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Old 02-08-2010, 12:17 PM   #116
George S. Ledyard
 
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Dojo: Aikido Eastside
Location: Bellevue, WA
Join Date: Jun 2000
Posts: 2,670
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Re: Aiki-Ken vs reality

Quote:
Toby Threadgill wrote: View Post
Hi,

A quick clarification is in order. The term aiki-ken is rather problematic itself because no one has provided a clear definiton of what it is.

There are aikidoka swinging bokken with no exposure to genuine kenjutsu. There are aikidoka swinging bokken with real, albeit limited exposure to genuine kenjutsu. Then there are aikidoka swinging bokken who hold actual teaching licenses in kenjutsu.

Are they all doing aiki-ken or are only some of them doing aiki-ken? Interesting question for you aikidoka out there to ponder?

Toby Threadgill / TSYR
I would say that Saito Sensei's sword work would have to define what might be called "orthodox" aikisword. He was a tremendous systematizer of the vast repertoire of O-Sensei's sword work.

On the other hand, not everyone in Aikido followed Saito's system. Tamura, Chiba, Nishio, and Saotome Sensei's didn't.

So to my mind, aiki sword is sword done utilizing the same principle as empty hand. The sword is an extension of the body. Control of the opponent's blade is done using the same principles as empty hand ikkyo. In other words you run a spiral that allows you to rest your body weight on the opponent, or in this case his sword. It is about controlling the space that the attacker needs to be in to successfully cut you. Taking that space before the attacker can take it. Aiki sword should be the study of "irimi" mental and physical.

I think that, if one can;t say exactly how the sword work you are doing relates to an equivalent empty hand principle, then one isn't doing Aiki sword, regardless of whose style it is. It is just as possible to do sword work with no aiki as it is to do ordinary Aikido with no aiki. O-Sensei used to come out of his office and yell at the students for doing what he called "stick whacking" (whatever the Japanese equivalent is).

I once read an interview with Kanai Sensei in which he said something along the following lines...
Quote:
In kenjutsu you train to the point which your body becomes one with the sword. In aiki sword you train until the sword simply becomes an extension of your body.
I think I understand what he meant and I agree up to a point but I think that, in the end both Aiki ken and kenjutsu strive to make the sword an extension of the mind, so on that level they should come together.

If Aiki sword work is done properly, I think that it should be something an experienced kenjutsu practitioner would look at and go "that's great, up to a point..." What we do isn't kenjutsu but it should look solid to anyone who does sword, just not complete. If it doesn't it probably isn't good aiki ken. Way to much sword work in Aikido is just stick whacking with no sense of how it relates to empty hand.

George S. Ledyard
Aikido Eastside
Bellevue, WA
Aikido Eastside
AikidoDvds.Com
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