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Last month I realized that I’d either given away my copy of “Transparent Power” by Kimura Tatsuo or I’d read a borrowed copy. Either way, it had been quite a few years and a lot of training hours since I read it last, so I ordered another copy. For those not familiar, “Tomei na Chikara” or “Transparent Power” is a mix of stories about and remembered lessons from the great Daito Ryu teacher Sagawa Yukiyoshi complied by his most senior student, Kimura Tatsuo. Many people considered Sagawa to be the true successor to Takeda Sokaku (Daito Ryu) and there’s even a document supporting that. But like Ueshiba’s Aikido, bloodline succession won out in the end. Not that Sagawa was bitter about that. (That’s a joke.)

I remember my biggest takeaway from my first reading of TP was Sagawa declaring, “I’m good, you’re bad. I’m smart, you’re dumb. I train HARD, you’re all lazy! Don’t tell people what you’re actually doing,” over and over. Humble, he was not. If you’re looking for anything specific about what he was doing, how to do techniques, or his solo training routine you will be very disappointed. Even when quoting Sagawa’s teaching, it’s like listening to someone without being able to see what they’re doing. It’s odd then that I think this is possibly one of the most important books that someone who studies Aikido or Aikido related arts can read.

Kimura and Sagawa are very clear about what they mean by “aiki”, from the book’s official webpage:

“Aiki is a skill that allows you to neutralize your opponent’s power, after which you can effortlessly use just small power. Aiki eliminates the opponent’s power, so that yours is able to flow through as a Transparent Power, with no resistance possible. It also makes him hold fast to you, unable to disengage himself—it’s really quite difficult.

Aiki is a technique done by harmonization of energy which succeeds over other techniques that use physical strength and manipulation of joints. With a very deep understanding of Aiki, it is possible for even a small girl to defeat a strong man.”

While this isn’t a true definition of “aiki” they are being very clear about what EFFECTS to look for when dealing with aiki. Aiki 1) neutralizes your opponent’s power, 2) maximizes the effects of your power, and 3) makes you hard to disengage from. Note that timing, momentum, and “getting out of the way” are not even hinted at with this understanding of aiki. There is no need to see your opponent’s point of view or to lead them in any way. You are not joining energies with them or creating a four-legged animal. You’re not connecting to their center. There is no morality implicit with aiki, the attacker is not defeating themself by breaking the harmony of the universe with bad intent. I would say that aiki is a form of hyper-kuzushi. Not only does it break an opponent’s power, but it also creates stickiness. Aiki is a way to achieve and maintain kuzushi, to keep your opponent compromised as your power is free to move (tomei na chikara). Aiki gives you freedom, while taking away the freedom of your opponent. Aiki creates kuzushi which allows you to use tomei na chikara to perform tsukuri (build the technique) and then kake (finish the technique) with minimal power. If many of the books about Aikido and OSensei are to be believed, he fundamentally changed what he meant from Daito Ryu’s aiki and thus Aikido was born. I think this is likely true for the second Doshu and his version of Aikido, but if we look at video of Ueshiba Morihei or read about his accomplishments and capabilities, it seems obvious to me that he USED a version of aiki that was more like Sagawa describes than we see in mainstream Aikido. When the sumo player Tenryu was unable to push OSensei over or move him we have a clear example of aiki being used to neutralize power. Tenryu was larger and likely had a mechanical advantage over OSensei, and yet OSensei explicitly says that he was able to do this because he understood aiki. There’s no version of aiki which involves getting off the line of an attack or blending with an attack that leads to this effect. Similarly, if we look at video of the infamous “jo trick” where one or more student pushes perpendicularly on the jo held at arm’s length by Ueshiba there is no blending or leading explanation for that effect. It’s also impossible to resist by simply overpowering people pushing in this way. This is a clear demonstration of a form of aiki that neutralizes power rather than blending with it. This tells me that whatever the marketing says, OSensei was clearly still using Daito Ryu’s aiki throughout his lifetime. When OSensei says that there is no attack in aikido, because your opponent becomes a partner that you control, he is describing the aiki of Daito Ryu and tomei na chikara.

