Kuji

Thanks to the Ninja Craze back in the Eighties, most martial artists know all about the ninja method of kuji kiri, or ninja magic. The legend says that the ninja would weave their fingers into various patterns in order to trigger particular "mindsets." Sometimes, if cornered, the ninja would create the kuji symbols with their hands and scare those superstitious samurai, who believed the ninja were a mix of super-warriors and wizards.

Don't you believe it. As with most legends, there is always an element of truth to the hype. But let's start with this little tidbit, kuji were not unique to the ninja. In fact, many traditional martial arts (Yagyu Shinkage Ryu, for example) dating back to the Japanese feudal period contain these hand signs, known throughout Buddhist thought as mudra, but under several different names according to the different martial arts.

Mudra were part of the Buddhist mind-spirit technology that modern, Western science is only recently begun to explore. They are similar in some ways to yoga. Each position is supposed to be part of a meditation. As the person practices the mental part of the meditation and physical position, it becomes easier and easier to fall into the state of suggestion. Eventually, the person should fall into the associated mediation almost as soon as the mudra is formed.

So, for example, if the mediatation is a typical warrior's self-affirmation of "I am invincible; woe to all who face me," it would be accompanied by a particular hand sign, and probably also a guided visualization of the practitioner acting invincible. So, let's say that cornered ninja decides he needs a little confidence boost before he faces those samurai guards. He would form the mudra, or kuji, and fall into the feeling associated with the self-affirmation. That would help. A little. Maybe. But it is better than peeing his pants. Which is why warriors adapted this technique from religious practice to martial application. Hope is a universal human virtue; and we can all use a little more hope in our lives.

This concept is not completely foreign to Westerners. The most common Western mudra is the clasped hands of prayer. Notice too that we have a few variations on this form that have various "meanings" associated with them. The palm/fingers touching flat tends to connote piety. Clasping the hands together with the fingers clenched and curled back connotes a certain desperation to the prayer. See, it's not so weird.