Aikido

Aikido is a Japanese Martial Art created by Morihei Ueshiba (who is usually referred to by practitioners as O’Sensei, or ‘great teacher’) in the early 1930s. To put it simply, it’s a combination of elements of Jujutsu (locks and throwing techniques) and other various sword and weapons training systems from traditional Japanese martial arts. This includes, sensitive observation of balance, intention, momentum and energy.

Aikido was adopted by Japan’s military and municipal elites as a powerful martial discipline. The popularity of Aikido attracted students from all over the world, who visited the founder in both the Hombu Dojo in Tokyo and in the smaller Iwama Dojo in the Ibaraki Prefecture, often staying for several years to live and learn the martial art from its source. Due to its international appeal, Aikido today enjoys a truly global following, with a great many world-class instructors from whom to learn.

Resolution of conflict through harmony

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O’Sensei passed away in 1969, leaving a diverse range of approaches to understanding what he had created. Common to all iterations however, is the emphasis that Aikido embodies non-violence, and the resolution of conflict through harmony. Ai-Ki, translated loosely, means ‘Harmony of Spirit,’ a principle reflected in the flowing, soft, but often very energetic and powerful movements seen in Aikido techniques. Students learn to diffuse incoming attacks by extending an opponent’s balance and intention beyond their control, using the attacker’s own strength to subdue them.

To a beginner, this may initially appear counter-intuitive; martial arts are usually associated with physical strength and competition, so it may seem surprising that Aikido training is for the most part co-operative. Students work together, learning the gross movements of techniques as structured forms under pre-established conditions. Aikido discourages the reliance on physical strength, so this kind of training is suitable for men and women of any size. No prior experience in martial arts is required, nor is physical fitness, as everybody trains holistically, and develops at their own pace. The emphasis on sensitivity and connection in Aikido training requires that, in the beginning, techniques can be practiced slowly, allowing detailed exploration of their constitutive principles. As practitioners become more advanced, both in their ability to perform techniques and receive them safely, more intensive powerful training will emerge.

Cultivating sensitivity for timing, distance, and ultimately, awase, the ability to join with an attack while using the attackers’ own force and strength against them, is where Aikido distinguishes itself from other martial arts, and thereby embodies the martial principles O’Sensei transformed and preserved from the more lethal traditional arts of Budo (‘warrior’s way’).

Takemusu Iwama System

Whilst the Lancaster Aikido Club practices and welcomes a range of stylistic approaches to Aikido, in 2011 the club adopted the Takemusu Iwama system with its formal grading syllabus, as developed by Morihiro Saito Sensei (9th Dan Aikikai) of the Iwama Dojo, Ibaraki Prefecture.

The Iwama Dojo was built by O’Sensei in 1945. O’Sensei spent a good deal of time training and teaching here until his death, as did many of his top students, including Morihiro Saito Sensei, who, as one of the founder’s closest students since 1946, became the caretaker of the dojo until his death in 2002. Morihiro Saito Sensei (9th Dan) is credited with formalising O’Sensei’s teachings into a coherent system with a rigorous focus on precise, technical details. This method of practice maintains a distinct focus on strong, basic technique, formal movements which are learned by rote. The chief beauty and aim of this basic training is that practicing slowly students develop a sensitivity to balance, tension, and resistance, which can then be employed in the larger, flowing movements Aikido is typically associated with without using physical strength.

Takemusu Aikido also places great importance on weapons practice, which is heavily integrated with unarmed techniques to form a holistic system. Practitioners train with bokken (swords) and jo (staffs), both of which have extensive syllabi of their own, to learn concepts and postures applicable throughout their practice. Weapons training provides added emphasis on timing and connection, again discouraging reliance on physical strength in favour of centred, well-balanced power.

We have been fortunate enough to host seminars with some of the most senior European practitioners of Takemusu Aikido including Bjorn Saw (5th Dan), Lewis Bernaldo de Quiros (6th Dan) and Ulf Evenås (7th Dan), all of whom were personal students of Saito Sensei for many years in the Iwama Dojo. The opportunity to train with instructors of such quality has been astounding and we continue to receive visiting instructors as often as we can.

The spirit of selflessness and charity

O’Sensei was an avid martial artist, having originally trained to proficiency in Daito Ryu Jujutsu under the style’s headmaster, Sokoku Takeda Sensei. A strong and powerful martial artist, Ueshiba Sensei began teaching Daito Ryu Jujutsu in his home town of Tanabe, but following a series of political and religious adventures, he refined his martial techniques through his spiritual training and insights regarding the nature of conflict itself. Wishing to avoid conflict and violence, O’Sensei engaged in strict ascetic purification practices to train his body and mind, while retaining a vital connection to the world around him. Observing the world of international conflict around during World War II, O’Sensei sought a holisic, worldly enlightenment, and felt that martial arts training, when undertaken in a way directed towards the cultivation of harmony over disharmony, reconciliation over strife, could, in his words, ‘heal the world.’

At the time of Aikido’s genesis, Japan still retained a ‘frontier’ spirit, as smaller villages and towns, often considerable distances apart, strived to develop their local communities and economies. O’Sensei’s contribution to the development of his home town, Tanabe, was considerable, owing both to his tendency to selfless philanthropy and his legendary strength — all the more impressive for a man of such diminutive form (O’Sensei was only 5 feet tall, but there are abundant testimonies of him display a strength attributable to several, much larger men). Whether helping the townsfolk with construction work or farming (of which he was particularly fond, and encouraged as a complementary discipline in the Iwama Dojo) or protecting the travelling frontier groups from bandits (who were quickly lifted from their feet and pitched out of the way), O’Sensei moved towards the centre of the communities he encountered, guiding and aiding without arrogance or covetous political motives.

The spirit of selflessness and charity persists as an ideal in Aikido, which eschews competition and violence in favour of training towards a traditional ethics of martial awareness and self- improvement. There is no competition in Aikido, and no fighting; Aikidoka train in search of a mastery which extends beyond victory over others.