Was there a technical evolution in O Sensei's Aikido.

One of the truths of Aikido is that O Sensei changed things.  He was constantly revising and updating Aikido.  He changed the Daito Ryu practices, and continued to revise Aikido further all his life.  It was how I justified seeing the Asahi News video for the first time and wondering why I didn't recognize so much of it.  It was how I justified my consternation when I read Budo for the first time.  I didn't recognize everything because things had changed.

John Stevens translated my copy.  To quote Stevens, "For the sake of comparison, several sequences of photographs are taken in Wakayama in 1951, when Morihei was sixty-eight years old, are included throughout this section.  The differences between Morihei's execution of the techniques in the pre- and post-war periods is often contrasted, but as we can see by comparing the Noma Dojo techniques (1936) and Wakayama (1951), the essence of Morihei's art remained the same."

As an example, I was told early on by intermediate students that as soon as Morihei went grey and bald and grew out the famous facial hair, he:

                                                      Got rid of Atemi 

                           And decided hitting people in the face wasn't Aiki.

(Pictures from Budo.  And the stories never came from Sensei.).

This bit about Atemi being discarded and unnecessary post war (the pics above are post war) doesn't look to be completely true.  The actual Tomiki derived Junana Atemi waza set is not explicitly defined as part of Aikikai, but all five individual techniques or some of their variations appear in non-Shodokan schools of Aikido.  They may be defined as kokyunage instead of Atemi and given different names and slightly modified, and maybe even become less refined, but they are there.

When I travel to seminars or other dojo, when a conversation comes up about O Sensei's technical evolution, the theory of growth and evolution is used to justify a disavowal of history and other lineages.  We don't need to know where we came from, because now we are better.  Don't look back; you'll only be looking at second rate stuff and you'll be the worse for it.  Or, Ueshiba evolved and became less martial and more spiritual - as evidenced by "O Sensei stopped using Atemi."  So later generations have less reason to even think they are a martial art.

I have no problem focusing on a basic core technique, learning it properly, and then focusing on the timing and Atemi.  I do think I can focus too much on hitting someone in the face and as a result not enough on necessary precision and principles.  The Atemi should fit seamlessly in a movement in my opinion.

That's very different from trying to say O Sensei stopped using atemi, and modern aikido has no atemi.

There are some great articles and a video out there recently that reiterate what John Stevens said decades ago - Morihei Ueshiba himself did not change much, nor did his personal art.

Reconciled

Two black men were shot by police this week.  A maelstrom of outrage, charges of racism, and deep frustration erupted nationwide, rapidly followed by more than twice as many police officers gunned down in vengeance during a peaceful protest.  A rapid spiral of rage against history, class, race, and law exploded into hate and blood. No one is winning.  We are all poorer for these events.  We're all losing.

Fallujah was liberated from ISIL this week.  I actually hadn't heard about it.  Are we still thinking of Paris, Brussels, Istanbul, San Bernardino, and Orlando?  Or are we saturated to boredom with religious violence?

In the backdrop, some estimates say a million refugees have escaped the hell on earth of war in Syria and Iraq to a Europe that is overwhelmed and frightened.  Resources strained, the recent history of attacks - political will and our better natures collapsing in distrust, racism, and despair.  Meanwhile the race for the next Commander-in-Chief of the world's largest military sinks to a new disgusting low with every passing day.

I see the news, and I don't want this.  I look around at the writing by my extended Budo family, and I see others who feel the same.  Something about taking responsibility for someone else's life every class?  Putting my life in the hands of others every time we train?  Immersed in a combat method regularly, am I more likely to regularly meditate on violence and it's consequences?  Once exposed and laid psychically bare on the mat am I less afraid of self reflection?  

Is the Art of Peace truly "medicine for a sick world?"  

I don't want to sit at home and watch TV for the next Oregon standoff, or the next flimsy excuse for a public murder.  I don't want the fear, the hate, the bloodshed.  I don't want to be reconciled to the fate of the world; I want the world reconciled.  I want our one family, I want peace, I want this to stop.  I want to do something.  I want to play a role.  I want to believe in Ueshiba's call for warriors for peace.  

Tohei's Leather Jacket

Aikido fosters a better world by creating and nurturing better people.

