjinkan Ninjutsu... So yeah, very interesting, but a big problem regarding authenticity. And it's the only bad thing I have to say about Jesse Enkamp : sometimes his enthusiasm, humility and open-mindedness prevent him from being skeptic and criticial (and the best example of that is his interview with the absolute shill that is Steven Seagal).
@@PeregrinTintenfish I don't think that was meant to be taken 100% seriously. I think it was a riposte to the "traditional arts suck and only BJJ works" crowd. He made the whole thing so ridiculously obvious.
@@moominpic I think in that video it seemed more of a parody of the more traditional style. My martial art form is the best now I'll prove it. People seem to be criticizing him for his humility and openness to learn but don't get the parody when as people point out he fights for much less than an hour and beats some fellow BJJ white belts and then switches to the style of the bjj fanatic and therefore my system is the only one and everything else fails.
12:16 While trophy today is mostly used in the context of a sports trophy, it also has the meaning of an object used to display your success in hunting or war. This is the definition used in trophy hunting. And under this definition, saying they took the heads as trophies would not be incorrect, as they were used to display and prove their success on the battlefield to their lords.
I have done Kendo / Battojutsu and "Bujinkan" Ninjutsu before I went over to shoalin Kempo before I quit... Whenever I hear someone say they are an expert in "ninjutsu" I always raise an eyebrow.. especially when they just say "ninjutsu" without adding which style Because yeah... Most ninjutsu teachers are filled with bs unless they tell you straight up what you learn has nothing to do with actual shinobi back then and it's just a mix of a lot of martial arts
The ‘tubular belt’ is meant to be worn underneath (!) the armour - under the ‘cuirass’ - as a cushion, so as to relieve the weight by redirecting it onto the hips (!). A regular type of obi could be worn on the outside, if the samurai would wear a ‘daishō-configuration’ (katana & wakizashi); or a tachi & tantō (or wakizashi) could be attached with sageo, in various ways.
Karate is a Okinawa martial art. It was introduced to Japan as an organized system in late 19th to early 20th century. Jujitsu is a Japanese martial art. Akido was a 20th early century martial art.
The historian is certainly french cause when he said 'super cool' he commited himself. Since I have been training with japanese weapons for a couple of years, a lot of those attacks are really weird. And yes he did a chinese salute. So this was basicaly strange from the beginning.
@@aweigh1010 Read the book right after the finale. I had seen a DVD set of the 80s a few years back but only remember bits and pieces. I do think that both the televised versions improved on the novel, which is kind of rare; usually adapted novels are watered down versions of the source material.
Jessie has a very open mind when it comes to martial arts, even going as far as training with Steven Segal (which was quite a disaster ngl XD), in this video, I loved the museum part of it, but even after leaving my martial arts discipline, the final half of the video wasn't the best either, but I still love Jessie.
On using the palm of your hand to strike armor I'd add that during my military training I was taught to strike armored opponents (different armor but the same rules should work) with my palm instead of my fist since the palm is more stable and won't just instantly break. It becomes less about inflicting damage and more about shoving, armor will absorb most of the impact. No idea about the historical accuracy but at least it is definitely a thing in modern hand-to-hand.
Regarding the palm heel strike, I did learn it in American kenpo. It's a modern style (of course), but does trace its lineage through traditional karate. Vs. armor, it won't do a lot, but a lucky strike to the chin could disorient. The main reason why not to use a closed fist is a closed fist against something hard can easily lead to broken fingers.
As a warfare historian myself, something that stands out in contemporary accounts of the battlefield soldiers, particularly those in armour, is the complaints about weather, rust, and cost. European soldiers largely worried about storms and mud. Armoured soldiers in hotter climates, especially Crusaders, would speak about the modifications they made (based on their exposure to what the locals or enemies would do) to their own protection systems to prevent overheating from the Sun. Fresh arrivals would be ignorant and would ignore their suggestions for a few days or weeks. Manchu soldiers of the Qing dynasty would have to deal with a range of conditions that proved hard on them, and quite expensive. Banner soldiers would complain about the wild temperatures and weather encountered during a campaign season, and the effects it had on their armour. This, and the cost of maintaining multiple horses for combat and patrolling would usually eat up a significant part of their silver wages. Many of their accounts detail ways that they tried to cut down on wear and tear, more efficient uses of what they had, and stories of when they just decided it wasn't worth the aggravation.
The curator is actually a Bujinkan martial arts practitioner. Bujinkan brand was created and started to be marketed as "Ninjutsu" to capitalize on the ninja craze of the period of 50s and 60s and etc. Before, it had been a long standing and very little known traditional jutsu dojo. Dr. Maasaki Hatsumi, having had studied martial do (judo, kendo, etc), became eventually well accomplished and one of the favorite students Takamatsu Toshitsugu. Takamatsu ran a small dojo where he taught and practice various ryū no jutsu - meaning here: various types of skill sets, like kenjutsu, yarijutsu and jiujutsu. Bujinkan calls them "traditions" - 9 in total. Most of what Takamatsu taught were traditional armed/unarmed and armoured/unamoured combat techniques suitable for ashigaru and even samurai. As far as I know, he also taught one ryu pretaining to shinobi/ninjutsu: little to do with specific combat skills but mostly related to philosophy and more practical applications of espionage and deception techniques which you can't really safely [and legally] practice or even teach in a modern dojo setting for the most of them - Togakure-ryū. So "Bujinkan" is basically 11.1% (debatable) legit ninjustu in theory, where the rest are lesser known Japanese traditional martial art ryū techniques in practice that have been dressed up and flavoured as ninjutsu for marketing reasons.
@@jachyra9 Why are you playing this passive aggressive pathetic innuendo indirect insult game. Grow a pair so you can stomach up to say what you want to say or come up with some logical convincing arguments - a more intelligent option. I will listen to your intelligent logical arguments and if you make good points and would be happy to learn something new. Now, John Snow or whatever you call yourself, I started learning and practicing martial arts in 1985 (judo, aikido, operational krav maga to name a few), which judging by your photo was way before you were even produced in a form of spermatozoon in you fraternal individual's testicles. I have completed university courses in Asian culture studies, Japanese and Classical Chinese languages. I own and read quite a few books by Dr. Masaaki Hatsumi, especially his earliest works, as well as a few other books from Bujinkan practitioners. I have been researching martial arts history and traditions (as a hobby not at a professional level) since 1985 and hold 1st Dan in Bujinkan, which still is my favourite martial art to practice.
Also, I don't know about Japan, but in Europe and America, loading a musket with multiple small shot instead of a single large ball was a thing that was sometimes done. It was perfectly feasible with an arquebus (thinking back to school history about a French explorer in Canada - I grew up in Toronto - killing multiple Iroquois warriors with a single shot, which implies multiple projectiles and our teacher explained it as such...that would have been about 1600).
I can't see really harping on it too much. It's just a little infotainment video. It's not something anyone is going to take too seriously. But the collection was absolutely just wowzers. If I had the ability to go there, I would in a heartbeat. Even if I didn't get an opportunity to see the special room. I'd still be more than happy to see the public parts of it.
Samurai routinely used two weapons, the katana and the smaller sword. Deception is always important, hiding one weapon (usually the smaller one) behind the larger is not Ninjitsu, not necessarily. Deception, diversion, etc. are basic fighting tactics. A boxer feints with a jab then strikes with a right cross, for example. In Karate, we often hide a front kick behind the opponents primary guard, knowing they can't see it coming. It's just basic technique.
Also, a note about what you mentioned as "charging" a punch -- 引き手 hikite (당기 손 danggi son in Korean): "Hikite - pulling hand, the moment you block the opponent's fist, you grab and pull his fist towards you. In doing so, you attack him. The fact that you pull him in towards you means that you are disabling your opponent from using his waza (technique) and making him lose balance. At the same time, the effectiveness of your fist increases; this is most important. It is even more effective if you can pull-in with a twisting motion rather than just pulling." - Gichin Funakoshi The hand moving to the hip prior to delivering a strike in order to provide greater power is an unfortunate modern misinterpretation which has been passed on through many styles. Indeed, as I'm sure you're aware of with your reality / results based approach to martial arts, a strike should be delivered from whichever guard is being employed with a minimal amount of set up prior to initiation (telegraphing). The hand which moves to the hip is literally pulling on the clothing, limbs, neck, hair, etc. of the aggressor in order to destabilize and/or create a path for striking. These techniques were originally developed for non-consensual close range fighting where the mantra "a block is a lock is a strike is a throw" is a useful guideline. Consensual martial arts dueling (sparring and competitive fighting) mixed with wrongly passed on information have lead to a lot of people's bunkai / bunhae being laughable and impractical. Iain Abernethy has done a lot of great work in demystifying the hikite. All of this is, of course, just my opinion and experience, though.
