Quote:
Michael Hacker wrote:
In addition to physical, positional advantages, there are also non-physical aspects that can be explored by digging into 表 [omote - visible] and 裏 [ura - invisible].
Omote is what you allow uke to see; ura is what you hide from uke.
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This is more in line with my understanding:
Omote is the obvious and ura what is behind it, the hidden.
The tradition of technical execution is the symbolic, physically visible, phenomenal representation of these concepts, i.e. omote in front of the partner's eyes and ura in the back, i.e. where his eyes are averted from, where only his through appropriate practice united vision and ratio may finally come to see and understand .
One should also not forget that in modern Aikido the roles of "tori" (nage) and uke are deliberately reversed in comparison to the ancient tradition, but that this role play should get completely lost in the advanced stage. It then should turn into a completely free togetherness, where is neither uke nor nage, omote nor ura, neither you nor me, ... only an entity of two or more.
We have to be truly strong to create and allow this to happen.
Best,
Bernd