Tag: daito-ryu aikijujutsu

• On Atemi in Aikido Pt. 2 (Modern Aikidoist Podcast with Tristan Chermack)

  On October 7th, 2019, Tristan Chermack and Robert Van Valkenburgh discussed the concept of atemi (hitting body) in aikido on Tristan’s Modern Aikidoist podcast. Click on the image or the links below to listen to is part 2 of 2 of that discussion.

  Listen to Part 1 HERE

  

  Listen on:

  • iTunes
  • YouTube
  • Stitcher
  • Podbean

  About Tristan Chermack:

  Tristan Chermack started studying aikido in 2004 and his background includes more than thirty years in various arts. He has an extremely strong weapons background with European sword, spear, polearm, and armored combat. He is also a certified advanced firearms instructor. His ongoing study includes historical European martial arts, savate, pugilism, wrestling, pankration, and he is always eager to learn from others.

  Tristan founded Spirit Aikido in Eden Prairie, MN, in 2011, a martial arts center which offers a variety of martial arts to train including judo, Shorin Ryu karate, Kobudo, and Katori Shinto Ryu.

  Tristan also founded the Facebook group – Aikido: the Martial Side which (at the time of this writing) has over 8,000 members. He also hosts the Modern Aikidoist Podcast, which is available on YouTube and many different podcast platforms.

  Links to resources referenced by Robert Van Valkenburgh:

  • Kogen Dojo: Robert Van Valkenburgh’s dojo in Severna Park, MD
  • Interview with Choi Yong-Sul, by Joe Sheya
  • A Conversation with Daito-Ryu’s Other Child, by Ellis Amdur
  • Dueling with O-Sensei: Grappling with the Myth of the Warrior Sage, by Ellis Amdur
  • KogenBudo: The Blog of Ellis Amdur
  • Hidden in Plain Sight: Esoteric Power Training Within Japanese Martial Traditions, by Ellis Amdur
  • Irimi, by Ellis Amdur
  • Go No Sen: The Path to Defeat, by Stanley Pranin
  • Chess and Collar Chokes, by Robert Van Valkenburgh
  • Old School: Essays on Japanese Martial Traditions, by Ellis Amdur
  • Taikyoku Mind & Body: The organization founded by Budd Yuhasz, Jevin Orcutt, and Robert Van Valkenburgh to explore Chinese Internal Strength principles through Japanese jujutsu, aikido, and kempo

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  Holistic Budo: As it is in budo, so too it is in life. As it is in life, so too it is in budo.

  -Robert Van Valkenburgh is co-founder of Taikyoku Mind & Body and Kogen Dojo where he teaches Taikyoku Budo and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu

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  October 18, 2019

  aikido, aikijujutsu, atemi, bjj, brazilian jiu-jitsu, daito-ryu aikijujutsu, ellis amdur, gracie jiu-jitsu, grappling, internal strength, judo, kogen dojo, o-sensei, relson gracie, striking, taikyoku budo, taikyoku mind and body, takeda sokaku, ueshiba morihei

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• On Atemi in Aikido Pt. 1 (Modern Aikidoist Podcast with Tristan Chermack)

  On October 7th, 2019, Tristan Chermack and Robert Van Valkenburgh discussed the concept of atemi (hitting body) in aikido on Tristan’s Modern Aikidoist podcast. Click on the image or the links below to listen to part 1 of 2 of that discussion.

  Listen to Part 2 HERE

  

  Listen on:

  • iTunes
  • YouTube
  • Stitcher
  • Podbean

  About Tristan Chermack:

  Tristan Chermack started studying aikido in 2004 and his background includes more than thirty years in various arts. He has an extremely strong weapons background with European sword, spear, polearm, and armored combat. He is also a certified advanced firearms instructor. His ongoing study includes historical European martial arts, savate, pugilism, wrestling, pankration, and he is always eager to learn from others.

  Tristan founded Spirit Aikido in Eden Prairie, MN, in 2011, a martial arts center which offers a variety of martial arts to train including judo, Shorin Ryu karate, Kobudo, and Katori Shinto Ryu.

