Glimmerscape

Hitoemi: single layer

Today's weapons class marked the first day back with the Jo, so we started, as always, with suburi. Sometimes we just cycle through them as though we already know them and there's nothing to be gained by lingering over, say, suburi #1, choku tsuki.

Not today. Perhaps it was the residual effect of Hitohiro Soke spending about 15 minutes on Tai No Henko last Monday. Regardless, Goto Sensei made a point of unpacking the elements of the first two Jo Suburi so that by the time we'd finished with Kaishi Tsuki, half the time for class was over. It was time well spent.

There are different body postures for various stages in the execution of Jo suburi #1. One of the most important of these, Goto Sensei stressed, was the finish posture. As we extend into the thrust it is important to rotate the back hip behind as the back foot establishes hanmi. In this posture the entire body lines up into a single plane, such that the opponent can only see the front edge. The rest of the body is obscured. The Japanese name for this posture is "Hitoemi." Goto Sensei says it roughly translates as "single layer."

In the picture O-Sensei shows how Hitoemi is both an offensive and a defensive posture. It is offensive because it is adopted in the process of making a strike. it is defensive insofar as there is very little body surface for the opponent to target. It is like you are slicing straight through to the center of the opponent, while at the same time flattening out off line so that the opponent's attack misses. Pretty sneaky, but that's how it's done.

We practiced finishing both Choku Tsuki and Kaishi Tsuki, the first two Jo Suburi, in Hitoemi posture. It took a little extra rear hip movement to align the body just off the line of attack.

Finally, we made it past the first two Jo Suburi. We'd spent nearly a half hour on the various elements that go into making a precise forward thrust. Over the remaining minutes we methodically covered the next three, Ushiro Tsuki, Tsuki Gedan Gaishi, and Tsuki Jodan Gaishi. Each seemed to have a universe of key elements such that, if any one were left out or executed sloppily, the whole thing would break down.

I kept remembering how my usual practice is to race through the early suburi just to get to some of the more complicated and fun suburi, such as Hasso Gaishi Uchi. At this pace, we'll get to #14 sometime next month.

Even though we practiced putting our bodies into a "single layer," the complexity of seemingly simple thrusts with the jo appears, on closer inspection, to have many layers, just a few of which we examined today.

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Goto's Matrix

As the days have unfolded since last weekend's Memorial Day Gashuku I've found that some images and ideas have stayed with me. Of course one of the images is that of Hitohiro Saito Soke demonstrating the precise body position at the end of Tai No Henko. Another image is that of Dennis Tatoian Sensei wearing an eye patch.

But one of the most interesting ideas surfacing is from Hans Goto's Saturday afternoon class. In that day's post I wrote down the elements that Goto Sensei had in play:

1. Categories of keiko: Kihon, Yawarakai, Ki no Nagare, where Kihon is static, Yawrakai is flexible, and Ki no Nagare is flowing.

2. Elements of Aikido: Tai Sabaki, Kokyu Ryoku, and Ki Musubi, where Tai Sabaki is body position, hanmi, hips, spacing; Kokyu Ryoku is the marshaling of spiral power, and Ki Musubi denotes the blend, in which Nage merges with the body and energy of the attacker.

As I considered these factors, sort of hovering like gnats in my mind, they suddenly organized themselves in a neat matrix as though random stars converging into a recognizable constellation. I stopped and wrote down the scheme. It looked like this.

Immediately I realized that this scheme was probably what Goto Sensei was offering during class Saturday, and I was too distracted or dense to figure it out. But it made sense.

In Iwama Style aikido we tend to spend a long time working on basics of Tai Sabaki in Kihon training, since static techniques begin from a grounded set position, and it's easy to correct bad footwork, for instance. That's why the upper left cell gets developed first.

