Takeda Sensei at Aikido of Fremont
Memorial Day Weekend, 2000
Contributed by Jun Akiyama*

Labor Day weekend came and went quickly again this year for me at Yoshinobu Takeda sensei's third annual visit to the Bay Area. The seminar was held this year in its entirety at Sunny Skys sensei's Aikido of Fremont dojo (with its brand new mats!).

This was my third year of attending Takeda sensei's seminar and I had been looking forward to returning since last September. Takeda sensei was one of Yamaguchi sensei's students and carries on his approach of what one may call "relaxed" aikido. Currently, he is the head of Aikido Kenkyukai International (AKI) which has affiliated dojo all over the world including Japan, the United States, Canada, and Australia. Some of the dojocho representatives of AKI who were at the seminar included Jean Rene LeDuc from British Columbia, Lia Suzuki from California, Paul Rapoza from Massachusetts, and Tim Trumble from Colorado. The seminar itself was very well attended with people from the aforementioned locations as well as from dojo in Yokohama, Australia, Brazil, Boulder (Colorado), Washington DC, and the San Francisco Bay Area.

Takeda sensei's aikido method of training that he brings with him is a welcome change to some of the "wham bam" style of aikido that I've experienced in the past. Rather than uke playing the "resistant monster" during practice, uke is expected to completely commit his or her entire body for each and every technique rather than clamping down nor resisting techniques. This makes for a very aerobic and exhausting workout for uke but allows nage to really work on relaxation all throughout the workout.

As nage, Takeda sensei emphasized the concept of connecting uke to one's own center. "Gather uke into your center," Takeda sensei would say over and over again throughout the seminar. He described our center to be the intersection of three lines running through our body -- one vertical, one extending to our left and right, and another to the front and back. Rather than trying to keep uke out at arm's distance and trying to move them out there, Takeda sensei would draw uke in all the way into this stable center and only then would he move to throw uke. In the majority of the practice that we did over the weekend, the throws were secondary to our study of the principles behind them in my mind.

One of the ways in which he had us exercise the vertical line in particular was to receive and draw a shomenuchi attack up which, inevitably, drew uke right into us. From here, the attack could then be taken straight down, "like a raindrop," to take uke down into ikkyo. One thing that he asked us to do was to get rid of our penchant of doing the "grab uke's hand and take them down" kind of ikkyo but, rather, just try the "down" motion right down our own vertical axis. "One thing I know is that it's not about pushing uke's hand down," said Paul Rapoza.

An innovative approach that Takeda sensei has taken to explore the "lines" is for both uke and nage to use shoto (short bokken) during techniques. Nage uses the connection between the shoto to affect uke's balance rather than forcing uke down. This allows for a very relaxed exploration of the principles and forces people to stop trying to muscle their way through a technique.

As I mentioned before, throughout the seminar Takeda sensei asked us to forget about techniques and just work on the principles. Unfortunately, I ran into more than a few people who seemed intent on muscling their way in trying to perform a technique. Sigh. I wish people like this really would shed their necessity of "taking down uke" and work on the principles shown.

Before and after each class, people would go and bow into someone to ask them to throw them around. This sort of training is common at Takeda sensei's dojo in Japan and some consider it just as important as the "regular" class time. Students will just go and practice suwariwaza ikkyo for a while until class starts. After the class ends, many people go and bow into someone else with the expectation that the person throwing them gets to decide when to stop throwing them; usually, uke gets thrown at least twenty times in succession, but this may easily get up to fifty to a hundred throws depending on how much the person throwing wishes to push uke. Takeda sensei also partakes in this and people are welcome to have him throw you around after class. This is a lot of fun, very educational, and extremely exhausting all at once.

All during class, Takeda sensei would walk around and let people feel what he was doing. His aikido, at first glance, may seem too relaxed and soft, but I have to say that he threw me in a very relaxed manner that made me feel like I landed two feet under the mat. He even asked me to grab him as hard as I could and I did so without reservation; with relaxed shoulders and no "muscling" at all, he throw me around like a rag doll.

One of the reasons why I really enjoy going to Takeda sensei's seminar is that he says the exact same things on the usage of center as does my current teacher. They both emphasize this concept of having to develop one's center and of moving oneself and not trying to move uke. For me, I get to really see a different way in which to develop this concept of center. Having heard both Takeda sensei and my teacher speak about these principles using the same exact phrases both in English and Japanese was a very illuminating experience for me.

Overall, I had a great time at Takeda sensei's seminar. I wish to thank Takeda sensei for his attention and thoughts over the weekend, Neville and Jane for organizing the seminar, Sunny for allowing our use of his dojo over the weekend, and Wendy, Tiphani, and Christian for hosting and driving me around over the weekend. I very much hope we have another seminar next year and hope I'll be able to make it to Yokohama some time soon.