The perfume of the transmission: Beyond the paper

 The perfume of the transmission: Beyond the paper*

Texts are bridges. They allow us to collect information, justify arguments and, above all, look at someone else's reality. However, there is always an unknown: why do we write and why do we read?

Hatsumi Sensei's words about the books resonate in my memory. He himself, more than a conventional writer, has been a guardian who allowed his documents to be transformed into books. I remember that, when talking about the old scrolls - those that sometimes end up in the hands of collectors without the intention of deepening - Sensei said that the reading began with the observation of their composition and the smell they transmitted.

Curiously, he himself said that Budo doesn't need any more books.

It seemed like a contradiction, but today I understand that it wasn't.

An odorless text is a "plasticized" text. The sense of smell is a processing door where time stops. Like the medicinal incense that purifies and anchors us to the present, the aroma of a writing is what allows us to enter our interior.

I remember when we held Takamatsu Sensei's objects immaturely, trying to understand their value with logic or sight; then Hatsumi Sensei took them back, smelled them, and gave them to us again. He taught us that the valuable thing was not only the piece, but the perfume that he gave away to access places that are otherwise inaccessible. That's training.

Since I published Ninpo Taijutsu in 1991, I have continued to translate and compile material. Over time, I understood the message: the book must smell of experience.

As writers of Budo, we have the responsibility to impregnate the pages with that aroma. I recognize that, in my case, my fragrances are not easily accessible (laughs). *As an apprentice of a true Ninja*, I know that traces must sometimes be hidden so as not to be detected in the burrow. That's why I tell the reader: remove the texts, flip the images, shake the book. Only then will you receive the fragrance of the message.

Today, when I approach the manuscripts that Sensei gave me decades ago, I no longer look for only the technical translation that I lacked then; today I look for its fragrance. I have learned that it is daring to ask a student to walk a path that we do not travel ourselves.

The essence of all this is summarized by Hatsumi Sensei himself on the back cover of one of his books:

*"You should not limit yourself to reading Budo's records and believe that you have fully understood him. Budo only has substance in a world of great dignity." *

I will continue working on the sense of smell, detecting the fragrances of his teachings and discovering the new smells that mark the route.

Pedro Unryu

Shitenno Budo Taijutsu