Unfortunately I've never been clear how.  One thousand Kotegaeshi is not a path to world peace or enlightenment though certainly the persistence and dedication to practice creates many physical and mental benefits.

Nishio Sensei told this story to Stanley Pranin about Koichi Tohei's leather jacket.  I tried to find the original Aikido Journal article but this Australian dojo has faithfully reproduced it.  I love this story because this is the most concrete advice on how to live your life from O Sensei that I know of.  Take responsibility for your openings.

I don't want to fall into victim blaming, and I don't want to advocate paranoia.  I do agree that strong fences make for good neighbours.

Taking responsibility for openings has so many implications for day to day life.  Online presence.  Financial decisions.  Relationship advice.  Career choices.  Home safety.  Driving.  Bad weather responses.  "Hold my beer and watch this." 

First be safe.  Consider the potential for danger or loss, and take responsibility.  Maybe make a plan, maybe develop a solution but try to see the issue before it becomes a problem.  I should know when I am taking a chance.

Random thoughts on O Sensei's Rules/Guidelines for practice, #1

I had been training for several years before I bought my first copy of O Sensei's Budo. There was a one page list of called Precautions for Training that I had not seen before. Later on, I found the same list of six items in Kisshomaru Doshu's Aikido, this time called Rules for Practice.  It's the term I became most familiar with, so I'll be referring to the Rules from here on even though Precautions might be the better translation.  Eventually I started to think of Guidelines.

The dojo where I train now has a third version of the Rules from an Aikikai Hombu newsletter with similar items worded differently.  The current Doshu has published a fourth version. I don't see the Rules getting much attention, and every copy I find seems to have the second Doshu's name closely associated with it.  Budo itself was written very soon after the split between Morihei Ueshiba and his Daito Ryu teacher, but well before any of the fractures in Aikido itself developed, and before the name Aikido was even coined.

The Rules were of limited benefit for me to give to beginners for practice.  It's not a "no chewing gum in class" kind of list.  It didn't touch on any of the long list of things like who sat where, or how to wear a gi, or when to bow, or how to hold a weapon.  While Budo itself makes extensive mention of swords, spears, tanto, and firearms - weapons are not discussed in the Rules.

I am unilingual and therefore divorced from the Japanese source material.  I did what I do when I read the Five Rings or the Yi Jing - I put all the different translations together rather than just picking the one translation that I like the best.  I like to think it gives me a chance of catching nuances and deeper understanding.  For example, when comparing the translations below, some talk about killing with a "blow," something that English speakers associate with striking or atemi.  Two versions explicitly say we practice lethal techniques (much more general term).  With the one translation, the implication is that Aikido can be safely practiced just by omitting the strikes.  When I teach an Aikido version of O Goshi, I have to make the point to the class that this isn't true as some Nage get really low to the ground as they don't want to give Uke a hard fall.  This is how to break Uke's neck or skull by slamming it into the ground.

For all that I knew of the Rules for years, I had a little epiphany the other night.  These aren't so much rules as a description, a definition of Aikido.  I'm tentatively breaking up the six Rules into separate entries.  This one deals with the first item, which discusses Aikido's lethality.  As this is one of six, this is not the only reason to train nor the only defining feature of aikido.  I don't just train for combat myself.

"The original intent of bujutsu was to kill an enemy with one blow; since all techniques can be lethal, observe the instructor's directions and do not engage in contests of strength."  Budo

 

"One blow in Aikido is capable of killing an opponent.  In practice, obey your instructor, and do not make the practice period a time for needless testing of strength."  Aikido

 

"As Aikido is practice by using techniques which are capable of inflicting fatal injuries, practitioners should always heed what their instructor says, and should never participate in contests of strength."  From the 1997 issue of "The Aikido" by Aikido world headquarters in Tokyo.  Volume 34, #4.  Really, from the walls of the men's change room at our dojo.

 

"Aikido techniques can be instantly lethal so it is essential to observe the instructor's directions at all times and not engage in contests of strength." Best Aikido: The Fundamentals (Thanks to Peter Goldsbury for pointing out this fourth source to me.)

