Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 2.djvu/163

 annals and household traditions are associated with its use. When in the West fencing is spoken of, men understand that they are referring to an art the principles of which have been reduced almost to an exact science. It has been proved possible to compile written accounts containing not only an intelligible but also an exhaustive account of all the methods and positions recognised by European masters of the rapier,—the attack, the parade, the opposition, the tierce, the prime, the quarte, and so on. But it was never admitted in Japan that the possibilities of katana fencing had been exhausted. In every age numbers of men devoted their whole lives to acquiring novel skill in swordmanship. Many of them invented systems of their own, which received special names and differed from one another in some subtle details unknown to any save the master himself and his favourite pupils. Not merely the method of handling the weapon had to be studied. Associated with sword-play was an art variously known as shinobi, yawara, and jiujutsu, names which imply the exertion of muscular force in such a manner as to produce a maximum effect with a minimum of apparent or real effort by directing an adversary's strength so as to render it auxiliary to one's own. The mere fact that gymnastics should be made an adjunct of fencing shows how greatly the methods of swordmanship in Japan differed from those in Europe. Whether in