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Old 05-08-2010, 09:15 PM   #58
DH
Join Date: Aug 2005
Posts: 3,394
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Re: Yoshinkan and "aiki"

Quote:
Niall Matthews wrote: View Post
.... What you call aiki is what is called kokyu ryoku in Japanese (Chris suggested earlier that that was how Shioda Sensei used the term too). If you substitute aiki for kokyu ryoku in my posts you probably wouldn't feel the need to be so critical.
It's always a bit difficult talking terms. You can use a term and it has an applied meaning that may or may not be correct in the Yoshinkan. In either case that may be completetly different from what I am referrring to.

1. What does your Kokyu training do to you?
2. What does it do to the person touching you?

Is Kokyu everything? You said your teachers "Told you to pursue it at all costs" or somethig like that.
3. What will kokyu NOT do to your body?
4. What will Kokyu NOT do to the person touching you?

Teaching that breath power is all and aiki is kokyu-ryoku is your training model, not mine. No harm no foul. Breath power is an important componant, but there is much more on the way to creating an aiki body and controlling what people do to you...outside of kata...through the pursuit of a trained mind/body connection and use. And at every step of the way-the more conditioned the body becomes...aiki happens. And even then there are ways to train that and use it that are not all the same or equally efficient.

Quote:
Aiki as something you have isn't normally used in Japanese.
IMO, aiki.... a joining of energy, begins with the joining of opposing energies held within the body to create a zero balance or central equilibrium in the body, a state of being that creates aiki on contact, instead of always doing things to people- you change you. And as far as that not being normal in the Japanese arts go- I learned that from within...a Japanese art. And there are other Koryu that have similar ideas as well in various forms.

Cheers
Dan
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