  Tristan also founded the Facebook group – Aikido: the Martial Side which (at the time of this writing) has over 8,000 members. He also hosts the Modern Aikidoist Podcast, which is available on YouTube and many different podcast platforms.

  Links to resources referenced by Robert Van Valkenburgh:

  • Kogen Dojo: Robert Van Valkenburgh’s dojo in Severna Park, MD
  • Interview with Choi Yong-Sul, by Joe Sheya
  • A Conversation with Daito-Ryu’s Other Child, by Ellis Amdur
  • Dueling with O-Sensei: Grappling with the Myth of the Warrior Sage, by Ellis Amdur
  • KogenBudo: The Blog of Ellis Amdur
  • Hidden in Plain Sight: Esoteric Power Training Within Japanese Martial Traditions, by Ellis Amdur
  • Irimi, by Ellis Amdur
  • Go No Sen: The Path to Defeat, by Stanley Pranin
  • Chess and Collar Chokes, by Robert Van Valkenburgh
  • Old School: Essays on Japanese Martial Traditions, by Ellis Amdur
  • Taikyoku Mind & Body: The organization founded by Budd Yuhasz, Jevin Orcutt, and Robert Van Valkenburgh to explore Chinese Internal Strength principles through Japanese jujutsu, aikido, and kempo

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  Holistic Budo: As it is in budo, so too it is in life. As it is in life, so too it is in budo.

  -Robert Van Valkenburgh is co-founder of Taikyoku Mind & Body and Kogen Dojo where he teaches Taikyoku Budo and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu

  If you found this post helpful or meaningful in some way, please feel free to Share, Comment, and Subscribe below.

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  October 17, 2019

  aikido, aikijujutsu, atemi, bjj, brazilian jiu-jitsu, daito-ryu aikijujutsu, ellis amdur, gracie jiu-jitsu, grappling, internal strength, judo, kogen dojo, o-sensei, relson gracie, striking, taikyoku budo, taikyoku mind and body, takeda sokaku, ueshiba morihei

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• It’s Not For That (And That’s Okay)

  “The aiki-arts (aikido, aikijujutsu, hapkido, et al) are ineffective for fighting and incapable of teaching practitioners how to defend themselves against even the most inexperienced attacker, let alone a seasoned martial artist.”

  

  As a practitioner of both aikido (one aspect of Taikyoku Budo) and Brazilian jiu-jitsu (BJJ), I have spent a lot of time contemplating this argument, trying to find my footing and discover my own truth and my own path. When in doubt, I feel it wise to refer back to the beginning and, for me, that means Takeda Sokaku.

  Takeda Sokaku was the founder of Daito-ryu aikijujutsu, the parent art of aikido and (traditional) hapkido. Takeda grew up, like most kids of his era, sumo wrestling for fun. In his youth, he competed in many local sumo tournaments, against much larger, stronger wrestlers, and he often won. As he began studying more traditional grappling and weapon-based arts, Takeda traveled around Japan, visiting various dojo and taking part in challenge matches to test his skills. Even after he developed and began teaching Daito-ryu aikijujutsu, he continued to practice sumo, informally sparring with his students before or after teaching.

  Daito-ryu aikijujutsu itself did not formally incorporate sparring, however. Obviously, Takeda was not opposed to either randori (friendly inner-dojo sparring) or shiai (inter-dojo competitive bouts). He did both (maybe we should also). Why then is there no randori or shiai in Daito-ryu aikijujutsu or other aiki-arts in the way we see it in BJJ for example? Perhaps it was not meant for that. Maybe it was intended to teach its practitioners something different, something that would translate to grappling, striking, or weapons and would make the practitioner more effective in randori or shiai within these contexts, but which is not itself intended to be for ‘fighting.’ That would also explain why the aiki-arts, in their outer form, do not appear to lend themselves well to sparring or competition. They are not supposed to and that is okay.

  “As in life, so too in budo. As in budo, so too in life.”

