MARTIAL ARTS
EXPLORER
AIKIDO PAGE
HISTORY
The word aikido is a combination of three concepts; ai means "harmony", ki means "spirit", and do meaning "way", this put together in a spiritual way means harmonizing your spirit, or translated as the spirit of nature itself.
Aikido was developed in japan
in the early 20th century by Morihei Ueshiba (1883 - 1969). In Morihei's early
years he studied various martial arts such as ju-jitsu and kenjutsu, but it was
in 1912 that Morihei moved to Hokkaido and met a man called Sokaku Takeda who
was a master of daito ryu-aiki ju-jutsu. Morihei studied martial arts under Takeda
until 1919 until he returned to Tanaba for his fathers funeral. Whilst back in
Tanaba Morihei met Onisaburo Deguchi who was the founder of a religion called
Omoto-Kyo. Morihei spent the next six years travelling Asia as Omoto's disiplin.
In 1927 Morihei set up his first dojo in Tokyo, called the Kobukan Dojo were he taught a mixture of martial arts he had learned from Takeda, together with the religious beliefs that he had learned from Deguchi. This new art was called Ueshiba aiko-budo but was finally called ailido.
Aikido is a martial art that teaches the person not to meet violence with violence, force with force but to harmonise completely with any attack, leading an attacker to a point of imbalance then applying a technique to neutralise the attacker. The majority of techniques in Aikido are based on the attacker making the first move. The techniques are usually aimed at joint immobilisation and throws by using the attackers energy, aggression and momentum.
There are several different styles of aikido as the art was continually being modified by Ueshiba and some of his students left him to follow there own ideas. Some of these variations are the Yoshinkan style created by Master Gozo Shioda, this style has short sharp movements and powerful joint locks, and a sports aikido was created by Kenji Tomiki and Koichi Tohei created shin shin toitsu aikido whch concentrates on the ki aspect of aikido.
There are no coloured belts in traditional aikido, although students are graded from 6th kyu to 1st kyu were they receive their black belt, the student is then eligible to dan gradings. Children in aikido often get graded with coloured belts, starting with a white belt with one red stripe, each exam passed after this will entitle the child to a different coloured belt. dan black.
ETIQUETTE
Aikido as with most martial arts, has strict discipline and certain etiquette procedures. A picture of the founder , Morihei Ueshiba, is found in most traditional Aikido dojos, this could be placed either on the wall, floor or even a table, this is known as the seats of the Gods,(kamiza).
As well as doing standing bows a kneeling bow to the kamiza is performed. To do this you kneel in front of Morihei Ueshiba, with feet together, back straight and your shoulders pushed back but relaxed. You should be sitting on your heels with your knees about two fist widths apart with the big toe of your right foot over the big toe of your left.
The left hand should be placed in front of your body with fingers together, so as when your right hand is placed down it meets the left to form a triangle.
As you bow low to the kamiza make sure your head does not touch the floor and keep a straight back.
The same bow can be done to a partner in the same way.
Both partners would kneel facing each other, remembering to keep enough distance
between each other to avoid clashes, usually a harm and a half between partners.
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