A Unified Field Theory — Aiki and Weapons — Tempo Allegro, Molto Agitato

This article should now be considered a work-in-progress, of interest both for the discussion it engendered as well as presenting an earlier perspective on my work. I have radically revised this essay in my new book, HIDDEN IN PLAIN SIGHT. Some of the conclusions I have reached are somewhat at variance to what you will find here. Those interested in the book can find it at www.edgework.info/buy.html

PART V - Ueshiba Morihei and Weapons — The Influence of Spear Technique Upon Stave and Stick

He was better at using a longer weapon. He would use a long-handled spear, and he was better with a bo (stave) than with a jo. It was in later years when he became older that he used the jo. Also, when he lived in Ayabe, he would often practice the jo and ken in the garden. I think that it was something of his own that he didn’t learn from any master at all. Ueshiba Kisshomaru

Hozoin-ryu Takada-ha Kanenori Dengoro Kurokochi, Takeda Sokaku’s grandfather was, according Kono Yoshinori in Aikido Journal #102 (1995), pre-eminent among Aizu warriors, and one of the finest martial artists in Japan during the late Edo period. Among the martial arts that Kanenori achieved mastery was Hozoin-ryu Takada-ha, a style also practiced by Takeda Soemon and Takeda Sokichi, and one of the first ryu that Takeda Sokaku learned. Hozoin-ryu is a formidable style of spear-fighting, famous for its cruciform spearhead. Their kata are quite short, spear against cross-bar spear, and these kata most significantly feature trapping, pinning and use of a kind of vibratory force to deflect the other’s weapon, this last generated by the entire body moving as one unit in such a way that all the force is transmitted through one’s own weapon to deflect the other’s - similar to what is called “fajing” in Chinese martial arts. Hozoin-ryu Takada-ha also had kata to train against sword, naginata, bow-and-arrow, and, at advanced levels, against multiple opponents — reportedly most of these aspects of the ryu are no longer practiced.

Hozoin-ryu was one of the most significant influences on the development of Japanese bayonet technique (jukenjutsu), one of the first martial practices that Ueshiba achieved any level of skill. Jukenjutsu remained both a strong interest of Ueshiba’s and a significant influence on the development of aiki-bo and aiki-jo, up through the war years. Basic spear technique, unlike jukenjutsu that uses fixed-hand-thrusting, slides the spear through the front hand, with the back/power hand, stopping at either the hip or under the arm. This is definitely seen in aiki-stave technique, but is generic to any and all schools of spear. One particular Hozoin-ryu technique called maki-otoshi (wrapping drop) that was incorporated into jukenjutsu is also used in Ueshiba’s staff technique.

It could be argued, then, that almost any element within Ueshiba’s jo and bo can be found within jukenjutsu, or perhaps, through superficial observation of basic spear technique. So was Ueshiba being less than honest in his statement that he studied Hozoin-ryu? I think that I established in previous articles, however, that Ueshiba was truthful about every other art that he claimed that he studied: not that he had formally entered each school with an oath and blood-seal, or that he received menkyo-kaiden, but that his statements of studying each school as he named them were based on fact. Why should Hozoin-ryu be any different?

In that light, Takeda very much liked spear — there are some quite dramatic stories about his training with and against spears in his biography. He lived with Ueshiba on two occasions for a number of months, first in Hokkaido, and then in Ayabe. By all descriptions, Takeda does not sound like the kind of man who would take joy in dandling Ueshiba’s children on his knee — and there was a limit to how many games of shogi they could play (particularly as Takeda, according to Mochizuchi Minoru, was prone to cheating!). What would they do to while away the hours, during the rain or snow? Surely Daito-ryu jujutsu, since that was the reason Ueshiba had him live in his home. I know that, in my own case, given inclement weather or just out of boredom, I will sometimes teach one of my students something quite out of sequence in the mokuroku. I recently did this with ryofundo (short weighted chain), teaching one student on a single occasion - it is my expectation that the next time I bring it up - maybe even years from now - he, like I did in similar circumstances, will be far advanced in skill.

But wouldn’t they have been seen in the dojo if Takeda was teaching young Ueshiba special training? The agricultural holdings in both communities surely had storehouses — and if you’ve ever been in a Japanese farmer’s storehouse, they can be very broad and high ceilinged. They had space and privacy if they wanted it.