Well it seems we can welcome you soon in Berlin. I guess we have some more japanese things here ongoing, just check the japan ambassy or similar, sometime some cultur events are happening here
Fun fact. Shot guns evolved from muskets. It's why they shoot a bundle of balls. So his observation of it being like a shotgun is kind of right. Also Jessie Enkamp is a great youtuber. Very humble, interesting, and informative.
I've always understood the testing of armor to be "shot proofing" in the era, as it covered launched missiles from sling, bow, crossbow and later firearms. When charging the firearm was a multi-step process involving primer, powder, wadding and shot (or ball, since the shot was round), the word "bullet-proof" didn't enter the written lexicon until 1816.
If you are interested in karate, you should definitely watch more videos of Jesse Enkamp. Especially the series, when he was training in Okinawa. He is really into the history of Karate and does a lot of research about it. You really should watch it.
Just a quick aside that at 14:42 the guide talks about weapons being a necessary evil in Taoism. I believe it's probably Buddhism he's referring to, where some schools preach minimal and defensive use of force. I am basing my view on the fact that Taoism isn't as widespread in Japan as Buddhism and that in several east Asian societies, Buddhism acts as a philosophy by warriors for self-cultivation and growth. In any case, great content as usual 🙂
Jessie has a great channel, mostly karate minded. He is really sincere in his presentation. If he comes to someone whose ideas, technics, historical knowledge, etc,etc, is BS he handels that in a polite manner not showing or telling it to the "professional" it in a condecending manner. Of you wacht more of his vids you'll notice that when something he thinks is BS comes along he will use accurate karate terms to see if the other person knows what he/she is talking about or he will purposely use commen terms like "kumite", as he did in this vid, to call them out for the viewers. I don't know if he does that deliberately or not but it shows when you look at more of his vids.
What a great museum. In some small, private museums, it is easier for visitors to touch their collections. There is a private museum where I live, and visitors can apply to the museum to touch the collection. It will be easier if the visitor is a student from the Department of Literature, Archeology, or History. Public museums often require working there to actually touch the collections.
30:57 I learned from Jessie's channel. He's using the word "kumite" in its root form. 組手 = entangled hands (trapping hands) 組 root meaning is to weave. It has the root character 糹silk. 組 = weave. kumite, 組手 = entangled hands (trapping hands) And not the colloquial "kumite" in Bloodsport.
I'm loving this. Italian guy reacts to Swiss guy visiting a French/German guy in a German museum to talk about the Japanese content of said museum. Share the love!
I like a lot of Jesse's old videos when he stuck to history and study, but now his videos do have base covered with so much clickbait that it's a very hit and miss (with much emphasis on the miss). He is a very intelligent guy, there's no denying that, but he has slowly succumbed into the Matt Pat territory to my eyes.
Jessie Enkamp has a great channel! He truly is a karate nerd and martial arts enthusiast. Very nice guy with interesting and engaging content full of humor. I believe he comes from a martial arts family and his brother is a UFC pro. He did do several videos where he was in Okinawa and detailing Karate history.
We finally know "Metaton Pedanticus" You doxd your self bro. lol. Your reference to actions under real combat conditions is so very true; Its easy in training to imagine you can execute a series of moves - in combat when your full of adenine all that goes and you feel like your body is "electrified" in a bad way i.e. if difficult to maintain relaxation of the body and you might even be shaking all over, not form fear just adrenaline "pump". Gross motor skills and larger movements are the norm under these conditions. You cant really even emulate/simulate this with friendly competition, your aware your not in any real danger even with someone "going hard" you can only really experience it when you dont know its coming and you dont know the true (killing) intent of the opponent.
Also a bit of critique of the instructor: The only times I pronounced it "s-wörd" was as a child until the first time I heard it spoken. He of all people should know the right way.
Only in Germany would the warehouse section of a museum be so well organised that until he said that that is the part where they throw the stuff they didn't have time yet to organise in the museum, I thought it was just a different wing of the museum XD
@@andymax1 yes ninja existed they were spies/espionage made up of anybody from farmers to samutai. Some were combat trained some not. Ninjutsu did not exist as a martial art of a ninja.
@@rb98769 that wasn’t my point, my point was that Ninjutsu was not created in the 1950’s and that point holds because the shinobi existed before in ancient times. Now what we have with the Bujinkan is a claim of a lineage through an oral tradition and some scrolls that haven’t been authenticated. That being true or not, is where there is doubt, but the absence of proof isn’t proof to the contrary.
The way they salute at the beginning of your video, joining their hands "as they do in Kung Fu" you said, is not qpecific to Kung Fu, but to Zheng Chenggong (Koxinga) followers in southeast China. It's been exported to Okinawa when Fujianese people settled in Okinawa. It's still used in Okinawan Karate nowadays, and as Jessie used to be also a student of Okinawan Karate, this is why 😉
@@catocall7323 Practice Okinawan Karate and practice Okinawan Karate in Okinawa are 2 different things. This salute form is done in many Okinawan dojos/practice rooms at the entrance, such as hombu dojos of Meibukan Goju-ryu, Kyudokan Kobayashi Shorin-ryu, and many others. So does at the beginning of many Katas, such as Meibukan's Chinto, Kyudokan version and Seibukan version of Jion, but also in Tomari-te version of Passai, Jitte, and so on. Have you ever heard of Karate Day ? It's been set on Friday, October 25th this year. You'll be able to see us parading in the streets and performing traditional Katas while wearing the Okinawan traditional clothes (all black with a purple turban). Let's come to Okinawa ! We'll be very pleased to welcome you. ;)
Metatron, I would like to see your analysis of Aikido and its relation, if any, to samurai training. I see many people make claims about it, but, they seem unfounded to me
Great video as always! Jesse has some fantastic content. His speciality is the Okinawa style of Karate, but you'll see in his channel that he learned the basics of most martial arts. Sensei Seth and Icy Mike (hard2hurt) are two other channels that are entertaining and informational.
I studied Akido off and on for a few years. And the deference he showed Sigal was commendable. Jesse, was respecful and paid attention to the philosophy. I am nowhere near Segal's level so i cant judge but he came close in that video to my sensi's philosophy. Also pedantic is the right word
These social media personalities are basically just doing what TV did for decades where they give these surface level introductions to things and never real get into the meat and potato's and often get things wrong, if not everything. I recall being a fan of Mail Call as a kid, but being someone that went to the Library and checked books out specifically about European armor and Japanese armor, I was very disappointed when they featured these things so inaccurately.
The argument from pedagogy is show beginners an oversimplified paradigm so they can learn critical thinking and how to apply a simple model. It's only later that they learn no model works perfectly or all the time and there's a lot we don't know about stuff. It's only now with social media and the ability to push unsubstantiated views that those who assume they should believe everything they see or hear in a video as fact that we really need to get back to basics and fact check more. This stuff is minority interest but you can start a riot some places with a single video of the post truth age
Thanks for sharing your opinion on my video! :)
And now Jesse has discovered Metatron!
You have a cool channel.
You seemed quite open minded, I quite enjoyed watching you engage with Everything. I'll have to watch some from you here in a bit.
Metatron will eventually find this comment and respond.
Nice to see you here!
@@sadfrostnoises9191He has a lot of cool videos visiting martial arts styles in many countries.
As a jesse enkamp fan,I feared this day.
I thought something similar, but I trust the Metatron.
I mean Jessie is legit but he's also very friendly and open to people who might not necessarily be experts they claim they are
@@DMSBrian24What you mean Steven Segal isn't a one man army?
@@jaredgilmore3102 rumours say so... But it's definitely bs, right?
Jessy y su hermano fueron muy respetuoso con el gran maestro Segal experto en todo. Hacer un video con el fue una jugada muy arriesgada, al final uno lo ve solo para ver las mentiras que va a decir el maestro, japo-mongo-ruso-nativo americano.
