Kizeme is a Japanese term describing the advanced form of seme when a kendo player has succeeded in causing shift in the mind (attention) of the opponent.[1] Kendoka at that stage takes the offensive mainly through Ki, succeeding in disconcerting the opponent via KI-projection and at much higher skill level without visible gesture.[2]
Kizeme is act of combat predominant in Kendo and should be regarded in contrast to ordinary levels of combat in which the awareness of the practitioners is limited to the most directly perceptible elements: speed, strength and sheer aggressiveness. The last can be used to delineate 3 levels of combat (see the 3 sketches on your right).[3] These 3 levels were elegantly described in a compelling allegory by Issai Chosan (1727) Neko no Myojutsu ("The Cat's Eerie Skill").[4] Kizeme is depicted as the perfect skill in martial art, where non-violence is still an artifice that can be detected and exploited to dismiss the naturally embedded aggression in the ego and reach harmony - the state of Muga-mushin.
An instructive attestation of kizeme can be seen in a demonstration kendo match at Noma dojo by Moriji Mochida (ju-dan hanshi) during the Emperor's Cup (1940).
"Swordsmanship is basically the exercising of the Life Force and,
therefore, at the beginning of the study the
Life Force is exercised by means of technique."[5]
...
[edit] See also
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seme_(martial_arts)
Seme (攻め, せめ, Seme? "attack", "offense") is a Japanese martial arts term for a kind of psychological pressure. The seme is the one inflicting something on to the uke. It is also an attitude meant to disrupt the opponents sense of confidence and resolution, prior to an attack.
= ki + ma-ai rather then mindset only
The term is mostly used in kendo.
