International Aikido Federation (IAF) Seminar 2000 September 13-17, 2000

Contributed by Daniel Nishina*

Wednesday morning: Endo sensei

After I've taken off my sandals, I walk through the doors into the gymnasium. I look past the two or three video cameras on tripods and see the simple shomen consisting of a table with flowers and a large photograph of O-Sensei. The feeling I get entering the dojo is similar to that of entering a classroom for the first time at the beginning of a school term. The mat spreads to the left and right, a rectangle of reassuring expanse. I step on to the mat, kneel, and bow, (but end up getting off to confirm with Seki sensei that the shomen is really the shomen and that there is no particular reason the forty or so people already on the mat are all sitting at the far left end.)

A few minutes later, Seki sensei asks everyone to line up along the line he is indicating with a hand gesture. It takes a few seconds for people to notice him, and a couple more to understand. The language issue crosses my mind; how visitor-friendly are they going to be? The first announcements (translated) are about meal coupons and the showers in one of the dorms. I smile to myself, remembering the lengthy announcements that were made at the Boulder Summer Camp regarding medical and blood matters. As far as I can see, there are no visible preparations for such matters at this seminar. Just before the first instructor comes out, Kuribayashi sensei calls my name and says, "Translation, ok?" I nod, but as I turn my head, I feel the cold sweat on my palms and a couple of years plopping off the end of my life. Apparently they weren't as prepared for the language issue as I was hoping.

After Endo sensei bows in and leads some warm-ups, he asks everyone to please not get injured and not to injure anyone else. And also to practice joyfully, he adds. The first technique is katatedori kokyunage. He appears to be able to demonstrate his unique qualities quite clearly, with this and everything else today. Actually, as I notice in the following days, all the teachers appear to be in top form. After a few minutes of practicing, I notice out of the corner of my eye that a large circle of people have become seated and are watching him throw someone. He waves everyone off, saying, "This isn't a demonstration!"

We practice the same technique again, after Endo sensei stops us to emphasize his posture and composure. He talks about how, in order to be effectively relaxed, one needs to be able to concentrate (their ki/attention). The next two techniques are versions of katate-dori iriminage. One of his demonstration ukes stops in mid-technique, bent over backward and facing up. Endo sensei lightly slaps him on the face a few times. He tells everyone that aikido doesn't need people who don't react when there are fingers right in front of their nose, apparently a comment completely unexpected by the attendees. Another time, when positioned behind the uke, he asks if we can tell where his uke's ki is going. Everyone takes this is a rhetorical question except for one man in front, who replies, "Hai!" Endo sensei brings him up, but after finding him to be at a loss for words and not quite succeeding at explaining by gesture, Endo sensei gets back to his point, which is that the uke's feeling is directed back at himself. Therefore, his arm moves accordingly, towards the uke's head in a nice round arc. He talks about how we should pay attention to how our feeling/ki is when we're receiving a technique as uke.

Later, after practicing tenchinage for a time, he demonstrates with a young woman who is apparently pushing down on his arms to prevent the technique. First, he explains that he can simply move, walking backward and performing the technique. He also shows how his arms are relaxed and free, waving his hands around with uke still grasping. Finally, he shows that other, more appropriate techniques are easily available to him. I forget whether this is about nage or uke, (it wouldn't make much of a difference), but he tells of how he thinks practice becomes something much different when you become conscious of, and always try to have available, other options. Kata are important, but they are not the only important thing. Don't become trapped inside them by emphasizing them too much. Learn everything you can from your teacher, but remember that that is never all there is.

After bowing out and stepping off the mat, Endo sensei is thanked by a round of applause, as are all of the other teachers in the following days. Then it is announced that the next class is in ten minutes, but we need to be on the mat five minutes before the start of the class. Outside the dojo doors, I walk past the water fountain and the long line of people apparently unprepared with their own supply of water, everyone in some degree of disbelief at the conditions imposed on the luxury that is their break time.

