Aikido

The family of styles that are referred to as aikido derive from the teachings of Ueshiba Morihei and his direct students. The story of Ueshiba’s life is an interesting one and he studied many classical martial disciplines including kenjutsu, sojutsu and several styles of jujutsu before combining and adapting his art in accord with his unique spiritual beliefs. The name aikido is made up of three Chinese ideograms that together mean “the way of harmonious energy” or “the way of harmonising energy”. As one would expect from its use in the art’s name, aikido places great emphasis on the concept of “ki”, better known in the English speaking world under the Chinese pronunciation “chi” or “qi”. Ki is a fundamental concept in ancient Chinese and Japanese cosmology and there are many differing theories and explanations of what it is but in aikido terms, ki is best thought of as the body’s natural energy. Aikido uses relaxed and natural circular movements rather than explosive muscular contractions and involves harmonising ones movement and breathing with an opponent. The aim of this is to manipulate the opponent’s balance and redirect the power in their offence. Due to the refined and technical nature of Aikido technique it can be practiced and employed by persons with little physical strength to control much larger and stronger adversaries, although acquiring the skill needed to apply this takes comparatively longer than with more simple and direct manoeuvres. Aikido uses movements based on sword and spear fighting that can be applied equally well to empty handed combat. In this the founder’s extensive weapons experience is obvious. In many dojos, wooden weapons such as the bokuto (wooden sword), jo (short staff) and tanto (long knife) are used in supplemental training. Aikido training is primarily carried out through practicing the core techniques with a partner. While one side practices improving applying the technique the other works on reacting to it in an effective way, protecting the body from harm and moving so that they can regain the advantage when an opportunity presents itself. The direct students of Ueshiba Morihei each had their own interpretations and preferences in training and they each founded styles of aikido that represented these predilections. The most well known styles practiced today are Aikikai which is perhaps the most rounded and balanced style, Yoshinkan that is often described as harder and more combat oriented, Shodokan or Tomiki aikido which was influenced by judo and has a competition element, Iwama ryu with its extensive and dedicated weapons syllabus and Ki no Kenkyukai or “ki aikido” which stresses the important of ki development.