Takemusu Aikido Special Edition: Budo

Takemusu Aikido Special Edition
Morihiro Saito
Aiki News, 1999
ISBN 4-900586-56-0
168 pages

Technical Description

Takemusu Aikido Special Edition: Budo presents an historical overview of the Founder’s aikido techniques from the time of the mid-1930s through the Iwama period following World War II. It is based on technical material contained in the manual entitled Budo published in 1938 by Morihei Ueshiba supplemented by detailed commentary by Morihiro Saito Shihan. The technical material in this volume includes preparatory exercises, basic techniques, knife (tantodori), and sword-taking techniques (tachidori), sword vs. sword forms (ken tai ken), mock-bayonet (juken) techniques, and finishing exercises (shumatsu dosa).

What I Learned

Photos are by Saito Sensei Sr., his son Saito Hitohiro, and historic photos of O-Sensei. I learned that Budo was the first organized Aikido manual which was published in 1938 and only around a hundred copies were made. It provides a snapshot in time of the development of Aikido. Some techniques have been changed over time by the Founder which makes me comfortable knowing that Aikido can still evolve.

Some technical aspects I learned/confirmed are:

• the ikkyo pin was done very differently in the past
• gokyo was not what it looks like today; it looked more like ikkyo ura
• O-Sensei clearly states iriminage requires grabbing the back of Uke‘s collar (p.36)
• shomenuchi nikyo urawaza: do not let uke get back up; after the nikyo pressure grab aite‘s elbow and push his shoulder to the floor (p.58)
• for ken-tai-ken men (our kenawase #7), O-Sensei says to strike at aite‘s head (pgs.128-131); do not strike his neck or motion to cut if off. Aikido is for peace, not gore.
• O-Sensei says that on shomenuchi ikkyo omote, Nage must grab Uke‘s elbow on the initial strike if he does not do an atemi first. (p.45)