Different schools did it different ways.
A set of skills that
needed to be mastered, but it was left to the teacher to determine
the process.
How one learned it
in the dojo, became the benchmark for when one encountered the same
skill at another dojo or martial arts seminar.
One was invited to
sit in the circle after a year or two of training.
Not an absolute
specific time, but when one had a command of the movement and a base
level of awareness and distance and timing.
Once every few week,
after class the circle would practice.
Sitting in seiza,
relaxed, equal space between everybody, the circle expanding or
shrinking depending on what was present.
The senior student
would begin.
Knife in hand,
balanced in the palm and they would toss it to a student in the
circle who in turn catch it on the palm, rotate it, and when ready
toss it to another student in the circle.
The first lesson of
the transmission was straightforward.
Could you catch a
weapon and bring it into play as if you life depended on it?
Could you pass a
weapon to another as if their life depended on it?
Yet as with all
lessons, there are layers in the lesson.
When catching the
knife, being able to rotate it in the hand as if one was bringing it
into a ready position.
When tossing the
knife was the person receiving it ready?
The importance of
eye contact and silent communication.
Distance, timing,
and the rhythm of the circle.
It was at one
seminar that I found out the circle of another dojo used a jo to
practice the transmission.
For me a stick
seemed as strange as a knife did for them.
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