Господа! Не путайте культ ура с культурой!/Гарри Симанович/ Не трогая середину, первой она не полезет на тебя. Поэт в России – больше, чем поэт. Еще он - сторож, полотёр, сиделка… (Continuation of the previous text)
If we replace the name of the Japanese castle Daito with the name of a Macedonian town for example Berovo, the whole lose translation of "Daito Ryu Aiki Jujutsu" would be "Berovo School of Force-harmonizing Art of Fighting with Bare Hands". I know that it sound funny to you as it does to me, but imagine that when Japanese says it, he understands it exactly like that. Not a single word from this long name is an exotic foreign word for him, neither some kind of a generally accepted internationalism; it is only a simple generic name which directly explains what it refers to.
The translation of the Japanese "kanji" monograms (graphemes) is not a simple thing to do. The term Jujutsu (??) is a good example; If we translate it literary, we would get: JU(?) = GENTLE and JUTSU(?) = ART - and what we have is: "Gentle Art". But, is it an appropriate translation. No, not really. It takes a wider knowledge of the language and of the Japanese culture in general, to "capture" the meaning of a grapheme in a certain combination. In this case "gentle" signifies that the art is WITHOUT USE OF WEAPONS, and not simply "gentle" according to our understanding of the word! Next, in this context "art" refers to martial art and it turns out that JUJUTSU actually means MARTIAL ART OF FIGHTING WITH BARE HANDS. (that jujutsu is not called jiujitsu or something like that, you can read a full analysis here)
Let's go back to AIKI, this great discovery in the martial arts, about which I started writing in the previous text. The founder of aikido, Morihei Ueshiba, learned this principle from his teacher, Sokaku Takeda through the learning of Daito ryu Aiki Jujutsu. Surely, you have already noticed in the example above, that I have translated AIKI as "force-harmonizing", that is, "force-harmonization".
As a reminder:
AI = harmonization,
KI = energy
Someone may make a remark that this kind of free translation is too banal, especially when it comes to the word KI (?).
KI is really the hardest term to translate, because the meaning that it conveys is not exact, more over, through time many different meanings were attached to it.
I am not going to try to make detailed analysis of the term KI since it would be time and space consuming. I'm just going to state a few things that will lead you to the complexity of this term. Firstly, it derives from China (there known as CHI), and it denotes "universal life-moving force or energy". The Japanese took the monogram (grapheme) and the pronunciation with slight insignificant changes, but the meaning remained the same. It should be known that the Chinese them selves, and the Japanese after them had different philosophers with different opinions about the meaning of KI, but let's say that the one I stated is most widely spread. If we leave the philosophers for a moment and take a look at the ordinary use of this term, we would refer to etymology again. Etymologically (in Chinese language), the word KI (?) is consisted from two other words – "steam" (?) and "rice" (?), and it signifies the steam that is coming of the warm cooked rice. I think that the "true" meaning should be found somewhere between the steam of the cooked rice and the universal life moving force or energy.
Now, do you remember the line: to use the energy of the opponent? As much as we broaden the discussion about KI, we would be immediately grounded by only one combat situation in which the opponent is determined not to give up. With this "reminder" the middle age Japanese warriors, in their own everyday life used the term KI in a strictly set field, the battle field. In combat, the attacker strikes with force which is sensed by one of the five basic senses - the touch sense, and in most of the cases results with pain. That is why the translation of AIKI was written as "force harmonizing". It is true that this kind of translation doesn't comprise all the aspects of AIKI, the reason being that the term AI is with various meanings, too. That term, as I already said, stands for "harmony", but it contains meanings such as: coordination, joining together, equalization, incorporation… All of this is implied.
AIKI underwent different interpretations and mystifications from different reasons. Even during the creation of aikido, the influence from Shinto sect Oomoto kyo, in which Morihei Ueshiba was an active member and a close friend of it's leader Onisaburo Deguchi, had a great role in the interpretations of AIKI which Morihei explained in different occasions. Some one may even say that Morihei was with his head in the sky in relation to his interpretation of "AIKI", but we definitely can't say the same for his teacher, Sokaku Takeda. He had a direct experience of battles and warfare and he never mystified anything, which could be at the expense of the sanity and would have caused him an injury or even cost him his life! I am not saying that he didn't have his believes and ways to explain something that he didn't know, but the direct experience helped him learn this things directly on the sensory level.
At last, let me try to explain more perceptibly what "to use the energy of the opponent" means. I will take for an example one attack which consists of some kind of swing with the arm in order to strike. That arm has certain force since it has mass and acceleration, and the force has two characteristics: intensity and direction. We have studied in school on physics how we can affect a certain force. In intensity it can be either amplified or weakened. It can be amplified indefinitely (of course, only in non existing ideal circumstances), and it can be weakened to nullification. The influence is being made with an outside force which in relation to the first one, can come from different directions, and that is the second way to influence the force i.e. to influence the direction.
Therefore, we can react on the hand which has an aim to strike in a few ways:
1. to block it (to nullify the force)
2. to avoid it and let it hit an "empty space"
3. to redirect it (to affect an outside force regarding its direction and intensity)
4. to do none of the above, but to "follow" it through space with (or without) touch, but certainly without any affect on it
NOW, this last one is AIKI !
To follow all the movements of the attacker with precision measured in micrometers and in doing so not to have any affect on him/her directly (using force) but indirectly- to provoke his/her next movement with exact positioning, THAT is AIKI! To merge with the movements of the attacker as if you have became his/her "shadow" moving together with him/her, THAT'S AIKI! Being in harmony with him/her, not trying to push or pull in any moment – THAT'S AIKI! When a skier is flexibly adjusting him self to the uneven terrain – that is also AIKI! When the basketball players are trying to score without personal faults, coordinating their movements with everything on the court, that's AIKI also.
The mental attitude, emotional direction and readiness, the ego, the level of vanity, calmness etc. are all conditions which are very important in a battle, and can also be applicable when we are talking about AIKI because AIKI can be found in any of them. Because:
AIKI IS A PRINCIPLE OF ACTING!
AND AIKIDO IS THE WAY OF USING THAT PRINCIPLE!
Both in a fight and in any other given situation.
If we talk about aikido as a martial art that we can practise, besides the fact that we must know what AIKI means in first place, we should be also aware that practising this principle is an ideal to which we strive, and that strive, that effort, that way – we call AIKIDO.
Is it hard to learn aikido? It is VERY hard, but that's exactly why it is a challenge to me, and practicing it, a pleasure!
(In the next text more about DO)
Энциклопедический справочник “Привет мир! О баннерах Очередное приобретение Миллион Долларов В Год, Продавая Экосистемы В Бутылках org.I.ua - Органайзер от i.ua
