A few days ago I wrote a post about the meanings of the Japanese names for the arts we do. A couple of my readers corrected/clarified and what we came up with is that aiki means something like fitting energy, whie ju means something like flexibility-of-mind.
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The question popped into my mind today, "does the fit that is implied in aiki have anything to do with the fit that is impied in tsukuri (the second stage of a judo throw)?" I'm no Japanese scholar but I took a semester in college and I have a cool Japanese dictionary, which tells me that tsukuri does not really mean to fit, as we usually translate it. Instead, tsukuri appears in phrases related to constructing or fabricating or building or creating something. So, in judo the four stages of a throw woud be offbalancing, fabricating (setting up or creating or building the structure of the throw), throwing, and remaining.
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To me (and this might just be my connotation) the fitting in aiki implies appropriateness instead of a spatial, structural fitting. So, initially I'd guess that no, aiki and tsukuri are both good things but not the same thing.
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Anybody have a better answer?
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Patrick Parker, is a Christian, husband, father, judo and aikido teacher, Program Director for a Cardiac Rehab, and a Ph.D. Contact: mokurendojo@gmail.com or phone 601.248.7282
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I've also heard tsukuri described as preparing uke's body (to receive the technique).
ReplyDeleteI can understand how you see "aiki", the blending with energy, as tori blends with uke's attacking energy. Perhaps this initial moment of aiki applies, the resultant of which is kuzushi. Your thoughts?
There is a FREE downloadable Japanese - English - Chinese dictionary, complete with character look up at :
ReplyDeletewakan.manga.cz
I absolutely rely on it.
Good one, I never caught that before.
ReplyDeleteI don't think that they are exactly the same either. As Kyle eludes to, there seems to be more in the meaning of aiki. Conceptually, kuzushi implies that you have to some degree reduced the chaos of the confrontation enough to build, construct, etc. a motion towards a technique. I don't necessarily think that the same applies to aiki. Aiki, to me, almost is the controlling of the chaos in it's entirety. Thus, Kuzushi is contained within aiki (in my feable mind).
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