iaido, manners, rank testing, and more

Heard something I liked the other morning at iaido. (Iaido, for the uninitiated, is the Japanese art of drawing a katana or Japanese sword, performing a series of cuts as if against an actual opponent, removing blood from the blade, and replacing it in the scabbard. It is not a flashy art and has little to do with the crap seen in "samurai movies" or throwing aluminum fake blades up in the air and catching them, as seen in some American "martial arts" tournaments. More on what it actually is, elsewhere and elsewhen).
Back to the main story: somebody Sensei was talking about testing in iaido. At least in the Tokyo area, you go out in groups of five. Each person does the opening reiho (etiquette/bowing related to the sword), does 5 waza or techniques, does finishing reiho, and is done. Basically,everyone is focused on those five techniques. They are announced that morning and everyone does the same techniques for the test.
But this person's point was that there are really 7 waza in the exam, that the opening and closing reiho should be weighted equally with the 5 sword techniques. Apparently something like 50% of the people testing for 2-dan recently failed - and most of them because of improper reiho.
This is really unheard of, at least in Japan, as the first three ranks (shodan, nidan or 2dan, sandan or 3dan) were pretty much guaranteed in kendo, iaido, and jodo (they are all part of one federation). Even the initial test begins at ikkyu or first kyuu level, and it was of course pretty much guaranteed. The idea seemed to be to encourage people, to give positive reinforcement.
Then bang! Things suddenly get very demanding at 4dan level. I managed iaido 4-dan in one shot (the much-hallowed "ippatsu") but my kendo has been stuck for years at 3dan, and I have failed kendo 4dan about a dozen times, having lost count somewhere along the way.
This has always been puzzling to me, having started in the US. I practiced kendo for 5 years and reached the respectable rank of sankyuu or 3rd kyuu (the lower, kyuu ranks start from 10kyuu and count up to 1kyuu). For adults, 3kyuu does not even exist in Japan - everyone starts from 1kyuu and as long as you can hold a shinai (bamboo sword) correctly and swing it somewhat correctly, you have passed. I became a kendo 1kyuu overnight and passed the first, second and third dan levels bang bang bang. And am now stuck.
After about three years of iaido in the US, I had no rank but came to Japan and received first, second, third dans, bang bang bang. I practiced longer than the minimum time required (3 years after 3dan the minimum) and took 4dan on my first try. I started jodo (a staff about 4 feet long) in Japan, worked up to 3dan but left my dojo, end of jo career.
Along the way, I have had many reservations about the ease of attaining 3dan in Japan, after coming up through the ranks the hard way in the US. So when I heard about the recent toughening of standards at iaido exams in Tokyo, I thought it a good idea and one long overdue. Hell, I would re-institute the kyuu system and make people practice about five or seven years before attaning first dan/ shodan / "black belt" status (colored belts are not actually worn in kendo, iaido, or jodo, except for the purpose of holding one's sword in place).
The notion that so many people could fail for reiho - which is something I see as so basic and essential - was shocking to me. But take a look at the prior post re: decline of manners and general courtesy in Japan.
This is all doubly strange to me because I have been wrestling for years with the sense that far too much concern is paid to inane matters in Japanese budo, and that people fuss too much over external matters of little consequence. I think much of the recent over-focus on appearance is a mere by-product of living in a country with too much money to spend. Go tell Miyamoto Musashi he has to spend four thousand dollars on a set of kendo bogu (armor) before he is eligible to test for fourth dan...
I would rather go back to helping teach kendo in Wenzhou, China, ten years ago. We used the leftover and cast aside bogu and uniforms from Japan. Yes, we tied it properly and took good care of it - but external appearance was not what the key. It was the internal desire to find and express good kendo. Same at my university club before that - we students had miserable bogu, held together by duct tape, our skulls and wrists crushed with every blow because the padding had long since worn thin...I hesitate to say it, but I may have learned more about reiho outside Japan than in Japan. Our equipment looked horrendous - but I was thankful to use it each time and I believe we were evaluated upon our efforts to learn and show good kendo, not upon the length of the hakama trouser/skirt, or the number of stitches used in sewing one's equipment, or other such.
Don't get me wrong - I am all for caring for one's equipment, respecting the tools and uniform of one's trade - but I do think too much attention is sometimes paid to inconsequential things (i.e. external appearance) here in Japan. At the same time, I think more attention should be paid to things like reiho, which expresses inner qualities. It cannot be measured and is thus hard to judge, but I think it is far more relevant to budo/ the martial way. So I am all for a toughening of standards in this regard as has been seen recently in iaido.
I have written in Kendo World magazine about my experiences in testing for a referee qualification in naginata here in Japan, and that article touches on some of the above topics. I don't know how to upload a Word file onto this blog, so anyone who wants to read the article, please email me. Of course everyone should be familiar with the Kendo World website at www.kendo-world.com