Moving down the column, a more sophisticated piece is Kokyu Ryoku, the spiral power deployed by the body to be the engine of Aikido, the physical dynamics within which Ki is expressed. Developing Kokyu Ryoku is very important for Kihon training, because without it many static techniques will never get started; the attacker is too strong and has grabbed too hard, and there you both are. Kokyu is a way to get things into motion from a static position, but only if you can command it. At Dennis Tatoian's dojo, when I was a kyu ranked student, we did Morote Dori Kokyu Ho at the beginning of every class, and sometimes uke would grab very hard. Muscle strength was useless in many cases because uke was physically bigger and stronger. Only Kokyu could move uke, and this is how, eventually, many of Tatoian Sensei's smaller students could do Morote Dori Kokyu Ho on anyone.

Even more elusive is Ki Musubi, or knotting your Ki with that of another, merging with their energy to achieve effortless execution. It seems to help if you also have good footwork and deploy Kokyu. Perhaps these elements are even necessary conditions required for the blend to happen in the first place.

Yet still all this can be progressing within the realm of Kihon training, as the diagram depicts. It's not as though we don't practice flexible or flowing keiko, we do. But these categories of training involve more movement, usually are executed more rapidly, and can become a refuge in which imprecision is tolerated simply because you move through it so fast. You just can't get away with sloppy footwork or lack of kokyu in static training. Focusing on Tai Sabaki, Kokyu Ryoku, and Ki Musubi at the Kihon level may make it more likely that your Yawarakai and Ki no Nagare Aikido will be powerful and effective too.

I remember once when Goto Sensei invited a spirited morote dori attack from me. I ran at him, got my hands barely on his extended arm, and then found myself somehow flying head over heels across the mat. I am probably 100 pounds heavier and a lot bigger than he is, but I went flying anyway. In terms of the above matrix, this throw incorporated the three elements of Tai Sabaki, Kokyu Ryoku, and Ki Musubi in the form of Ki no Nagare Aikido. Yet, I believe that Goto Sensei spent a lot of time working in the Kihon and Yawarakai trenches before he was able to effectively throw a large man running straight at him.

Saito Sensei was a master organizer who made the study of Aikido systematic and therefore seemingly attainable by anyone with enough perserverence. Goto Sensei, one of his students, seems to have continued with the tradition of organizing elements of the art to show both what is important in various stages of training, and a systematic pathway to more sophisticated practice.

Eventually, I am sure that pure Aikido, perhaps what John Stevens Sensei calls "air," transcends all systems and methods for organizing elements of the art. But artificial categories, while perhaps clunky and inelegant, can be powerful instructional tools that may end up helping many people achieve the precision, power, and ability to blend effortlessly in a rapidly changing and chaotic situation that marks true effectiveness in Aikido. It just takes time, effort, and perhaps a good road map.

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Class with Hitohiro Saito Soke

A dozen or so pristine, white oak bokken lay upon a table near the entrance to the 2005 Memorial Day Gashuku training venue on Monday morning. They were adorned with the usual Ai Ki brand that most Iwama bokken come with, but in addition they had the Saito family seal inked in red and, in hand brushed characters, the name of Hitohiro Saito Soke. They were beautiful weapons, with the customarily blunt Iwama style end and the uniform heft able to withstand years of heavy training.

This was the first clue that Monday's training, the last day of our gashuku at Lake Tahoe, would be very different. As we sat lined up on the mat, about 200 students of Iwama Style Aikido from around the world, Bill Witt Shihan stood and began offering his welcome to Hitohiro Soke, who sat quietly in seiza at the edge of the mat. Witt Shihan remarked that when he began Aikido in 1969 Hitohiro Soke was just a youngster, but not an ordinary youth. He had already had years of training with O-Sensei himself, in addition to the instruction he received from his father Morihiro Saito. Witt Shihan concluded, looking toward our guest instructor, "our Aikido tradition is in the best possible hands." And with that he walked off the mat, leaving us to the instruction of Hitohiro Saito Soke.