It is quite likely, in my opinion, that Takeda, the snow or rain falling outside, might grab spears and show young Morihei how to REALLY use the weapon, not that “crude jukenjutsu stuff” he learned in the modern military. Takeda Tokimune recalls that, at Ayabe while still a small boy, “I also witnessed an occasion when Morihei Ueshiba, a chief petty officer and a master of Juken Jutsu (mock bayonet weapon) was felled by a thrust from a training spear nearly nine feet long delivered by Sokaku who had assumed a kasumi jodan stance.” Kasumi jodan is a high stance, with the spear held at head/eyebrow height, directly forward like the prow of a ship. It is a pre-eminent stance for “dropping power” - fajing from high to low, similar to pi ch’uan in xingyi. And thus, Ueshiba could have learned a little Hozoin-ryu. And just as I used to train, striking leaves on the trees in my garden from any and all angles with my ryofundo to improve my targeting (and I assume my student will as well), so, too, by Ueshiba Kisshomaru’s description, did his father target the trees in the garden, stabbing the apricot tree so deeply that his spearhead got jammed, and broke off. Perhaps I am incorrect — but Ueshiba, though definitely prone to hyperbole, did not otherwise lie about his training — why would he do so here?

The other significant fact is that Ueshiba Kisshomaru describes him training alone — not replicating Hozoin-ryu kata nor creating new aiki-sojutsu (aiki-spear) two-person forms with a young deshi. Instead, as early as Ayabe, he was starting to create a solo polearm practice — at this time, apparently free-form. Whether it was mere suburi, or he was actually conjuring up and “fighting” imagined opponents is not known.

However, as recently as one week ago, I would have written that I could see little to support the claim that he derived his staff art from Hozoin-ryu — or if he did, that he incorporated only the most superficial elements, common to all spear schools. However, I just reviewed the old Aiki News video “Morihei Ueshiba and Aikido” which provided a panoramic view of his life, with excerpts from most of the major films. There were several scenes of him doing stave work (BTW - please refer to the comment section of PART IV for my new commentary on his swordwork that I also derived from this review). Most of the film sequences were what I had seen innumerable times before — the “jo trick,” some jo nage and Ueshiba doing solo jo form, whirling, thrusting and dropping on one knee with speed and precision. Each film of his “kata” had a slightly different sequence of moves. I think he had the essential parameters in his body/mind, so to speak, and improvised as he went. It was all the “same” - just different sequences. Nonetheless, I had watched these sequences innumerable times over the years, and honestly, I’ve become jaded. Ueshiba was, in my opinion, better - more powerful and more integrated - than of any of his disciples, but I’d seen it all before. Yawn.

However, I was absolutely STUNNED by the film of his stave work (using a sharpened staff - the short spear or nuboko referred to in an earlier blog.) in the 1961 film from his trip to Hawaii. Ueshiba starts by repeating a number of movements, sometimes two or three times, and then a second and a third, etc. All are various various deflections. He was doing “fajin!” His whole body is relaxed and at the moment of the simulated deflection (which he does upwards, downwards and to the side), his whole body snaps into an “implosive” channeling of body power - I still don’t know what to call it — but you can see the power emerge from his root and center, and out through the staff - downwards, upwards, sideways and at angles. Were he using a long spear, it would flex like a tree in a high wind. He is NOT doing it in the manner of jukenjutsu, which have a number of deflections, nor is it the movement used in the powerful “clacking” together of staves that we see in Goto-ha Yagyu Shingan-ryu. This is truly one of the “gokui” of the proper use of a spear or long-staff — and I am quite prepared to believe that he learned this from Takeda Sokaku, as this is, I am told, an essential technique of Hozoin-ryu. Sure, he could have learned it elsewhere. He could have figured it out on his own. But the dates add up - around the time Takeda lived for months with the Ueshiba family in Ayabe, Ueshiba was out in the garden working on spear technique.

In a follow-up post yesterday in the “Hidden in Plain Sight” blog (post 136, to be exact), I wrote that I was amazed to see the same thing — “fajin” - in the way Ueshiba was doing funa-kogu-undo and ikkyo-undo in the 1962 film of Ueshiba at Iwama with Terry Dobson. I have not seen ANY other teacher doing this in either weapon or unarmed techniques. Generally speaking, Ueshiba’s solo jo movements are so fast that I think this technique has simply past under everyone’s vision. People do the jo kata with variations of emphasis of muscular cuts and/or flowing movements. As for the “aiki-taiso,” I think almost everyone seems to have regarded this as a “warm-up” to get past before getting to the “real stuff,” or merely the remnants of Ueshiba’s inexplicable spiritual practices. The “aiki-taiso” was something he did daily. I would wager he did the isolation of movements with the stave that we see in the Hawaii film quite frequently. Once again, it seems that the secrets were “hidden in plain sight.”

