Three forms of Iriminage

A few weeks back I started on a blog entry I've been meaning to do for a long time.  The first book on Aikido I ever purchased was by John Stevens and Shirata Rinjiro, Aikido: The Way of Harmony.  I doubt it is still in print, but I can't recommend everyone enough to get a copy or at least an e-book if there is one.  Shirata Rinjiro was a prewar student and a contemporary of Kenji Tomiki and Gozo Shioda.  The book contains meditation techniques, a variety of Tanninsu Gake (multiple people holding you), five classical Shihonage variations shown both empty hand and with the sword - lots of stuff, lots of rare stuff.

I never met him.  I've probably made mistakes in this blog entry, and they are mine alone.  I am certain if I understood these ideas better, each one would be an essay on their own.  I also doubt I demonstrated them well, and if there is a better video out there, I would dearly love to see it.  I know I did not show exactly what I saw in the stop motion photography images available to me.  Also, as this was unfamiliar to my Ukes, thank you Ross and Rob for putting up with my experiment.

As a beginner, I was learning Iriminage with a 180 degree turn, and I was seeing Steven Seagal on the big screen doing a single step linear form.  I was introduced to the 360 form eventually.  From the beginning, I was told if I was stuck to just keep turning.  

The USAF briefly had three Tsuki Iriminage on the test requirements; we interpreted this to be a linear Irimi, a tenkan, and a tenshin.  It was okay to do several openings with the identical final technique.  This is a valid insight - if you can neutralize an attack several ways and still get to the same technique, the technique is something you can access more readily.

Chokusen no Irimi is the linear form of Irimi.  Sometimes Shirata Sensei looked to be demonstrating a renamed Atemi waza, but the more prevalent version was getting deep behind Uke and continuing to move backward.  Nage does turn enough to see the room, but the direction of travel is pretty much on a line.  Uke's head ends up straight behind where he was standing no matter which version is used.  Kuzushi for Uke comes from either being broken directly backward or led in a paper clip.

En no Irimi is the circular version of Irimi.  Some of Shirata Sensei's distinguishing between triangular and circular entry wasn't always clear to me.  I never got to feel it, so I have my own reinterpretation, and I may be wrong.  Like a rock attached to a string being swung around in a circle, Uke's feet are moved outwards by momentum while I secure his head.  We circle until I stop and Uke wraps himself around me until he falls and I "let go of the string."  I understand Centriputal Force does not exist, but I am sure I used that term to describe this throw.  If Uke moves backward, I cause Kuzushi backward and to the nearest corner.  If I throw him moving forward, I cause Kuzushi to the front near corner.

Sankaku Irimi means triangular Irimi.  Uke is broken in one direction, then I use my body on another vector to displace his center.  (Honestly, reading this, anyone might think I did better in high school physics than I really did).  My wife loves this center displacing motion.  The timing is a little more finicky compared to the other two variations for me, as Uke keeps moving.  I need to end up cutting through Uke at a 45-90ish degree to the initial Kuzushi.

After posting a clip of Shirata Sensei doing Omote and Ura, I was a little chagrined to notice I demonstrated only Omote versions of Iriminage.  Maybe next time?

Yoshinkan has two versions of their Shomen Iriminage.  I was taught Shomen Uchi Shomen Iriminage (II) as a linear movement to break Uke's momentum and balance (not emphasized in the video) followed by a circular lead and an Atemi to change direction, then finishing with my hips bisecting Uke between his head and feet.  All three ideas in one form?  There is also a Shomen Uchi Shomen Iriminage (I) which does not have a turning component but very much starts linear with a Sankaku finish, so the ideas are not mutually exclusive again.

The Aikikai versions I was taught, they weren't given specific names that I caught, but different variations were required.  I like to use the framework of these three ideas to interpret what I might see the instructor doing.  The openings can change, then the application of the technique, and then the Kime.  It's not more simple - the three main openings, to these three ideas (each of which has two main variations (?), so maybe really six) to the two finishing forms (there are more) is now a minimum of 36 versions.  Except the ideas here can be mixed and matched, and kept in a variety of combinations and done to a wide variety of vectors.

I've not even touched on the Yoshinkan's Sokumen Iriminage (I) or Sokumen Iriminage (II).  I use this term as Sensei once told me, "No Iriminage!" when I did this version on a test when I was supposed to be doing Morote Dori Kokyu Ho (I brought my arm that wasn't being held across Uke's throat, and Sensei wanted me to use the arm being held to do the same throw).  I never heard him use this term otherwise.  Shirata Sensei does seem to use this idea as an Iriminage, and from the text I thought maybe also with circular, triangular, and linear as well.  I don't see how the same Omote and Ura ideas would apply, maybe they do and maybe they don't.

In the Art of Peace translated by John Stevens, O Sensei says acquiring the basic forms of Iriminage can take 10 years.  (I am on the slow path).  In the same book, O Sensei says the best strategy relies on an unlimited number of responses.  I feel that learning widely disparate variations brings me a little closer to the unlimited mindset.

We don't use these ideas in Aikikai as I learned it, but I found the ideas helpful.  One example for me of Looking Back to Look Forward.