Why oh why?

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[Zach Hudson]

Does anybody know (or have a guess at) why O'Sensei made the jo and bokken the primary weapons used in Aikido. Why not any of the many other kobudo weapons?

Zach

[Nick]

the best reply I can give is that he studied sword and jo arts, and, if you really think about it, many of the techniques we do, say ikkyo, require to move the arm down, as if to cut it with a sword. Having good sword cuts leads to good "arm cuts", if you will.

Peace,

Nick

[guest1234]

do you think it could be what he knew and had studied?

[George S. Ledyard]

Zach Hudson wrote:
Does anybody know (or have a guess at) why O'Sensei made the jo and bokken the primary weapons used in Aikido. Why not any of the many other kobudo weapons?

Zach
One answer is that O-Sensei didn't make these weapons the primary weapons of Aikido, later practitioners did. O-Sensei I am sure felt that sword work was core to understanding Budo which would put him in agreement with most Japanese martial artists. But after sword it was really spear in it's many variations that interested him. He avidly practiced Jukendo, used the Bo extensively and even gave separate rank in its use (ie Hikitsuchi Sensei), used jo in demonstrations and for teaching, and there are a number of well known pictures of him using a Boar Spear.

Why he felt that these weapons were important for Aikido students is due to the nature of technique and its relationship to hand technbique. Basically, sword is about cutting or slicing, (although you can certainly thrust) and relates closely to the turning body movements (Ura) of Aikido and the circular cutting movements of the throwing techniques. Spear relates most closely to the entering movements (omote) and the extension movements directly to the center of the partner (including atemi). While each weapon expresses these principles in a slightly different way and has its own "personality" the principles of Entering and Turning are really contained in both weapons as they are not separate principles anyway.

[Paul]

I have just read the aikiweb interview with Stanley Pranin,

http://www.aikiweb.com/interviews/pranin0800.html

which it is made clear that there is no real evidence to suggest that o'sensei studied any weapon arts in depth and the reason aikido can be thought of in terms of sword work, probably, was beacause Sokaku Takeda major arts were the sword arts and even though he didn't teach sword work often he must have used its principles.

As for the jo I don't know and so I will say so rather than tell you something which I am not sure about. If you have queations on aikido history Stan is the man.

[Sid]

Strange, but he did teach shuriken-jutsu at the Hombu Dojo for a while.

SId