Epilogue of the day: All the members of Hombu Dojo are on hand to help guide visitors and take care of administration. It strikes me that most of the visitors seem to have no idea that the staff wearing matching green T-shirts and telling them to fill out the forms, where to get dressed, etc. are shihan.

Thursday morning: Tissier sensei and Miyamoto sensei

Before I know it, Tissier sensei is walking swiftly up the center aisle toward the shomen. Before, I'd heard a lot of people comment on how he wasn't as big as they'd imagined, but he seems big enough to me; he has a very wide and muscular back and shoulders. Also, he is not quite as stern and stone-faced as I imagined from having watched a couple of videos of demonstrations by him.

We begin with katate-dori tenkan, then katate-dori kokyunage. He points out his posture. He shows how he doesn't try to go straight towards and against his partner after he has turned; he raises his hand straight up his center line as he steps forward and turns so his cut executes the throw. He explains how the cut is simply "down," not out or against the partner. To continue with tenkan, we practice katate-dori kotegaeshi. For this technique he goes into how his grasp of his partner's hand is important. From where I am sitting at one point, I can see him move his partner's hand so that just her fingertips move, and the relatively significant effect on her body's overall balance.

He conducts the class both in English and Japanese, although he does not explain everything in both languages. He performs all his techniques with immaculate posture and impressive precision. By the latter I mean that his techniques look very well choreographed, yet you can tell that it is quite real, which gives it a certain sense of softness. However I have to add that it may have something to do with how accustomed his ukes are to him, as I find that I myself am not able to sufficiently keep up and feel his technique to be a bit hard.

Twice I practice with partners who are having difficulties at a more fundamental level, and both times Tissier sensei stops to watch and help out. Seeing his face on these occasions, I see that he is definitely not simply stoic. He even stops and throws me a few times when I misunderstand and start to attack him. We also practice shomen-uchi iriminage, ikkyo, and shihonage. For iriminage he briefly talks about the entry - how it's important not to stop the attacking hand because by reaching out to do so with his own hand, he commits that arm and restricts himself. The theme is similar for shihonage, which he demonstrates at three different speeds. For ikkyo, he asks us to do the version where nage does not step off the line. He even demonstrates with one hand only. He ends the class with seated kokyuho - no explanation. Overall, a very professionally conducted class.

Miyamoto sensei starts the class his usual informal and jovial self, asking whether we want to do warm-ups. His class goes a bit similarly to his regular beginners� classes, as far as the techniques he shows. I don't have my glasses on so I can't say for sure, but I get the feeling many of the people are practically stunned to see aikido so very far from what they're used to. Characteristically, he "bounces" the ukes quite a bit and finishes throws hopping or jogging around, as opposed to in a set, grounded stance. Consequently, it can seem like he is having a lot of trouble executing his techniques. The major differences from his basics classes today are that he covers a huge amount of mat area for many of his throws, and he appears to throw his ukes quite hard occasionally. What I mean by covering a lot of area is that he moves around with his uke bent over backward, just on the verge of their balance completely broken. Miyamoto sensei likes his ukes to be very resilient, flexible, rubbery. He also seems to like, or at least considers important, to do techniques in straight lines instead of circles. He asks us to practice iriminage, ikkyo, and shihonage this way. He doesn't speak much this class, but translation is handled by Teru Murashige, a kenshusei this year at Hombu Dojo from Southern California. Later, I tease Teru for calling uke "the guy." At the end, Miyamoto sensei apologizes for not being able to kneel and bow properly, due to his knee that he injured last year and hasn�t fully recovered from.

Friday morning: Yasuno sensei and Sugano sensei

I am pleasantly surprised and uplifted when Yasuno sensei begins the class with funakogi-undo. His pace is quite fast to begin with, and it takes most everyone a few seconds to see why we are all out of sync with our "Ei! Ho!"s: he was accelerating. His hands, seen from the side, describe a slight figure-eight, not too sharp or abrupt at the end of their motions forward and back. With this beginning, Yasuno sensei very vibrantly takes command of the space and the flow of the class.