After about ten minutes of Tai No Henko, I looked across the mat to see Hitohiro Soke holding his head, shaking it slowly. Clearly we were not getting it. He sat us down and began to lecture. First he declared that the finishing stance for Tai No Henko is the same one that we should have at the finish of a shomen sword strike. Immediatly I rememberd Tatoian Sensei's words form the day before, "your weapons practice should look like your tai jutsu, and your tai jutsu should look like your weapons practice."

He showed us how a wide finishing stance kept you off balance and prohibited you from having mobility in any direction. Next he said that the straight-up erect finish was weak, and he called up someone to demonstrate the lack of zanshin in this posture. He asked a woman to stand erect and extend her arms palm up as in the finish of Tai No Henko. He immediately uprooted her and she stumbled backwards, or forward, depending on the direction he took her.

Once again, he demonstrated the finish posture, perfect close hanmi, hips rotated back a little and cocked forward, shoulders facing the attacker, everything dropped into the hips, and arms extended and heavy. Just like a sword strike. He said, "if you don't get this right you can never do any techniques effectively."

Just like his father, he followed Tai No Henko with Morote Dori Kokyu Ho. Almost immediately he stopped us and began handing out "dames." He mocked our entry showing how nobody was turning far enough to face their partner's direction. It was no wonder the technique was not working. He showed how the stance after the entry was the same one as for the end of Tai No Henko. It seems that in Aikido certain themes tend to recur, which would make it simpler for us, if only we didn't work so hard to make things complicated.

Hitohiro Soke continued class with another few more kokyu ho techniques, the first of which is one of my favorites. From a two-handed front grab of the shoulders nage steps off to the side, assumes opposite hanmi, delivers atemi, and then ducks the inside shoulder while bringing the inside hip straight through as the head weaves through the gap between uke's arms. Once again that same sword posture happens and you raise the virtual weapon while facing your partner's direction. Even before the final strike uke just peels off you like a blanket in the wind if you do it right. But if you don't turn enough to face uke's direction he's very heavy and you have to use force.

The Ikkyo Ura waza he demonstrated had some subtile technical elements that made it much easier and more efficient. He went to some trouble to explain that merely dong a tenkan and dragging uke's arm through may work in some places (he mentioned a particular dojo here), but not in Iwama. He showed how you must continue to extend uke off balance after stepping toe-to-toe and simply strike down (without the swooping, wide circular throw) to finish. This detail is one that Tatoian Sensei has been demanding for years, and I had always thought it was a fundamentally different way of doing Ikkyo Ura that his deep commitment to Saito Sensei's Aikido allowed him to see.

After a break we all unpacked our ken and assembled outside on the blacktop to the east of the indoor venue. The sun was bright and a cool breeze moved through the tall pines. We focused on ken suburi, beginning with the sword strike that all of our Aikido is based upon. Hitohiro Soke reminded us of the Tai No Henko posture and he assumed it at the end of his sword strike. Sure enough, the two were identical. In the picture Saito Soke is demonstrating the proper way to thrust. Notice the precise hanmi.

As he demonstrated ken suburi #5, he drew attention to what the tip of his sword was doing. After each strike it flashed back to the rear as the sword moved through the alternating cover, and then as his body and hips rotated forward the sword snapped like a whip into the overhead yokomen strike. It was the image of coiling and exploding into the strike many times in a row. I imagined a light bulb at the tip of his sword and saw the pattern it drew in the air. There was a little looping figure at the end of the coiling process that marked the trigger of the strike, as the hip drove through. I tried to make my sword tip describe this figure. It felt pretty good; I was happy to think that something may have rubbed off on me during the day.

Over the remainder of class, Hitohiro Soke sequenced us through a few ken awase and four of the five Kumi Tachi. The ken awase were numbers 5, 6, and 7. I'd never done #6 before and fumbled a little on receiving the thrust until I realized that you just shuffle back instead of changing feet. During kumi tachi #3 he showed that uke tachi's first move to deflect uchi tachi's sword is really a preparation for a killing shomen strike. He demonstrated this with Vince Salvatore Sensei, dojo cho at Reno Aikido, and I was astonished at Hitohiro Soke's speed and precision. He was clearly having a great time carving us up.

