Aikido Riai

[Rebecca Donnelly]

Itwas, as I recall, one of those hot, humid, oppressive summer days that Kyoto is known for, when just standing in the shade will elicit buckets of perspiration. We were taking a sorely needed break from training and drinking iced tea in the little meeting room in the back of the dojo, gathered around a low table with a hibachi burner set in it, and I absent mindedly picked up a Kendo Nippon magazine that had been left on the table. I flipped through the pages and found a photograph of a rather well-known teacher demonstrating a short, bladed weapon. I showed the photograph to my sensei.

Our own Takeuchi-ryu has several poems and sayings that are supposed to aid us in understanding our methodology. The longer I trained in the ryu, the more I realized that, like other martial arts, the key to really getting good at it was to constantly go over the first basic kata and keep on trying to perfect them. The moves contained the entre to all the other subsequent kata.

Just as kote-gaeshi is a foundational technique in aikido, there are foundational techniques in other martial arts that, if properly understood, will enable an understanding into the riai not just of that technique, but of the entire curriculum. And the wonderful thing about understanding riai is the discovery that it can go from a simple notion to great complexity, but in the complexity there is a beautiful simplicity, if understood correctly.

Aikido Riai means aikido complete; this must include atemi and weapons training. Some aikido groups do not use weapons training saying that the use of a weapon is against the pacifist nature of Aikido. There is a great difference between one who shall not fight until all other avenues have been tried and a pacifist who shall not fight for any reason. A martial art cannot be a pacifist art.

The use of weapons in Aikido brings zanshin awareness before, during and after a confrontation to a higher level than in hand techniques. The element of danger does this. The triangular evasive entry is highlighted.

Accuracy is developed as well as courage to stand in ai-uchi; that instant when should both attack simultaneously both shall be cut. The principles of suki (seeing and seizing any openings, spiritual or physical, in the opponent) is fundamental to sword and stick work. The major principles of ki ken tai-ichi (the use of the spirit or intention within the body and technique applied as one) is more easily learned during weapons training.

Many teachers demand harmony from students from their first training sessions. Little or no resistance at all is given, with the receiver actively aiding his partner in the execution of the technique. Initially tori must harmonise with Uke by seeking out his weak points so as to unbalance him. Uke must give a sincere, accurate and committed attack. Tori must develop the confidence to move accurately in time and space to defeat the attack. Any harmony from uke defeats the purpose of training.

This is not simply a spiritual. ZANSHIN permeates the KAMAE infusing the body with the spirit and decision capable of instantaneous movement directed not by the thought process rather by the wall. Without thought or tactics the mind and body move as one. To be aware is not to concentrate our thoughts on any given technique or movement. ZANSHIN does not \"attach\" to any object or action. ZANSHIN includes an awareness of distance and timing the spirit and body are completely aware yet unattached free to instantly react to circumstance.

\"One should not use the hands too much but practise as the basis of technique with the body movement, the person who can use a ken or jo as a part of his body will be able to do (Shinoji no Te), empty-hand techniques.\"

Morihiro Saito shihan

There is no difference between kenjutsu (sword technique) and taijutsu (open handed technique). They are the same. The footwork is the same. Even the way we hold the ken (sword) and grab our partner's wrist is the same. You can not ignore sword practice.

There are many (too many) stories of the brutality of Chiba shihan's teaching in the early days. These are simply NOT true. It was only those in whom he saw the spirit that he tended to demand more from. Others were allowed to train to their limit. If they chose to push themselves he would teach if not he simply ignored them.

It is likely just me, but I feel sorry for deshi who train in dojo where the sensei entering the mat is not immediately sensed; where the air pressure is not adjusted by that one additional step, that extra fraction of a second that changed things from relatively safe to relatively dangerous, the unshakable shift in time whereby you know there is no more going back, there is only going forward and there is only \"all in.\". When we as a dojo sensed Chiba sensei we knew \"This is it, take it as it is\".

But to my way of thinking, there is no doubt that budo is what forms the roots of aikido. The branches and leaves grow out of that. All the other elements: aikido as \"an art of living\", as a means to better health, as calisthenics or a physical aesthetic pursuit. All of these stem from a common root, which is budo.

Chiba sensei.

