Sangat banyak penjelasan tentang aikido dan sangat banyak informasi tentang sejarah awal terbentuknya aikido yang ternyata berasal dari Aikijujutsu. Karena ini merupakan titik awal perjalanan saya yang panjang dalam mencari jawaban dalam Aikido, maka dalam blog ini akan saya tampilkan apa yang menjadi perbandingan dua beladiri yang bisa disebut kakak-adik ini.
Aikidô and Aikijutsu by Frederick Lovret
How to tell the difference.
Although modern aikidô has been popular in the United States for many years, it has only been in relatively recent times that schools teaching older styles of aikijutsu started to appear. Or, perhaps I should say schools claiming to teach older styles of aikijutsu. The problem is that these home-brew aikijutsu ryû have become rampant. In a few cases they were created with some justification: The founder of the style was tired of the “peace, love, and harmony” philosophy of most modern aikidô groups and wanted to return to a more military, traditional, and combat-oriented style. In many (if not most) cases, however, it was the old story of some junior aikidô black-belt wanting status that he had yet to earn or deserve. In either case, the founder typically followed a rather standard route in creating his new ryû: He took a basic core of aikidô techniques, added some karate-style atemi, tossed in a few chokes and throws from Jûdô, tossed out the Ueshiba philosophy, called it aikijutsu, and claimed a descent directly from the Daitô-ryû.
There are, however, some significant differences between the Daitô-ryû (and its true derivatives) and modern aikidô. These differences, if you know what to look for, make it very easy to tell if a particular ryû actually descends from the Daitô-ryû or is simply a modification of Ueshiba’s aikidô.
Kuzushi
This is a very noticeable point. In aikijutsu the rule is “control at contact”, and nage will always do something to establish kuzushi at the instant of contact. In modern aikidô, on the other hand, the initial focus is on blending with the attack and kuzushi is not established until later in the sequence of events.
For example, consider katate-dori shihô-nage. In aikijutsu the initial move is a form of jûkyô: The palm is turned parallel to the mat and twisted inward to lock uke’s elbow and lift his shoulder. In aikidô, however, you blend with the motion of uke’s hand, guiding it into the pattern for the throw, and kuzushi does not occur until you have made the final pivot.
So, in aikijutsu you should usually see an initial move by nage that is brisk and leaves uke incapable of doing anything of consequence.
Control
Because complete control is established at the outset of the technique in aikijutsu, nage is free to take his time with the rest of the technique and the result is normally a rhythm of a fast initial movement followed by a relatively slow conclusion.
Also, to demonstrate this complete control, nage will often pause during the midst of the waza to demonstrate how he could easily cripple uke. For example, in shihô-nage he could bring uke’s arm over his shoulder, pull downward on his wrist (as if to break the elbow), and force him to tap out before completing the throw. In aikidô, because this control is not established at the beginning, nage is forced to smoothly accelerate (from start to finish) in order to keep ahead of uke.
Pins
The vast majority of the complex osae-waza from aikijutsu were not retained by modern aikidô. In fact, almost none of them were: The modern aikidôka typically knows less than a dozen pins.
Conversely, in aikijutsu there are literally hundreds of different ways to pin your opponent. These will often be extremely complex and result in complete immobilization, controlling both arms and both legs, typically with only pressure from one of nage’s knees. In fact, there is a branch of this art known as kage-osae (“shadow pins”) in which nage can step away and uke still can’t untangle himself.
Tateki-dori
Another area that was left out of modern aikidô is the art of dealing with multiple opponents. Although the aikidôka may practice randori against several uke, this is mostly a case of evading everyone but the uke he is working on.
In an aikijutsu ryû that descends from the Daitô-ryû, however, there will be numerous ways to handle multiple grabbing attacks. At the top of the list will be a group of waza known as aiki-shibori: These start with a half-dozen or more uke establishing firm holds, and then nage slips away (often leaving the uke stacked up in a pile).
Zanshin
There is an old Japanese saying: “After the battle, tighten your helmet cords.” In other words, just because you have won, don’t let down your guard.
In all traditional ryû (not just those of aikijutsu), zanshin should be strongly evident: Focus will be maintained until uke and nage have returned to their starting positions. In modern arts, because of the lack of combat philosophy, zanshin will be minimal or non-existent—More often than not, nage will simply walk away from the throw, often even turning his back to uke.
Note: There is a stylistic difference between the Yamate-ryû and the Daitô-ryû in this area. In the Yamate-ryû, uke quickly opens the maai after a pin and then establishes zanshin; In the Daitô-ryû, uke establishes zanshin upon being released and then slowly opens the maai.
Atemi
This is where home-brew aikijutsu styles make a couple major errors. First, because karate instruction is so widely available, they use karate techniques for atemi. The problem is that aikijutsu atemi has little in common with karate. For example, in karate a shûtô is formed with the fingers parallel, but in aikijutsu the fingers are widely spread.
The second error is using a karate philosophy for the atemi. In karate, the purpose of hitting is to do damage, but in aikijutsu that is rarely the case.