Why didn’t he explicitly teach this? He did! How explicit must he get!!!!!? Most instructors, particularly of this period in history, expected their students to be watching! My conclusions here are as follows:

1. Ueshiba didn’t lie about what he trained. He was imagistic, and may have used some hyperbole, but he seems to have told the truth. That his son recalls his father incessantly training with a spear in Ayabe, which would have been around the period that Takeda lived with him in Ayabe, suggests to me that he DID learn some Hozoin-ryu directly from his teacher. It may be possible that it was this training that gave Ueshiba some essential information on how to gather/and/explode channeled force. Lest their be any mistake, I am talking about biomechanics - see some of Mike Sigman’s posts in “Hidden in Plain Sight.”

2. Whether Hozoin-ryu or from somewhere else, Ueshiba not only learned one of the most important gokui of sojutsu, but he practiced it his entire life — not only in his stave work, but also in the basic exercises that he did every day. This type of training is used in other martial arts (such as Chen family t’ai chi, or xingyi) to develop extraordinary power. We keep asking how Ueshiba had such amazing power - it is obvious to me that he was doing specialized training right under everyone’s eyes. I had no idea that this was a part of aikido previously, but it clearly seems a part of Ueshiba’s! And the evidence is on film.

3. Of course, if Ueshiba received insight into the way of training “internal” power from Takeda/Hozoin-ryu, it was something that his teacher also knew. I wonder if this remains a practice within any Daito-ryu faction. It appears that it was largely lost within aikido, even as the art was being born.

4. One of the areas of aikido that I most detested during my active training days were the jo-nage methods. Every shihan for whom I took ukemi, seemed to be working of trying to do the technique with precise and impeccable timing, directed at the point where the uke was least able to retain balance. I’ve got very long arms and legs - and as I got more skillful, I could react and compensate to their moves. Within a short period of time, I always had to throw myself - or either leave the teacher standing there, trying unsuccessfully to tip me off-balance, or in the case of the more bloody-minded, have him poke me in the eye to get me to fall. WIth this current insight into Ueshiba’s way of using his body (and through this, the bo or jo), I would LOVE to have had a chance to have taken ukemi for him. The difference with “fajin” is that it is not mere blending or timing - it can be the explosive expression of a lot of power at a single point, whether the opponent is resisting, compensating or not.**** Of course, like anything, it works far better against someone whose balance is de-stabilized. But once again, it may be that what Ueshiba looked like he was doing was different from what he really was doing. Again - I so wish I could have taken ukemi from him in this context.

5. As for the “jo trick,” maybe it’s part of the same bag - but I still don’t have a clue.

I thought this would be my last blog on the subject, but I’m not finished yet!

****I learned a method of “fajin” training with a spear from Su Dong Chen when I lived in Tokyo. On a trip to Taiwan, I met a very well-known t’ai chi teacher - Wang Yen-nien. It’s a long story, but I was challenged by him to show him “what I knew,” - I had been introduced to him as a Japanese martial arts practitioner - and just for the heck of it, I showed him this vibratory spear training I had learned. He looked at me and said, “Where’d you learn that? You aren’t supposed to know that!” I said, “Oh, around.” He said, “Oh yeah, well, do you know this?” And on the spot, he showed me two other training exercises with a spear that remain essential training practices of mine. They are three different types of power-generating practices - one of which, interestingly enough, is done by the spear practitioners of Maniwa Nen-ryu. This is all solo training, by the way, but it makes a tremendous difference when working against another weapon. He did NOT teach me the details of what I should be doing - just the motions. The details I would have to (and still have to) work out on my own. He then challenged me to knock him over as he had me press one end of the spear shaft against my hara and the other end against his own. I was pressing all 220 pounds through the spear shaft, and aside from making him step back momentarily, I coulnd’t move him. He got a jack-o-lantern grin and suddenly expanded his belly and that, alone, folded me over and then off my feet. No angle - directly back!

I have never tried to “extrapolate” this study of spear to empty-handed practice - but it now comes to my mind that it is about time.

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Ellis Amdur — April 24^th, 2006 (add comment)