Furitama Undo and Chinkon Undo (Kishin) Jul 15, 2010

From what I have researched it is not called “chinkon undo” but either chinkon kishin or furitama undo. One thing is for sure, we must be careful of the pronunciation of chinkon – we must be sure to pronounce the final ‘n’ in the presence of Japanese shihans and students.

Update: K says I should explain this more. Well, if you say chinkon without the ‘n’, it is a body part that males usually discover first.

From Stanley Pranin’s The Encyclopedia of Aikido – “Calming the spirit and returning to the divine; a mystical breathing and meditative practice for uniting the divine and human spirits used frequently by Morihei UESHIBA. Originally a shamanistic technique, chinkon kishin was modified by Onisaburo DEGUCHI and taught as part of the OMOTO RELIGION.”

From the glossary of… The Principles of Aikido by Mitsugi Saotome – “A practice intended to aid one in joining with the universal spirit and to help one understand the divine mission that is one’s life goal to fulfill.”

Furitama: “soul shaking”, “settling the ki”, or “vibration of the spirit”

Furitama is practiced standing with the legs shoulder-width apart. The hands are placed together with the left hand over the right. A small space is left between the hands. The hands are placed in front of the abdomen and shaken vigorously up and down. Inhale to the top of the head rising up naturally. Then exhale to the bottom of your feet as you continue shaking your hands up and down. The exercise if finished in silent and still meditative kishin.

This chinkon exercise was intended to gather the spirits of the divine into ones center… calming the spirit… vibrating the soul. It’s an effective way to gather your thoughts, center your mind and focus your intention.

Another form of “vibration of the spirit” can be seen in the practice of raising the hands over your head, shaking them vigorously while fingers are extended. Then throwing the hands down toward the ground. The founder would speak of shaking the dust from the joints when referring to this wrist loosening exercise. For him it was a vitalizing movement to shake the impurities from the body… a form of misogi to prepare for aikido practice.¹

1. http://www.budodojo.com/chinkon-kishin.htm [↩]

Katadori-Menuchi Waza Suggestion Jul 15, 2010

It was suggested to me that Tori should make the initial tenkan as large as possible while still staying connected with Uke to draw Uke down and extend him for easier manipulation of his hands/wrists.

Noro Masamichi Sensei Jul 15, 2010

This was brought to my attention when I shared my quest to learn more about ki-no-musubi. In this still, Noro makes a wide jump into iriminage, something I have never seen before. This in of itself is not the reason for this entry. Read on.

After some 30 years, he has become like this:

He is on a quest of his own to develop slow, soft and flowing Aikido movements. At some point (1979¹) he wanted to journey on his own quest to be more ’sensitive’ to the ways of Aikido and formed ki-no-michi – the way of Ki. If he can change from the Founder’s style to this slow style, then my quest doesn’t seem absurd at all.

… more to come

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masamichi_Noro [↩]

Shihonage Realization Jul 14, 2010

Shihonage is very involved. I went back over videos and this time paid attention to how the tori pivot to bend the uke’s arms back. I am checking for raising of Uke’s arm, if Tori moves to Uke’s hand or pulls it to him, if Tori sinks/lunges on the entry, and what angle they take to extend Uke before the throw. Most importantly, I am checking which direction the shihans cut down. The results are surprising.

This would hurt a dumb Uke a lot. Nothing wrong here, but I wish to keep Uke safe if he doesn’t know how to move. It looks like Tissier doesn’t sink, but puts enough discomfort on Uke’s arm to cause him to come around, and Tissier does twist his trunk so faces Uke before the throw. What I do notice is that Tissier doesn’t cut toward Uke’s back, that is, not parallel to Uke’s shoulder blades as I have always believed.