Metatron is my favourite italian samurai ❤
mama mia!
He is italian? Doesn't look italian
@@michelangelodealberti310 14:18
Samuraitalian
@@michelangelodealberti310He is Sicilian
Jesse Enkamp is a real good youtuber. If you want to see more historical inclined video, he made a real good one on the french influence on karate and another one, extraordinary, on the chineese origin of karate.
I'll check them out!
Yes his trip to China was rather epic!
Jesse has a “glass half full” approach to most of his videos. He tends not to criticise but instead emphasises the positives. This approach can be refreshing change as a lot of martial arts you tube content is about attacking bad practice in one art to make a presenters art look better in comparison.
Yeah. I mean, his Steven Seagal video is pretty infamous. 😂 But this style is probably how he gets so many opportunities to begin with.
Yeah, it's annoying, but it is his approach.
@@rb98769 You can tell he acted differently when he interacted with Steven lol. Definitely just took the piss.
As a subscriber of Metatron and Jesse Enkamp, I never dreamed that I would actually see a video with both of them.
May I suggest a collaboration between Metatron and Jesse regarding Japanese martial arts with plenty of spoken Japanese.
Absolutely. A collaboration between these two would be so nice to watch.
That would be AWESOME!
We all want it. Have been waiting for the day they would run into each other for a while. It would be, if done right, one of if not the best episode of both channels. But Id need a 3 hour podcast with them. 10 20 mins is def not enough to do justice to either of these two giants of human beings. I would even pay for such an exchange between them.
Right. Enough talking lemme' summon them. Hope they answer the call #metatronyt #KARATEbyJesse
Jesse will appear when you mention Okinawa...
My kenjutsu sensei SPECIFICALLY taught me NOT to lean forward and to be careful not to lower my head, so... the opposite of this guy.
Was that a mechanical positioning thing or just hammering home not to expose the most critical thing in your body to the opponent?
Same with naginata.
Many different Koryu out there do different things.
No you should not "lower" the head like Jessie did the last time (the first time was a bit better). The neck should be in a straight line with the back but the weight of the head/helmet - or rather the whole body - is still used in the chop like Kacem said (in this particular style; Kukishin ryu). More of a poor execution then anything else, creating a unfortunante missunderstanding.
Karate, commonly have much more upright stance, hence the comment about the head leaning forward. It might have been better to say that the back leg, the spine and the neck should all be in a straight line, whith the front leg bent; making the body (and head) lean forward - but everyone has perfect hindsight. Many weaponbased styles all over the world (not just japanese) do use this principle as it gives advantage in reach, power and endurance.
The same principle can be seen in old style of japanese running (often depicting in manga and looks kind of funny funny) when you use the gravity to your advantage (the running technique almost make you constantly "fall" forward towards the ground but the step forward redirect the fall forward instead - sound wierd and is kind of hard to explain in text) which conserves energy but do not maximize speed (hence not used in modern competative running).
@@danorris5235 You'd lose focus as your eyes should be fixated on your opponent and yes, you'd be exposing your most 'critical' body part.
I make a pizza today and Metatron releases a video. Did I summon him???
As long as the pizza didn't have pineapple ... ;)
That's racist. Deliciously racist...
Do tell. What kind of 🍕 was it? 😋 ;)
@@dancekeb1308 Who do you summon when the pizza has that?
@@dancekeb1308whats wrong with pineapple?
Do note that Jesse is a competent fighter. His brother is a MMA fighter in Bellator, and Jesse is in the corner! But Jesse is also always extremly polite. No matter who he trains with in his videos he shows a positive view. Like he realy tries to find their point of view.
The dude did two days with Steven Segal and was all praise. That shows a deeper level of politness than I could ever manage 😅
The Steven Seagal video surprised me 😂
Only thing that shows is he's prone to accepting bs
@@GothPaoki segal is a legit aikido master, one of the first westerners to teach in japan. Your thoughts on aikido asside. He was a legit guy in aikido.
Steven Seagal will probably put you down.
@@N3onDr1v3 ofc there's the problem aikido itself is as legit as seagull is an actor...
I’d recommend looking at Let’s Ask Seki Sensei’s videos. He is the 22nd Headmaster of a Kabudo style called Asayama-Iciden-Ryu which dates back to the Sengoku Period. I remember seeing some techniques of him taking the enemy’s sword. But I’m pretty sure they had some context to them.
Oh, and also, he did make a video on your HEMA vs Kenjutsu video. Perhaps you can react to some of the criticisms he had for you? (Would be funny to see it the other way around 😂)
Also, about the Samurai using a fan to defend himself in a camp. There is the story of Uesugi Kenshin attacking Takeda Shingen at the Fourth Battle of Kawanakajima, and Shingen had to defend himself with his Gunbai Fan. But then again that’s if you believe the story, I personally do cause it’s epic.
I would love to see them start interacting more with each other's content, maybe make a live together (possibly remotely) talking about their Historical Martial Arts experience.
Tekada was the man. Yes it definitely happened
@@computron808 Id also give some credit to Kenshin. Considering he had the balls to charge straight into the enemy camp and try and kill his rival, IN THE MIDDLE OF A BATTLE.
@@TheGhost-7002 most definitely. Takeda and Kenshin,will always be known as honorable warriors. Just about equally matched on the battlefield.
It’s funny how they had such a respect for each other, something that’s a foreign concept in modern times. I guess with good reason,depending on the enemy,especially when we’re talking terrorists like isis.
@@computron808 eh, at that point in their wars they probably hated each other, I believe it was after this battle that they began to respect each other, or it may have been after the 5th Battle. What really solidified it though, was after Hojo Ujiyasu embargoed the Takeda by not trading salt with them, Kenshin opened up trade, despite the two still being at “war” (though they werent really fighting, they ere just in a state of war). You wont see commanders doing this stuff nowadays cause if they did they’d immediately get shot. Also, you dont want your men respecting the enemy, cause then they would hesitate, and its a lot harder to convince people to fight an enemy if they respect them. So people will dehumanise the enemy, which has been done for thousands of years, but especially nowadays through propaganda.
Glad to hear you enjoyed Jesse's video! I highly recommend his channel, especially his documentary on the origins of karate. As you may have surmised from this video, Karate is his main subject which he knows the most about. He does branch out and make videos where he learns about other martial arts, but those videos (much like this one) can only be as good as the guest he has.
That's how I found his channel too. His trip to China with Monkey Steals Peach. That was a great docu series.
Yes! I finally found something I can one-up Metatron on; I can read Classical Japanese without a dictionary. . . mostly. But in all seriousness this was a surprisingly enjoyable museum tour, though if you really want to train like a samurai (particularly a Heian and Kamakura period samurai) you should look into yabusame, (流鏑馬) which is traditional Japanese horseback archery. Maybe the next video we send our boy is one of people trying yabusame?? Regardless, a fun video from both creators, as always Metatron's commentary is always great.
Just looked up yabusame. First time I'm hearing about it. Very interesting
Just wondering, are differences between classical Japanese and Chinese very big? Cause as a Chinese who can't speak Japanese, I read and understand (or I thought) like more than 70% of the classical Japanese text.
@@williamberne Well I understand a grant total of 0 Chinese so I can't say with 100% certainty. What I can say in brief though is that Classical Chinese was to Japan what Latin was to most of Europe back in the day; the language of the educated elite. For the Japanese, pretty much all their "official" written works (family histories, law codes, imperial edicts, temple dedications, etc.) were written in essentially Classical Chinese with some leniency for names and other places that it was appropriate, so I'm guessing you'd be able to understand a lot of that. But they wrote their tales and stories in their own language often using kana instead of kanji. So basically, I wouldn't be surprised if you understood something like Prince Shotoku's 17 Article Constitution or maybe even something like the Nihon Shoki, but I'd be very surprised if you could understand something like Taketori Monogatari or Makura no Soshi.
I practiced ninjutsu a long time ago for almost 5 years and even though I don't recognize the specific techniques shown here, your assumption that "all of this hiding" seems like ninjutsu is spot on. I practiced many types of martial arts in my life and in my experience, those who have trained for years in one style are often bullish about the benefits of that particular style and unwilling to concede that other styles may have any real merits. When this guy got his museum gig, he should have broadened his practical skills before claiming expertise in this way.
