March 2009 post translated in English by Mihai Vladu sensei

Tuesday, 31st of March 2009

Saito Sensei’s comments

The text bellow represents Saito Sensei’s comments, wrote for the introduction to the second volume from Takemusu Aikido series, appeared in French edition, under the Budo Concepts publishing edition (2001). For me it seemed very interesting the progressive practicing method for the Aikido techniques, also because our master Fujita Masatake Sensei showed us that we need to allow our partner to catch us strongly, executing the techniques afterward.

During the age when I started publishing one first technique series in five volumes, I stopped teaching in three different places, to dedicate myself only to the Iwama dojo. I was considering in fact that, for training good instructors, I did not have to miss too often, going to teach classes in other areas. I felt it was indispensable to be in contact every day with my students to be able to pass on the knowledge that I received from the founder Morihei Ueshiba. In this way, during the evenings and mornings, I was the one teaching the instructors and a big part from Iwama’s instructors is conducting today an excellent work throughout the world. It is indispensable to preserve the traditional Aikido in order to pass on the “takemusu” concept. For this purpose I use a progressive practice method. This method has 4 steps: the hard form, the supple form, the fluid form and the form with ki.
I insist upon the first three stages, especially upon the hard form, which corresponds to one stern and solid practice.
One day, when I was executing the techniques in a fluid manner, the founder stopped me telling me: “You do not have to train in the fluid form before receiving the third degree black belt!”. I remember even today this scene.
The founder always used the following remark: “If you want to become strong you have to become used to performing the technique after you have been caught!”. So, we have to let the partner to catch us strong before we start performing the technique. I want to say that, the majority of the techniques presented in this book, except some forms with “ki no nagare”, are techniques which are performed only after the partner ensured his grip.
Aikido is without cracks. If any error is done, it is always possible to link it with some more proper technique. The founder demonstrated sometimes movements, making circles with his arms and saying: “If you will touch my arm with which I am just about to make a circle, a technique will appear from the point of touching it!”. Each new situation contains a new technique.
I think this is what the founder wished to say with “takemusu”. But we have to practice correctly after the traditional method, in order to be able to reach this advanced level.
I hope sincerely that this manual, like the first volume also, will represent for the readers, a valuable help in obtaining this objective.

Saito Morihiro, Ibaragi Dojo, 17th of March 1995



Stefan was saying….

Very interesting this comment, especially during this age, when Aikido is seen, from the outside and from the manner in which some instructors and so-called instructors present and execute the training, like a nicely executed ballet.
Nevertheless I think one problem still needs to be solved. In which way can be useful this method in the case of a weak tori and a very strong uke (let’s say tori weighs 70 kilos and uke weighs 100 kilos)? Is it indicated to use a method like this or you have just to train with partners with likely the same sizes?

1st of April 2009, 08:58














Monday, 30th of March 2009

Why Aikido?

