Halloween Seminar at Boulder Aikikai
October 27-29 2000
with Shihan Mitsugi Saotome

Contributed by Richard Fox*

Saotome Sensei's seminar this weekend was one of the highpoints of my life as an aikidoka. During the weekend the dojo held an air of very intense focus as we tried to understand and reproduce what Sensei was telling and showing us. It was plain that we were present at a great opportunity to learn from a man who has practiced aikido practically his whole life and was a student of O'Sensei for 20 years, in the intimate and very dedicated home of Boulder Aikikai. Intense, humorous, insightful, Saotome Sensei began Friday night by emphasizing that aikido was a way to learn to conduct yourself with nobility and awareness. Again and again during the weekend he defined misogi as the unification of two energies, uke and nage, and said that this unification and the peaceful resolution of the conflict was the heart of aikido. He demonstrated this through kokyu ho.

Sensei explained the three things necessary to grow beyond kata and muscle power in aikido: a peaceful heart, a relaxed body and mind, and sharpness. This last he described as reacting immediately and decisively to a threat, and never being open. To illustrate this, he told a story of O'Sensei, of how even at home, reading and relaxing with his uchi deshi around, he was never open and would never tolerate, for example, anyone walking behind him without first announcing they were going to do so. Sensei extolled us to practice each second on the mat with our full awareness and concentration, to make our training our shugyo. He got a lot of laughs with his famous wit, but there was no mistaking his determination to see aikido transmitted to the best of his abilities and he accepted nothing less than our best. The force of his will to teach us, and our desire to learn, combined to make the mat an incredible place to be.

In addition to many aspects of kokyu ho and kokyu nage, Sensei demonstrated, and we practiced, shihonage, iriminage, and ikkyo. Two of the four sessions were spent on practicing various attack strategies with shinai, mainly variations on shomen strikes. It was an altogether magical weekend.

*Rich and his faithful canine companion, Jasmin, currently train at Boulder Aikikai in Boulder, CO. Rich gets on the mat, while Jasmin is the official greeter at the door.