What's the story about ninjustsu? I don't really know much about them but I always assumed most of it must be modern where they've guessed what techniques and tricks they used.
Because wouldn't it be almost impossible to find the secrets of ancient secret espionage and spying techniques?
And I don't mean that in a bad way, it sounds really cool.
Edit: I totally agree with your point about the museum guy should have expanded his knowledge and not remained hyper-focused and bullish on his personal favourite.
@@Wintermute909It’s more or less completely made up bullshit.
You know, the kind of “martial art” where you can be considered a “master” despite never having had a real fight.
Ahhhhhh watching naruto and doing funny runs and hand signs does not mean you practice ninjitsu.
Is like someone saying had modern warfare combat experience by just playing call of duty lol.
But anyways cool story bro!!! XD
@@Wintermute909There is no evidence of any distinctly Shinobi martial arts besides the addiction of subterfuge and guerilla warfare techniques, which are generally oriented around tricks for invading places or fleeing, not for combat or assassination per se. Most of what we know about ninja scrolls are more along the lines of applying Sun Tsu's _Art of War_ than martial arts in the conventional sense.
@@Wintermute909 You're right that it's supposed to be secret knowledge and it supposedly was for a long time until they started to practice more openly about a century ago. Nobody really knows if any genuinely ancient techniques really made it all the way through to present day.
The Ninjutsu style I practiced was called Bujinkan Budo Taijutsu and it included 9 different schools. In my humble opinion, it's similar to karate but with more focus on balance, on finding the vulnerable points and on hiding your intent. It includes a lot of jiu-jitsu-like grips and wrestling moves, twisting joints and throttling. We practiced about 15 different strike techniques with fingers, knuckles and hands. For me, it was a bit annoying that they kept requiring us to graduate to the next level (10th kiu to 9th kiu and so on) and by the time I was graduating for the 1st degree black belt, my heart just wasn't in it anymore. I was young and restless and wanted to move on.
The Wakizashi wasn't upside down. What he was showing there was a movement from Niten Ichi-ryu. I don't think there's anything from ninjutsu being shown here, but there are several schools of Japanese sword fighting and he's dipping into several of them.
Hello, I hope this comes across as respectful, the majority of martial arts was shown from the bujinkan, but I am interested in your Nito ichi ryu statement? Could I please have a link to see the difference in wakizashi style?
The wakizashi is not worn with armour, and neither was a belt worn over armour for that matter. Instead the uchigatana was used which was slung down. Niten Ichi-ryū being a rōnin style incorporated suhada kempō - swordsmanship without armour. I do not recall any drawing techniques from that, but I didn’t see much . . .
I've definitely seen tanto in reverse grip, both with edge forward (better "ice pick" stabbing, i.e. the curvature of the blade follows the arc of the stab) or edge backwards (for a downward raking attack). Historically, there's a fuzzy gray area between what is considered a tanto and what is considered a wakizashi (it's only modern Japanese commerce law that separates them by length), so it isn't necessarily wrong in the video, although Jesse wasn't holding it at an effective angle in that brief moment.
@@Sean-tb2zz thank you for the answer, I'm aware that miyomoto created the school in the Edo period , where the Tokugawa shogunate had imposed laws on wear and use of katana, do you have anything that shows the uchi katana being worn blade down? I also can't find a reference to Ronin style school?
I can't find any references to suhada kempo, pre 1910? Could I have a reference to it please?
@@dovidtauber7977 Then plz note that "Ninjutsu" and "Bujinkan" are two very different things. 6 of Bujinkan's 9 schools are more traditional Bujutsu schools and only 3 are labeled Ninpo/Ninjutsu schools. Of those 3 only 1 has been widely taught outside of Japan. The word "ninpo" has been swapped for "budo" in the name Bujinkan Budo Taijutsu since around 25 years back or so.
What was shown here is most likely from Kukishin Ryu (as it is responsible for much of the armored fighting within the Bujinknan), which is a recognized koryu that exists both inside and outside Bujinkan and has several different rather old and well established branches.
As such it is absolutely wrong to label Bujinkan as Ninjutsu even thought Bujinkan includes some Ninjutsu. Just as it would be wrong to claim that Ninjutsu is Bujinkan (there are several different schools of Ninjutsu and Bujutsu schools that include Ninjutsu or Ninjutsu like methods in their curriculum).
So yes, much of what was shown here was most likely from Bujinkan (as Kacem Zoughari is a very high ranking practitioner that that have trained since 1987 and are are personal student of Hatsumi Sensei), but not Ninjutsu.
Jesse is one of those people who is eager to learn new stuff all the time despite how experienced he is himself. I believe he also has a video where he tries to overcome late 14th/early 15th century plate harness with the weapons he is familiar with (mostly Japanese weaponry), if that is of any interest to you.
Enjoyable analysis. It is always good to get a second opinion from someone who knows their stuff when it comes to museum showcases or documentaries, just in case.
Ye I like him, he seems very nice.
@@metatronyt I highly recommend his video where he spars hema guys using kobudo, it is very good.
@@metatronyt What's you're opinion on Shinkendo and Toyama Ryu?
@@metatronytWould be cool to see a collab of some sort between you guys
@@metatronyt I would absolutely love to see you react to his video called "I Fought A KNIGHT With Real Weapons" which may be the video the OP is referring to, It's good but there are some very questionable things in it that I'd like to hear your opinion on!
Its not real samurai training and dietary conditions until you get beriberi from a lack of thiamine fortitude and then having a chonmage to cover your hair recession.
Beriberi in Japanese context is a distinctly modern phenomenon, it came from eating solely white rice in the Meiji period, as opposed to the less tasty but more nutritionally rich brown rice more common the the earlier periods.
White rice used to be something people in high positions (like retainers, samurai etc.) ate. It's Ironic that it's actually less nutritious xD but I guess they also had more of it available.@@radekvavricka5382
Yeah it's not like he really did any training, they just fiddled with a few things to keep in mind and there was no constant repetition for hours to build that neuro pathway as if he was training For an upcoming event. The title should have been I spent good afternoon with a samurai historian and this is what he taught me
The hair line receding is the cruelest joke played by mother nature
@JohnDoe-ne1ni especially if you had a really nice hair to begin with it's even more cruel😩
Anyone else getting anxious when they started hitting the armor lol.
Regarding the situation were one has to fight with a fan, there is a famous historical precedent : during the fourth battle of Kawanakajima, Uesugi Kenshin rushed Takeda Shingen, who had to defend himself with his signaling fan.
From the wikipedia page :
"Eventually the Uesugi forces reached the Takeda command post, and one of the most famous single combats in Japanese history ensued. Uesugi Kenshin himself burst into the headquarters, attacking Takeda Shingen who, unprepared for such an event, parried with his signalling fan as best as he could, and held Kenshin off long enough for one of his retainers, Hara Osumi-no-Kami, to spear Kenshin's mount and drive him off"
keep in mind alot of Kenshin's exploits are romanticized HEAVILY, nearly as much as Oda's.
Those 2 were so incredible as individuals that you'd think they were part of a tale instead
@@sixmillionisimpossible I wonder how romanticized his death is tho, lol
I remember the artistic representation of Takeda Shingen, he uses a slightly different kind of iron fan, it is in the gunbai style, instead of the folding fan style. Which makes more sense as an emergency defense tool.
Edit: i hasten to add that the depiction may not be historically accurate and may be stylized, or is subjected to artistic liberty.
@@86FallowcpHistorical chronicles are regularly not written for journalistic purposes, but to glorify certain characters. And in that, even someone's death may be romanticized. All the more in a culture like the Japanese at the time.
I understand your frustration at the amount of curators that know very little about their charges.
I spent a lot of years going to roslin chapel for research and the curator would spot me and send visitors with serious questions directly to me.
I had so many over the years just approach me and start asking about the chapel that I became habituated to filling in my latest conjectures and discoveries.
I ended up being given privileged access to parts of the chapel reserved for the lord st clair and family.
unfortunately, the curate didn't elect to follow us, or he would have had far more information himself.
That is why martial arts works all teach you how to judge reach and maintain proper distances to avoid getting hit in first place, while allowing you to be able to get in a strike when there is an opportunity to do so.
"Ninjutsu" isn't a historical martial art. It is a style created in the late 20th century to emulate what they thought that was taught to ninjas in the feudal Japan.
