Mirror 鏡

武道稽古は，本来，鏡を見ながら行わない方が良い。ときに姿見に映る自分の動きを確認することはある。しかし，形を練るときなどに，鏡に映る自分の姿を見ながら行うのは，稽古としては望ましくない。なぜなら，自己の身体を他者的視点で外側から平面的かつ無機的に眺めてしまうからである。武道の稽古，すなわち，形の稽古を行うときは，内側から自己の身体を立体的かつ有機的に眺め，全身をくまなく平等にありありと感じることが重要である。そうでなければ，身体を自己のものとすることができない。そうした内側からの自己的視点を経て，やがて自然に他者的視点も含めた，自他，内外，主観客観といった区別のない身体へのまなざしへと至ることこそ求めるべきである。しかし，物理的な鏡によって客観的視点は容易に取得できてしまい，そうして容易に喚起された客観性は，容易に消失してしまう。ましてや鏡ばかり見ていると，安上がりな客観性だけが中心的に維持されてしまい，いっこうに身体へのまなざしは深化しない。自己の身体をいかに感覚するかが武道稽古の重要なポイントであることを考えると，鏡という道具とは上手に付き合わなければならない。

Essentially, we had better not practice budo with watching ourselves in the mirror. It is certain that sometimes we observe ourselves reflected in a large-mirror to check our own moves. But, when we polish katas, for example, it may be undesirable as the practice of budo to do that with watching our own figure in the mirror. It is because the mirror makes us observe our own body, from the outside or the viewpoint of others, in a plane and inorganic way. During the practice of budo, that is, the practice of katas, it is important to observe our own body from the inside in a steric and organic way, and feel all parts of the body evenly and vividly. Otherwise, we could not identify the body as ours. We should seek for the way to a look on the body without distinction between the view of ourselves and others, inside and outside, and subjectivity and objectivity, as we begin to see ourselves from the inside viewpoint of ourselves, and then gradually, naturally, and additionally see ourselves from the outside one of others. But, the objective viewpoint can be easily obtained by a physical mirror, and such easily aroused objectivity should disappear easily. Not to mention, if we only observed ourselves in the mirror all the time, mainly mere cheap objectivity toward ourselves would be kept, while a look on our own body would never be deepened. Considering that how we feel our own body is one of the important points in the practice of budo, we should treat a tool called mirror in a wiser way.