All the techniques today are from katate-dori. In the middle of the class he explains that he doesn't think translation is necessary because we should be watching carefully and therefore able to see the main points of what he is demonstrating. He does joke, though, that perhaps that little pronouncement should be translated - (it doesn't.) For the first two techniques, tenkan and kokyunage, he stresses how important it is to begin with and maintain a firm and strong stance. Throughout the class he emphasizes that his arms and shoulders are relaxed, and that this is necessary for their function to be fully realized. He uses the analogy of driving with or without the handbrake still applied. He demonstrates his trademark "bodyblock" kuzushi, which looks a bit violent at first sight, but it is easy to see that he is executing it very thoroughly with almost no strain on his body, even on some ukes who clearly outweigh him. Although he says his arms are relaxed, he makes sure to point out that he doesn't mean that in a dead or floppy way.

The other main point of his class might be simplified as positioning or orientation. When he performs tenkan, he repeatedly explains how he is always in a position to effectively execute kuzushi, demonstrating with his "bodyblock". Later in the class, with various kokyunages he shows how one might just as easily operate from in front of uke, not just from behind as we were doing with tenkan. For this point, he also demonstrates direct entry, his handblade going straight toward the uke while still managing to connect and execute the throws efficiently.

During the class, Yasuno sensei walks around, occasionally asking people in the vicinity to sit down while he demonstrates with several people. He also briefly touches on a theme also mentioned by Endo sensei and Sugano sensei. Although his words may not tie these two ideas directly to each other, he talks about the relaxation of his arms and the resulting freedom and power, and about practicing without mentally overemphasizing the technique you are about to perform. In other words, one should have relaxation and freedom of mind to be able to perform any technique without having to make a big switch and reorientation in one's mind and body, and create and respond to various situations. Although we still spend a considerable part of the class practicing, he demonstrates many techniques and movements that we do not practice in this class.

Sugano sensei has a very beautiful voice, soft and relatively high-pitched like a clarinet, and ends his sentences with a lilt. He sits off-center to the left of the picture of O-sensei when he bows in. He too begins his class with funakogi-undo, which keeps the brightness and energy from the previous class, followed by some breathing exercises. On the occasions that he displays impressive throws, unlike the other teachers, his ukes are flying up instead of down. I've personally labeled this type of throw "O-sensei-style" iriminage/kokyunage, or "old-style" since I've mostly seen O-sensei's students, such as Tohei, Saotome, and Kisshomaru performing this way. He begins the class with tenkan, emphasizing that except in the case of beginners, techniques do not begin from static after the uke has grabbed. We need to keep the energy moving, leading it. One of the details I am always wary of is whether and how much there are any concessions the ukes may be making for the teacher, especially the more the teacher doesn�t appear to be physically moving the uke. Sugano sensei appears to be far from something I can be very skeptical about.

This class may be the least technical thus far, although the demonstrations are probably sufficiently impressive to speak for themselves. Sugano sensei mentions several times things that O-sensei said, such as aikido being a form of misogi and that one should stand on, or build, a bridge between heaven and earth. After shomen-uchi iriminage, which continues the theme of not interrupting of uke's energy, he briefly covers atemi with shomen-uchi sankyo, uchi-mawari.

As I was watching Sugano sensei, I thought how I clearly I could see he was from Hombu/Aikikai: I mention this only because I have seen Saotome sensei, and was reminded of him watching Sugano sensei. That is, I thought he appeared to be more typically Hombu (his angles, positioning, and stances), whereas Saotome sensei is also very smooth and large, but not as reminiscent of Hombu in my opinion.

Saturday morning: Ichihashi sensei and Yamada sensei

Again, I am sitting there, having a nice little chat with a Filipino named Alejo, and Seki sensei taps me on the shoulder to say, "Translate, ok?" This makes me almost completely forget about how there are now four lines of participants instead of two as there were for the first two (week) days. Although there is more talking in this class than the other ones (but still not as much as the two previous Japanese shihan from Europe), Ichihashi sensei shows himself to be quite professional and orderly, making the presentation work out quite smoothly and coherently.