 

While not in keeping with our warm fuzzies, it is a historically valid question to ask a senior student.  Do you know how to kill someone with Aikido?  Or at least hurt them?  Do we know at least enough about how to hurt each other, to keep each other safe in practice?  There is some online talk that Aikido is not capable of inflicting injury, or that there is something special about Aikido movements like Shihonage that make them harmless but this is not what is written here.  

The rule states to obey the teachers (In Aikido, Kisshomaru Doshu expounds on the first Rule with a brief dissertation on the importance of obedience and never goes further into discussing lethal options) and implies this is for safety, but do teachers automatically know how to injure or kill people with Aikido?  Many groups don't teach this.  I have known some teachers who are almost proudly uninformed.  If the teacher is uninformed, then the safety margin created by obedience is not a guarantee.  

How is the Daito Ryu Shihonage different from the Aikido Shihonage and can I communicate this to a student in clear enough terms to keep the class safe?  Daito Ryu presumably has no problems communicating what makes the movement safer or more dangerous as there is no hangup and no emotional baggage associated with the potential for injury.

While Steven Seagal has earned some criticism in recent years, his Aikido choreography in Above the Law, Marked for Death, and Out for Justice offer some valid insights regarding combat applications.  I don't object to his Aikido - there are so many other things to object to.

Shioda sensei's Dynamic Aikido also has some great insights for combat in the one chapter - a Sankyo throw projecting someone down a stair case, Nikyo with Uke getting kneed in the face, Kotegaeshi and Ikkyo both slamming Uke into the restroom wall.  Sound ideas, and a valid lesson that there is nothing different being done.

I've heard about simply avoiding violence.  I get irritated by people discussing "violence in the real world" who have sustained little more than paper cuts and eye strain.  Violence isn't real to such people, but it is still real.  Some students that I thought were divorced from violence turned out to be ex-military.  Even in health care I come across plenty of ex-military.  My wife and I had to face the reality of violence in our own home from an intruder.  One student works in a jail, another in law enforcement. I've become less critical of people who ask questions about violence. If I am going to be a teacher, maybe I should know some answers.

 

In any event, from the horse's mouth - Aikido is described as an art capable of being lethal, the implication being that martial ability is expected. Maybe this feeds into the "Looking Back to Look Forward theme I find myself thinking of lately. Martial competence has become a common criticism of Aikido today, with every association lumped together erroneously. I wonder how many people told Chiba Sensei, "Aikido doesn't work in a fight, it is too gentle?"  Lenny Sly and others are doing some modern interpretations. Kenji Tomiki was a military trainer.  Gozo Shioda and Robert Koga were law enforcement trainers.  Martial competence is part of our history.  

In search of Bansen Tanaka

I was told years ago that I was in Bansen Tanaka's lineage.  I was never told this by my own dojo or Shihan, (it was more of a shut up and train environment) but by other sources.  Until very recently, there was no information available on him.  I went looking up this man's history in part because it has now become a part of my history.

Bansen Tanaka was a Judo student before he became an Aikido student, as was Morihei Ueshiba himself.  He met Morihei Ueshiba in 1936 (some English sources say 1935), around five years after the Manchurian Incident.  Kano Jigoro would die at sea two years later, but multiple Judo students had already come to train with Morihei Ueshiba.

Bansen Tanaka's Wikipedia bio also identifies him as a student of Ueshiba's nephew, Noriyaki Inoue.  Noriaki claimed the title of co-founder of Aikido.  He had been raised in the Ueshiba home, and had been present for all of Takeda's instruction from the beginning.  Inoue was additionally a very devote Oomoto Kyo believer, and he had also been present for the meeting of Onisaburo Deguchi and Morihei Ueshiba.  He lived in the Oomoto compound with the Ueshiba family.  The second Oomoto incident in 1935 led to the arrest of several Oomoto leaders, but a police chief in Osaka was able to warn Morihei so that Morihei personally escaped arrest.  Noriaki was critical of Morihei for not sharing the same fate as the Oomoto Kyo leadership.  The Inoue family was also very wealthy and had been the main financiers of Morihei's adventures up until this point.

Tanaka built a dojo for Inoue in Osaka, and his biography states he followed the teachings of both Noriaki and Morihei until he was drafted in 1939.  The falling out of Inoue and Ueshiba worsened and the two eventually broke ties.  Tanaka is still identified as a student of both men after the event that precipitated these two innovators separating.

