Ikkyo, Nikyo, and Sankyo as Geometric Principles by Ross Robertson

It is self-evident that the names we use for our aikido movement forms are not rigorous or systematic in any way. Some names are poetic, as with "tenchinage" (Heaven and Earth Throw). Some are descriptive, as with "kotegaeshi" (Forearm Twist). Some names refer to the morphological form, for example "jujinage" (Figure Ten Throw). Still others may refer to a simple direction of progression, as with "zenponage" (Forward Throw).

And then there is the numeric sequence of ikkyo, nikyo, sankyo, and so on (also called ikkajo, nikajo, sankajo... in some systems). These translate roughly as "First Teaching, Second Teaching, Third Teaching..." But what are the principles behind these teachings, exactly? Why these forms, in this sequence?

There is not, to my knowledge, a clear historical explanation as to how these forms acquired these designations. They all have in common that they refer to methods of manipulating the arm, or of a set of postures of the arm. But kotegaeshi and shihonage (Four Direction Throw) also suggest arm postures... why are they not similarly numbered? Some have suggested that the numbers refer to a possible sequence of execution, that is, nikyo may follow naturally from ikkyo, sankyo from nikyo. I have also heard the suggestion that the numbers refer to how many joints are being affected. None of these explanations seem particularly compelling.

The anatomical form of ikkyo is generally pronation of the entire arm. The wrist and elbow may or may not be flexed. Nikyo is typically pronation of the forearm, supination of the upper arm, and flexion of the wrist and elbow. Sankyo is mainly pronation of the forearm, usually manipulated indirectly via the hand and wrist. Again, there does not seem to be a logical progression to this ordered sequence.

This being the case, I would like to propose a new way of looking at these forms and why we might justify arranging them in this sequence. I specifically am not claiming any insights as to the historical reasons. Rather, this is an a posterori explanation which I find useful in communicating these teachings.

I propose that ikkyo, nikyo, and sankyo may be viewed not only as anatomical forms, but as the geometric principles of the Line, the Curve, and the Spiral.

Ikkyo

Dr. Stephen McAdam, Chief Instructor of the University of Texas Aikido Club, observed that all variations of of ikkyo serve to accomplish one goal: to move the shoulder forward sufficiently such that it is no longer supported by the hips. Once the system has been moved beyond its support structures, a collapse is inevitable. This understanding is primary, and underlies all other attack and defense forms.

We see that gravity implies a straight line along which things must be arranged if they are to stand. This same line is the vector of a fall, where no support is present (and no other forces are in effect, such as forward momentum).

We could, if we wished, extend the Principle of the Line in other ways. For example, when an attacker has the intent to pursue a target, a straight line is established between the aggressor and their goal (regardless of which path they ultimately take to reach the goal). Defenders who recognize this line can then act upon it, before tactile contact has even been made.

So, the axis of attraction may be viewed as the first principle. Understanding this forms the basis for successive principles.

In its simplest variation, ikkyo the defense form is expressed as a straight arm leading the shoulder off its support and then straight down. It is not necessary to twist (pronate) the arm for this to be successful.

Ikkyo is idealized as aikido in a single dimension.

Nikyo

Nikyo, then, is the Principle of the Curve. The first perturbation of a line will create a curve, or a wave pattern. If the principle of ikkyo is applied, but obstacles or interferences are introduced along the way, the straight line is deviated. Water dripping down a window pane or a leaf falling through air illustrate this dynamic.

In an attack dynamic, the line of intent may similarly be manipulated favorably for the defender. The defender is an "attractive" force operating on the attacker (though of course it is really the attacker's motive and follow-through that are the true forces in play, the effect is much the same). So, if the target moves after an attack has been launched, course corrections must be made which result in deviations from the original path of intent. This can serve the purpose of destabilizing much of the attack, and new trajectories may be introduced. Again, all of this may take place before tactile contact.

As a defense form, nikkyo is made manifest in the arm. The straight arm is now bent into curves, and the sine wave is almost visible. Furthermore, nikyo is more easily applied when moving the arm in a falling leaf pattern, than when cutting straight down.

