Life Clichés (4) : Bushido Brotherhood

During a Japanese Cultural days fest, I came across two friends who it seemed  had to give an Aikido spectacle.  All I knew back then, that it was maybe a Martial Art, not Ninjatsu, but closer to Samurai things. They invited me to attend to their presentation, and I went to watch it that afternoon.

At first, it looked like a choreography, not some deadly martial art : smooth, and gracious moves. It was clearly harmless.  And just like that, it changed my view about martial arts.

If there's a reason for which I despised martial arts for all those years, it is due to their  apparent violent nature,  confrontation and mostly : PAIN. It was visibly teaching violence and not countering it. Mostly, to beat your opponent you must attack first, and strike hardest.

Either way, you should nurture some fake/real motivation for willing to attack that person in front of you, in order to learn and practice. Naturally I turned away from all forms of Martial Arts. 

However, watching that spectacle, was in short a revelation. They were not supposed to harm the attacker, merely avoid his violence, and philosophically speaking, help them manage their violence. (Nonetheless, and after some practice I discovered that Aikido is actually one of the deadliest martial arts ever, all the moves are based on the sword/Katana manoeuvring for a start..)

- Irimi Nage : enter throw -

合 – ai – joining, unifying, combining, fitting

気 – ki – spirit, energy, mood, morale

道 – dō – way, path

And so the whole Aikido concept was marinating in my head for a year, before I decided to join a dojo. In the mean time, I was looking for references, learning about it, and it confirmed what I always felt like the right thing to train for : a combination of self-defence and maturity.

What distinguished the Aikido dojo from other martial arts dojos, was the serene atmosphere of empathy. All other students (Aikidokas) were warm, welcoming, and very helpful, unlike the competitiveness of a -say- Judo class. 

This was again confirmed by what I discovered earlier about Bushido : 

"Beneath the instinct to fight there lurks a diviner instinct to love."- Bushido: The Soul of Japan. A Classic Essay on Samurai Ethics, Itazo Nitobe.

Furthermore, I noticed that the "nirvanic" state of training is only reached when a mutual trust is established between the Tori (the person giving a technique - Defender) and the Uke (the person receiving a technique - Attacker). That doesn't suppose you being friends or knowing your partner for  while, although that helps to find the bond, and the right nature of connection. 

Connection is a central concept of Aikido, it defines your presence, be it physical or mental. In fact, it's a combination of concentration and strength. Grabbing your Tori's arm for instance doesn't require you twisting it away,  but maintaining the right amount of pressure so that he can feel your presence. And this becomes second nature after a few months of rolling on the mat. Internalising the idea that the person in front of you is not your enemy, helps through the process. The rest of the techniques comes naturally after mastering the contact.

The importance of connection is also apparent in the rituals before and after the training. Before entering or leaving, you are supposed to bow and salute people present on the mat. My favourite part: Mokusō . It's a form of meditation, that means warming up the mind for training hard, or just be thankful for all the things you learnt and experienced on the mat. It is some form of auto-feedback about the session. Additionally, it is not common to talk while practising, Aikido is supposed to be a personal experience, and in the Japanese culture, it is "truly jarring to hear the most secret heart experiences thrown out in promiscuous audiences."

“Your spirit is the true shield.” 

― Morihei Ueshiba (Founder of Aikido), The Art of Peace