Newsletter - NOVEMBER 1988


Mr Gerry Hinton has resigned from the Lancashire Aikikai; his reason is that he wishes to practice a different type of Aikido following his visit to Japan. I would wish to point out that:

1. Mr Hinton has been trained by our Aikikai mainly by myself for the last three years and graded.

2. He was in Japan, only for ten weeks; I can not see him learning a different style/type of Aikido in such a short time.

3. Using the words "Takemusu Aiki " does not change his Aikido that he has learnt over the last three years. Takemusu in Japanese means martial art - Aiki is harmonising of Ki.

Taking these points into consideration I have come to the conclusion that he has some personal motives [or is used by outside forces for some grand design]

All Mr Hinton' 5 members and himself now practice outside our Aikikai and do so without the protection of MAC insurance that all licence holders are entitled to provided they practice within clubs recognised by the British Aikido Board.

M Mucha
Principal - Lancashire Aikikai

SWEATSHIRTS

Members who wish to buy a sweatshirt with the Aikikai logo (as on our badges) should
send an order with £3 cheque to Mr Ian Cherry

Remember to state your size small, medium or large.

27th November is our General Course and our AGM at Chorley prompt start at 10.30 The Teacher course is on 26th November starting at 2.30

Grading details were published in the paper version - Not published online under Data Protection Provisions

WHAT IS AIKIDO ??

Surprisingly none of the people who write take the trouble to find out more about AIKIDO; I agree that for the onlookers, Aikido seems so complex that it is easier for them to simplify.

Aikido is a wonderful synthesis of the martial arts of Japan: in it is seen crystallised the long and intensive tradition of Budo (the way of Samurai or Knights). It is an authentic science of combat. The technique of Aikido lies in the maximum utilisation of the inertia of the attacker, harmonising oneself with his movement and neutralising in this way the aggressive force until he will reduced and controlled. A movement of Aikido has often a spiral or spherical trajectory. There is no resistance and the one moves always in accordance with the force of the other, which is not, in reality, the exclusive principle of Aikido, but the common and fundamental base of almost all the Japanese traditional martial arts.

Nevertheless, the characteristic of Aikido is to use always the energy (mental and physical force) extending way and never in a contradictive way. It is a physical and mental extension, expansion and liberation. An extensive movement must be realised naturally and with firm maintenance of the concentration and the balance. For the effective realisation of a technique, the co-ordinated, harmonised, spontaneous and natural function of the body (the movements of the hip, feet, hands etc.), the respiration and the mind is vital.

There are about twelve basic techniques, Ikkyo, Nikkyo, Sankyo, Yonkyo, Gokkyo (these being immobilisations); Shihonage, Kotegaeshi, Iriminage, Techinage, Kaitennage, Koshinage and Kokyunage (these being protections or throws). Kokyunage is thought to be the most synthetic of all of them.

These fundamental techniques are applied against very diverse attacks holding of hands; grasping of lapels; vertical, horizontal or lateral strokes; attacks from the front, rear or side; attacks armed with a knife, sword or staff; or multiple and simultaneous attacks; etc. With these many variation of attack and the above basic techniques the combinations are endless resulting in many thousand of different techniques.

But these innumerable techniques obey, without exception a simple law called Aiki, Harmony or Realisation of the Union. For example, if an attacker comes up to you intending to hit you, you should not resist against him in order to stop the stroke, but you accompany him to the direction that to which his force currently goes, thus unifying and harmonising yourself with his movement. YOU lead him, drawing a spiral trajectory around the centre of your own gravitation, so that you finish your movement returning ironically, the aggressive force to the author himself, but without hurting him. This process can be compared, perhaps with an ingenious canalisation of water; a current of water unifying itself with another, increases in power and instead of running against, goes up harmoniously and dynamically towards the origin of the latter, pouring all the accumulated energy.

In it..

Depending upon the variation of the trajectory, which draws this movement, the movement will be called Shihonage, Iriminage, etc. This mechanism is adaptable for whatever different type of attack. Here it is revealed that Aikido dynamics consists in not treating a human being as a mass or a dimensionally determined volume, but as an energetic and vital current, or "KI".

Aikido, however, does not confine itself to be a mere technique of fight nor to be a sport. It is, first and foremost, a very pure art; its aesthetics identifies itself with those of the most refined branches of Japanese traditional art. Its sobriety and dynamism remind us of the mediaeval painting and sculpture; its simplicity and sharpness, the Japanese swords; its finesse and elegancy, the ceramics; its serenity and pureness, the architecture and gardening; it is also a philosophy of life.

It was created about 1920 by Master Morihei Ueshiba (1883 - 1969), as a beautiful incarnation of Japanese spiritually: " As AI (harmony) is the same as AI (love), I decided to name my unique Budo Aikido "........

True Budo is a work of love. It is a work of giving life to all beings and not killing or struggling with each other, love is the guardian deity of everything. Nothing can exist without it. Aikido is the realisation of love. The secret of Aikido is to harmonise ourselves with the movement of the universe and bring ourselves into accord with the universe itself. He who has gained the secret of Aikido has the universe in himself and can say, " I'm the universe".

I am never defeated, however fast the enemy may attack, its not because my technique is faster nor a question of speed. The fight is finished before it is begun. When an enemy tries to fight with me, the universe itself, he has to break the harmony of the universe. Hence at the moment he has the mind to fight me, he is already defeated. There exists no measure of time, fast or slow. Aikido is non-resistance it is always victorious....... A mind to serve for the peace of all human beings in the world is needed for in Aikido, and not the mind of one who wishes to be strong or who practices only to fell an opponent"

(Cited from the "Memoir of the Master")

These are the words of the founder of Aikido. These are his confessions. These thoughts, which are the conclusion of the man who has come through the long and hard way of bitter antagonism, which has finally been overcome by him, cannot be far removed from that of Ramakrishna or of Gandhi. At this moment his Budo ceased to be a simple technique of combat and became a "constructive way", and thus was born Aikido.

Y Kitaura 5th Dan Spain Aikikai
Printed in our 1975 Newsletter