Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
Aikijujutsu Impression
After several conversations with
renowned masters from different
traditional schools and personal
investigations related to the
topic, we have come to the
conclusion that, unfortunately, it
is very difficult to describe exactly the path
to the creation or to what have been the
foundations of the complete history of
Aikijujutsu, since the documentation about
this noble art hasn't been historically well
compiled, so that what we have are
versions orally transmitted that we believe
are quite close to reality.
First, the story leads us to Yoshimitsu
Shinra Saburo Minamoto, a famous samurai
of Seiwa Genji-han descendant of Emperor Seiwa
the addition of Genji shows hereditary lines that received the
title for descendants who weren’t heirs
creating specific clans who took the name
of the Emperor they descended from
about 900 years ago. Emperor Seiwa
( , Seiwa-tenn_ , 850 - 880)
was the 56th Japanese emperor, he had thirteen
empresses and eighteen children, including
Imperial Prince Sadasumi ( _____ ,873- 916)
Minamoto no Tsunemoto's father ( ______, 894-961)
Prince Teijun's younger brother and founder of the line
Seiwa Genji, whose descendants were the Shogun
of Shogunato Kamakura and of Shogunato Ashikaga.
whose Shogunato Tokugawa claimed descendant.
The rise of AikiJujutsu is attributed to Minamoto no Yoshimitsu,
although there are those who believe that this art comes in
its foundations from prince Teijun (850-880 BC)
Emperor Seiwa's sixth son whose study he developed was based on
the foundations of Ai-Ki.
Aikijujutsu would have been kept secret as the art of the family.
In those days it was common for masters of martial arts to dissect corpses
to better understand the working of the human machine and to make progress in
anatomical and functional knowledge,
to improve skills for war.
Minamoto no Yoshiie ( ; 1039-4 August 1106)
was born in the fifth generation of Seiwa Genji,
during the Heian period; he was considered a great warrior
whose fame also stood to his younger
brother, who was also a great General,
called Yoshimitsu (1036- 1137) Shinra Saburo Minamoto Yoshimitsu
founder of Daito-Ryu. Yoshikiyo,
Yoshimitsu's grandson, stayed in the city of Takeda (provincial Kai)
and took the name of the “Takeda" family and linage "Kai-Genji" Takeda.
Aikijujutsu
Etimologicaly, Ai: that comes from awaseru that it is the meeting from two points, harmony
Ki: energy of vital force,
Ju: flexibility or adaptability
Jutsu: art
It is said it has its origins in the art of the sword, Kenjutsu,
when in battles there was no other
solution to defend than the concept of Sukima (empty).
The Sukima represents a basic foundation of Aikijujutsu
and means to avoid an adversary
(originally carrying the Katana sword)
get his goal, by using just the concepts of the four elements,
water, fire, air and earth.
From that principle came the first movement
which forms Aikijujutsu today.
It has never been discussed so much
about the veracity of the skills applied in Aikijujutsu
and hence in the arts derived from it.
The practices of Seiteigata foster the building of the thinking of the time when
swords, spears, Naginata, etc. were in each
the most dangerous weapons.
Certainly the wisest masters adapt these concepts and thoughts,
making them applicable in any situation.
For the most part, many people used the strategies
Heiho
as sources of inspiration and adaptation to real, empirical situations.
If these - strategies (heiho) are part of the studies of Aikijujutsu,
they will certainly be using the techniques of this art.
The reality of each attack is at the time of its application.
Like and Tori shared the same kind of wisdom
in the time of its application; but each one does it in its own way.
We all know the importance of each breath inside the forms and technical
applications of Aikijujutsu,
and its link with the elements, air, water, fire and earth.
Each one within its own form of inspiration and expiration alternates
and determines the quality of Ki emerged
during the movements. Another important point of an even deeper study
Is the existent relation in all techniques
Like the internval of each element and its "+" and "-" construction
known in Eastern medicine and in Taoism as constructive
and destructive cycle.
Since the early days, the two archetypal poles of nature were represented not only
by the clear and dark,
but also by the masculine and the feminine,
by the inflexible and the docile, by the up and the down.
Yang, strong, masculine, the creative power was associated
with heaven, where-as Yin
dark, receptive, feminine, material,
was represented by earth. The sky is up
and is full of movement. The earth in the
in the anccient concentric conception
it stays below and at rest
in that manner Yang passed to simbolice the movement and Ying the stillness
the acction of Uke, becomes Yang
and it is transmuted to Ying when Tori iniciates his trajectory
Once this communion has started as a technique
this two forces Ying and Yang reflects around when we train
If our movement shows a good balance between the symbols of Yin and Yang
the forces around us will be in harmony,
bringing the feeling of technical harmony and symmetrical perfection.