“Why Aikido?” This is a question I addressed and will address still in the future, to my friends, practicing partners, beginners and those who wish practicing Aikido. Because it is not (too) correct to ask only others, today I am going to answer myself to this question.
I missed the television show, in 1977 I think, which presented images with O-Sensei Morihei Ueshiba, so, I was not attracted to Aikido from this reason. My first contacts with the Japanese martial arts are due to one publication, which, even know, brings me back sweet memories, Pif Gadget. One of the comics’ characters in this magazine, is Dr. Justice, Benjamin Justice, Doctor in W.H.O. (World Health Organization) and Judo and Karate practitioner. The quality of the drawings, executed by Oscar Ratti (between others, co-author together with Adele Westbrook of many books about Aikido and Martial Arts, from which, in my opinion, the most representative is “Aikido and the dynamic sphere”), still stands for me as a standard for this kind of illustrations. I also read/browsed/had different books translated in Romanian, from which I can not stop my self to mention “Ju Jitsu – The art of personal defense” and “Judo – From the white belt to the black belt” written by the master Florian Frazzei and Nicolae Bucur’s book named “Karate”. This last book represents my first try in understanding the Karate, which I found in those times, more attractive than Judo or Ju Jitsu, for example. Probably it held a certain importance because it was new in the landscape (I speak here about the last period of the 70’s) and because of the movies hat started to appear (more Chinese – “The silver lance”, but some Japanese also – “Cobra”, “Cobra returns”). I have to admit that I was not able then to understand too good, the book being pour in illustration, and the text just know is clear as understanding.
Anyway, until 1985, when I succeeded to enroll in the Judo section at Dinamo’s sports club in Bucharest (coach Gheorghe Nache), I had no way and no where to learn more about martial arts. Judo, where the trainings where intense and physical, I did not like it (then) too much because my wish it was to learn Karate. Something very difficult – at least for me – because I was not able to find a dojo. This was solved when, in 1986, I began studying Kyokushinkay with master Leonardo Voinescu, which I continued to do (with breaks due to the military service which was mandatory in those times) until 1990, 1991. In this way I had the opportunity to know a real master, to learn some things from an absolutely remarkable Karate style and to meet some persons which I feel very close even today, although I was not able to keep in touch with everybody: Dan Constantinescu, Mihai Mihailovic, Traian, Geroge Dumitrascu, Viorel, Licurici and many others which I ask them to forgive me if I am not mentioning them here. When master Leonardo left for Germany, where he had an absolutely remarkable carrier in the martial arts area, I did not continue anymore training in Karate.
I succeeded, meanwhile, to meet another master, in Ju Jitsu this time, which, despite his age, the same like mine, proved a great talent. I am speaking about my friend Lucian Gavrilescu, together with whom I started on a road that did not end even today: the study of Ju Jitsu. The first dojo where I have been studying Ju Jitsu was the one in “Ady Endre” high school, in Bucharest (and maybe you will also see that a certain cycle does exist in life), since 1990 since 1992 when Lucian decided to stop practicing Ju Jitsu. After this, together with a colleague and friend, Cristian Popescu, I rent a dojo inside the “Health Complex”, in Socului area, where we succeeded in opening a new Ju Jitsu dojo: “Heiwa”. In 1993 I obtained my first degree black belt in Ju Jitsu, from another great master and human being, which I had the chance to meet, Alois Gurschi. For me, knowing master Gurschi was a big chance and I want even now to honor his memory, for all he realized and represented for the martial arts in Romania. I obtained in 1994 the second degree black belt and after this the third one (1997) – from the master Dan Alexandrescu – master Gurschi’s student, which this one recommended to me laying on his bed in hospital, three days before he passed away.
In 1997 I decided to break the practice in Ju-Jitsu, disappointed that I was not, technically speaking, where I thought I should have been. Besides this, the routine of practicing appeared, that I considered there was the case I had to start all over again and I begun to study Kendo. In that time, there was a seven degree black belt Kendo master in Bucharest, Ono Takashi. On the suggestion of another friend, also I already saw a Kendo training at the “Politehnica” University of Bucharest, we went to see an Aikido training at “Ecran Club”, where the master Dan Corneliu Ionescu held his dojo. Again I will have to take a break and tell you that, in 1991, I went and saw two Aikido dojos, and here I am referring to the master Ionescu’s one and master Geroge Raicu’s one. I also have been practicing for several month at “Ecran Club”, but, on that time, it looked like Aikido was too soft for me, resulting I did not go farther away with it. Anyway, that desire of seeing Aikido, was due to the apparition, in 1990, of the first Aikido book in Romania, written by the masters Dan Corneliu Ionescu and Serban Derlogea.
Coming back to the second Aikido experience (being the third one in fact, because in 1994 I practiced several Aikido trainings, in Massimo Castelli’s dojo from Mogliano-Veneto, third degree black belt then, fifth degree black belt today). I tell you that I went to see one training, being skeptical, due to my memories from 1991. I had the big surprise of seeing master Dan Ionescu in an extraordinary shape, and, in this way a forgot about Kendo and enrolled in Aikido. Wearing the white belt, after years of instructing, was a strange experience but the pleasure of learning Aikido balanced everything. Here also I met a lot of special people, Ioan Grigorescu, Serban Derlogea, Adrian si Laurentiu Vasilache, George Ilie, Viorel Dan, Nicolae Mitu, Dorin Marchis – this to specify only few of the instructors. Besides them, many people, men and women, who, just like me, tried to learn and understand Aikido: Valentin Taulescu, Eugen Matei, Florina Raduca, Silviu Vieru, Arthur Alexiu, Dan Gramada, Luis Turcu, Dan Ene, Ion State, Stefan Serafim, Mihai Vladu, Silviu Vieru, Cristina Ghinea and many, many others.
Besides master Ionescu, one person which I respect and admire even today, I had the chance to meet my friend from today, master Viorel Dan. Student of Raicu sensei, left his organization upon certain reasons and practiced at “Ecran Club”. He managed to make me really interested in Aikido, from the moment when he had the patience to explain and show me the Aikido basics.
In 1999 I met Constantin Popescu "Tinel", a formal practicing partner of Viorel, who, on his turn, introduced me to master Nicolae Mitu, the Romanian Aikido Aikikai Federation’s president back then. Nicu proved himself to be a man with a great soul, step by step starting to train together and in 2000 I had the chance to personally meet master Fujita Masatake, whose student I also became. Back then also I decided to join the Romanian Aikido Aikikai Federation, practicing also in parallel with master Dan Ionescu.
I stopped this double practice in 2002, when I had a conversation with master Ionescu, thanking him for all that I learned and letting him know what I have decided. It was not an easy conversation for me because it is not easy to say this to a man that you respect and admire. Sensei Ionescu is a person with a great power of acceptance and patience, who understood me and also today, with the proper respect, we are friends and practice Aikido from time to time. The extraordinary opportunity to learn from a direct disciple of O-sensei, made that others aikidokas joined the organization led by Nicu Mitu. In 2000 I sustained the examination for equating the first Kyu rank and in 2001 I was examined for the first degree black belt in Aikido.
In 2005 we re-organize ourselves under the name of the Romanian Aikido Foundation (after that becoming Romanian Aikido Aikikai Foundation), led by our friend Dorin Marchis, showing that not all the friendships begin in a spectacular way and that essential is the quality and determination that the people show in time. We grow, have been officially recognized by the Aikikai Hombu Dojo and, in generally speaking, tried to make things in a proper way. I hope we managed it and I also hope that others will come and help us on this way, of promoting and practicing Aikido.
The years passed, there were examination in Ju-Jitsu and also in Aikido, there were many seminars, I had the chance to travel several times to Japan, I watched my friends separating, finding themselves again, opening dojos, creating new organizations…living…and I had my part and my role in all of this.


