The best martial artists always have a wry smile or kosho (苦笑). In the west, there is a difference between a bitter smile and a wry smile. A bitter smile is supposed to show disappointment while a wry smile indicates “a false acceptance of something that is negative.” In Japanese, there is no distinction between the two as both kusho (苦笑) and nigawarai (苦笑い) mean “a bitter smile or wry smile” but are supposed to be a form of sarcasm or satire. In the martial arts, a wry or bitter smile is similar to the Japanese understanding. Martial artists are always supposed to be undaunted, and they show their undauntedness with a wry smile. The wry smile demonstrates that they won’t be defeated easily. Everything that a martial artist has gone through in their training and in their lives has made them harder to kill and with every adversity they surmount, they become stronger and stronger. Smiling in the face of adversity comes from the martial arts idea dojo de naki, senjo de warau (道場で泣き戦場で笑う) or “Cry in the dojo, laugh on the battlefield.” The harder a martial artist works, the harder they are to beat. In old martial arts movies, the hero always sarcastically laughs when their life is threatened. This is known as a hardship laugh. They laugh not because of some nervous fear but rather they laugh to mock their opponent’s arrogance to say, “Do you think I will be that easy to kill.” Another way to look at a wry smile is from the context of the First Noble Truth in Buddhism or dukkha (苦) which is common translated as “All existence is suffering.” Thus, if all of life is suffering and all paths have strife, uncertainty, pain and uncomfortableness, then we should choose the path that we want. Thus, a martial artist wryly smiles as if to say, “This is my life and my choice.” Nietzsche said, “To live is to suffer, to survive is to find some meaning in the suffering.” Understanding the Buddhist perspective, then on a certain level there is no one meaning - it is a cycle. The martial arts are a constant cycle of self-improvement - we have realizations, work on them, fail, work some more but ultimately we improve. The laughable realization comes when we become aware that under each layer of improvement lies another layer that needs improvement - this is the game. There will always be another opponent to defeat (usually yourself) or another layer that needs to be attending to. Understanding that this is the game of life, a martial artist wryly smiles when confronted with adversity. Someone once said, “Every time you find some humor in a difficult situation, you win.” In the martial arts and in life, smile to remind yourself that this is the path that you have chosen and smile so that your opponents know that you won’t be easily defeated. That is why the best martial artists always have a bitter smile.
Today’s goal: “Smile in the face of adversity, be contemptuous of danger, undaunted in defeat and magnanimous in victory.” - Sumitro Djojohadikusumo