Chinto & Aikido 7 – Finis?

This entire series has been a real love for me to explore a kata, Chinto, with which I feel an old friend. During this past week I've been really laid up with a viral cold and have not been able to do much more than work on breathing a little. The Breath In - Breath Out variety that is.

When I was able to focus on technique I've been trying to work out where to go with the Chinto Aikido connection. I know I haven't hit on more than the highpoints, but after really looking over the available texts, much more can't be shown as simply as look on page 31 of book 'X'.

While I can point out examples of specific Aikido Chinto connections among the texts I've been using, they aren't universal to all of the books. Remember I've mentioned they all don't cover the same material, as well as there is much in Aikido which I'm sure hasn't been written yet.

Likewise, there are many useful Aikido techniques which are not shown 100% compatible with our kata, simply as the best case example isn't shown in the book.

Compound this with the real issue of developing the turning energy properly in Chinto to take full advantage of the techniques mentioned, we haven't even begun to scratch the surface of the potential of this topic.

But rather than roll into Aikido babble, and verbage which can easily be lost in the turns of speaking, I'm going to close with a few specific examples of techniques which can be addressed from specific texts.

The Essence of Okinawan Karate - Nagamine Shoshin Page221 photo's 18 and 19
The Dynamics of Isshinryu Karate - Long and Wheeler Page 79 photo's 14 and 15

Total Aikido The Master Course Gozo Shioda Hiji Shime Elbow Lock - Page 166

In this version against an attackers right punch you step in with the 'x' block on top of his arm. You then turn and use the elbow lock which results to take them down

Aikido by Kissomaru Usheiba Kote Gaeshi (wrist out turn) Page 54-55
The Hidden Roots of Aikido by Shiro Omiya Kote Gaeshi page 68 - 69

In a different use of the same technique, against an attackers left punch you step in with an 'x' block on top of his wrist, grab the wrist and turn away with an outer wrist turn to take them down.

Finally go back to an old friend:

Nagamine photo's 23 and 24 (Long and Wheeler photo's 19 and 20)

You can find an interesting variation in Aikido and the Dynamic Sphere (Westbrook and Ratti) on page 269.

I expect a true expert might be able to find the links to the entirety of Aikido within Chinto Kata.

I hope all of my efforts offer you some thoughts to consider with this kata. I trust someday somebody more experienced in both Chinto and Aikido can follow along these lines and increase all of our knowledge.

BTW this entire study is the opening movement for a study my students are beginning this month, exploring Chinto in many guises. I hope to write soon on some of my confusing thoughts of the relationship of Chinto Kata and the movement potential of Baguazhang. They are also going to be aiding my
students confusion.