Nishio Sensei's Aikido

I posted this same question over at AikidoJournal, but I thought I would post it here as well.

Could someone explain to me how his take on Aikido is different from Aikikai and Yoshinkan styles (the two that I know of)? I realize the Aikikai does describe a large variety of individual approaches, but I believe Nishio sensei is also Aikikai, and yet I always hear that his approach is influenced by his other trainings in Judo, Karate, and other styles of Iaijutsu and Kenjutsu, and more...Martial-oriented. Is the difference in a teaching/learning methodology? Curriculum? If so how? If other ways, what and how? How is it different from the Yoshinkan style (which is the other style of Aikido that I hear about often when martial-oriented-ness is mentioned). Thank you for your input.

Hi Kieun!

I am a Nishio Aikido student. Been here for almost 4 years now and I can tell you Nishio Sensei aikido has lots of differences with other schools.

Now please notice in no way I am saying or will say that Nishio Aikido is better than any other school. I am no interested in a forum war or anything.

I hope I make sence since my main language is Spanih. Here go some random thoughts:

In Nishio Aikido we mainly believe that our moves come from the move of the sword. In many techniques we are told to think that we are holding a katana even if we have empty hands. While doing sankyo or kaiten nage we imaginarily "cut" our anthagonist.

Nishio Sensei always says "blend, direct and forgive" which is the philosophical basis for tai no tenkan, our most basic move.

Other piece of wisdom we always hear at class is "I can do it, but I won't" which means that we are always in control of any situation and I can always win.... but instead, we try to achieve peace by showing a gentle way to work together.

Our moves are very smooth and always try to blend and use our anthagonist momentum. We never ever create an oposing force. Think in irimi nage for example.

I know Nishio Sensei studied Karate Do and Judo, but I haven't noticed influece from those arts. Maybe only in tsuki techniques.

Then there is Iaido. The use of sword is as important as the use of the empty hand so in a regular class we use bokken and hand 50% and 50% of the time

As in most aikido schools we do not compete at all and we are striclty told not to play or fool around with aikido since damage would result from such irresponsability.

Then I've noticed that Nishio San puts away the spiritual part of aikido. My sensei (Tauchi Izumi) tells me that is because Nishio Sensei doesn't have his own dojo and he teaches in public places like universites or public gyms. So we never have inciennse or soft music before a class. And we have to look for spiritual tuff within our movement.

And here is my favorite piece of wisdom from Nishio San: By hitting the tatami the body is forged, but the heart gets gentle.

I hope all this helps!

With the exception of the heavy use of bokken and the iaido aspect, that doesn't sound that different from any of the aikido I've experienced.

Bronson

The foot work is different, and the weapons work is very different. Although part of the Aikikai, Nishio aikido is the aikido I know of that is technically most distinctively different to others (I have never seen Tomiki or Yoshinkan, though). Very technical aikido, I'd say.