Notice how it looks like Shishiya can get hit by Uke? He can’t. Classically I would want to cut down behind Uke parallel to his back so he bends back and falls, but is safe. Shishiya doesn’t do that. Instead, he follows an curved giri like mesagiri away from Uke. This Uke can blend so he moves in response to the cut-down. Shishiya doesn’t duck or sink like I thought he would have, but instead does something similar to Tissier above.¹

This is starting to get ridiculous – not the waza nor the shihan, but how badly I misunderstood the cut-down on shihonage. Of course! How could a person in seiza pivot and twirl efficiently in the face of an oncoming strike or wrist grab? Tissier isn’t even close to Uke’s back for the cut-down.²

I am noticing a pattern here. If Nishio were alive in the era of blogging, he would write like me I’m sure of it – he just has that ‘question everything’-personality. He is short but doesn’t even try to sink under Uke’s arm. Ah!, he pivots so his hara faces Uke again, but he cuts down away from Uke so he has to follow or lose his arm.³

I haven’t been this impressed with shihonage since I first saw Osawa Sensei in person. Chiba Sensei moves incredibly slowly, but with conviction. He too takes Uke up and minimizes the sinking/lunging idea I thought I knew. That angle and extension stops Uke from twisting out of shihinage like we routinely worry about. Chiba bends Uke’s arm at the elbow before he even begins to step and pivot. This is new (to me).⁴

Doshu is cutting away from Uke and at an angle. We can clearly see that Uke and Tori are facing in opposite directions instead of Tori always facing Uke through the cut. Although to be fair he is the only one that finishes shihonage in the same direction he started when Uke attacked. However, as I learned from studying the movements of Saito Sensei, that is not the goal of shihonage.⁵

Well, I don’t know what to say about this one. Uke is resting his hand on Saito Sensei’s back. However, this is done extremely slowly for the camera. What I can tell is that with Saito’s massive experience and the low speed of the demonstration coupled with the blending uke, it is clear Saito is not concerned about keeping Uke’s arm horizontal nor cutting down toward Uke’s back. In fact, he cuts at an angle like all the others in the entry.

If you compare the first still of Saito to the one above, you will see that he must have traced an arc with his cut down. Not only that, remnants of the arc are present in the way he is holding Uke’s wrist at an angle that is along this arc to the floor.⁶

Osawa Sensei’s movements are the final word on this matter. He is under stress and has hundreds of eyes on him, yet he and Uke are facing in opposition and he cuts at an angle to take Uke safely to the ground.⁷

Conclusion

Some might argue that, yeah, this is how we should do shihonage in real life, but in the dojo we want to keep Uke safe so we should do it the way we do now. I parry and counter that argument by asking how come we can’t keep Uke safe and do the effective technique at the same time? In fact, by cutting at an angle it helps Uke to roll and practice ukemi. We can always move slowly to help unadjusted uke, but to do a lesser technique is both assumptive of Uke’s presumed inability and takes away from Aikido altogether. And, this wasn’t even what I was looking for when I started this post.

Update: 2010-07-15 – I practiced with K this style of shihonage for while tonight before class. At the B&B class tonight I shared my revelation with Ben Sensei and he said that it was good and feels nice. He said that the reason we don’t practice like this is indeed because of the fear of injuring beginners. However, I think they are capable of taking a slow version of shihonage. I know when I take this shihonage fast I need to do tobiukemi, but slowly feels nice and safe.

Here is a video of Igarashi Sensei teaching shihonage in Feb. 2010 here in Calgary. He explains that shihogiri is not about manipulating the wrist joint (i.e. bending it backwards) to drop Uke, but about taking Uke past his center so he falls on his own.

1. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9F4wh3XoVA [↩]
2. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdH1sVz2IgI [↩]
3. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9PTMSwr1h0 [↩]
4. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4yK1Crbxp30 [↩]
5. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwRPuHXZmOo [↩]
6. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0f1LOIqmNI4 [↩]
7. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HoRAb6oE7cw [↩]

Endo Seishiro and Ki Musubi Jul 14, 2010

He has a beautiful ability to sense his partner and extend him and move him almost effortlessly. He was one of my favorite shihans in Japan, next to Osawa Sensei and Miyamoto Sensei. His Aikido is unrestricted like the shape of pouring water in space with microgravity – so memorizing.

