An Aikido mystery posed by Hiroshi Tada

 

 

There is so much I don’t know, then I read something else and ideas come into my head. That does not make them true, but with effort thought might open a glimpse of reality.

 

Specifically I was reading The Aikido Journal from 1884 vol 21 no 4. The article on Hiroshi Tada when his response to a question gave an answer I had never heard before.

 

The interviewer:  “I’ve heard that before the war and during the Iwama period, when performing suwariwaza Ikkyo which is one of our most fundamental aikido techniques, Ueshiba Sensei would bive the opponent a chance to attack, but rather initiated the movement by sending forth his own ki…”

 

Tawada :  “That was known as the “cultivation of magnetism”. It involved a keen sense of kokyu that draws the opponent out like a piece of steel being instantly attracted by a magnet.

 

 

There are three situations: you move first, you and your partner move simultaneously, your partner moved first, The technique is the same for all of these, really, what is important in the end if the sort of state you maintain inside.

 

If you look only at the outside form – for example, if you view techniques only as a means of self defense – then you won’t be able to understand their overall meaning.

 

They have to do with ki, not just the simple interaction of two physical bodies. Training is like a mirror reflecting your sensitivity to ki. The clearness of the mirror is the most important issue.”

 

I do not think I have heard of this previously, but it does cause me to wonder.

 

 

Then I found another description of this process in an interview with Kazuo Chiba in the Aikido Journal of 1995 volume 22 Number 1. Kazuo Chiba had been an uchideshi for Ueshiba Sensei for 7 years.

Interviewer: “Now would you describe O-Sensei’s ‘energy”?”

Chiba: “It was like being pressed by some invisible force. O-Sensei used to tell us to strike at him with a bokken at any time,  Whenever he stopped and turned to speak to his audience seem a good chance to do so, since he wasn’t looking our way at all, but even then nobody tried to strike at him. He simply had no openings. He wasn’t looking at us, but we could feel him holding us fast with just his ki.  It used to make me brek out in an oily sweat, so that I could hardly keep a grip on my bokken.

 

Still, as his opponents we would keep at it, gradually trying to close the distance. Then, for an instant, an opening would appear. O-Sensei created small openings deliberately to help with our powers of perception. He wouldn’t use people who could demonstrate the ability to perceive such openings.

 

The instant O-Sensei slightly relaxed the intensity of his kuokyo power we would rush in with an attack, but he was already gone. For that reason it looked pre-arranged. Actually O-Sensei was already moving by the time we began our attack. We were just too slow to or lacked the ability to perceive it. I find that sort of thing extremely interesting.

 

O-Sensei said that true budo should be executed so skillfull that it looks pre-arranged. He said it is not real budo if you begin your movements only after the strike is in motion. It’s only the real thing if it looks set up to outside observers.”

The closest I ever came to experiencing this was when I was training with Charles Murray. When sparring with him whenever I began an attack he would just dance away, always out of range of my attack. Or conversely he could dance in on whatever attack I was using and score on me, and I was inable to stop those attacks. It was a very difficult time for I was never able to hit him then, but he literally score on me at will. I suffered more than a few dings.

 

I thought he was rough on me, but one time he was able to make a tournament at the Redding Field House. I had competed in forms and weapons earlier as a brown belt. When he got there after changing he asked me to warm him up for his division. Where I thought he was tough on me, that time he was so focused that I felt I was facing a diamond. He had a theory behind what he did, teaching the theory to me, but our time together was simply too short for me to get it, I was what I was after all.

 

Does this description match those discussions of Ueshiba’s abilities. Not sure it was just what I experienced.

 



The Instructor I trained with in pre 1930s Shotokan, pre1930s Aikido and Tjimande was extremely explosive when he fought. Part of that was the extensive drills in his art (of which I only saw a few) that provided training unlike what others do for kumite. But I wonder another of his practices touches on the practice of Ueshiba described above.

 

I have written before of his practice of his art, at 3^rd dan they switch over to reverse breathing. Inhaling on the strike, Exhaling on the following move. I have not found another practice which does this except his training program.

 

While this was explained to me, I was not so trained. Of course I was not a 3^rd dan in his practice.

 

I tried to theorize what this accomplished. My best guess was that hearing accompanied this practice. If one is taught that strikes are done on the exhale, there is also IMO a subconscious component where one hears the exhale of the opponent causing one to anticipate an attack. On the other hand if the attack now accompanies an Inhalation…. That allows one to subtly mislead an opponent, providing and other opening to use advantageously.

 

Now I am wondering if this was a karate way to tap into what Ueshiba was doing?

 

Frankly none of the incredible martial artists I have trained with ever discussed the use of Ki or Chi. Always their discussions were around physical technical discussions. My t’ai chi instructor was no different. Over the decdes all of our discussions were pure technique, never was Chi mentioned.

 

I have read many times people describing Ki of Chi, but none of those words moved me to action or personal understanding.

 

Also frankly the existence and study of a specific manner of breathing in t’ai chi. The knowledge that this karate system chaged to reverse breathing, all of that contributed to my own study of the manner of breathing.

 

But this is something new to ponder.

 

 

suwariwaza Ikkyo-

Suwariwaza is the training where both tori and uke are seated on the floor, and walking on their knees. It comes from samurai days. The Japanese warrior neeeded to train defense from when seated. Nowadays, other advantages with suwariwaza emerge: it's great for learning to be balanced and stable, and to economize one's movements.

 Ikkyo is the first technique of aikido. That's even what its name means. Sort of an introduction to aikido, at least to its pinning techniques, in the continued count of nikyo, sankyo and so on.