If there is an imbalance, what follows is a bad feeling
of the forces taking part in the movement.
The first point of this fragmentation is the separation of the myth
and the empirical thinking. One thing is true, we are all energy in movement,
but what kind of energy?
Mystics re port an invisible kind of energy, but present.
Science talks about an electromagnetic energy.
Aikijujutsu has to do with the awakening, as if directs the body that follows the flow.
It is the moment when Tori and Uke become One
from there, the virtue of being a part of the three levels is discovered:
physiological, psychological and energy
(Ki) movement and breathing become one
(Kokyu) It is the moment when, through it,
we are able to access all of them.
"Ki wo Tsuzukete" is nothing more than to give
continuity to the energy
Nagare the only process of Tada Ima
both voluntaryand involuntary
If we want it, we can speed up, slow down,
stop and start over the pace of every moment.
Once the union of Uke and Tori has started,
it is possible to exhale it the Ki and make it more superficial or deep.
Once Uke begins its movement towards Tori,
it is already creating a field of action of the energy.
In communion with Tori, this field of action is mutable and progressive.
The interaction of these two points, Tori and Uke
in the atmosphere creates a good or bad
reverberation of this energy.
In fact, it is the cycle of the elements
elements that can be constructive or destructive,
and that will generate the positive or negative quality.
Inside the geometric line of thought we can define the Do-Jo
as a square, the man as a triangle and on both of them, the circle
The square would be the earth and the circle
would be the sky.
The man is the axis of union between these two poles of energy.
Magically, we can say that once such information has been assimilated
by the energy awareness,
we discover two important aspects: the harmony of "Yu" (totality),
the interaction and the "Mu" (empty).
In the Yu we will harmonize the whole with the whole,
where the movements are symmetrical
and perfect in their performance.
In the Mu, the movement seeks the disconnected interval
from each moment and the time for the energies to be stopped
and the functionality of all external energy to be stabilized.
However, we know that in reality the external energy
never stops, but once they are in communion with the circle,
the triangle and the square, now in descending order,
we can perceive the creation of a field.
This field makes emerge this transforming revolutionary potential
transcurring the moment in which the energy comes alive
But if we place energetically one moment
we will be out of the conception of art as an inherent
and not ¡historical entity
and the clarification of this moment and Its construction
would favor the union of YU and MU,
But you have to discover the influence of each moment
experienced by Tori and by Ukes
trying to identify in them their underlying ideology
which is the ideology of Tori as the observer is, the meaning
of the real and genuine reflections of each movement
Although many of the harmonic movements
in Aikijujutsu and the arts derived from the
concept of Aiki are established through the circle
if we look in depth, in each one there is a point that is associated
with the beginning and the end of the movement.
This point, ¡n many cases, can be referred to as "Teihaku"
in Japanese language, Teihaku translates literally as “anchoring"
meaning in this case the point where we anchor the force of Uke.
Musubi - first contact between Tori and Uke
with the energetic surface of the opponent.
More basic and balanced composition, it is the point at the center of the plan.
In the specific case of Musubi, as in this kind of Interaction,
the force of friction mainly depends on the
force that presses one surface against the other
and the roughness of the surface and it has a certain value
if a body is stopped in relation to another, and another value,
usually lower, if there is a relative movement between the bodies.
At all points worked in the energy, we will find both aspects,
positive and negative, of each form.
Thus, in the same way as in the study of Musubi
we find the differait ways to imprison a Uke,
we must also find ways to get rid of it.
These two forms set the two poles
which increase the importance of Musubi
in the practices of Aikijujutsu.
Shibaru is all the way to tie, catch and capture the adversary's energy
This energy can be trapped in the place where it takes
the grip ok Uke
Ichi Shibaru (trapped in the specific determined point)
and away from the grip, affecting somewhere else where the energy
Ki Tomeru moment is kept (interrupting the energy).
Hodoku is every form which releases and allows to go away from the
attacks of Uke.
This can be divided into "Kaiho Suru
where Tori is released from the energy
used by Uke (grabbing, trapping, immobilization)
and "Ugoka- su"'
which allows Tori to go away from any possibility of a sequential attack.
In these two areas we will find a unique way of internally taking
the first step to understand the moment of Musubi
and its reverberation in the clarification:
gift! The gift of Tori against the will of Uke.
Such procedures would allow us to
penetrate the meaning of art itself, allowing
us to check the backgrounds of each energy
and the performance in the trilogy of square,
triangle and circle, now in increasing and
dominant order, distinguishing them from those who are truly
trapped and stopped.
Maybe there lays the principle of
understanding Nagare fluency.