“Why still Aikido?”

Because I still discover new things. Because there are things not that new which I can not work out. Or that I work out sometimes. Because I have a lot of friends for which I care about and I train with: Dorin Marchis, Iulian Perpelici, Sorin Despa, George Stoian, Viorel Dan, Nicolae Mitu, Dan Gramada and many others. Maybe you will say that I enumerated the ones above only for political reasons (it is not like this but I will not try to convince you otherwise). There are also things that I regret. Some that I did, some done by others. But I believe that we have to have the wisdom to respect each other, try to understand other points of view and respect the devotion of still walking on the path.















The presence in the virtual world



I think it was necessary for me to create this blog (this due to the shortage of more advanced programming knowledge and the desire to spend money for the domain) for being present in the virtual world, which tends, more and more, to be a part of our daily life.
I will try, according with the limit of the time and talent (or the shortage of this one) to offer you different writings, articles, translations, hoping that some will find them interesting. But the main purpose is communicating information about Aikido, Romanian Aikido Aikikai Foundation and my dojo, Kenshin.

Kenshin means, like I try to write it, devotion. The devotion is one of the qualities that I consider essential in our becoming as a human being. Without devotion I do not really think much can be realized in this life. The name is in Japanese because Aikido, being a part of this people’s culture, sends not only techniques ad ideas, but also language knowledge. For this reason, I also wanted to name my dojo using Japanese language and trying to underline one of the qualities necessary for a true character.














Wednesday, 25th of March 2009

DO (The way) – Dave Lowry




The way, in the beginning, is obscure. The initiated steps also are enveloped in mist. The peaks towards which she leads are apparently hidden by a congestion of clouds, which, observed from bellow, seem impossible to penetrate. (Translation made by Adrian Bunea from the Italian edition of the book “Sword and Brush”.)


