Aikido or Aiki-Do?
There are many explanations for Aiki-Do and from a historical point of view we have to look a the lineage of the many educational lines of Aiki-Do.
Morihei Ueshiba can be credited to be the founder of Aikido and was a student of Sokaku Takeda, the founder of modern Daito Ryu Aikijutsu (or Aiki-Jujutsu). Morihei Ueshiba modernized Daito Ryu and therefore changed the mechanical but also the philosophical concepts.
Is there a difference between Aikido and Aiki-Do?
The distinction between the two can be summarized as follows:
- Aikido: the martial art created by Morihei Ueshiba, based upon a concept of natural rhythm, a free flow of personal expression that offers no conflict with nature.
- Aiki-Do: a method to learn the skill of aiki which is to provide a method of hand-to-hand combat.
According to Japanese Martial Arts scholar Don Draeger, the personal view of Sokaku Takeda on aiki is:
The secret of aiki is to overpower the opponent mentally at a glance and to win without fighting.
Morihei Ueshiba modernized Aiki-Do, sometimes called Aiki-Budo or other names, in such a way that the concept of Aiki is different from the Daito Ryu Aiki concept. The concept of Aiki by Morihei Ueshiba is explained in “Aikido” by Kisshomaru Ueshiba, the son of Morihei Ueshiba. This book is written under supervision of Morihei Ueshiba.
Aiki is the expression of Truth itself. It is the way of calling people together and reconciling them with love whenever they may attack us.
Our interest of course is in the lineage of Kenji Tomiki. He was a student of Morihei Ueshiba for his Aikido (previously AikiBudo or other names) and this is the reason why there is a link with the Daito Ryu lineage. But can we conclude Tomiki Aikido is Daito Ryu? In my opinion, Tomiki Aikido has some Daito-Ryu influence via Morihei Ueshiba, but is not following the Daito-Ryu syllabus and therefore the movement patterns will be very different.
Another person who has an influence on Tomiki’s Aikido is Hirokazu Kobayashi from Osaka. Some of his student are claiming Kobayashi was a Daito Ryu shihan. But this seems a controversial assertion. To learn more about the link between Kobayashi and Daito Ryu, you can read an article by Guillaume Erard.
Tetsuro Nariyama, shihan of the Shodokan Dojo in Osaka has a great influence on the modern version of Tomiki’s Aikido and he was for many years a student to Hirokazu Kobayashi. During the time he learned from Kobayashi, he introduced Tomiki’s randori method to university aikido clubs under Kobayashi’s control.
Explanation by Kenji Tomiki
Kenji Tomiki gave an explanation for 2 important words, Aikido & Aiki.
Aikido: the old saying goes, “It is the spirit that carries the mind and controls the body.” The people of ancient times believed that man’s mind and body and consequently his strength were under the control of the spirit.
Aiki means making your spirit “fit in” with your opponent’s. In other words it means bringing your movements into accord with your opponent’s. After all it means the same thing as the “principle of gentleness,” for it is an explanation of the principle from within.
The perception of Kenji Tomiki is a “pragmatic” one, and most people approach his method very technically. In my opinion, Tomiki explained Ueshiba’s Aikido according the ideas of Kodokan founder Jigoro Kano, but tried to keep the spiritual message of Morihei Ueshiba. Tomiki seems to use almost non-religious words to explain a spiritual message. By using a non-religious language, some Western people are very highly attracted by the logic he used to explain his Aikido understanding. Other people regret the absence of a kind of aiki-mystery in the method.
But is this just a perception or maybe we don’t understand Tomiki’s message?
There is an interesting quote of Tomiki in Geof Gleeson’s book: Judo Inside Out:
When training in aiki jitsu under Professor Tomiki he often used the symbol of prayer, the placing of two hands together as signifying the purpose of prayer and religion – the duality of God and man, the yin and yang, becoming one.
Human Lifelong Activity
If we try to understand Aikido in a pragmatic way but as a lifelong activity, we cannot just build our understanding on techniques, exercises or technical kata. We have to find out the elements which can be used as criteria for Aikido as a human lifelong activity. I am not referring to the 3 principles of Judo used by Tomiki (Natural posture, Breaking the posture & Principle of Gentleness) because they are included in the Fundamental Elements.
Yōso – Fundamental elements
Yōso literally translated as “principle”, but in the context of our study we use “essential element”. Of course this is already discussed in other articles on this blog. But I would like to stress the importance of this way of thinking:A human lifelong activity.
This is only possible if we change our way of thinking from raw muscular power into a method based upon physical & mental skills, creating an Aikido method for everybody. This method is using technical skills to control attacking power of an opponent by using fundamental elements without raw muscular power.
What are the fundamental elements in the method which can be practised by everyone?
- Ma
- Hyoshi
- Aiki
Ma : distance & time interval
Distance :
- distance between 2 opponents or more
- the distance to step to the opponent to control him, for example grasping the wrist
Time Interval :
- the relation between distance and time
- big and small movements and time relationship
Controlling the distance and the time to bridge the distance doesn’t need excessive muscular power, only our natural way of moving is needed. The relationship with the principle of natural posture is evident.
The exercises unsoku-ho & tandoku undo are a very basic training tool to practise how to move in a natural way. When a training partner is involved, we are confronted with the distance and the relationship with time when moving into a safe zone after a movement of the opponent. The concept of “rikakutaisei” is her involved.
Hyoshi : cadence, rhythm, tempo
- cadence : Cadence is the total number of repeated movements (cycles) taken within a given period of time.
- rhythm : creating movements within a pattern (waza). You create rhythm by repetition of similar movements with a variations pattern
- tempo : the speed of a movement cycle
Learning the skill to change hyoshi with the purpose to control the opponent. There are 2 opportunities:
- Changing the own hyoshi to create an opportunity to control the opponent.
- Changing opponent’s hyoshi to create an opportunity to control the opponent.
Repetitive training is a basic method to learn the concept of hyoshi an includes the following parameters:
- cadence : the total number of repetitions in a certain time
- rhythm : repetitions of a movement pattern without changing the choreography
- tempo : the time to perform 1 movement pattern, which is repeated several times at the same speed
Combinations of cadence, rhythm and tempo can be used.
Aiki
Aiki (in aikido) is the skill to read correctly the Ma & Hyoshi of the opponent and controlling his actions. Reading the opponent is called “yomi”* and comes from “yomu” which is “to read”. We can read before or during the actions of the opponent. When this reading is correctly done, the use of power will follow the laws of natural movements with the body. No tension is required to apply power. Therefore it becomes a lifelong activity.
The concept of reading goes far beyond the use of the eyes. The total body can be seen as a sense organ and will be used to “yomi” correctly the Ma & Hyoshi of the opponent. It is most important to “un-tension” the body if we use it as a “yomi” sense organ.
Some advice by Shigeru Uemura, former ShitoRyu karateka
In internal martial arts we advance by releasing the muscles, in other words by falling. When we release the muscles, an energy linked to gravitation is released. With the muscular relaxation, the movement is immediate, in a single time, this movement is much faster than with the muscular system which is done in two stages.
It is by releasing the weight of the body that we move. By synchronizing the muscular system, the tendinous system, the nervous system and the bone system, which makes it possible to move with high efficiency.
By following this advice the skill how to move is improving which has a great influence on reading and anticipation of opponent’s movements.
* Sometimes Yomi is referring to a kind of fortune-telling.