There are three times when atemi may be delivered: At the beginning of the technique, in the middle of the technique, and at its completion.
If the atemi is at the beginning, the purpose is always kuzushi. (“Control at contact.”) So, you aren’t thinking about hurting uke; you just want to break his balance.
Atemi in the middle of a waza is normally used to force uke to move where you want him to go. For example, in Ippon-dori (the old version of shomen-uchi ikkyô), you punch to his lower ribs. This causes him to bend forward, making it easier to grab his wrist.
Finally, atemi at the end of a waza is more of a demonstration of total domination than an attempt to inflict damage. In the Yamate-ryû this is carried to the extreme: The shûtô is held at jôdan, with a strong kiai of “Ho!” and you don’t aim at a particular target.
Content
There are 2,880 techniques in the Daitô-ryû, and this does not include minor variations such as left-right, standing-sitting, omote-ura, or handachi. Most of these were not included in Ueshiba’s aikidô.
Another, somewhat more subtle, difference is that traditional aikijutsu was a samurai art, which means that it was assumed that nage was wearing swords. Therefore, techniques were not normally practiced both left and right handed. (We practice both sides in the Gokyô of the Yamate-ryû just for training mudansha; In the Sôden, waza are done either right or left handed, but not both ways.) In other words, you would use one waza if uke grabbed your right wrist, but an entirely different one if he grabbed your left wrist.
Reality
Aikijutsu was created for war and, in war, your goal is to destroy your enemy, not to resolve social conflicts. So, within every aikidô waza, there is a way to cripple uke.
For example, in ude-osae (ikkyô), if you shape uke’s arm properly—Kuden: “Frame his face with his arm.”—and snap your hips, you can dislocate his shoulder. The difference is that the student of aikijutsu learns how to do these things, but the student of modern aikidô doesn’t.
(This is, by the way, why so little stress is placed on powerful atemi in aikijutsu: It’s easier to break uke’s bones with joint locks than it is to do it with strikes.)
Kiai
Tohei Koichi said, “No ki, no aikidô.” Close, but no cigar. I prefer, “No kiai, no aiki.”
Traditional aikijutsu is taught in three layers: jûjutsu, aikijûjutsu, and aikijutsu. A beginner starts with jûjutsu (e.g., most of the Gokyô of the Yamate-ryû, learning to physically manipulate uke’s body in a variety of ways; at the intermediate (junior black-belt) level is aikijûjutsu, in which spirit is required (e.g., yokomen-uchi aiki-dome, in which uke is thrown more by your kiai than by the force of the block); and, finally, aikijutsu in which you dominate with a powerful spirit.
Please note that a literal translation of kiai is “an extraordinary amount of spirit”. (Ai in the second place of a compound word means “a lot of”, not “to blend”.) So, while the aikidôka regards ki as some form of mysterious energy, the aikijutsuka thinks of it merely as spirit. He wants a lot of it and his approach is close to that of the karateka practicing tameshiware.
Therefore, an aikijutsu dôjô should be a very noisy place. An aikidô dôjô, on the other hand, is usually quiet.
Ken & Jô
Takeda Sôgaku’s first art was the Ittô-ryû, and he passed this tradition down to his students. Ueshiba Morihei, however, did not receive instruction in this art. As a result, the sword techniques of the Daitô-ryû look quite different from those of modern aikidô (which mostly come from the Shinkage-ryû and Kashima Shintô-ryû).
Also, modern aikidô teaches ken waza primarily as a way to perfect empty-hand techniques, referring to it as aiki-ken; In the Daitô-ryû, kenjutsu is taught as kenjutsu.
Ueshiba’s jô techniques, widely practiced in modern aikidô, are primarily used as movement exercises and bear no resemblance to jôdô. The Daitô-ryû, as was the case with the sword, treats the jô as a weapon.
So, in aikidô, weapons techniques will contain the same fluidity as empty-hand technique. In aikijutsu, on the other hand, weapons waza tend to be more suited to the actual weapon.
Additions
Ueshiba was strongly influenced by the Ômoto-kyô religion, and he added a number of elements from this philosophy to his aikidô.
To start with, there is the philosophy of non-violence: Most modern aikidô schools advertise that they teach “the non-violent martial art”, and claim that aikidô is purely defensive. This philosophy is totally absent from aikijutsu.
Also, Deguchi Ônisaburô added a number of practices from esoteric styles of Shintô to the Ômoto-kyô. These include chanting and breathing exercises—the Shinshintoitsu style of aikidô includes many of these—and, again, these are totally absent from traditional aikijutsu.
Keiko
In aikijutsu the rule is “start hard, finish soft”, meaning that junior students spend a tremendous amount of time learning how to handle full-power grips; Blending with the attack is secondary to this. The reverse is true with modern aikidô, where blending is stressed from the first day of training and students may never practice their waza against hard-style grabs.
As you can see, there are some significant and fundamental differences between aikidô and aikijutsu. And, no matter which you study, it is important that you keep these differences in mind lest you unwittingly start transforming your chosen art into something it was never meant to be.
The End