But this is a good thing because, seeing too clearly what there is in front of us, could intimidate us more than necessary. The clarifications appear only in retrospection: the traveler has walked for a lot of time on this Path, has left behind a quiet and peaceful realm, has confronted a journey which presents continuous challenges but which also offers rewards greater than it would have been expected in the beginning of the travel. Advancing on the Path, he realizes that is directed towards a destination which, even remaining mysterious, appears attractive in an absolute manner.
On this Path it is not about traveling in a physical way, even if the cases are rare when the “bugeisha” (the Budo practitioners) discover they can do it without leaving their own houses. The Path is a journey of the mind, of the spirit and, in the end, also of the soul. The mechanics of the Path is a contribution of the Taoists, the old wise men of China, whose Tao philosophy (“Do” in Japanese) stimulated them to leave an existence synchronized with the currents of the nature. By the brush of the calligrapher, “Do” is a composed character. The lines which indicate “main” or “fundamental” are united with those of the radical which means “movement”. But, “Do” wants to signify “main street”, a Path to follow in harmony and accord with the difficulties suggested by the universe, a long path on which one may discover the uniqueness of the life’s elements in universe.
In this way, the trails of the Path are very old. It took form for the first time when an individual begun an activity with the conscience of pushing it over the boundaries of the utilitarism and to overtake the restrictions of the ego. It is true, the Path may also lead to art, may even have a practical value, but the final purpose of the Path is the “process”. This means to make one thing not for its result but, to involve ourselves in order for the fulfillment of this act to free us of the restraints of our limited ego: narcissism, egocentrism, the concerns inducted by our fears, problems and worries which make our daily like drabber. The Path attracts us in the place where our potential ego dominates: self-fulfillment, self-cultivation and self-improvement.
The “Do”, either singular or universal, is opened to all who have the determination and the partial to walk on it. Anyway, those who do it, chose a big variety of disciplines to approach the way, because the “Do” transcends the specific in order to come near to the general. The tea ceremony, the art of arranging the flowers, the gardening, each of these disciplines, is a way of the Path. The way chosen by the “bugeisha” is the Martial Way. Even if this one’s particular chosen way is not important, the “Do” of the “bugeisha” leads to a more close confrontation with fundamental conflicts of the reality: life and death, pain and pleasure, temporal and spiritual problems. The Martial Way requires moral resistance together with visceral and emotive courage. It requires also social conscience and physical resistance. Be certain, each of these qualities will be tested along the way. They will be, mean while, purified and strengthened during the process but, they should, anyway, be present at least on a certain level inside the person who decides to take a journey which will carry him very far away.
As a traveler on the Path, the “bugeisha” is guided by a sextant sensitive to the influence of the Japanese traditional culture. The geography of this culture is the land where all the Paths of Japan grew and alimented themselves. The “bugeisha’s” level of familiarization and adaptation to this land will have an important weight in his success in this way.
An individual who begins to walk on the Martial Way has to be courageous and virtuous, has to have the sense of involvement and sensitivity towards the values of the past. Even if he will have these meritorious characteristic features, the “bugeisha” aspirant will also have interior uncertainties, including the doubt of having lost something from his own existence, something vital.  Because of this reason he takes the journey which will take him to his mysterious destination. He will do it even if the others will attract his attention about the Path being a naïf practice, old-fashioned or ideal. He follows his course because he knows others walked it before him, because the immutable direction of the Path attracts and calls him. He goes forward because he feels constrained to do it. He began the life’s journey because he is convinced, as the kanji for the Path shows, that this is the main road which he has to walk through. This Path is the only one which can take him to a place worth of being reached.




































Wednesday, 25th of March 2009

The actor Claudiu Bleont speaking about the martial art


Claudiu, first of all, thank you because you agreed to discuss with us about Aikido.
With great pleasure, but wait to tell you which reasons I had – two…filming, the role (for a movie which will be launched in 2009) and coming here at the dojo, because for nine months I have not stepped inside the dojo. I broke up with Aikido nine months ago when I suffered an accident and now, in your dojo, I recovered after these months and it seems like my body is telling me “Yes, you can go on”.

Adrian Bunea: Anyway, it is a great pleasure for us. Claudiu, how did you find out about Aikido for the first time?
Claudiu Bleont: For the first time I think…a, yes: from the PIF magazines (the French cartoons magazine). I used to see doctor Justice (one of the magazine’s characters, a Judo practitioner in the first place but also a Karate and Aikido one) and I liked the principles put there, in that dialogue box and I was fascinated by this thing because, I always like a martial art which does not cultivate the conflict, which leads to an end that wants itself to be harmonious, but if I have to “cut your neck I will do it”. This answer is due to your strong insistence.

