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moromoro and the Stance of Great Emptiness

Where the name moromoro comes from, and what we want it to mean. A series in 12 parts, from 五方の構 through 有構無構 to 空: form, form without fixation, and emptiness.

12 articles · about 21 minutes in all

  1. Part 1 of 12Start here

    The Origin of moromoro

    Why a DEX aggregator on HyperEVM is named after a humble Japanese word for “all sorts of things,” and how the name connects to a swordsman who has a stance without being possessed by it.

    3 min read

  2. Part 2 of 12

    Form Appears, Yet the Mind Is Not Imprisoned by Form

    The image of moromoro does not show “a swordsman assuming a stance.” It shows a body whose stance cannot be named as attack or defense, and that ambiguity opens the central problem of the 五輪書.

    1 min read

  3. Part 3 of 12

    The Five Stances

    Before emptiness there is form: 上段, 中段, 下段 and the two side stances. Yet almost as soon as moromoro defines them, he begins to dismantle the idea that they are a closed system.

    1 min read

  4. Part 4 of 12

    Form Is Necessary. Attachment to Form Is Not.

    Form is necessary for training; attachment to form becomes an obstacle in reality. The teaching of 有構無構 turns five fixed positions into points along a continuous field of movement.

    2 min read

  5. Part 5 of 12

    When the Mind Becomes Fixed

    The real problem is not the position of the feet, hands, or sword. It begins when the mind gives permanence to something that should only be temporary.

    1 min read

  6. Part 6 of 12

    The Center That Does Not Become a Prison

    moromoro calls 中段 the essence of stance and compares it to a general commanding an army. But the center is not immobility; it is a form that has not yet hardened.

    1 min read

  7. Part 7 of 12

    Emptiness

    “Know what exists, and know what does not exist. This is 空.” Emptiness in moromoro’s sense emerges after knowledge and practice, not in place of them.

    1 min read

  8. Part 8 of 12

    “Great Emptiness” Does Not Mean Having No Form

    The Stance of Great Emptiness is not the absence of stance but the absence of attachment to any particular stance. A careful comparison with Śūnyatā, and the question that remains when the others fall away.

    2 min read

  9. Part 9 of 12

    The Eye That Perceives, and the Mind That Waits

    The eye of 観 should be strong and the eye of 見 weaker: perceive the whole field, not only the opponent’s sword. And a stance can quietly become a form of waiting.

    1 min read

  10. Part 10 of 12

    The Stance of Great Emptiness

    It has a center, but does not harden around that center. What 空 means when it arrives as clarity rather than darkness, and how to read the artistic body of moromoro.

    2 min read

  11. Part 11 of 12

    The Gate Between Form and Emptiness

    The whole path compressed into a single movement: know the five forms, do not think that you are assuming a stance, and approach 空. Form emptied of attachment.

    2 min read

  12. Part 12 of 12

    The Way of Exchange: Stance, Release, Next Stance

    Every route is a stance taken because the moment calls for it. The series closes by returning to exchange itself: a stance, its release, and the next stance, and why a router should hold venues the way moromoro holds the sword.

    4 min read