Historical ninjas did not had a dedicated martial arts taught to them. If they were to fight, they'd learn any martial art that was already available to samurai, such as kenjutsu or jujutsu. The whole "hooded-pajama-wearing" ninja is a myth that was imagined by fiction writers and seared into Japanese popular culture. The ninja would appear as being either a farmer or a samurai in their disguise.
the popular ninja clothes come from the kabuki theater stage hands who wore black to signal themselves to be invisible to the play. Thus the ninja clothes in pop culture signal the same.
You'll absolutely love Jesse! he's very humble and polite and as he's always trying to learn new things, he doesn't get confrontational.
He's trying to get other people's perspectives and really shines when he's with people who know what they're doing!
Thanks for reacting to this and don't forget, always re-stomp the groin!
Talking of samurai....where are the shogun reviews 😢
Yes!!!
I second this
I watched the original some time ago and found the martial instructions weird at the time. Now you highlight that he did/does ninjitsu, it makes perfect sense. From the little I know, these moves of same arm same side are very characteristic of ninjitsu movements.
jesse have a grat channel. training the okinawa style karate, but he goes around alot to different places and learn stuff. and in his videos he let the instructor tell him and his stuff, even if he doesnt agree with him he lets him with a smile on his face. very good channel!
It is so nice to have a 100% positive channel. The internet is fueled by outrage. But Jesse? He just keeps on smiling and being genuinley interested in what he does.
Such a great video. Looking more into Dr. Kacem Zoughari it appears that rather than actually studying even Ninjutsu he studied Bujinkan Budo Taijutsu under Ishizuka sensei. So a smattering of Koryu sadly obfuscated by decades of Hatsumi's well meaning but largely perfomative gap filling.
It is extremely rare for any academic to have any practical experience in what they teach. Those who teach Greek Comedy for example are not usually also stand up comedians. Presumably when he does his academic write ups he plays the game of peer review and is more tentative in summarizing scholarship and suggesting areas for farther study. And when he does youtube videos for laypeople he turns more into the peforming arts LARPer that is martial arts in a way unless that upsets people in which case if you want to challenge me to any actual combat to the death I shall yield and bow to your superior mojo
You probably already heard about Czech V.O.X. channel because of some interviews about Kingdom Come they did with developers, one guy from this channel also tried to do the samurai training with our the most known sensei and not only for day, for few weeks I think.
Spoiler: he ended in a pond during his fight with his master after few weeks of training 😀
The french guide ,giving a tour to Jessie, is Kacem Zoughari. I actually met him in a ninpo seminar like almost 20 years ago,if I remember correctly he showed us how to evade sword attacks , how to execute counters and takedowns while being armed with katana, tanto or wakizashi.
Why his attacks look very weird is because he's a Bujinkan 'shidoshi' ...that should tell you a lot.
Bujinkan swordplay is very poor no matter how they have 6 samurai styles in their curriculum. It's comical how bad it is for sustained combat. Footwork is particularly bad. They have some cool tricks.
We have a Samurai Museum!?
What!?!?
The Samurai Museum in Berlin is amazing, they have this fun mix of historical pieces and a high-tech war to present them, kinda fits japan really well.
They have this 3-d sculptet map of japan, where the clans and rulers are projected on, like in a video game.
I find the head hunting practise among samurai fascinating.
I'm currently writing a historical Japan-inspired fantasy novel and head hunting is a plot point in the opening chapter. The protagonist (a mercenary ronin) is bemoaning the fact that he wasn't able to take a head during the battle that had just finished.
Don't forget to take inspiration from history such as the Siege of Kawagoe where a relief force of 8,000 and 3,000 soldiers within the castle staged a lightning night raid against the 80,000 man siege force and their tactic was literally don't headhunt or you'll give the enemy time to respond.
Sadly, Jessie Enkamp haven't visited the Chiba Dojo in Munich in order to experience samurai training / Koryu Bujutsu with samurai armor etc. TBH, this would've been a better video for him in the end.
im glad you said your skeptical of martial arts and only like what actually works, knowing your history in martial etc its really good to hear a realistic perspective from someone of you bona fides in karate etc.
I am a huge Karate nerd fan. Hope he got it right, lets see...
I have yet to watch the rest of the video, so im going to do that in a moment, but to clarify to you that in Bujinkan ninjutsu, we call it ninjutsu as a colloquial term. In actuality a more proper name for it woulkd be Bujinkan style budo taijutsu, or budo. The bujinkan includes 9 seperate schools and lineages of martial arts which date back to different time periods in japanese history, think of it almost like how modern mma includes multiple styles into 1 art, the same goes for with the bujinkan. 6 of the schools we train are samurai ryuha. These being Gyokko Ryū, Kuki Shinden Ryū, Koto Ryū, Shinden Fudo Ryū, Takagi Yoshin Ryū Jūtai jutsu and Gikan Ryū, and many of these have lists of the lineages and the dates for each Soke, though of course i cant speak accurately for if these can be proven definitively of course. What you might notice is that a few of these styles are old jujutsu styles, Shinden Fduo for example supposedly tracing back to the year 1130 being created by Ganpachiro Temeyoshi. The 3 "Ninja" schools which are Togakure-ryū, Gyokushin-ryū and Kumogakure Ryū dont in all honesty have that much known about them, kumogakure being mostly passed on through word of mouth rather than densho scrolls. So as a clarification, Bujinkan ninjutsu is more of a samurai art than it is a Ninja one. With the most likely theory being that most shinobi no mono would've come from the samurai class anyway, and would've sometimesperformed spycraft as an extention of their regular samurai duties, with some clans such as the Hattori or Iga/Koka clans supposedly specializing in this. Though of course the lineage is not really as traceable as many styles of Koryū, so skeptecism is understandable. Hopefully this clarifies some things for you from the perspective of the art as a whole. Knowing you I should.ve probably typed this after finishing the video because you are usually very thorough with your research, I can't wait to watch your response to this though since I watched the original video when it released. (Edit, So when it comes to striking the chestplate with the palm of the hand, it's not used to injure the opponent because of course you cant with a chestplate on, but rather to create distance and space between you and your opponent and to stop them from advancing, it is used as a setup for throws as armoured fighting is all about the kuzushi which is the taking of your opponents balance, with armour on its much harder to keep yourself from falling when your centre of gravity is taken. Palm strikes into the breastplate are used in techniques mainly from Kukishin Ryū, It is used to attack places where there is armour, because as you know if you punch a chestplate, even with kote on, you are gonna mess up your hands pretty badly. Of course any samurai worth their salt isnt going to let you take their sword easily so that's absolutely fair, but if you are the better fighter you can absolutely create the opportunity to steal a sword, we have many many techniques for muto dori, which are techniques for fighting against an opponent with a weapon when you yourself do not have one, for example if you were disarmed. The lowering the head part I agree with, im assuming this was more to explain the concept of "sinking your weight with the strike" and using the weight of the armour to aid in your cut. Though we wouldnt lower our head usually, the posture is always kept straight and looking towards your opponent, In kukishinden which encompasses most of the nujinkans armoured fighting techniques, we would lift up the front leg and almost stomp and sink down into the attack in the same way other styles do. In terms of discussing it being kenjutsu, I would say yes, as Kukishinden ryu is a samurai school that teaches kenjutsu, the ninjutsu stuff would be called "bikenjutsu" and comes from togakure ryu, in which we use a shinobigatana or a togakure ryu style sword. In modern terms we would call it a "ninjato" but its of course not historically accurate, and no sensei I have spoke to has claimed that a ninjato would be a hollywood style sword with a straight blade and square tsuba, but rather a regular katana handle with a shorter blade, or sometimes with a long wakizashi blade used but I digress. In the case of Kukishinden, the sword is usually a tachi or a long handled uchigatana as it uses "battlefield" swords in its kenjutsu techniques mostly. In our training we absolutely do suffer from the "time freezing" in kata, but this is mainly just to learn the movements in a theoretical attack pattern, we will also usually practice these techniques then at full speed, and will perform henka, which are variations on the technique. So it opens a lot of possibilities on different things that could happen. The bujinkan, at least with all the training I have done so far, greatly emphasizes adaptability and discourages being stagnant as is seen in many styles of Japanese martial arts. Hopefully I have clarified some things for you as a Bujinkan Budo practitioner and given some context to things that weren't explained in the video. Also the video was really amazing btw, I would love to see you react to some more videos, perhaps some more of the videos from "lets ask seki sensei" and his use of HEMA weapons from the perspective of a kobudo master, if you havent already. Perhaps one day you could also have a look at some Bujinkan stuff, and preferably avoid the bullshido aspect that can be seen in some Bujinkan dojos unfortunately, I have seen somebody training techniques with a giant log and was actually perplexed at what I was watching)
If you go there and make an in-depth video going over every that would be great and would watch.