The name Aikido was coined in 1942, right around the time Ueshiba quit his military training posts and moved to Iwama.  Conversely, Inoue continued to teach his art as Aiki-Budo until 1956, and after a few name changes Inoue's art is now known as Shin'ei Taido.  Wikipedia makes no mention of students of Noriaki Inoue at all.  It is Bansen Tanaka's Wiki entry that connects him to Inoue; not the other way around.  Noriaki Inoue around the 1:16 mark doing a technique Kawahara taught on several occasions - that I haven't seen since.

Tanaka was a student of Ueshiba who started when the certificates handed out were for Daito Ryu under Sokaku Takeda.  Takeda and Ueshiba broke ties not long after Tanaka started - 1937.  A famous incident where Takeda showed up in Osaka to announce he would take over instruction of the Asahi news group in Osaka happened in 1936.

Gozo Shioda had been training since 1932.  Kenji Tomiki was more senior (starting in 1925), and would leave for Manchuria the same year as Tanaka started.  Kiyoshi Nakakura (Ueshiba Morihiro) was married to Morihei's eldest daughter, adopted into the family, and was expected to succeed Morihei.  The marriage ended with divorce the year following Tanaka's starting training.  

A good friend of Nakakura's was the photographer for the Noma dojo photo shoot in 1936 that would come to be Ueshiba's book, Budo.  Gozo Shioda and Kisshomaru Ueshiba would both appear as uke, though several sources say Kisshomaru only started to officially train in 1937 - after the schism of Takeda and Ueshiba.
 

(I'm not saying Tanaka played a role in any of these events.  There is so much talk about how messy Aikido politics got in the mid-1970s, and those events sound so much more straightforward!  I chose to believe it is a comment on Tanaka's determination and character to continue to train throughout this events.)

Tanaka was drafted into the army in 1939, where he served as a bodyguard.  The war ended in 1945, and Aikido was outlawed until 1949 (though famous students like Morihiro Saito and Hirokazu Kobayashi both date their start in training to 1946).  Wikipedia says Tanaka resumed his aikido training a year "after" (I think they mean a year after the war ended, not a year after he left).  I don't know how it worked out, but eventually Tanaka was asked by O Sensei to open Osaka Aikikai in 1951.  Tanaka stayed in Iwama until the dojo was opened in early 1952.  O Sensei arrived and taught in Osaka for several weeks, and made very frequent trips to Osaka.

Shioda started a dojo in 1950, gave a career changing demonstration in 1954, and didn't start his own style until 1955 officially.  Morihei Ueshiba looked to be in retirement, and Shioda was Tanaka's senior.

Hirokazu Kobayashi was a judo, kendo and karate student who relocated to Osaka in 1954.  A 1964 copy of Kisshomaru's Aikido lists two Osaka dojo, and lists Kobayashi as a Hombu Shihan - the title was not applied to Tanaka, though he was more senior.  While Kobayashi's Wikipedia makes no mention of Daito Ryu, this discussion is interesting.  Kobayashi became prominent in Europe, and is well known for a separate system of Aiki Shin Taiso or a set of solo exercises for developing Aiki that to my knowledge is not the same as Koichi Tohei's Aiki Taiso.  He is also known for inviting Tomiki Sensei to teach in Osaka and for working closely with the Shodokan aikido system after that schism had happened.  The Shodokan Aikido headquarters dojo was built in Osaka in 1967.


It's finally gotten to the point that I can go to YouTube and search for video of Bansen Tanaka.  There is an interview with Stanley Pranin (you need an Aikido Journal membership, which I can never recommend enough anyway), and Ellis Amdur's It Had To Be Felt had a meeting that seemed to show some frustrations between Tanaka and the Aikikai Hombu.  So many of the pre-war students had been closely associated with Tanaka it seems.  The one name that doesn't come up in association is Koichi Tohei, and Kisshomaru Ueshiba would have started at the same time - without Tanaka's Judo background.


I don't think I feel any better informed as to who Bansen Tanaka was, but Osaka sounds like a very rich budo environment.  I wish I had known as much of the history now as I did when I first travelled there with Kawahara sensei.  There are many questions I wish I could ask him.