  -Robert Van Valkenburgh is co-founder of Taikyoku Mind & Body and Kogen Dojo where he teaches Taikyoku Budo and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu

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  June 3, 2019

  aikido, bjj, brazilian jiu-jitsu, daito-ryu aikijujutsu, essentialism, focus, gracie jiu-jitsu, hapkido, japanese martial arts, kogen dojo, Martial Arts, priorities, sumo, taikyoku budo, takeda sokaku

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• From Hapkido to Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Through Sumo and Aikijujutsu

  The founder of traditional Korean hapkido, Choi Yong-sul, claimed to have studied under Japanese martial artist and founder of Daito-ryu aikijujutsu Takeda Sokaku for approximately thirty years, after having been kidnapped from Korea and adopted into the Takeda household as a child, before returning to Korea and teaching his version of Daito-ryu which eventually became known as hapkido. How much of this story is true, I do not know, but there is little doubt, amongst those who are intellectually honest, that hapkido has a technical, and therefore historical connection to Daito-ryu.* Beyond the historical, my interest in the story of Choi Yong-sul and Takeda Sokaku has always been technical.

  Takeda Sokaku is famous in Japanese martial art history for his ‘mysterious strength,’ commonly referred to as aiki and his ability to apply his own brand of jujutsu against any volunteer, regardless of size, skill, or social status. Takeda was a harsh and ferocious man, but he was also highly skilled and well respected. There are many who came after him, including myself, who have sought his skills and the elusive aiki that is said to have made his jujutsu so effective.

  In the arts that resulted from Takeda’s teaching, such as Daito-ryu aikijujutsu, aikido, hapkido, et al, it is common to avoid or even to denounce any kind of sparring or resistance-based competitive training. I always took this at face value as part of the culture and lineage I was a part of, even buying into and regurgitating many of the myths and justifications around the absence of randori (sparring) or shiai (competitive bouts) in the art(s) I was associated with.

  Over the years, I dug deeper and deeper into the history of these arts and the life of Takeda Sokaku.** What I found was fascinating and much less straightforward than I previously believed. Takeda’s father, Takeda Sokichi, was a high ranking sumo wrestler and, in spite of his small size, Sokaku himself had grown up learning sumo from Sokichi and even competing in, and winning, many local sumo contests (against his father’s wishes).

  In other words, not only did Takeda grow up sparring in competitive resistance-based sumo, but he was also very good at it. According to stories from his son and his students, when Sokaku would visit the various dojo he taught at, he would do sumo for fun before or after his classes or seminars. This is a practice he continued well into old age.

  While it may be true that Daito-ryu aikijujutsu and its descendant arts do not contain sparring or competitive practice in their curricula, it is also true that their histories are inextricably interwoven with resistance-based sparring as an essential supplement to the core practices, at least if we consider what the founder himself did as being part of his art. This knowledge was one of the factors that led me to seek out Brazilian jiu-jitsu (BJJ) after receiving my black belt in hapkido. I was looking for my own personal sumo practice to supplement my Daito-ryu, so to speak.

  What I found in BJJ was a rabbit hole of technique and strategy that I am still utterly fascinated with, as a supplement to and information source for the Taikyoku Budo that is now my main practice. BJJ continues to challenge and intrigue me and I can see myself wanting to roll well into my old age as much as Takeda wanted to do sumo when he visited his students in his eighties.

  – Robert Van Valkenburgh is co-founder of Kogen Dojo where he teaches Taikyoku Budo and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu

  **For a great article on the technical relationship between hapkido and Daito-ryu aikijujutsu, read the chapter A Conversation with Daito-ryu’s Other Child in Ellis Amdur’s book Dueling with O-Sensei: Grappling with the Myth of the Warrior Sage

  **For more information on Takeda Sokaku, I highly recommend Ellis Amdur’s book Hidden in Plain Sight: Esoteric Power Training Within Japanese Martial Traditions

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  January 12, 2019

  brazilian jiu-jitsu, choi yong-sul, daito-ryu aikijujutsu, hapkido, taikyoku budo, takeda sokaku

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