Aiki Jujutsu: A Creation of Concepts (2nd Part)

Published on 03/11/2014 by Alejandro Villanueva in AIKIDO EN LÍNEA

We are pleased to publish the second contribution from Master Ricardo Sanz, National Director in Spain of the Nihon Aikido / Aikijutsu / Aikibudo Department of the Nippon Seibukan in Kyoto and 6th Dan Renshi in Aikibudo by the Nippon Seibukan Academy. This is the continuation of the article we previously published, originally authored by him and first published in the magazine "El Budoka."

Aiki Jujutsu: A Creation of Concepts (2nd Part)
By Ricardo Sanz

AIKI AS A SOCIAL AND HISTORICAL CONCEPT OF A CLAN

The Edo period of peace (1603 to 1868), maintained by sixteen shoguns for more than 250 years, was sustained through strict regulations and restrictive foreign policies, plunging the country into an isolation known as Sakoku. This isolation involved expelling all Western traders—Spaniards in 1624, Portuguese in 1638—persecuting Christianity, preventing merchants from leaving the country by destroying their ships, issuing edicts forbidding Japanese citizens from leaving Japan, and decreeing execution for those who returned, among other measures.

This era, also known as Taihei, or "The Great Peace," signified a political balance founded on armed political enforcement and a hierarchical, class-based, and closed legal structure. At the top of this pyramid stood the military class: the kuge, or nobles; the bushi, or warriors; and their governing code, the Buke Shohatto [1]. Below them were the peasants, governed by the Keian no Furegaki, followed by artisans and merchants (chonin), and finally "non-humans," such as the eta or inin, which included actors and other marginalized groups.

Samurai swore loyalty to their Daimyos, who were typically members of the Tokugawa family, and the Daimyos, in turn, pledged allegiance to the Shogun. This structure demanded loyal and military service within an administrative framework rooted in peace and adherence to the Buke Shohatto.

Castillo de Kumamoto (Hosokawa clan, 1632 – 1871).

This administration idealized, under an economy based on agrarian production, a society governed by the samurai class, organized around the Daimyo’s castle and distanced from the land where peasants, led by a village headman called nanushi, produced goods that were processed in their villages, known as mura. These goods were traded by merchants in the city districts, which, in turn, were protected and administered from the Daimyo’s castle.

The kuge class was the most privileged in this stratified society. Representing 7% of the population, they were entitled to bear a family name linking them to their clan and to carry two swords, daisho [2]. The sword, To or Katana, symbolized the samurai’s identity, and the family name was the most valued asset of their class. This concept of "family name and sword," myoji-taito, formed a unique microcosm worthy of outstanding study.

The fundamental unit of the bushi class was the family, ie, grouped into clans. The individual, stripped of personal individuality, owed loyalty to their clan (Ko) and to the political order (Chu), living entirely for the clan’s existence and adhering to the norms that ensured its survival, both of their clan and of the class to which they belonged.

Anyone who endangered this privileged status through action or omission, committing even a minor offense against their person, could be punished by immediate execution, known as kirisute-gomen. Similarly, a bushi, in order to preserve their family name for their descendants, was expected to repair the dishonor caused by failing to meet their Daimyo’s expectations—or those of the Shogun—through ritual suicide, known as seppuku.

The clans, in order to ensure their victory against the enemy, were trained by different martial arts schools. Thus, the samurai of the Takamatsu clan were taught by the Takenouchi Ryu or Yoshin Ryu schools in unarmed defense, the samurai of the Morioka clan preferred the teachings of the Yagyu Shingan Ryu, and the samurai of the Aizu clan were instructed by the Daito school of the Takeda clan.

This clan, once despised by the Tokugawa power, opened its combat and military strategy systems in 1664. The unarmed combat technique taught by this clan was known as Gotenjutsu (Self-defense techniques used in the palace) and Oshikiuchi (Within the venerable threshold), where we find the ultimate principle of Aiki in its interpretation of the binary attack-defense form, in its striking techniques (Ate waza), as well as in the development of its movements (Tai sabaki) and the proper space-time moment (Ma-ai Tenshin), with the objective of using the energy (ki) of the aggressor and redirecting it against them.

Before the Tokugawa Period, the continuous wars between clans favored the mastery of the bushi in the use of weapons. With the "Great Peace," the most important clans absorbed smaller ones, grouped in areas of influence, or simply disappeared as such due to the lack of a "Lord or House."

Around the Aizu province [3], more than 80 schools of bujutsu (unarmed combat, sword, firearms, archery, spear, halberd, etc.) related to the Takeda clan and their teachings in their own school, Nishinkan, were regrouped. This school trained, among others, the troops of the Aizu territory and the Shogun's personal guard.

The samurai who could not find or refused a position within the Tokugawa social stratification were excluded from the status granted to them. Some, upon the death of their lord, submitted to seppuku because they could not bear the dishonor; others sought revenge, devising plans to avenge their lord by killing those who had killed him. Many found positions within other clans or served any of the more than 250 Daimyos that existed, while others turned to medicine, teaching the "non-bushi" in war techniques, military advising, or the priesthood. However, most, rejected by society, wandered from place to place accompanied only by their weapons.

These samurai without a defined position, known as "men of the wave," ronin, led a wandering life with no possibility of reintegration, despite the efforts of the Daimyos and the Shogun. As a recognized group, their influence was fundamental in transmitting bujutsu to other social classes.

