Читать книгу Traditions. Essays on the Japanese Martial Arts and Ways онлайн

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The tactics of the Itto ryu called for a daring sense of timing and an absolute confidence in an ability to make a single, expertly executed technique at precisely the right moment. It was an approach to swordsmanship that Kofujita took to with enthusiasm. When his master Ittosai was off on one of his many journeys in search of worthwhile opponents (or dallying with a variety of the mistresses he kept, in search of something perhaps even more worthwhile), Kofujita practiced under the school’s seniormost student, Ono Tadaaki. It was Ono who fired the young Kofujita with a feeling of purpose and duty. Kofujita took seriously Ono’s lectures about filial loyalty and duty. When a local noble cheated Kofujita’s aged father in a business matter, Kofujita, barely in his teens, took up the cause. He confronted eight of the nobleman’s samurai along the street one afternoon. According to legends handed down within the ryu, he killed two of them and wounded three others before the rest hastily retreated.