I was not expecting this crossover.
Okay, go to the Museum in Germany and have an argument with the curator. That would be fun.
You obviously didn't watch the video because he's practically praised both of them throughout the whole video
@@maximos905 Do you know what a sense of humour is?
@@stax6092 I don't get British humor, sorry bro
I'm not a martial artist myself, but, from the perspective of a street fighter, it makes sense to me that you would use any technique that you have at hand at the moment of a massive battle between armies. Soldiers do that all the time. I have no reason to think it haven't been that way since the dawn of war.
I can even say that, most ninja techniques look just like that: tricks that someone used to survive certain situation and a ninja heard about it and incorporated it into its personal fighting style.
The armor and sword he tries are replicas.
Loving your videos. Bummed I didn’t find you sooner, but now I can binge everything!
As someone who works in corrections, and has a standard of training to do in a system of martial arts… the first thing I tell my trainees is “well I’m supposed to show you this, but it’s actually bullshit, here’s why. Learn this… but expect more of this… until enough training allows ‘this bullshit’ to actually click.” I have about 20 years now of martial arts experience and know that a few days basic training isn’t going to cut it for many scenarios.
His series in Okinawa is awesome.
Funny thing: there once was a competition to design a fifth turtle. I came up with a female. Name: Mona Lisa, pink mask and weapon: a fan. People were like: female, pink mask ... OK, but a fan to fight with?
I own a copy of the FRPG Bushido, and there is a metal fan that is used to slash opponents. Its advantage is that it can be hidden in plain sight until deployed as a weapon; its disadvantage is that it is just a fan, hardly a battlefield weapon :-)
So weighing in as another ninjutsu practitioner. First off the use of the term ninjutsu I feel is more a colloquialism than an actual style as the word means more or less "the art of endurance" as the kanji used for nin(or shinobu) is sword over heart and means "patience" or to endure something. Now modern ninjutsu is not necessarily koryu imo(as it is my opinion take it with a grain of salt), and falls more under gendai budo, and an amalgamation of the various schools that have all been gathered into one place. All of the stances and techniques taught are based off of the use of various weapons and then how you would also use the same attack empty handed. The first one that is mostly learned is Ichimonji and its mainly reminiscent of wielding a spear. All in all what is taught it based off of samurai budo, not any specific koryu despite, in the bujinkan association, there being 9 koryu schools claimed most of which overlap with each other teaching strikes, grappling, and weapons. Its basically "medieval MMA." My personal experience with ninjutsu is not necessarily how do the techniques actually work, but rather how do you apply the concept of said techniques. I go out to other gyms and spar with them using these concepts and sometimes blow people minds with the "how did you do that?" reactions, its quite invigorating :) There was one instance where Dr. Kacem showed how he would make a couple strikes before he pulled the sword from his opponent, either hitting the vital neck spot between the armor or a palm strike to the do. If you just take that for what you see then yea doesn't seem very practical, but if you think about it for a second he's not hitting the armor with a full strike like you would a punch, he's more doing with the intention of unbalancing or pushing his opponent and then taking his weapon.
That said most Koryu today are a very small sliver of what was taught back during and before the Sengoku Jidai. Samurai learned the spear, bow, horse riding, kenjutsu, tanto-justu, bo-jutsu, empty hand and many other types of ways of combat. As time went on during peace time people went off and specialized in teaching just Bow, or sword, or spear, and all the way up today you have the very splintered specializations. There are some like Katori Shinto Ryu that still incorporate many different weapons into their curriculum, but they are I feel the exception of today not the rule. Most koryu schools practice a single aspect of combat, whether it be karate, kenjutsu, kyudo, iaijutsu, etc.
Back to regards of the video and Dr. Kacem. He is indeed a very knowledgeable individual when it comes to samurai history and budo in general. That being said what I know of the man is that his knowledge is very broad and his knowledge on the use of each weapon is not based on specific koryu styles, but the most practical application of said weapons. His explenations in the video were meant to be very broad and conceptual in natureYou mentioned to go and find an instructor from japan to talk about how the samurai fought, but even that will be colored in a very specific bias based on the style that instructor specializes in. Those styles are based off of what was taught to samurai of a specific province. Ryuha techniques are based on a plethora of factors from how large the blade of your sword is, to deciding if its the left or the right foot forward. This is a very long winded way of saying just because you don't necessarily agree with his explanations doesn't mean he's wrong.
I'm sure there's a lot more I can say here but I'm not trying to do a whole ass TED talk :p
Metatron and Jesse occupy different style platforms. Metatron is the debunking fact checker and Jesse more the respectful listener with beginner's mind who makes entertaining youtube videos for the casual hobbyist or someone who came across it by accident. An expert is always going to be disappointed with anything done for a lay general interest audience. All very confusing mind but this is the interweb
19:25 is such a cool moment, analyzing someone's martial arts style from one punch is like something out of a martial arts anime.
Jesse is awesome His channel is all about his martial arts journey and he goes around the world learning the real history of different martial arts and karate.
I live in Berlin and didn't even know this existed. Well, I'm going to check it out. Thanks. :)
Your first impression was right : Dr. Kacem Zoughari is indeed French. He's very famous in the French martial arts circle. But he's very focused on Ninjutsu indeed. And here I think there is a big conflict of interest : on one hand, he's an historian. But on the other hand, he's a member of Bujinkan Ninjutsu... Which is many great thing but not strongly based on actual history. I think his credibility as a historian suffers from the fact that he's pushing the Bujinkan bandwagon (they claim they have direct connection to Ninja martial arts dating centuries ago, but there is absolutely no solid proof of that... The affiliation beyond Takamatsu sensei is pretty blurry). Also, as you said, many techniques he demonstrated (for example the defense with the Tessen) are not only Ninjutsu, but more accurately modern-day Bunjinkan Ninjutsu...
So yeah, very interesting, but a big problem regarding authenticity. And it's the only bad thing I have to say about Jesse Enkamp : sometimes his enthusiasm, humility and open-mindedness prevent him from being skeptic and criticial (and the best example of that is his interview with the absolute shill that is Steven Seagal).
What about his video about BJJ where he refuses to grapple a white belt (a beginner) and takes that as proof that BJJ is useless?
@@PeregrinTintenfish I don't think that was meant to be taken 100% seriously. I think it was a riposte to the "traditional arts suck and only BJJ works" crowd. He made the whole thing so ridiculously obvious.
I thought the Segal thing worked great, he just allowed Seagull to show what a master of BS he is.
@@moominpic I think in that video it seemed more of a parody of the more traditional style. My martial art form is the best now I'll prove it. People seem to be criticizing him for his humility and openness to learn but don't get the parody when as people point out he fights for much less than an hour and beats some fellow BJJ white belts and then switches to the style of the bjj fanatic and therefore my system is the only one and everything else fails.
12:16 While trophy today is mostly used in the context of a sports trophy, it also has the meaning of an object used to display your success in hunting or war. This is the definition used in trophy hunting. And under this definition, saying they took the heads as trophies would not be incorrect, as they were used to display and prove their success on the battlefield to their lords.
After my knowledge practically every smoth bore gun can be used as a shootgun!
I have done Kendo / Battojutsu and "Bujinkan" Ninjutsu before I went over to shoalin Kempo before I quit...
Whenever I hear someone say they are an expert in "ninjutsu" I always raise an eyebrow.. especially when they just say "ninjutsu" without adding which style
Because yeah... Most ninjutsu teachers are filled with bs unless they tell you straight up what you learn has nothing to do with actual shinobi back then and it's just a mix of a lot of martial arts
Jesse Enkamp is a wonderful human being. I love his work. Its cool to see Metatron doing a video on The Karate Nerd!
The ‘tubular belt’ is meant to be worn underneath (!) the armour - under the ‘cuirass’ - as a cushion, so as to relieve the weight by redirecting it onto the hips (!).
