Fugakukai=Kihara=Karl Geis Method?

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Kayla Feder in Ohio Jan 23-25 - Head of Aikido of Berkeley at Oberlin College Fri eve. thru Sun aft. $100

[Jory Boling]

Ok, I know that Karl Geis (and others) established the Fugakukai. I've also read that Karl Geis calls his style the Kihara method.
I've also seen fugakukai patches that read "Karl Geis Aikdo, Judo, Jodo."

Does fugakukai=kihara=karl geis method?
Does a Fugakukai member say "I study Fugakukai style?" Or do they say "I study Kihara?"
or "I study the Karl Geis method of Shodokan?"

thanks,
Jory

[L. Camejo]

Does a Fugakukai member say "I study Fugakukai style?" Or do they say "I study Kihara?"
or "I study the Karl Geis method of Shodokan?"

From my experiences with Fugakukai folks, I can be sure that the last option you gave is never used.:) There is no "Karl Geis method of Shodokan". Karl Geis trained with Tomiki a bit and founded Fugakukai at some point, other than that there is not much interrelationship afaik.

Peace.
LC:ai::ki:

[jester]

I call it Tomiki Aikido. Karl was a 6th Dan in Tomiki Aikido, and then formed his own group.
FuGakuKai was the name of the school.

I think it means "School of Higher Learning". Someone who speaks Japanese can give a more precise definition.

Karl modified the system, so I think he called it Karl Geis Ryu so people would not confuse it with other schools. I'm not sure of this, but I think that's why.

Ki-Hara is something Karl developed that added onto the original 17 techniques that we studied. There are now 23 I think... It isn't as linear as the original style I learned. He added a thing called chaining which links techniques together in a flowing pattern. Writing Karl is the best way to get the full story.

The name Shodokan was never mentioned at the school, and I learned of it through some Kenji Tomiki articles I read.

[Patrick]

I usually say that I study Aikido.

[Jory Boling]

I usually say that I study Aikido.

Good point Patrick. At the end of the day, that is the reality.
Thanks.

[KPatton]

There are a number of ways they refer to it.

Karl Geis Ryu
The Kihara Method
Karl Geis Aikido

In the five years I studied there, there was never a set terminology.
Fugakukai refers to the association, not necessarily to the style.
In my experience, every affiliated dojo, does things a bit differently since the techniques as practiced change and if the affiliated instructors don't come to clinics to learn the new changes, they continue to teach what they know and subtle differences creep into the techniques. The association does not consider this a bad thing. It makes the style dynamic.

[KPatton]

The method is one of constant movement. We practice for failure, meaning, we do not assume a given technique will work, and practice the chaining so we internalize a second third fourth alternate technique if the first does not work. We also do not use strength to execute a technique. We go from one technique to the next depending on what feedback we get from Uke. If he pushes for instance or strikes a blow, we would execute kotegaeshi. if he were to pull back we would go into udegaeshi and so on. We never tied to force a technique from strength because you then have to plant your feet and become static. This goes against everything in the Method.