Buddhism, Shintoism, and Confucianism coexisted in the spirit of society, but once again, social position defined one's practice [4]. The military class, and therefore its technique, began to merge into metaphysical concepts; great importance was placed on the idea that the samurai class should be cultured by studying not only subjects related to their military spirit but also areas like literature, philosophy, arithmetic, and painting, all of which can be seen as an extension of their spirit.

It was then, influenced by religion and the mystical explanations of the events in early Japan, that the strategic principle of Aiki was consolidated. Japanese tradition places it at the dawn of the 9th century, during the reign of Emperor Seiwa and the military dominance of the Minamoto clan, whose taxonomic influence on Seibukan Aikijujutsu I will publish soon.

AIKI AS A BINARY PRINCIPLE

Ai means union, Ki means strength, energy; In / Yo is the Japanese nomenclature for the Chinese dichotomous concept of Ying / Yang or the Vietnamese An / Doung (white/black, male/female, strong/soft, positive/negative, etc.).

In the literature, painting, and writing of the Edo period, different analogies can already be found in the interpretation of this concept in these arts, as well as in its application in the arts of war.

Numerous Japanese expressions, methodologies, and kata from martial arts schools express this concept of binary technique. For example, in the Iaido school Muso Shinden Ryu, there is a kata called Inyo Sintai, meaning "yin-yang, advance-retreating." In the kenjutsu school Ittoh Ryu, the concept of Kokyu – kiriotoshi is employed. In the Heiho Shi Shin Ryu school, the strategy is based on the progressive control of the enemy's Ki in order to defeat them, and so on.

But what is the reason for this theoretical involvement in the technique, history, and philosophy of so many martial arts schools? The union with the energy, with the strength of the adversary, formerly the enemy, explains the principle that sustains the entire dogmatic aspect of Aiki Jujutsu.

The interpretation of a combat form, of defense-attack against that enemy, now adversary, is subject to study and renewal since, according to scholars, the 9th century.

Ki in Japanese, Chi in Chinese, Uyana in Hindu, Pneuma in Greek, etc., all express the same meaning of the concept. Although there is no scientific definition of the existence of this "vital energy," and much less if we attempt to search for it in the Western social, medical, and spiritual conception, the belief in the term Ki is inseparable, obviously, from the study of Aiki Jujutsu.

Ki is the energy capable of manifesting force. A force that circulates through the human body, the earth, the sky, and living beings. Yogis in India have been studying Uyana, the sum of all forces circulating through a living being, Prana or Kundalini, Samana, Apana, and Udana, for thousands of years. The Chinese, whose first work on Chi is the I Ching or Book of Changes, written in 1122 BC, introduced the concept of the three natural energies or forces: heaven, Tian; earth, Di; and man, Ren.

In 58 AD, Buddhism arrived in China from India. With it, numerous general Buddhist practices and Chi development practices were progressively incorporated into Chinese culture, including static Zen meditation (Chan in Chinese).

500 years later, a monk named Da Mo, coming from India, retired to the Shaolin Temple. Upon finding the inhabitants weak, he studied how to help them improve their physical condition. He withdrew for 9 years and wrote the two classical works that would assist the monks who came to learn there for centuries, once again incorporating the binary and antagonistic conception of Buddhist religion and martial arts, based on the development of Chi.

It was in the 7th century when the first Buddhist influences entered Japan, but it was not until the 12th century that the warrior aristocracy took a committed interest in Buddhism in general and the study of Ki in particular. During the Chinese Song Dynasty (960 – 1279), military leader Yue Fei improved the effectiveness of his soldiers in combat through "Ba Duan Jin" or "The Eight Pieces of Brocade." Meanwhile, in Japan, the Minamoto clan (from the 9th century) developed the principle "Ai Ki In Yo Ho" in their military strategy.

It is undeniable that the initial Chinese influence occurred roughly between the 10th and 13th centuries due to the religious contacts between both countries, and we should consider the year 1200 as the year Zen Buddhism was introduced to Japan, rather than the 9th century as some authors suggest.

Regardless of the date mentioned as the point of an undeniable historical fact, what is important is that Buddhist religion and Taoism played a decisive role in giving a philosophical and dogmatic framework to the technique used on the battlefield by a clan composed of legendary warriors: the Minamoto clan, better known as the Genji.

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[1] A code of 30 rules structured in 1615 by Zen monk Suden that regulated the daily conduct of the Daimyos and their relations with their privacy and the laws of the state. These rules were later revised in 1716 by Tashiro Tsuramoto based on the teachings of the monk and former samurai of the Nabeshima clan, Yosho Yamamoto, and were included in the Hagakure, a code exclusive to that clan.

[2] The composition of two swords, a long one, daito, and a short one, shoto, mounted identically, koshirae, is called Daisho. The daito could only be worn by high-level samurai; the short sword, shoto or wakizashi, could be used and carried by merchants and artisans. The Buke-zukuri style is the one used in the creation of ancient Japanese swords.

[3] Today, it is known by the unfortunate name Fukushima, located in the northern part of the main island of Japan, Honshu.

[4] Buddhism and Shintoism permeated the religious sense of the middle classes, while Confucianism provided a framework for social and political behavior.

Continuation: Aiki Jujutsu: Development of a Tradition (Part 3)"