There was a man by the name of Shirai Toru who made it a point to practice twice as hard as anybody else; if somebody did a stroke five hundred times, he would do it one thousand times. He was a pretty big man.
For fifty years he trained for great strength. When others tried to block him, he would shatter their bokken through strength alone.

When he was twenty-one he was the best student in his gym but his teacher wouldn’t give him the inka because of his youth.

One day while Shirai was travelling around, looking to find other teachers, he met a man named Terada who was sixty-two years old at that time. Shirai told him what had happened and said that he was going to find a big man to train him so be would become the best in Japan.

Terada said, “Oh! Let’s have a match.”

Shirai agreed. Terada had a stick. Shirai had a sword. Terada was able to beat Shirai with his ki because when Shirai faced him, Terada was able to push him back with his ki. Shirai asked Terada how he was able to do this. Terada said that strength was unimportant, that you need only enough strength to hold up a sword and that’s all. He recommended that if Shirai wanted to learn the secret, to go find a Shingon sect priest.

Shirai looked for, and found a priest. He watched him chant sutras, at the end of which the priest would hit a bell. He observed for two years. Eventually, he was able to see a surge of energy shoot out of the priest’s hand and hit the bell. The priest would send all his ki from his hand the moment that he would hit the bell.

Shirai practised until he was able to put his ki into the end of his sword. He faced Terada again. Terada was now seventy-nine years old. Shirai lost the match. He had not realized that ki doesn’t decrease with age but increases with practice. Shirai would never catch up with Terada because he had a head start.