He must have started out with form and practiced the basics over and over again. I wonder when he realized that so many movement rules were made by those who need rules. In his DVD series, he teaches slowly and his basics are different and emergent (read: different) from others. He follows his aite’s energy to take it through the path of least resistance to ground like glacial waters finding the best path down the mountains to the oceans. Who can tell the glacier to take a pre-determined path that other glaciers have taken in other corners of the world?

I wonder if he is special. I play a thought experiment in my mind and in that experiment I ask other shihans if they can feel and blend like Endo Sensei. In my mind some of them say no, humbly, while others say they can, but that is not real Aikido. Still others say to stop asking such questions and do basics until I am black and blue. In my mind I challenge them to move and blend like Endo Sensei and they cannot, or will not. Why won’t they? They probably can if they wanted to practice it because they are all great. My hypothesis is that everyone is unique in Aikido because of the rules they believe exist or don’t exist. If there are even as few as 30 rules in Aikido (zig-zag on ikkyo omote, always step forward on iriminage throw, etc.), the combination of accepting or rejecting them is over a billion unique combinations already (2^30). That is enough allowance for every man, woman and child who studies Aikido to be different and unique.

Now, if we believe too many rules are absolute, why sense where Uke is moving? We will just follow the rules and Uke is assured to land in a specific space every time. Reject more of the rules, and we will have to rely on senses more to guide Uke at execution time. I believe Endo Sensei is someone who has rejected many tiny rules, but embraced a few rules that get normally rejected. Such might be like great use of ki-no-musubi, taking Uke wherever he is most unstable, or even taking Uke down instead of outward. Perhaps also never blocking but always blending, or trying to make as little noise as possible.

If I practice this way, my teachers may not like it. My advice to myself is to start work on ki-no-musubi in little steps while doing every waza, but make it look subtle so no one comments that it looks different – they should say that it looks smoother. The barometer for this will be the absence of skin slapping when Uke grabs Tori’s wrists, the lack of pulling or jerking on Uke, and the lack of commenting from others. It is not going to be easy, but if this works then it paves the path for continued introspection.

Endo is the magician because I see with my eyes that he appears to violate the rules of Aikido that I have learned, much like miracles are events which appear to violate the rules of the universe I don’t understand but have been taught to believe.

Ki Musubi Jul 13, 2010

I was in Japan and I had never heard of this before. Someone threw me and it was like I was unable to let go of him yet I was grabbing him. I asked what the heck he did. His name is Kim Riddick, and he told me to go upstairs and find a guy named Tim Buerger. I was told to ask him about something called ki-no-musubi. I had never met this man before, but I found him (names on hakama, thank you!) and asked him. He kindly explained a lot to me, someone he had never met before.

Today, ki-no-musubi is at the heart of every breath, every step, every turn and every throw I make, if only in my mind while I am still a beginner. It is blending. It is the coolest part of Aikido, and without it Aikido becomes just another hard brawl art.

This was lost to me when I returned from Japan. I don’t get to feel it very much nowadays except with a very select few, and believe me I know it when I feel it because it is like a drink from a ice-cold can a Coke after two days in the hot desert. I’m trying to get it back. I’m trying to show a few people what I mean too, but it gets quickly undone or overwritten somehow. When I notice it in others I usually thank them because it is so rare to feel.

Tai-no-henko is the start of ki-no-musubi learning. This has to be done well, and personally I want to work on this more and more. Ikkyo omote is next, whichever version we do.

In fact, Igarashi Sensei was trying to educate us on this. I noticed it in this video when he was here in Feb. 2010. It is only recently, say since May, that I have begun to appreciate his teaching.

It is not up to me, but either Aikido has ki-no-musubi or it doesn’t. If it doesn’t, then we should be hard, angular and controlling and show outside onlookers this. If one of the hallmarks of Aikido is ki-no-musubi as I believe, then I want to tell my douki to abandon rigid movements, hard blocks, slamming throws and hindering uke-ness, and instead embrace soft ukemi, flowing motions, and relaxed throwing. I know I will be the first to partner with these people at the beginning of each waza practice.

