Aikido

What is Aikido

Aikido is a martial art unlike any others but with external similarities with some other. When you first see an Aikido practice it may look on the surface like judo, and jui-jitsu depending of what is happening on the mat. You would typically see people doing rolls, being projected or being put in somekind of immobilization techniques.This is pretty well where the similarities end.

The profound difference is that Aikido is a purely and exclusively a defensive martial art. All reputable martial art school will emphasize that the teaching of their and any other martial art is for self-defense, of course and that is the responsible thing to do. Never-the-less the techniques being taugh were born with war and mortal combat in mind even if their current application is to be restricted to self-defense. Aikido on the other hand was born in a moment of Zen enlightenment and fully developed with the principle of reverence for life where even in a combat situation the goal of the Aikido practitioner is that his attacker will walk away from the confrontation unharmed

Another important difference is that Aikido is not a competitive art.There are a few schools in the United State that have created a form ofAikido with some level of competitions but they are very rare. The non-competitiveness of Aikido is not just incidental but is ingrain in its philosophy. There are no open competitions, there is no traditional sparring, no points are counted and never are there a winner and a looser. If you enter into a fight with anger, you have already lost!  Sometimes, there will be Randori which is a form of free-style practice where one must defend against one or more attackers without knowing how they will attack and in what order they will attack. But the purpose here is to train the defender to think on their feet so to speak and to let the techniques that he has learned "flow" naturally. The attackers will slow down or speed up their attack to give the time to the defender to learn this natural flow. Often to an outside observer randori looks "fake" and slow, but the focus of all attackers is to go at the speed of the defender. The attackers are merely willing participant in the training of thedefender.

As a consequence of its purely defensive and non-competitivenature, Aikido does not have any kind of "attacking moves". There are no Kicks, strikes not even punches, with the exception of the ones that maybe thrown against the person learning the Aikido techniques. But punches and strikes are not taught nor practiced!

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Origin of Aikido

Aikido is one of the newest martial art, having been created less than a hundred years ago around the same time as Judo. Although it is new it was born from a long tradition of classical martial art, budo and the samurai spirit.

Its founder, Morihei Ueshiba was born in

Morihei's family was quite well off. His father was a landowner who also traded in lumber and fisheries as well as local politic. His mother on the other hand was a deeply religious person. When he was first born Morihei was considered a weakling and was often sick. His father encouraged him to become strong and to swim a lot and to take on sumo wrestling and told him of stories of his grandfather a strong samurai. But it is only after he saw his father being assaulted by Tugs and in the following years that he became obsessed with physical strength and endurance.

For quite many years he trained in various martial arts of the most influential are Jujutsu, Kenjutsu. He became master at many of these disciplines and went on to train for nearly 22 years with the grand-master Takeda Sokaku.

Despite his constant martial training, Morihei, following his mother's inclinations, was also deeply influence by a well known religious figure of the time, Onisaburo Deguchi who promoted world harmony and peace. Looking for a way to integrate the martial concepts and his spiritual belief is how Aikido was born.

Nowaday the headquarter of Aikido world wide is in Tokyo on the site of the first Aikido dojo created by Ueshiba. It is refered to as the Hombu Dojo and is also the seat of the Aikikai foundation. For more see our link page.

 

Philosophy of Aikido

Although the folklore says that the concepts of Aikido came to O-Sensei in three separate moments of Zen enlightenment, Aikido evolved through year of modification and perfecting. The Aikido of before the 2 nd world war and the Aikido of after are not quite the same Aikido.

The philosophy of Aikido is left best described by the words of O-Sensei himself as he recounts these moments of enlightenments. (Extracted from wikipedia ) The first happened in 1925, after Ueshiba had defeated a naval officer's bokken   (a wooden sword) attacks unarmed and without hurting the officer.

“  ...I felt the universe suddenly quake, and that a golden spirit sprang up from the ground, veiled my body, and changed my body into a golden one. At the same time my body became light. I was able to understand the whispering of the birds, and was clearly aware of the mind of God, the creator of the universe.

At that moment I was enlightened: the source of budo is God's love - the spirit of loving protection for all beings... Budo is not the felling of an opponent by force; nor is it a tool to lead the world to destruction with arms. True Budo is to accept the spirit of the universe, keep the peace of the world, correctly produce, protect and cultivate all beings in nature.  ”

His second experience occurred in 1940 when,

"Around 2am as I was performing misogi , I suddenly forgot all the martial techniques I had ever learned. The techniques of my teachers appeared completely new. Now they were vehicles for the cultivation of life, knowledge, and virtue, not devices to throw people with."

His third experience was in 1942 during the worst fighting of WWII, Ueshiba had a vision of the "Great Spirit of Peace".

"The Way of the Warrior has been misunderstood. It is not a means to kill and destroy others. Those who seek to compete and better one another are making a terrible mistake. To smash, injure, or destroy is the worst thing a human being can do. The real Way of a Warrior is to prevent such slaughter - it is the Art of Peace, the power of love."

Those moments and deep revelations drove the creation of Aikido and all its precepts. Those in turn forged the foundation of all the techniques and teachings.

Principles

Aikido does not use force nor does it seek to stop and attack through the use of strength.

During an attack one of the first thing

Techniques

Vocabulary

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