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Shishida Shihan Aikido
Seminar in Sheffield, UK - March 2007
Written by Adrian Tyndale and Professor Funiaki Shishida. Pictures by courtesy of Richard Ibbotson
SEMINAR REPORT by Fumiaki Shishida Shihan
# Title:
The theory and methodology of aikido Kenji Tomiki
intended to teach:
Key contents which we have been misunderstanding
# Instructor: Fumiaki Shishida
Ph.d., Shihan of Japan Aikido Association (NPO)
# Assistants: Tako
Kobayashi - Three times Kanto champion
Masa Abbe - Uke and translator
# Date: Friday 2nd, Saturday 3rd and
Sunday 4th of March, 2007
# Contact person: Mr Tony
Russell-Ward
Table of the contents
Aims of my seminar?
1. What is the main current
problem of Tomiki aikido?
2. What are the subjects that we should tackle?
3. Outline of the seminar
Contents
Aims of my seminar:
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1.
What is the main current problem of Tomiki aikido?
Circa 1979, I unexpectedly knew that Professor Tomiki was passing away
by cancer. I had interviewed Tomiki many times and had developed a new
training system for one year before his death. The system was hastily
developed by the author with Tomiki's consent by asking his opinions on
my preliminary thoughts. The core of the system was tsukuri or breaking
balance in both atemi-waza and kansetsu-waza. Shihan Nariyama also
supported the development of this new training system. I also composed
the Goshin-ho training system with him. These two training systems were
introduced in our book Aikido Kyoshitsu in 1985 and adopted into the
JAA grading syllabus in 1994. Although they were based on suggestions
by Professor Tomiki, I regret my hasty development and admit that the
training systems lost plenty of important elements of Tomiki's aikido,
because I did not know many of Tomiki's techniques and his theory on
aikido and judo. I also neglected Hideo Ohba's opinion because I did
not notice how closely the techniques of Ohba and Tomiki were in
essence. There were some differences between their techniques
superficially because they have different talents and figures.
Therefore, I almost ignored what Ohba taught about basics, such as
Tegatana-no-Kuzushi, and so on, as I developed the systems. By recent
study with Mr Tadayuki Sato, I have understood the real important
essence in Tomiki's aikido and what was missing in the system.
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2.
What are the subjects that we should tackle?
A. What is the Rikaku-taisei or the distance of Tegatana-awase in judo?
Tomiki Aikido is based on one of Tomiki's studies in 1940 about
techniques in Rikaku-taisei or the distance in which practitioners can
not apply foot techniques (sweeping). Every technique would lose its
essence if it is not applied at the appropriate distance. Therefore the
basic techniques in the system should be reconsidered from this point
of view.
B. Why did Tomiki regard Tegatana-awase as an important training
method? This is because Tegatana-awase is related to the Six
Tegatana-no-kuzushi. It seems that the Six Tegatana-no-kuzushi were
originally developed as an extension of Tegatana-awase by Tomiki and
Ohba.
C. What is the breaking balance of a human body? Please see the
monograph by Tadayuki Sato and others. (See, T. Sato, Y. Kawakami and
F. Shishida (2006, in Japanese) Methodology of breaking balance in
throwing techniques in competition aikido focusing on sumiotoshi and
hikiotoshi, Journal of Sport Sciences, 3, 69-77, Waseda University,
Japan)
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3.
Outline of the seminar
Kenji Tomiki established the basic seventeen techniques not for
Tanto-randori, but for Toshu-randori. Toshu-randori is the randori
method in which practitioners apply techniques with bare hands. It was
developed not only as a randori method of aikido, but also as a new
randori method of judo to develop techniques in the
Rikaku-taisei. Rikaku means keeping a distance of
Tegatana-awase
and Taisei means a situation of fighting. Tomiki thought that aikido
techniques should be applied in the distance of Tegatana-awase. That is
the point that I neglected when I developed the training system and
revised the 17 techniques with Shihan Nariyama to publish the book
Aikido Kyoshitsu in 1985. Therefore we should apply techniques and
balance breaking whilst keeping distance to avoid aikido technique and
basic techniques should be reconsidered from this angle. I believe that
the true greatness of Tomiki aikido is in this point. In the
late fall of 2005, after I published my main work Educational strength
of Japanese martial arts, I started to reconsider the training system
from this point, with help from Mr Tadayuki Sato. He was one of my
students when I was the chief instructor in Waseda University aikido
club. Since around 1990, many strong practitioners had already asked
him for his instruction after they heard a rumour that he is a very
talented judo and aikido practitioner. So I invited him to Waseda
University as a part time aikido instructor. After I carefully watched
his instruction as an auditor, I decided to reconsider the problem with
him. In 2006, he published a wonderful paper about kuzushi in the
online journal of Sport Sciences, published by Waseda University. I
started to revise the new training system with Mr.Sato's help. It
is very easy to find several differences between Tomiki's atemi-waza
techniques and the current way revised by Nariyama and Shishida, if you
look at pictures of Tomiki and Oba's demonstration on the poster of the
2005 Katsura International Festival. We changed their way and believed
that it was a progress. To tell the truth, however, I did not verify
the truth of our revised version or the apparent faults of Tomiki and
Oba's way at all. I regret that we also did not understand enough the
assumption in Toshu-randori of that A should attack with bare hands
against not B's belly but to the face of B. In particular, this
seminar will introduce the real meanings and newly
developed methodologies of the following techniques.
A. Basic exercises
a. Unsoku (Syumoku-ashi 3
bacics, Chidori-ashi, Denden-daiko)
b. Quick posture change from natural posture
c. Tegatana-awase (including the principle of Japanese swordsmanship)
d. Shotei-awase (Skill to stop the partner. It was omitted)
e. Applications (Table Balance breaking with chidori-ashi, Relaxation
from a hand sword)
B. General Theory in balance
breaking of a standing person
Six Tegatana-no-kuzushi
a. Jo-dan (Ai-gamae:
breaking the uke's balance while bending an elbow)
b. Jo-dan (Gyaku-gamae: breaking the uke's balance while bending an
elbow / Stopping the uke's attack)
c. Chu-dan (Ai-gamae: Stopping the uke's attack)
d. Chu-dan (Gyaku-gamae: Stopping the uke's attack)
e. Ge-dan (Ai-gamae. It was omitted.)
f. Ge-dan (Gyaku-gamae. It was omitted.)
g. Kakari-geiko with some kuzushi above (Learning the principle of
Tsuba-zeriai (close contest) in Japanese swordsmanship)
h. Ushiro-ryote dori (Core part of the technique. It was omitted)
C. Basic seventeen (Around ten
techniques based on Tomiki theory were introduced compared with his
photos)
D. Tomiki's remarks
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The main
point was to grip Uke's wrist from below using the left hand first,
then the right hand joins to reinforce the rotation of the elbow joint.
The tegatana direction of Tori's right hand is directed towards his own
chest in the picture. However, this was suggested a variation
to directing the hand blade forward.