This is too much to believe, but I believe it having practiced with the man himself in Japan. I used to call him the Magician because his ability to sense his partner is uncanny. I present Endo Sensei and his ki-no-musubi.

For those that cannot believe this is real, or can’t accept it yet, here is Miyamoto Sensei. He is rock hard in spirt and waza, yet delicate to the touch if you take Uke for him. He awarded me my 4th kyu.

Hanten Ukemi and Hardwood Floors Jul 13, 2010

My condo was flooded, so I moved to a hotel for three weeks. Then I moved to a temporary apartment on 17th ave. This is only the second time in the past five years I have lived in a place with hardwood flooring. I sometimes practice hanten ukemi in front of the TV, so I tried it in this place for the first time and guess what? I grinded (ground?) my spine after a few moments!

Maybe the soft, cushy mats are misleading. Right fast I had to modify my hanten ukemi (which is the rocking ukemi where you switch legs) so that I make contact with a generous arc on my back like an upside-down U. In the U, the white space would be where my spinal column is. That is, for myself I need to rock on one side of my back, cross over at my shoulder blades, then rock back on the other side. This works the obliques! Maybe that is why I have never rocked like this before.

Just sharing my experience. Hope you have an experience like this so you know what it feels like when I discovered after years of rolling there is still something basic to improve.

Tai-no-Henko Practice Jul 11, 2010

This is one of the most important exercises for Aikido. We usually start class with this after warm-up. To jazz it up, we practice four more variations of this sometimes. However, students have confessed it is so boring and seems useless. I used to agree with them, used to.

To make it more interesting I tried to do it the way Saito Sensei demonstrates. I’ve since stopped doing that. The reason is because I have discovered the point of these tai-ho-henko practices and the positive ramifications of practicing them over and over again properly.

I strongly feel the best way to practice the basic tai-ho-henko is with ki blending the way O-Sensei shows in his historical footage. He was wise. The version where Uke grabs as hard as he can is useless to discover the point of this practice. If Uke grabs hard and tries to jam you, he is damenahito, I believe (you can’t translate that, by the way).

This is a blending/leading exercise. If done right, it can be repeated hundreds of times in succession without getting tired or bored. In fact, K and I do tai-no-henko for fun when we don’t have training mats. The key feature is to move as soon as Uke makes contact with Tori’s wrist by bending the wrist so Tori’s fingers point in the direction of Uke’s momentum, then finish the irimi tenkan. Tori should be ridiculously relaxed but in control.

The result of practicing this exercise this way is better blending in other techniques, more control of one’s own body, and a better sense of distance and timing. It is just so fun too.

A Question About Striking in Aikido Practice Jul 11, 2010

Here, we step in for yokomenuchi. We step in for tsuki. How come we don’t step in for shomenuchi?

It can’t be a space issue because for other strikes we step in. It can’t be that we don’t want to confuse Uke because again we step in for other strikes. It can’t be a blending issue because blending is blending. How did uke end up shuffling if for shomenuchi practice instead of stepping? Doesn’t that become like a jodan tsuki? Never thought about this before.

Update: 2010.07.16 – B has discovered that when Uke takes a step to strike it is called ‘toma’ variation of kogeki.

Should (I) Modify Techniques For Junior Students? Jul 10, 2010

I think most people are intelligent beings, capable of learning new things and noticing important features. Junior students are no different.

Thinking about a passive suggestion, I am wondering if (I) should do full-speed but dumbed-down techniques because (I) feel Uke cannot comprehend the waza yet, or if (I) should do the actual technique as best I can, but slow it down to keep Uke safe, let him roll his own way, feel the footwork, etc. Both have pros, but with the second way I feel like I am showing more respect for my partner by doing the real technique so he can see it.

Note that I am not referring to static and ki-no-nagare versions.