Tell me please, if you can, as an actor, do you think there is any relationship between playing on the stage and Aikido?
Yes. When I first reached the dojo (Claudiu Bleont is master Dan Ionescu’s student) I realized that somewhere, the theatrical tradition, essential for the western world, which is “commedia dell’arte” tradition, has developed also what Aikido is doing and, in general all the martial arts, the balance, aggressiveness/passivity, involvement/non-involvement, cultivated by all the martial arts coming from Japan or the Asian land. In the same time, there a code of a master, elaborated long before Christ, which speaks about the physical part of the theatre and is cultivated, this author, in his principles, by the Kabuki theatre.
In our space, coming to Aikido, I found things happening in basic trainings which are also happening in “commedia dell’arte”. We have also here the training with the staff; the staff not only as an object of defense but also learning how to handle it, how to situate in space, the relationship between your body and space, the staff as a katana, the staff becomes the refined part of your ego. For example, even now there are some exercises practiced in the theatre, and also in the theatre school – the patriarch of the contemporary theatre, Peter Brook, practices physical exercises with the staff. The actor tries to project his body outside, that is to say is not you anymore. There is a very deep relationship. Paradoxical, you could say they are separate things, but everything is in everything. Is a principle from Hermes Trismegistos – all there is above is also bellow. Nothing is far from shadow and dark, the dark delivers the light, the light calls and needs the dark.

Complementarity or opposition?
Yes… Exactly! Or even contradiction but complementary… as a bridge between… What I like in Aikido is that one person, the one which attacks, suffers a harmonious imbalance. And going inside the harmonious universe of an aikidoka’s movement, somewhere things balance again and, the person who created first that energy of imbalance, as an attack or a blow, a person rather calm and balanced and with an area of human deepness, realizes that his attack was not necessary.

I will not tell you that our experience filming is a significant one…
I should ask you that…

Our artistic experiment in filming I think made us find another point of similarity between Aikido and film… the discipline…
The discipline of filming…

We, for sure, strive very much to learn the basic forms, pre-arranged exercises, “kata”, but what we really look for is certain naturalness, managing to execute exercises based upon not very fluid movements. You, as actors, do the same thing?
So… a monologue is a “kata”. And not only for the words. It is a “kata” of the thoughts, inflexions, the way of leading the idea. In the same time is a physical “kata”… in cinema you can say “Sit on the chair and the camera makes the game”. But you play with your eyes, nose, with your face… the mask of the face. In the same time, if you are on a stage, all this “kata” gains amplitude. The feet enter the game… hands, gestures… practically the martial art and we refer now to Aikido because I practice it together with you and it gives us the chance to perfect and refine this… let’s say… this conglomerate formed by two components… I do not know how to say it… binomial… human/animal, better said, by Pascal: “Pig and saint”. You know, there is something animal inside us… physically and something spiritual, something which knows to observe and something which knows to control. The Greeks said it better: centaur. From the hips above is human, from the hips bellow is horse, stallion or mare.

Look, there is another question that just now appeared in my mind: how do you see it, what is the role of the ego in acting and Aikido?
Well… is just like the snake. The ego does not exist. It appears through education, formation, a routine that forms through your relationships from kindergarten, school, family, culture, race, history and, in the same time, becomes present in the moment when you identify yourself with a certain identity… with a certain attitude which gives the perspective upon life. In that moment the ego exists, is… is an illusion.

Maya…
Yes, Maya. It is a caprice. And if you have the chance to understand it, to make it appear and in this was to understand that the phenomenon of ego exists. But for me it does not exist anymore.

Is it a little bit like in the exercise with the staff, about which you told us earlier?
Yes because, also in Aikido, when you execute something, after you do not execute anymore… it happens – the technique…

You do not do it anymore conscious… you are not a protagonist anymore but just an actor…
Yes, we have it just like you do: you are a “pipe” through a message is sent; you are a bridge through which the connection is made between harmony/disharmony, yin/yang.

…

Claudiu, thank you very much for these interesting words!
Thank you!

(Interview realized by Adrian Bunea on the film set.)



Kenshin Dojo



Kenshin is an Aikido Aikikai dojo, affiliated to the Romanian Aikido Aikikai Foundation.

http://www.aikikai.ro/

The Aikido practice takes place in 2 dojos, inside the “Lia Manoliu” Sports Complex and inside “Ady Endre” high school, in Bucharest, Bulevardul Ferdinand 89, sectorul 2, upon the next schedule:

MONDAY            20:30 – 22:00 (Lia Manoliu)
WEDNESDAY     20:30 – 22:00 (Ady Endre)
FRIDAY         20:30 – 22:00 (Lia Manoliu)

For registration or any other questions about Aikido, call before at            004-0724.382.971.
Only adults are accepted (over 16 years old) and only inside the limit of the available places.