Nikyo is aikido expressed in two dimensions.

Sankyo

Sankyo is the Principle of the Spiral. More specifically, it is the type of spiral known as the Helix. The line and the curve now have a rotational component added around the original axis.

Many aikido dynamics have a whirlpool quality to them. The attacker follows the line of Ikkyo attraction toward a goal. The target is in motion, and so a curvature in space is in effect created. Like two bodies orbiting around a common center, an imaginary gravity well results. When the system is sufficiently destabilized, one of the bodies will succumb to actual gravity. In this case, a downward spiral describes the trajectory.

Sankyo the defense form may be applied as an upward spiral or a downward spiral, or both in succession. Pronation or forward twisting about the axis of the forearm is characteristic.

Sankyo is aikido in three dimensions.

A Look At Abe Sensei

Seiseki Abe Sensei is one of Japan's foremost masters of calligraphy and Aikido. Born in 1915, Abe Sensei began to practice calligraphy in 1934 when he was 19 years old. He was introduced to calligraphy by his father, who had taught it as an elementary school teacher. As Abe Sensei expressed in a 1991 interview, "...Even now I have very vivid memories of my father's breathing method as he taught calligraphy. I felt my father's way of breathing and it made a very strong impression on me - not just the writing of the letters, but the breathing power along with the writing of the characters."

Abe Sensei met the founder of Aikido, Morihei Ueshiba, in 1952. Known as O-Sensei, (great teacher) Ueshiba Sensei is world renown as one of the most gifted martial artists that has ever lived. Abe Sensei noticed that the breathing method that O-Sensei had mastered through aikido and misogi (ritual purification) was like the way of breathing of calligraphy. He saw this was the connection point between these two seemingly different arts, and immediately began his aikido training.

For the last ten or so years of his life, O-Sensei spent one third of every month living at Abe Sensei's home and teaching at the dojo Abe Sensei had built for him there. O-Sensei also recognized the connection between martial arts and calligraphy and so he began his study of calligraphy under Abe Sensei's direction. This close proximity, extremely rare within the strict Japanese code between master and student, gave Abe Sensei the opportunity to learn the inner-most aspects of Aikido directly from the founder of the art. O-Sensei promoted Abe Sensei to the highest rank, that of 10th degree black belt.

It Is Harder To Get Out Of The Way Of A Sword Than I Thought

Ok, so I went to Aikido last night and there were only 3 of us there + our senior student, Steve Mathews, soon to be Sandan. Steve was teaching the class last night and he decided to do some work with Bokken take-always.

So we all grab a Bokken and split up. I felt pretty confident and was able to use the irimi concept to get out of the way of the attacks. Apart from Steve telling me not to look at the floor when I disarmed my opponent, all was well.

It seems that Steve felt differently. He sat us down and told Rick to get his shinai and went into a speech about being able to get out of the way when a person is "really" trying to hit you.

From this point on, I had a very hard time getting out of the way of strikes. I would have to agree that there is nothing like defending against someone that is really trying to hit you. This gives me a massive amount of respect for O'Sensei defending against live blades.

Lesson learned, practice with shinais often to simulate a true attack!

O'Sensei And His Crew

Well, it has been a few days since my last update to the Blog.

My original intent was get some images of Saotome Shihan doing some sword work, but I was not able to come up with any images that I really liked.

While on my search for photos of Saotome Shihan, I ran into this photo which shows O'sensei and his students. By now, you have probably guessed that Saotome Shihan is in this photo, and you guessed right. Saotome Shihan is the 3rd student from the left.

Saotome Shihan will be in Nashville this coming October and I hope all of you will be there! Even if you do not train in Aikido, and live near Nashville, it might be worth your time to just observe and see this man in action.

Ki Is The Key!!!!

INTERVIEW WITH KOICHI TOHEI (2)What is true aikido?