Transparent Power is available in several languages directly from the publisher or through most online resellers. I highly recommend it to any student of Daito Ryu, Aikido, or classical jujutsu.

https://transparentpower.com

With the upcoming political changes in the US, we at Japanese Fighting Arts NW need to be explicit that we are a safe space for all races, genders, ages, and sexual orientations. We will not tolerate intolerance, and we promise you will not find a more welcoming space to train. In-person community is going to be more important than ever in the coming years and we welcome you to join our small group. All humans deserve safety and respect especially in the face of ignorance, prejudice, and oppression.

When: Saturday June 8^th 1 PM to 5 PM

Where: Aikido Seattle, 1004 Turner Way E, Seattle, WA 98112

Who: Christian Moses, Evan Seders, and other JFANW instructors

What: solo and partner body skill exercises, ways to gauge your progress, applying body skills to techniques, reviewing the basics of throwing mechanics and how to troubleshoot on your own.

How much: $40 This will be a fun informal workshop which should have something to offer folks of almost any skill level. Whether you’ve been doing body/internal skills training for years or are looking to get into it, we’d like to help!

We were invited to perform a short demo at a Kagami Biraki celebration this weekend. We demonstrated a few solo weapons forms from Shinto Seibu Ryu Iai-battojutsu, some paired adaptations of our solo kata, and some Aikibudo/tantojutsu. This is a little different than the “how to” videos that I’ve been doing and is a good glimpse into some of our waza beyond the bodyskills we work on in Budo Tanren. Huge thanks to James Kil and Evan Sedars for participating with me, and to Mark Raugas for the invitation and amazing photos. More about Lonin here: LONIN

More in class content, this time looking at how to use the five bows to create a sense of compelling heaviness. This also relates to focusing on yourself over your partner, but still being sensitive and aware to kuzushi lines and strategies.

Something a little different this week. Here’s an outtake of a typical class where Christian discusses “the cone” or “the walls” a primary principle with our group largely based on the Sangenkai principle of “the twenties”. This came from an in class exploration of responses to Aikido’s yokomenuchi attack, something we don’t look at very often as we tend to use more commonly experienced strikes like jabs and crosses.

I wanted to throw out some food for thought for Aikido folks. A common response to pointing out issues with various techniques is that they work the way that they do because uke is smart enough to know when to “take the fall” and that failing to do so would result in significant injury. I know this was how kotegaeshi and many other techniques were explained to me when I started Aikido, but in my time working with different ideas about aiki and looking at the more controlling techniques of judo, jujutsu, and aikijujutsu, I really don’t buy that argument anymore, particularly in the case of Aikido where supposedly we are learning a non-violent system where we learn to safely respond to an attacker protecting ourselves AND them from harm. In my mind you cannot be learning effective techniques that protect both parties AND learning techniques that are actually designed to injure your opponent unless they perform specific acrobatics at the right time.

As an analogy, let’s look at a totally different scenario: let’s say I was learning a sword kata where tori (the do-er) cuts uke/uchitachi’s legs out from under them at the knees. Since this is a class and legs are expensive, in the kata uke takes a forward tumble over the sword swing and rolls. Here we have a technique (a sword cut) that results in a “throw” in that uke is forced to take acrobatic measures to avoid injury. I would not say that the person with the sword was learning how to throw someone here. The intent is to cut the legs, not to throw the person. I also wouldn’t consider this a non-violent solution to the attack even though in the kata, no one is injured due to uke’s acrobatics. The goal and the intent is to do harm to the attacker, but for safety purposes (and because we’re not sadistic) we have introduced a way for uke to participate safely. However, this kata could not be performed as-is on someone who did not know how to perform difficult acrobatics and who was not in on the timing and pattern of movement. For the cut to be effective, it needs to happen in such a way that it CANNOT be dodged. The swordsman, being presented an opportunity in real life to perform this move would not be trying to throw the other person, but would be cutting their knees. We actually see these kinds of accomodations in most weapon based arts and even many older Japanese Jujutsu. For example, one of the comparable techniques to Aikido’s kotegaeshi in Araki ryu is performed so that no ukemi is possible in order to guarantee the injury of the opponent. In Yagyu Shingan Ryu, ukes often perform assisted cartwheels as ukemi. This looks very odd and un-martial to the outside observer until you realize that these techniques were designed to invert an opponent and then break their neck. You run out of students that way rather quickly, so the ukemi becomes stylized to allow nage to practice right up to the moment when the technique would become injurious. The kata isn’t about how to help someone cartwheel, it’s designed to break their neck.