I paired up with a young man, one of Hoa Newens Sensei's sons, and found a training partner of great maturity, patience, and stamina. I asked him if he did 1000 strikes with his father, and he nodded almost ruefully, "many, many times." I remarked that it was no doubt how he got so strong and he gave a laugh. His sword was always directly upon me and his spirit was beyond fierce. I cannot imagine a better training partner in a class with Hitohiro Soke.

After class we took pictures of all the participating dojos with Hitohiro Soke, and when this was done I hurried inside to see if there were any of the signed bokken left. Fortunately there were and I peeled off the money, grateful to have an artifact that would remind me of the memorable day we'd had training with the son of Morihiro Saito, the teacher of my teachers.

During weapons practice I took this picture of three of Saito Sensei's senior american students, Hans Goto, Dennis Tatoian, and Bill Witt.

Special thanks to Aviv Goldsmith Sensei and his students for their superhuman efforts organizing this gashuku and making it look easy.

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A tour of the 31 kumi jo

Early morning sun sparkled on snowfields still capping the mountains above Lake Tahoe, while I struggled to get ready for 9 am class. The morning had been divided into two classes. The first, taught by Hoa Newens Sensei was to cover the first half, roughly, of the 31 kumi jo partner practice; while the second class would be devoted to the second half of the 31 kumi jo, taught by Kim Peuser Sensei.

Barry and I met an Aikidoka from Oklahoma at Rosie's Cafe for breakfast, and then we left Tahoe City headed around the lake for the Rideout School, which is our training venue.

All of our bodies have had one and a half full days of Aikido in them, and everyone was moving slow. Ibuprofen was prominently displayed along with other apothecary delights on a table labeled by Aviv as, "the banquet."

I was very curious about how the 31 kumi jo was going to show up today, since Hitohiro Soke has made some recent small changes in the form, and because different Senseis teach it differently. I'd found Hoa Sensei's recent DVD very informative, and I was looking forward his class.

Hoa Sensei set us to doing the segments, first stop/start, and then awase. He explained that stop/start training was good for checking body position, hanmi, and spacing, while awase practice was good for timing. We practiced only segments with Hoa Sensei, moving in turn through moves 1 - 3, 4 - 6, 9 - 12, 13 - 17, and 13 - 22. Hoa Sensei showed two alternate sequences for 4 - 6 and for 13 - 17, and one of them was the old henka in which the attacker thrusts at the mid section while uke tachi steps to the left and delivers the winning yokomen strike to end the segment. The other henka we practiced was the more familiar one in which the attacker swings his jo up to parry the defender's yokomen strike at 15. This move is much the same as the end moves of kumi jo #1.

During the next class Kim Peuser continued us on our way through the segments, showing 21 - 27, and 27 - 31. He took special care to point out that after a parry with the jo it is important to bring the jo back on line with your partner's center, a detail that is often lost in practice.

Finally Kim Sensei began pulling all the segments together, showing the transition moves between 2 and 4, 10 and 12, 16 - 17, 21 and 22, and 26 and 28. For the change at move three he demonstrated Saito Sensei's traditional move, not the new move Hitohiro Saito Soke had shown in Reno last October. Near the end he asked, "are you all ready to do 1 through 31?" It appeared that we were and the last five or so minutes of class were devoted to the whole form in awase. In the photo Joan Wada sets a parry at move 27.

At lunchtime Barry and I drove back into Tahoe City, I dropped Barry off at a wireless hotspot, and then had a really good turkey wrap at a place on the strip called, Java Juice. I thought about going back for the afternoon sessions, looked at the beautiful blue lake, snow covered moujntains all around, sail boats tacking on the slight breeze, all bathed in brilliant sunshine. I thought about how Pat Yarrow had left for a walk along the lake though she had planned to get back for the afternoon classes. I decided that I needed coffee so I, too, headed for the lake, but without the resolve to return for afternoon class.

technorati tag aikido