He begins with a kokyunage backstretch, as he does in his regular classes, and stays with morote-dori (sorry sensei, morote-mochi) the whole class. As we move on to other techniques, he stresses how he still completes a good and thorough tenkan, without neglecting or de-emphasizing this part of the technique before throwing. He shows how the beginning is always the same basic turn, but with slight changes, such as raising the hand or keeping it low, different techniques become possible. Basically, he reminds us that the root of all the variations is the same, basics, and therefore we need to make sure we continually value basic elements and movements. As we practice this way, our own unique character will naturally manifest itself.

One analogy he uses is of traveling to an unfamiliar place for the first time. If we try to take a shortcut that first time, then we will get lost and possibly end up in some dangerous places. The best way then, is to take the biggest and most well-lit, well-used route, that being basics. After that, new possibilities can be better and more efficiently explored. Ichihashi sensei said he believed that aikido practice is the process of cultivating our ki. In bujutsu or sports, the end result is what is important. However, in aikido (and budo), how we achieve that result is important.

Before beginning, Yamada sensei apologizes for the extra time that may be taken to explain things in both English and Japanese. He then informs us that he'd like to practice ushiro-waza today. There are two main points he speaks of. Nage is at a disadvantage in ushiro-waza, he explains, because uke is behind him. Therefore, the most important thing is to first bring uke in front. From there, he says, he worries about what to do. As far as observations go, I notice he doesn't say or do anything regarding how uke is brought forward. Of course his ukes don't have their balance when they are brought forward, but there is no mention of this aspect. As I remember from seeing Yamada sensei in the past, he doesn't move his feet much, or at least his hanmi isn't very apparent; he often operates from a squat, horse-stance. We start out with a backstretch using tenchinage/kokyunage, after which we throw our partners and then go on to nikyo. For nikyo, he talks about how we need to keep the flow of movement, bringing his uke's hand low before attempting the hand change. As this is all he says, this class that could be generalized for all the techniques, I try to keep these two points in mind for the rest of the hour.

Saturday afternoon: Arikawa sensei

I arrive for this class while the previous one is still going on. Since they're not allowing anyone to leave or enter the dojo room now as they did in the beginning of the seminar, I'm not able to peek in on Isoyama sensei's class. After asking around afterwards, though, I learn he spent the hour on koshi-nage, plus his trademark WWF (World Wrestling Federation) shoulder throw.

Although I am looking forward to the first class of Arikawa sensei I've attended in a long time, I am a little worried as his regular classes consisted of a lot of his talking and our sitting in seiza. Plus, he talks very quietly, about esoteric matters no less. My friend Sae appears to be doing the interpreting for this class. I wonder what connection she has to Arikawa sensei, but such thoughts are quickly replaced by pity and condolences.

Not only do we sit for most of the class, practicing ikkyo twice and iriminage once for a total of about 6 minutes, the class lasts for almost twice the scheduled amount of time of about one hour. Hey, what are you gonna tell a 9th dan?

All other things aside, Arikawa sensei appears to be in a relatively good mood. In the beginning of the class, (I am summarizing a great deal here), he asks whether we know where we are. Is this a gymnasium or a dojo? It can be a dojo depending on our hearts. As he is facing his partner, he asks if we know which foot he will put forward first. He tells us that his right foot and his partner's left foot would begin, in order to be respectful to the picture of O-sensei based on their positions on the mat (so that the inside of the first foot is towards O-sensei). Later, he mentions there are different ways to practice - as exercise, as bujutsu, and as budo. He demonstrates some things as they used to do in the old days, and seems to think it important enough to tell this interpreter to say that techniques are changing. To add emphasis to the meanings of things, he tells people to go to the back if they want to sit cross-legged (or stand) instead of seiza. His talk covers a lot of ground as he shoots off on a multitude of tangents. He talks about the two types of power, outward and inward, how to do furutama (the hand-shaking misogi thing), how that movement transitions to funakogi-undo, and how there are several centers in the body.

