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My brief experience
as uchi-deshi
Three weeks at the heart of the tradition
or
How I fell off the Garden of Eden!
April 6th, 2009 - by Pierre Nadeau
It
was a very strange feeling. Kawachi Kunihira is considered one of the
top japanese swordsmiths in the world, a candidate to become one of the
next Living National Treasures, those who wish to apprentice with him
are plenty in Japan and abroad, people were very encouraging and
supportive around me, and I just walked away.
Or so it seemed.
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When
I first discovered japanese swordsmithing back in 2002, at the time I
had no idea that japanese swordsmiths were still a living tradition. On
top of that, I had only a general interest in martial arts and sword
fencing as well as a strong passion for traditional crafts. As I slowly
penetrated this peculiar world, I came to understand the intensity by
which the people of the sword world, or the sworld as I like to call
it, work and live.
I first fell in love with the actual craft,
the daily work involved in traditional sword making in Japan. I wanted to
live that way everyday: slowly, by the fire, working iron, alone, in
the country... To add to the wonder, the actual swords thus made
were also a stunning demonstration of mastery: steel in pure elegance
of design and technology.
Three years later I was entering the
tradition officially as an apprentice. Even then, I still was a total
stranger to most of what is considered common knowledge. I often think
of the time someone mentioned the famous Middle Age smith Masamune, and
I just asked where he lived so I could visit him! People couldn't
understand how I could be so ignorant of anything sword-related and still be
accepted as an apprentice. It was actually the right thing for me to
approach this craft with the appeal of its daily reality without any
preconception: this is what got me in.
With time I became a
little less neophyte and took the local colors to a certain extent.
NBTHK sword forging competition Special Prizes, Mukansa-ship, and
political stances are the daily bread of the high-flyers in the sword
makers' world. Kawachi Kunihira is now famous for having trained with
two Living National Treasures, having himself taken his first Special
Prize three years only after completing his first apprenticeship, being
the 15th direct descendant of a famous Osaka smith, and for his
accomplishements over 40 years of seven-day-weeks swordsmithing. To me,
he is a role model not only for all this, but because he is a very
accessible, joyful and enlightened man that doesn't care for politics
and is allergic to what is commonly refered to as BS. A true craftsman.
Over
the years training under his second apprentice, interacting with him
and enjoying his encouragement and support has become part of my life.
Being of humble birth, I had no stipend flowing down from a family
fortune to support me during my adventure in Japan. Until now my
apprenticeship thus implied various combinations of day-per-week jobs,
a generous fiancée and falsely generous credit cards. Although my
relationship with Kiyota and my learning with him has generally been
very smooth and stimulating so far, the appeal of not having to worry
about doing anything else but train and practice and study, all this
under a top class smith, was very exhilarating.
-
In
December of last year my wife and I visited Kawachi to ask him to
accept me as a live-in apprentice, or uchi-deshi. He accepted right
away and later shared that his apprentices, his son and himself were
looking foward to have me there. I entered his house on March 15th, and
found myself at the heart of top class traditional swordsmithing.
In
the 21st century, this is probably the closest one can get to a fully
traditional apprenticeship. The only difference is that the apprentices
cook for themselves and have to pay a relatively small stipend for room and
board. This my wife was to cover for the necessary number of years to
come. A week into the apprenticeship, there was no big shock: I was now
used to the type of work and since Kiyota is a direct apprentice of
Kawachi, nothing was very much different. It was only a matter of
learning all the habits of the house, but the pace was slower than at
Kiyota's and I didn't have to go to work on the week-ends, I
didn't have to go anywhere! On top of that, the Kawachis proved
themselves very pleasant, very human and extremely generous and patient
with their teaching. Actual teaching is rare in traditional japanese
swordsmithing as the apprentices are expected to learn by themselves
while living by their master's. This was still the case at Kawachi's by
any Western standard, but this is Japan and here one could feel they almost
had a curriculum set up!
The number of years I would have to
stay there was obviously unclear, it was a matter of how well I would
perform in time. Also, the canadian government started requesting that
I reimburse a not-so-big student loan, for they decided I was not a
student in my present situation. About to turn 32, looking at Kawachi's
own independent apprentices unable to make months' ends and not
performing so well in the sword business although making fine blades, I
decided it was time I took the pressure of supporting me off someone
else's shoulders (in this case namely my wife and her family), and
arrange for me to take my responsabilities just as I materialized my
ideal of living and working as a swordsmith in the japanese tradition.
Before
the whole thing got too serious, I decided to hop out, creating a whole
lot of waves around me that are yet to settle. The Kawachis were
obviously very disappointed, as were other supporters, as they shared
their hopes with me. Our relationship did not turn cold, however, but I
know I didn't succeed at playing my part right this time.
It
felt really strange, as if I was walking in the exact opposite
direction of all that support and encouragement around me. People
sending me e-mails from abroad sharing their hope to become such an
apprentice under a top smith, others simply congratulating me, and
there I was just walking away.
The truth is, the whole thing
remains unclear.
Once when I was seventeen, I was renting my own appartment
and didn't have a penny. I worked in a convenience store for a month
but just couldn't take it and decided to quit although it was obviously
the worst thing to do: how would I pay rent in two weeks to come? But I
always believed that I should first and all follow my heart, even if it
seemed to lead me to hell, because I believed that if I followed it, it
would lead me to where I truly wanted to be. As soon as I had gotten home from my last day
of work at the convenience store, I had a phone call from a more
interesting employer in my field of study! The thing is, I had dropped
my résumé there a year before. Why was he calling me on that day?
At
Kawachi's, although everything in appearance — and in reality — seemed to be ideal, my
heart told me to get out. In my diary I have written down a list of all
the reasons that I could find to take that decision, just to try
to rationalize that I was not just crazy or lazy. All these reasons are
valid, such as longing for my financial autonomy, being married and a wannabe father
or remembering that all the glamour around Mukansa smiths and stardom
is not what I entered this craft for, but the main reason is this:
My
heart told me to do so.
Not
even once during my visits to Kiyota's, and then during my three years
of apprenticeship with him did I ever thought of leaving or quitting.
After an hour at Kawachi's, I had made my mind. But this was
unthinkable: one does not quit! However, three weeks into the training
and nothing had changed. Once out, no regrets.
This is very strange.
-
And
here's what: two days after leaving Kawachi's, I got a phone call! This time it
was from a months-old interaction with a retired blacksmith near
Shimizu, where I trained with Kiyota, who was asking me if I would
receive all his equipment. I now have a power hammer, a blacksmith
vise, a blower, a motor, plenty of stock material... over 5000$
worth of equipment, and I didn't even search for it.
I
am now back under the tutelage of Kiyota, and forging every single day.
The set-up is much better, and my heart tells me I was never wrong.
It's a great feeling to sense being in the right place. I'm really
looking foward to obtaining my swordsmithing licence!
Practicing muko-zuchi with the 7kg (15lbs)
hammer (the middle size one) at Kawachi Kunihira's
- March 2009 -
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