A regular type of obi could be worn on the outside, if the samurai would wear a ‘daishō-configuration’ (katana & wakizashi); or a tachi & tantō (or wakizashi) could be attached with sageo, in various ways.
Karate is a Okinawa martial art. It was introduced to Japan as an organized system in late 19th to early 20th century. Jujitsu is a Japanese martial art. Akido was a 20th early century martial art.
The historian is certainly french cause when he said 'super cool' he commited himself. Since I have been training with japanese weapons for a couple of years, a lot of those attacks are really weird. And yes he did a chinese salute. So this was basicaly strange from the beginning.
Ave Metatron. Brother you should/could do a review of the entire Shogun 2024 series. Take care Friend.
80s mini-series is much better. Watch that instead. Novel is a classic read.
@@aweigh1010 Read the book right after the finale. I had seen a DVD set of the 80s a few years back but only remember bits and pieces. I do think that both the televised versions improved on the novel, which is kind of rare; usually adapted novels are watered down versions of the source material.
Jessie has a very open mind when it comes to martial arts, even going as far as training with Steven Segal (which was quite a disaster ngl XD), in this video, I loved the museum part of it, but even after leaving my martial arts discipline, the final half of the video wasn't the best either, but I still love Jessie.
The gun blade proves one thing you see in all historical references but never in Hollywood. Samurai were very sneaky.
"What does 'katana' mean?"
"It means Japanese sword."
😂
On using the palm of your hand to strike armor I'd add that during my military training I was taught to strike armored opponents (different armor but the same rules should work) with my palm instead of my fist since the palm is more stable and won't just instantly break. It becomes less about inflicting damage and more about shoving, armor will absorb most of the impact. No idea about the historical accuracy but at least it is definitely a thing in modern hand-to-hand.
Regarding the palm heel strike, I did learn it in American kenpo. It's a modern style (of course), but does trace its lineage through traditional karate. Vs. armor, it won't do a lot, but a lucky strike to the chin could disorient. The main reason why not to use a closed fist is a closed fist against something hard can easily lead to broken fingers.
As a warfare historian myself, something that stands out in contemporary accounts of the battlefield soldiers, particularly those in armour, is the complaints about weather, rust, and cost. European soldiers largely worried about storms and mud. Armoured soldiers in hotter climates, especially Crusaders, would speak about the modifications they made (based on their exposure to what the locals or enemies would do) to their own protection systems to prevent overheating from the Sun. Fresh arrivals would be ignorant and would ignore their suggestions for a few days or weeks. Manchu soldiers of the Qing dynasty would have to deal with a range of conditions that proved hard on them, and quite expensive. Banner soldiers would complain about the wild temperatures and weather encountered during a campaign season, and the effects it had on their armour. This, and the cost of maintaining multiple horses for combat and patrolling would usually eat up a significant part of their silver wages. Many of their accounts detail ways that they tried to cut down on wear and tear, more efficient uses of what they had, and stories of when they just decided it wasn't worth the aggravation.
Metatron and Jesse, two great RUclipsrs.
Jesse is in the Ultimate Self Defence Championship with Hard2Hurt and Martial Arts Journey.
The curator is actually a Bujinkan martial arts practitioner. Bujinkan brand was created and started to be marketed as "Ninjutsu" to capitalize on the ninja craze of the period of 50s and 60s and etc. Before, it had been a long standing and very little known traditional jutsu dojo. Dr. Maasaki Hatsumi, having had studied martial do (judo, kendo, etc), became eventually well accomplished and one of the favorite students Takamatsu Toshitsugu. Takamatsu ran a small dojo where he taught and practice various ryū no jutsu - meaning here: various types of skill sets, like kenjutsu, yarijutsu and jiujutsu. Bujinkan calls them "traditions" - 9 in total. Most of what Takamatsu taught were traditional armed/unarmed and armoured/unamoured combat techniques suitable for ashigaru and even samurai. As far as I know, he also taught one ryu pretaining to shinobi/ninjutsu: little to do with specific combat skills but mostly related to philosophy and more practical applications of espionage and deception techniques which you can't really safely [and legally] practice or even teach in a modern dojo setting for the most of them - Togakure-ryū. So "Bujinkan" is basically 11.1% (debatable) legit ninjustu in theory, where the rest are lesser known Japanese traditional martial art ryū techniques in practice that have been dressed up and flavoured as ninjutsu for marketing reasons.
I'm guessing your name is Jon Snow.
@@jachyra9 Nothing wrong with guessing, as long as you are enjoying, I suppose.
@@Qongrat - You suppose. Just like the paragraph you wrote.
@@jachyra9 Why are you playing this passive aggressive pathetic innuendo indirect insult game. Grow a pair so you can stomach up to say what you want to say or come up with some logical convincing arguments - a more intelligent option. I will listen to your intelligent logical arguments and if you make good points and would be happy to learn something new.
Now, John Snow or whatever you call yourself, I started learning and practicing martial arts in 1985 (judo, aikido, operational krav maga to name a few), which judging by your photo was way before you were even produced in a form of spermatozoon in you fraternal individual's testicles. I have completed university courses in Asian culture studies, Japanese and Classical Chinese languages. I own and read quite a few books by Dr. Masaaki Hatsumi, especially his earliest works, as well as a few other books from Bujinkan practitioners. I have been researching martial arts history and traditions (as a hobby not at a professional level) since 1985 and hold 1st Dan in Bujinkan, which still is my favourite martial art to practice.
@@jachyra9 Wow, you really love guessing and guessing wrong especially.
the samurai arquebus does look very much like a shockwave shotgun, and the bore of it is more like a shotgun slug after all...
Also, I don't know about Japan, but in Europe and America, loading a musket with multiple small shot instead of a single large ball was a thing that was sometimes done. It was perfectly feasible with an arquebus (thinking back to school history about a French explorer in Canada - I grew up in Toronto - killing multiple Iroquois warriors with a single shot, which implies multiple projectiles and our teacher explained it as such...that would have been about 1600).
ahh finally metatron beefs 😅 always love when u arguing with your data and research and style
havent seen ur vids for time
I can't see really harping on it too much. It's just a little infotainment video. It's not something anyone is going to take too seriously. But the collection was absolutely just wowzers. If I had the ability to go there, I would in a heartbeat. Even if I didn't get an opportunity to see the special room. I'd still be more than happy to see the public parts of it.
Samurai routinely used two weapons, the katana and the smaller sword. Deception is always important, hiding one weapon (usually the smaller one) behind the larger is not Ninjitsu, not necessarily. Deception, diversion, etc. are basic fighting tactics. A boxer feints with a jab then strikes with a right cross, for example. In Karate, we often hide a front kick behind the opponents primary guard, knowing they can't see it coming. It's just basic technique.
Jesse Enkamp is the man.
Thank you for pronouncing Taekwondo 태권도 / 跆拳道 accurately. 타이권도 ≠ 태권도
Also, a note about what you mentioned as "charging" a punch -- 引き手 hikite (당기 손 danggi son in Korean):
"Hikite - pulling hand, the moment you block the opponent's fist, you grab and pull his fist towards you. In doing so, you attack him. The fact that you pull him in towards you means that you are disabling your opponent from using his waza (technique) and making him lose balance. At the same time, the effectiveness of your fist increases; this is most important. It is even more effective if you can pull-in with a twisting motion rather than just pulling."
- Gichin Funakoshi
The hand moving to the hip prior to delivering a strike in order to provide greater power is an unfortunate modern misinterpretation which has been passed on through many styles. Indeed, as I'm sure you're aware of with your reality / results based approach to martial arts, a strike should be delivered from whichever guard is being employed with a minimal amount of set up prior to initiation (telegraphing).
The hand which moves to the hip is literally pulling on the clothing, limbs, neck, hair, etc. of the aggressor in order to destabilize and/or create a path for striking. These techniques were originally developed for non-consensual close range fighting where the mantra "a block is a lock is a strike is a throw" is a useful guideline. Consensual martial arts dueling (sparring and competitive fighting) mixed with wrongly passed on information have lead to a lot of people's bunkai / bunhae being laughable and impractical.
Iain Abernethy has done a lot of great work in demystifying the hikite.
All of this is, of course, just my opinion and experience, though.