All the while, Sae is struggling to clue us in. Ironically, the Japanese speakers are surely left out more than the English speakers since Arikawa sensei is speaking so softly and Sae at least has a microphone. At the very beginning of the class, he pauses unnervingly frequently so Sae can translate, apparently not realizing that the word order is the opposite for English. Later on, Fujimaki (5th dan, shidoin) sits next to Sae to aid in simplifying what Arikawa sensei says. At best, though, she is only able to provide snippets here and there of words she catches. If it's any consolation, afterwards we ask Irie (5th dan, shidoin), who was sitting up front the whole time, how much he was able to understand, which turns out to be about half. Oh well.

Sunday morning: Tamura sensei and Doshu

Tamura sensei begins the class with some seated and standing breathing exercises, followed by funakogi-undo. The first technique is katate-dori kokyu-nage into a backstretch. Just a bit later, he is demonstrating again. At first it is hard to tell if he's doing a demonstration for that particular vicinity or if he�s moving the whole class on to the next thing, but the whole class goes this way so apparently it�s the latter. Another thing he does the entire class is take the role of uke, and not let his partner execute the technique. While I am usually strongly unimpressed by this practice, I at least make sure to see whether the partner has other options available, such as punching with the free hand. Although what Tamura sensei is doing seems to be mainly just keeping his center and blocking the technique of the moment, he does seem to have good overall control of the partner's center.

So the hour goes. When the movement is irimi to the back of uke from kosa-dori, Tamura sensei moves away so his partner is unable to go there. When the movement is to the front, the partner only manages to move his hand forward at a completely useless angle, or moves his hand in breaking the grip but not affecting Tamura sensei's center at all. His aikido, from what I see here and what I've seen when he visited Hombu Dojo, is small and tight. He often utilizes a small sudden movement at the beginning of his techniques to disturb uke's center, then moves himself and uke for the rest of the technique. It is impressive, after observing for a bit, that once he does do the techniques, he often effectively sends his ukes straight down so that he himself barely changes location.

By Doshu's class, there are five lines worth of people. As we wait, everyone seems to be looking around wondering if there will be any room to practice. Doshu�s presentation is quite organized. He begins by briefly demonstrating what he calls the three basic movements of aikido: tenkan (demonstrated from katate-dori), irimi (from shomen-uchi), and circular movement (from yokomen-uchi). He explains that these movements are found in all aikido techniques in various combinations. We start with shomen-uchi iriminage, which consists first of irimi, followed by tenkan. Translation is competently handled by Lisa Tomoleoni, with microphone.

There is barely enough room to fall. Most of the time people are just leading their partners to the "back stretch" part of the techniques. Doshu also talks about how we practice to make the most of our own power, or kokyu-ryoku, with the two methods of sitting and standing kokyuho. The arm movement of kokyuho is also to be found in all the techniques. In this class we practice yokomen-uchi shihonage, omote and ura, suwari-waza shomen-uchi ikkyo omote, kata-dori nikyo, omote and ura, hanmi-handachi katate-dori shihonage omote, morote-dori kotegaeshi, morote-dori kokyuho, irimi and tenkan, and seated kokyuho. It is difficult to practice as he has demonstrated, even slowly, as we are all making so many compromises to the crowded conditions.

He ends the class by reviewing the 3 basic taisabaki and explaining how they compose the movements in all techniques. Before bowing out, Doshu thanks everyone for attending and says that he looks forward to seeing us all again in four years.

*Dan Nishina is a student at Aikikai Honbu Dojo in Shinjuku, Tokyo, where he has trained for the past two years following graduation from UC Berkeley. An eight year aikido student, he occupies a tiny (but not the tiniest) room about five minutes from Honbu and devotes most of his time to training, content at keeping his head just above the poverty line with teaching and translation projects. Since moving to Japan, he has picked up a number of new habits, one of which is stopping in at the many local Starbucks. From time to time, he will be sharing his first-hand experiences with us, permitting a personal glimpse into training at Aikikai Headquarters.

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