Mind-Body Unification (Shin Shin Toitsu) and Ueshiba SenseiUeshiba Sensei was an individual who showed what it means to exist in a relaxed state, to possess true ki, and to have a unified mind and body. His posture was as solid as a rock and you couldn’t budge him no matter how you pushed or pulled; yet he would toss me effortlessly without ever letting me feel that he was using any strength at all. I was astounded that such a person should actually exist in the world.
More than anything, what Ueshiba Sensei taught me was that a relaxed state is the most powerful. He himself was living proof of that.
I don’t think there is anyone these days who can truly demonstrate this the way he could. This truly wonderful quality that he took such great pains to develop— not stories about him pulling pine trees out of the ground and other nonsense—is what we should try to leave to future generations.
Why Ueshiba Sensei forbade shiai (matches)IUeshiba Sensei did not allow shiai. In a real shiai the goal is to deprive your opponent of his power utterly and completely; failing to do that, you can’t claim victory. On the other hand, modern shiai are governed by rules that have been established for the sake of safety and to preserve the lives of the combatants, and it is within these rules that victory and defeat are determined.
Such contests, however, are actually sports, and therefore are not really shiai in the true sense of the word. Judo, for example, has been designed so that players can get up off the mat after being thrown any number of times. This is possible only because judo is a sport; in reality such a thing would not occur.
In the past, shiai meant that you either tried to kill or severely injure your opponent, or at least render him incapable of further resistance. Otherwise, the match would be considered unfinished and without a victor.
Budo, by its very nature does not involve competitive fighting. If you examine the Chinese characters you will find that they literally mean “the way of stopping the weapon.” You lay down your own weapn and at the same time make your enemy lay down his. In other words, defeating people is not the goal; rather true budo is the completion and perfection of your own self. This is what Ueshiba Sensei always said.
To maintain our safety and preserve our lives we have to establish rules. But deciding victory and defeat within those rules automatically places us in the realm of sports. And Ueshiba Sensei was adamant all his life that aikido is a budo, not a sport.

What Ueshiba Sensei taught:

While Sensei felt deeply about this underlying principle of budo, he never really taught us anything about it in concrete terms. When we were training he would come around and tell us to “put some power into it.” And yet, when he himself demonstrated techniques he was totally relaxed! What he said and what he did, in other words, were completely different.
He also used to say fantastic things like, “The gods became like smoke and entered my body,” and “In all the world, past and present, even among saints and wise men, there has never been anyone who could understand what I say, and even I myself, though I am saying it, do not understand.” Now how in the world were we supposed to make anything of talk like that!?
Sensei was as solid as a rock but also very relaxed, and that combination made him extremely strong. He had mastered relaxation by completely integrating it into his body.
If I had not been fortunate enough to meet Ueshiba Sensei, I probably would have lived my whole life without ever knowing about this type and degree of relaxation. I’m very grateful to him for showing me that.
I never paid as much attention to what Sensei said as to what he did. You could ask him all the questions you wanted and never understand his answers. He would just show you and say something to the effect of “It’s done like this.”
Eventually I also met Tempu Nakamura Sensei, from whom I first heard the words, “The mind moves the body.” Hearing this I thought, “That’s it! That’s all there is to it! It’s so simple!” I started looking more closely for that kind of thing and indeed discovered that Ueshiba Sensei would move his opponents’ bodies by leading their minds (kokoro). And he did it while completely relaxed. It would have been good if he had simply taught us that, but he never did.
After thinking about it for a while I realized that for the mind to lead the body, and in order to lead your opponent’s mind, you first have to be capable of controlling your own mind. I set out with great enthusiasm studying how to do that. In other words, I had discovered that unifying the mind and body is a fundamental underpinning of aikido.
Nevertheless, because Sensei kept saying things like “Pin your opponent strongly” when he taught, people misinterpreted his meaning. When he died, the kind of aikido he wanted to pass on to us simply vanished.
The “Four Major Principles of Mind and Body Unification” that I teach now are actually things that Ueshiba Sensei demonstrated with his body. The Shin Shin Toitsu aikido that I teach is the aikido Ueshiba Sensei wanted to teach.
In a great deal of aikido today, the collusive way in which people practice allows ineffective techniques to be passed off as the real thing. Such aikido will only be criticized and ridiculed. People take advantage of the fact that there are no matches in aikido and allow themselves to train in collusion. The result is that they lead themselves into self-satisfaction, conceit, and arrogance. With Ueshiba Sensei’s death, true ki and the principle of mind and body unification vanished from aikido.
Guiding Principles for Aikido practiceAikido is criticized as fake, especially when people go around demonstrating using only their own students, not letting anybody else try, and this is a consequence of the fact that the principle of ki has been lost from aikido.
It is mistake to think that aikido is a path through which you match your own ki with the ki of others. Ueshiba Sensei said, “Five and five for ten, two and eight for ten.” In other words, aiki is merging your power of two with a power of eight to get a power equaling ten. Or matching your power of five with another power of five to get a power equaling ten. Ueshiba Sensei said that is an essential principle of aikido. However, I have always said that aikido is matching your ki with the ki of heaven and earth, rather than with the ki of other people. There is only one heaven and earth, and if we merge our bodies with that, then all people will come to merge with us.
Our minds and bodies have been given to us by heaven and earth, and when we are able to unify our minds with our bodies, the power of heaven and earth comes surging out. This energy is inherent in everyone. What I teach is how to polish and draw forth that energy.
Aikido prohibits matches because permitting them would result in a departure from the true meaning of budo. On the other hand, almost everyone has some sort of desire to improve, as well as to compete; these are what stimulate us to make efforts and give us hope that we can develop ourselves.
Aikido prohibits matches because matches are concerned with the issue of winning or losing. There would be no problem if matches were not about victory and defeat, but rather about how much we can unify the mind that we have been given by heaven and earth to discover our fullest potential as human beings. With this in mind I established what we call the Shin Shin Toitsu Aikido Competition, an event not for displays of circus-like techniques or other curiosities, but rather an opportunity to test this mind-body unification that anyone has the potential to attain. This event is not limited to Ki Society members; anyone can participate. But those unable to unify their mind and body won’t get very far in the competition.
I’ve taught mind and body unification to people like baseball star Sadaharu Oh and sumo wrestler Chiyonofuji. The fact is, there is nothing to lose in practicing it, no negative aspects whatsoever. The other day I was even teaching the Yomiuri Giants baseball team.
All I hope to do is teach mind and body unification. I want people everywhere in the world to have the opportunity to make their lives—which, it goes without saying, they only have one chance to live—meaningful through the spirit of Shinshin Toitsu Aikido.

The 42nd Annual Aikikai Demonstration in Japan

So here is a picture of Doshu, the grandson of O'sensei, demonstrating Aikido at the 42 annual Aikikai Demonstration in Japan. I would love to go to one of these demos and see some of the best Aikidoka in the world demonstrate thier stuff. There are a bunch more pictures at http://www.aikikai.or.jp/Eng/newsletter/2004/zennihon42/alljapan42.htm. Go check it out!

What's Up With Steven Seagal Anyway?

Is Steven Seagal really an Aikidoka? What is his rank?

Steven Seagal really is an Aikido instructor (or was, until his movie career got in the way). He has a rank of seventh dan (Aikikai) and has run his own dojo in both Japan and the United States. Most of what you see in the movies, however, is not Aikido as it is practised in the dojo. Some argue that it is not Aikido at all.

His Aikido is for real. Here's what Wendy Palmer had to say in "Aikido in America":

He has great throws. Very energetic, very fast, very powerful. He would throw me -- bam! -- I'd hit the mat; the spit would fly out of my mouth, that kind of thing, just really powerful. [...] He had very good Aikido. He really did. He threw me very energetically. At that time he was not particularly muscled. He was strong, aiki-strong, but he didn't have a kind of gym-muscle body at all. This throws were very fast, very energetic. You never knew what happened. He could do that art.

Just incase anyone wanted to know for sure.