Thread: Gokyo-why?
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Old 10-22-2006, 05:59 AM   #36
Ethan Weisgard
Dojo: Copenhagen Aiki Shuren Dojo
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Join Date: Nov 2005
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Re: Gokyo-why?

Quote:
Peter A Goldsbury wrote:
I would be interested in seeing any evidence that Morihei Ueshiba taught this particular waza in the Kobukan, before WWII. He probably did, but never gave it a name. Likewise, the waza does not appear among the waza highlighted in Aikido, the book published in Japanese by Kisshomaru Ueshiba in 1957. However, it does appear in the English version of this book, published in 1975, so I suspect that 5-kyou, like kaiten-nage, was added to the repertoire of kihon waza by Kisshomaru Ueshiba.

In my opinion, as a waza, 5-kyou is the same as 1-kyou, except for the hand grip. I have always been taught that 1-kyou is a pin on the elbow; 2-kyou is a pin at the base of the thumb; 3-kyou is a pin of the wrist and outer fingers; 4-kyou is a pin of the bone or nerve centres in the wrist; 5-kyou is a pin on the elbow, but with a weapon held with one hand (unlike 1-kyou, which envisages an attack with a Japanese sword, held with both hands). And then there is 6-kyou, which is a variation of 2-kyou, but where uke's arm is kept straight.

I encountered 6-kyou only in the USA, in Kanai Sensei's dojo, 4 years after my first encounter with aikido.

Best wishes to all,
Dear Peter Goldsbury Sensei,

In the book Budo - Teachings of the Founder of Aikido, on page 60 (photo 80 and 81), O-Sensei is doing Gokyo. The osae is not demonstrated. In Saito Sensei's book Commentary on the 1938 Training Manual of Morihei Ueshiba, Saito Sensei writes: "The Founder said in Budo: Apply Ippo (ikkyo) to this technique. However, in his later years, he changed the technique grabbing his partner's wrist from below as shown above, and called it gokyo urawaza." Saito Sensei's point was that if you used the ikkyo grab when uke was holding a blade, then you wrist was open for a cut. Another point was, even if uke was using a wooden tanto, the weapon could be used to apply a counter-pin (much a in nikyo) to nage's wrist. In Saito Sensei' commentary the pin is not shown. I have written another post in this section regarding the two forms that Saito Sensei taught for the osae.

In Aiki,

Ethan Weisgard
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