Well it seems we can welcome you soon in Berlin. I guess we have some more japanese things here ongoing, just check the japan ambassy or similar, sometime some cultur events are happening here
Jesse Enkamp is the karate goat, and i honestly I'd love to see a collab with metatron to learn some authentic karate
Now if Metatron reacts to Sensei Seth... That would perfect
Fun fact. Shot guns evolved from muskets. It's why they shoot a bundle of balls. So his observation of it being like a shotgun is kind of right.
Also Jessie Enkamp is a great youtuber. Very humble, interesting, and informative.
I've always understood the testing of armor to be "shot proofing" in the era, as it covered launched missiles from sling, bow, crossbow and later firearms. When charging the firearm was a multi-step process involving primer, powder, wadding and shot (or ball, since the shot was round), the word "bullet-proof" didn't enter the written lexicon until 1816.
If you are interested in karate, you should definitely watch more videos of Jesse Enkamp. Especially the series, when he was training in Okinawa. He is really into the history of Karate and does a lot of research about it. You really should watch it.
Just a quick aside that at 14:42 the guide talks about weapons being a necessary evil in Taoism. I believe it's probably Buddhism he's referring to, where some schools preach minimal and defensive use of force. I am basing my view on the fact that Taoism isn't as widespread in Japan as Buddhism and that in several east Asian societies, Buddhism acts as a philosophy by warriors for self-cultivation and growth. In any case, great content as usual 🙂
Jessie has a great channel, mostly karate minded. He is really sincere in his presentation. If he comes to someone whose ideas, technics, historical knowledge, etc,etc, is BS he handels that in a polite manner not showing or telling it to the "professional" it in a condecending manner. Of you wacht more of his vids you'll notice that when something he thinks is BS comes along he will use accurate karate terms to see if the other person knows what he/she is talking about or he will purposely use commen terms like "kumite", as he did in this vid, to call them out for the viewers. I don't know if he does that deliberately or not but it shows when you look at more of his vids.
What a great museum. In some small, private museums, it is easier for visitors to touch their collections. There is a private museum where I live, and visitors can apply to the museum to touch the collection. It will be easier if the visitor is a student from the Department of Literature, Archeology, or History. Public museums often require working there to actually touch the collections.
30:57 I learned from Jessie's channel. He's using the word "kumite" in its root form.
組手 = entangled hands (trapping hands)
組 root meaning is to weave. It has the root character 糹silk.
組 = weave.
kumite, 組手 = entangled hands (trapping hands)
And not the colloquial "kumite" in Bloodsport.
I'm loving this.
Italian guy reacts to Swiss guy visiting a French/German guy in a German museum to talk about the Japanese content of said museum.
Share the love!
Swedish not Swiss
I would 100% watch a video of Metatron visiting this museum.
if the guy is working from French, yes, 'executeur' would be an executioner, though we don't use the word that much.
I like a lot of Jesse's old videos when he stuck to history and study, but now his videos do have base covered with so much clickbait that it's a very hit and miss (with much emphasis on the miss).
He is a very intelligent guy, there's no denying that, but he has slowly succumbed into the Matt Pat territory to my eyes.
The "tale" about using a regular fan (instead of a tessen...) against an armed foe comes from a legend about Ueshigi Kenshin vs Takeda Shingen.
Jessie Enkamp has a great channel!
He truly is a karate nerd and martial arts enthusiast. Very nice guy with interesting and engaging content full of humor. I believe he comes from a martial arts family and his brother is a UFC pro.
He did do several videos where he was in Okinawa and detailing Karate history.
We finally know "Metaton Pedanticus" You doxd your self bro. lol.
Your reference to actions under real combat conditions is so very true; Its easy in training to imagine you can execute a series of moves - in combat when your full of adenine all that goes and you feel like your body is "electrified" in a bad way i.e. if difficult to maintain relaxation of the body and you might even be shaking all over, not form fear just adrenaline "pump". Gross motor skills and larger movements are the norm under these conditions. You cant really even emulate/simulate this with friendly competition, your aware your not in any real danger even with someone "going hard" you can only really experience it when you dont know its coming and you dont know the true (killing) intent of the opponent.
Also a bit of critique of the instructor: The only times I pronounced it "s-wörd" was as a child until the first time I heard it spoken. He of all people should know the right way.
Only in Germany would the warehouse section of a museum be so well organised that until he said that that is the part where they throw the stuff they didn't have time yet to organise in the museum, I thought it was just a different wing of the museum XD
Isn't ninjutsu a very modern (post 1960s) thing? Maybe I'm wrong in thinking it never existed in historical times.
Correct
Incorrect, plenty of evidence points to the use of Shinobi/Ninja in Feudal Japanese warfare.
@@andymax1 yes ninja existed they were spies/espionage made up of anybody from farmers to samutai. Some were combat trained some not.
Ninjutsu did not exist as a martial art of a ninja.
@@andymax1 There is no provable link between modern day "ninjutsu" and any sort of ancient shinobi art.
@@rb98769 that wasn’t my point, my point was that Ninjutsu was not created in the 1950’s and that point holds because the shinobi existed before in ancient times. Now what we have with the Bujinkan is a claim of a lineage through an oral tradition and some scrolls that haven’t been authenticated. That being true or not, is where there is doubt, but the absence of proof isn’t proof to the contrary.
The way they salute at the beginning of your video, joining their hands "as they do in Kung Fu" you said, is not qpecific to Kung Fu, but to Zheng Chenggong (Koxinga) followers in southeast China. It's been exported to Okinawa when Fujianese people settled in Okinawa. It's still used in Okinawan Karate nowadays, and as Jessie used to be also a student of Okinawan Karate, this is why 😉
I have a black belt in Okinawan karate and I did years of kung fu, never saw that salute in karate at all. I did commonly do it in Kung fu.
@@catocall7323 Practice Okinawan Karate and practice Okinawan Karate in Okinawa are 2 different things. This salute form is done in many Okinawan dojos/practice rooms at the entrance, such as hombu dojos of Meibukan Goju-ryu, Kyudokan Kobayashi Shorin-ryu, and many others. So does at the beginning of many Katas, such as Meibukan's Chinto, Kyudokan version and Seibukan version of Jion, but also in Tomari-te version of Passai, Jitte, and so on.
Have you ever heard of Karate Day ? It's been set on Friday, October 25th this year. You'll be able to see us parading in the streets and performing traditional Katas while wearing the Okinawan traditional clothes (all black with a purple turban).
Let's come to Okinawa ! We'll be very pleased to welcome you. ;)
Metatron, I would like to see your analysis of Aikido and its relation, if any, to samurai training. I see many people make claims about it, but, they seem unfounded to me
Everything seems to converge on Seki Sensei when it comes to the katana. I hope Enkamp gets to meet that man.
Great video as always! Jesse has some fantastic content. His speciality is the Okinawa style of Karate, but you'll see in his channel that he learned the basics of most martial arts. Sensei Seth and Icy Mike (hard2hurt) are two other channels that are entertaining and informational.
At last, a real Metatron video and not click bait bs. I'll give you a like!
Kukishinden ryu Happo Bikenjutsu
I'm a canadian samurai watching an Italian samurai criticizing a german/French samurai that's training an American samurai...❤ I love youtube
The bujinkan includes the Kukishin Ryu school - a legit Samurai school. Kacem's martial prowess is exemplary; watch him.
I studied Akido off and on for a few years. And the deference he showed Sigal was commendable. Jesse, was respecful and paid attention to the philosophy. I am nowhere near Segal's level so i cant judge but he came close in that video to my sensi's philosophy.
Also pedantic is the right word
These social media personalities are basically just doing what TV did for decades where they give these surface level introductions to things and never real get into the meat and potato's and often get things wrong, if not everything.
I recall being a fan of Mail Call as a kid, but being someone that went to the Library and checked books out specifically about European armor and Japanese armor, I was very disappointed when they featured these things so inaccurately.
The argument from pedagogy is show beginners an oversimplified paradigm so they can learn critical thinking and how to apply a simple model. It's only later that they learn no model works perfectly or all the time and there's a lot we don't know about stuff. It's only now with social media and the ability to push unsubstantiated views that those who assume they should believe everything they see or hear in a video as fact that we really need to get back to basics and fact check more. This stuff is minority interest but you can start a riot some places with a single video of the post truth age