\"I try to stick to the traditional ways as much as possible. The martial, warrior spirit is something I admire greatly and is something I try to preserve. The combatative arts have a profound body of history in them and I don't want to lose it. But it's more than that. We follow the art, which is struggle. And through the struggle, we transcend into the path of Aikido. Eventually, it brings harmony between you and the external world.\"

Chiba sensei.

Chiba Sensei's message was that Aikido is not a dead but a living, dynamic, martial art. Embody it, feed it, nurture it and let it grow unbounded. It will be different yet the same, with all the characteristics of the original.

\"Budo offers one means for people to begin returning to the well spring of their autonomous freedom, so I think we need to begin re-evaluating and rebuilding it with that in mind\".

Kazuo Chiba shihan

SAITO Morihiro Sensei insisted that when practicing Taijutsu (unarmed techniques) one should think of Bukiwaza (weapons techniques), and the contrary. Weapons techniques and unarmed techniques are merely different aspects of the same thing. The genius of the founder was to identify the fundamental points in common and to apply them to all situations of conflict. The more one advances in training, the more apparent this becomes. Weapons training develops correct posture.

The principle of a lever can be used to minimise the effort required to move an object. The founder of Aikido knew how to exploit this law of physics is his ingenious art. Sensei would like to joke about this, saying that he appreciates the way that Aikido obtains a maximum of effect for a minimum of effort. The principle of the lever is very apparent in bukidori, but it is present in all Aikido techniques.

Circles and spirals are present in all Aikido techniques. A curved movement is the best way of moving in awase with an adversary. To allow energy to circulate, and to use the ground support, curved lines are essential. This is the physical principle that, for example, allows the spine to support much greater pressures than it could if it were straight. During his classes, SAITO Hitohira Sensei often traces spirals to illustrate this principle.

\"As one who was taught directly by O-Sensei, I consider it my duty to teach the ken and jo to my students, and to maintain the traditional teachings the Founder left in Iwama.\"

Morihiro Satio, 9th Dan

\"I can easily recognize students who have neglected kokyunage practice. This is because they move their hips poorly. I tell such students that their hips are \"dead\".The hip movements of kokyunage are also the same as those used in weapons techniques.\"

Saito Shihan

\"O-Sensei said that a weapon should be used as an extension of the body. However, he stressed that one should not develop a dependence upon a particular weapon. To build this feeling, one should practise the basic exercises of ken and jo suburi, tai no henko, and kokyu dosa consistently. A good understanding of these basic exercises will enable the practitioner to move smoothly and surely with or without weapons.\"

Saito Shihan

Morihiro Saito Shihan: \"I saw nothing but the real thing for 23 years!\". \"Many shihan create new techniques and I think this is a wonderful thing, but after analyzing these techniques I am still convinced no one can surpass O-Sensei. I think it is best to follow the forms he left us. These days people are inclined to go their own way, but as long as I am involved, I will continue to do the techniques and forms O-Sensei left us.\"

The course was as tough, or perhaps I should say, as brutal as any I have ever experienced in my fifty-five years of aikido, and when I say \"brutal,\" I don't just mean on the part of Chiba sensei. We were equally to blame. Each technique was a confrontation between Chiba sensei, and each and every dan grade. We were left in no doubt that Chiba sensei was up to the test. Not only \"up to it;\" I had the distinct feeling that he intended to leave us in no doubt who he was and why he was here. He always looked very menacing, serious and threatening, and in a way I think he actually enjoyed the challenge. It was only our years of hard training with Abbe sensei that enabled us to avoid many injuries. Chiba sensei was utterly unlike Noro or Nakazono; he simply met you head-on. In that aspect, Chiba sensei exemplified the same attitude both Abbe Kenshiro and Abe Tadashi, that you would only be thrown if the technique took you. In those early days of Aikido in the UK, flying ukes were an unknown species.

It was very hard both physically and mentally. There were other factors such as little sleep and sometimes too much to drink. I recall many courses where I slept on floors, in the dojo etc. In one particular incident, while driving to London overnight with Coyle sensei to attend a course in Chiswick, I fell asleep at the wheel and hit the car on the central reservation barrier. It sure shook me up. Another time both myself and Coyle sensei were so tired from travelling from Glasgow and the day's keiko, that Chiba Sensei took us back to his rented flat in London and Chiba san fixed us up with some hot food and a beer but most of all a hot bath to ease the pain. After 50years I can still sense the relaxed feeling of the warm water on all the aches and pain.

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