Winning Without Fighting

“My art consists not so much in defeating others as in not being defeated."
Tsukahara Bokuden

There is an old story, told and retold for four hundred years, about a crowded boat crossing a wide lake.

Among the passengers sat an old man, quiet, keeping to himself, apparently half asleep. He was Tsukahara Bokuden, and though the young samurai sharing the boat did not know it, he was one of the most accomplished swordsmen who had ever lived. The young man knew none of this. He knew only that he was gifted, that he wanted everyone to hear about it, and that the silent old man in the corner was failing to be impressed.

So he boasted louder. He listed his victories, his teachers, his unmatched skill, and when the old man still did not stir, he crossed the boat, shook him rudely, and demanded to know what style he practiced.

Bokuden answered without heat. My school, he said, is the school of no sword. The art of winning without fighting.

The young man laughed. He had never heard anything so cowardly. Winning without fighting was not winning at all, it was the excuse of a man too old and too frightened to draw. He demanded a duel on the spot, right there, to prove it. Bokuden looked around at the crowded boat, at the passengers with nowhere to go, and suggested, reasonably, that they not spill blood among innocent people. There was a small island just ahead. Let them settle it there, where no one else could be harmed.

The young man agreed, delighted. As the boat neared the island he threw off his coat, gripped his sword, and leapt from the deck onto the shore, already turning to face his opponent.