Sacred Thoughts

Coming across zero humidity hot dry desert, two days after seeing snow in a land known to have less than 10 inches of rain a year, I was abruptly standing in a sheltered area with permanent water.  The cenote is still of undetermined depth and water source.  Montezuma's Well in Arizona - an oasis named by a bunch of white guys who knew good and well that there was no evidence that Montezuma ever visited the area.

Year round, the water is 74 degrees.  In the 115 degree summer heat, the pool is 74 degrees.  When the area is freezing, the pool is 74 degrees.  Natural warmth during below freezing days, natural cooling during the summer's heat.

There is a cliff of about 40 feet surrounding the water, with many limestone overhangs that let the people coming there build walls and doorways to close the home in.  Agriculture is possible as the pool is constantly putting out a large enough volume of water to fill hand dug canals all around the area.  Many plants of known food value or medicinal value are all growing around the area including walnut trees and prickly pear cactus.

Where the well's outlet comes out, there is a deep shaded area with sycamore trees, including one that is the largest in Arizona.  The pale white and green bark with it's huge canopy less than 30 paces from a virtual moonscape had an other worldly appearance that brought back memories of Cameron's Avatar and the Elven forests of Rivendell.  How could such a tree in such a place not be sacred to someone?  Strikingly beautifully a thousand times taller than most of the nearby vegetation, so out of place while providing such rare welcome shade

Thank you nameless somebody as my camera is not synced with my iPad.

Indeed, the Montezuma's Well National Park service notes the area has religious significance for several tribes and is part of several tribal origin stories.  Not to discount the native religion, but guaranteed temperature control, shelter, food, and water in a desert with some impressively medicinal and nutritive greenery in such an isolated patch alone has many obvious important concrete advantages over the surrounding area.  The area is blessed with an abundance in stark contrast to the surrounding...starkness.

Did religious significance overshadow the reality of arsenic in the water, or that the CO2 count in the water is so high that fish do not live in this water, or that blood sucking leaches are very plentiful?  The people who lived here still left abruptly, with ceremonies still happening on occasion.

Dad and I had been discussing what makes a site sacred, and I came back to thinking about what made a practice sacred - that's what I know several people tell me their Aikido practice is for them.  The Guidelines for Practice say that Aikido should be martially effective, intelligent and strategic, endlessly creative, introspective, and life affirming while improving an individual's body and character.  That's a lot right there!  Many of these areas, I am somewhat comfortable taking and giving criticism on.  I am uncomfortable judging the sacred-ness of practice, or assisting a student to find the sacred.  I have my beliefs, but as a teacher maybe I'm just the guy who sees water in the desert and thinks, "I'm thirsty."

How many techniques are in Taiji?

When I studied Yang, Chen, and Wu/Hao Taiji I was shown forms that would take hours out of my day just to practice.  One long form took 35 minutes at speed, and I was often assured other forms were longer.  The number "108" apparently has some sacred connotation for Buddhism, so I was always told I was learning 108 or 88 movements.  One teacher told me to just do the whole form as one count, and I found this easier than remembering which was movement 73.

When I actually got into Taiji theory, I was told there were only 13 techniques.  Moreover, movements like Single Whip, Cloud Hands, Brush Knee, or Repulse the Monkey were not part of the list of the list of 13 techniques.  While movements did repeat, the most common movements were not representative of the 13.

Except, it is actually a list of 13 ideas.  Eight hand movements, which can also be eight torso movements or eight different ways to issue power; and five ways to move the feet.  The eight trigrams are from the YiJing which has 4019 distinct mathematical relationships when they are spread out into the 64 hexagrams.  Ultimately, this is just an extrapolation of Yin and Yang, but the YiJing is supposed to represent "the 10 000 things" (infinity).

The five elements are used in Chinese acupuncture, feng shui, and other martial arts.  This is not a list of five things, but a framework for interpreting multiple relationships between five different ideas that represent energy flowing cyclically, and eternally between five states.  The two main relationships, the Creation Cycle and the Destruction Cycle are both never ending, infinite cycles.

So, the 13 things are a way of saying Infinity times Infinity.  That's how many techniques Taiji has.  A handful of ideas are used to lead to an enormous number of ideas, much as the alphabet eventually leads to language.