In Aikido we have a problem though. It’s generally accepted (and marketed) that this is a non-lethal, non-injurious art that allows someone to defend themselves while also protecting their attacker. I would assert that if the techniques you are doing only work because your partner is in on the gag and is performing acrobatic ukemi to prevent injury, that’s not the same thing at all. That would be the equivalent of the swordsman believing they were learning how to throw someone by cutting at the knees. If your goal is to punch the person in the face but they throw themselves for a hard fall to avoid that, maybe skip all the spinning around and just do some boxing? It’s far more efficient at learning how to punch someone in the face. To put it another way, would you be able to perform what you are learning as non-injurious on someone who DIDN’T know how to perform acrobatics? Someone who didn’t know WHEN they needed to throw themselves? If not, what are you really learning and is it morally in keeping with how you describe your art? If your only recourse IRL is to do harm and injure, I suggest you come to terms with that and stop hiding behind a façade of false benevolence. Personally, while I’m not opposed to studying injurious or lethal techniques, I believe that all of my throws should work as intended without my uke being in on it. I do not need my partner to know how to fall from my throws or how to respond to my movements. I can perform my version of kotegaeshi on someone off the street who has no idea what the technique is supposed to look like or how to fall down without injury. I have the CHOICE to injure or protect due to the amount of control I have during the encounter. Injuring someone because they didn’t respond correctly to you is a very odd manifestation of non-violence in my opinion and is really a sign of behavioral conditioning. This creates a false sense of skill in nage and sets the stage for abuse and victim blaming in the event of injuries. “It wasn’t my fault. He broke his own wrist by not being ready…”

I sometimes think that our dojo slogan should be “Abandon hope all ye who enter here.” No, not because we’re some hell dojo of Monster Energy Drink Brootalitay™, but because I firmly believe that hope and desire are poor training tools which is why we focus so much on intent. But what do I mean by intent and how is that different than desire or hope? According to the Oxford English Dictionary, hope is, “a feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen.” They define intent as, “intention or purpose.” I would expand on that and say that hope and desire are largely related to external things and events. I might hope to win the lottery, or desire a new car, or a taco. Hmm, tacos. Intent however is internal to ourselves and what we can personally control. My intent can direct my arm to lift, to shift my weight from one foot to another. Intent doesn’t always equate with success however. My intent may be to push my arms away from my chest, but faced with sufficient resistance, I may not be able to achieve my DESIRED goal (ie: to push my arms away from my body) regardless of my intent.

By focusing on intent rather than desired outcomes in the dojo, we open up a path to faster and more efficient progress. Because we know what we did within ourselves, we are more able to make meaningful changes and improvements. Rather than HOPING to be softer when performing kotegaeshi we can adjust our intent: changing where our weight was placed in our stance, or what drove our arm movements. This creates more repeatable patterns of movements while contributing to a fuller sense of self. Remember OSensei famously declared himself the center of the universe. Why then do so many Aikido practitioners orbit AROUND their attacking partners “getting out of the way”? By knowing yourself and being more specific with your intent you can begin to integrate your body into a single coordinated structure.

In summary, stop HOPING to get better or to throw someone but instead be mindful of what you are doing and feeling within YOU. Clarify your intent and then monitor how those changes affect the forces on and within you.

Interested in more specifics? We’re always open to visitors and would love to work with you.

For folks who liked my earlier video on the Yi Jin Jing (muscle tendon changing classic) here’s my “do the YJJ with Chris” video that runs through the entire form with only minimal talking (for me, minimal talking for me, lol).