Tokio Hirano's seoinage

A couple of weeks ago I did a post talking about several of my heroes in martial arts - people whose special sparks I want to emulate and develop in myself.
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One of those judo superheroes is Tokio Hirano.  Unfortunately Hirano sensei passed away years ago and most of his adherents are in Europe so it's hard to lay hands on them, but fortunately he left us a ton of (often confusing and cryptic) video records.
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Here is a little tidbit of Tokio Hirano that I want to work on with my judo buddies and students and partners for a while - a really elegant seoinage (shoulder-carry throw).

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Connections between Junokata, Koshiki, and Nanatsu!

You know what is really cool?  When you have both enough time in a body of work, and the opportunity to step back from it far enough that you can see the themes and motifs running through it.  Judo is like this.

My crazy names for Hirano's crazy exercises

Naming conventions for martial arts techniques and kata vary from art to art.  Some folks like the ultra-simple thing-1, thing-2 sort of ordinal naming system, while others like more descriptive names for things like the "arm-crushing cross-shaped armbar," from judo.

Tokio Hirano's unorthodox genius

Tokio Hirano was one of the, if not THE winningest competition judoka in history.

The story goes that he racked up 4300 competition wins in 6 years in western Europe in the early 1950's.  That's more than 700 wins per year, year-after-year!  Who among us modern mortals can even conceive of attempting 14-15 shiai matches per week for 6 years?

Injury potential in Hirano's Kata

I just got back from Summer Seminar 2015 at Windsong Dojo in OKC, where I was honored to lead an exploration of Tokio Hirano's ideas that were groundbreaking in the 1950's in European Judo, and which are still amazingly innovative in American Judo.

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Each class we worked on ...

• ashi-sabaki drills (because Hirano was an amazingly agile guy with great footwork).
• uchikomi of some of Hirano's tokuiwaza (like osotogari and seoinage and taiotoshi) using his interesting rhythmic practice methods.
• Hirano's Nanatsu no kata (A.K.A. Hando no kata)

Here is a pretty good video of the type of things we worked on...

At the end of the 3rd day of the seminar, we'd not quite finished all of Nanatsu no kata - we had run out of time for several of the counters, most distinctive of which are uchimata sukashi, harai-utsurigoshi, and jumping around taiotoshi into yokoguruma.

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If y'all want to explore this whole kata including those last few counter sacrifices, I'd like to give y'all some advice - to the degree possible, work slowly and carefully with a compliant partner and a crash pad and make sure everyone involved always knows what's coming.

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The reason I say this is because the jump-around counter to taiotoshi is the only technique that I've ever been seriously injured practicing!  In college we were practicing this exact counter - jumping around taiotoshi into yokoguruma.  It's not too difficult when you go slow and step through it with a compliant partner, but as you get it moving more quickly with both uke and tori moving into their techniques at the same time, it becomes tricky.  Anyway, I moved into taiotoshi and my partner tripped and fell on my leg.  In his attempt to regain his balance, he pulled me down on top of him and we ended up with my leg entangled and trapped under him, with him trapped under me.  I was yelling and he couldn't get off of me because I was lying on top of him.

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Broken ankle. No fun.  Put a major damper on my participation and enjoyment of judo for about a semester.

The technique I'm talking about is demonstrated here by Hirano sensei so smoothly that it looks easy. (starting at about 5:50)

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Tokio Hirano's ouchigari

Watch Hirano's variety of entries and twitches on this particular throw.  This looks like a whole lot of fun!

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Tokio Hirano's Hando no kata

I received an interesting message from a fellow who is planning to attend the Summer intensive in OKC this year.  He asked if the Nanatsu no kata that I planned to lead was the same thing as Hando no kata.  I had to look it up, but sure enough - there are groups of people doing Tokio Hirano's exercises under the name Hando no kata.  (Unfortunately, that video can't be embedded in my blog, so follow the link for an interesting performance.)

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It's neat to see other interpretations by people with different ideas.  Even the name, Hando no kata, is interesting because it is yet another lens on what Hirano might have been thinking - my dictionary says the name Hando means something like "reaction or recoil or kick-back or back-lash" - and this is very much an exercise of inducing a reaction in uke and then amplifying that reaction until it overwhelms uke.

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An interesting film of Hirano's kata

This is a right interesting film, the first part of it is Hirano's unusual rhythmic uchikomi and nagekomi exercises.  The second part beginning at about 2:20 (that caught my attention today) is Hirano's Nanatsu no kata.

This rendition of Nanatsu no kata is interesting to me because:

• He does not do the crazy big wave arm swinging thing before each move.  This suggests to me that the arm swinging thing was either a sometimes thing - an option, or it was a teaching/demonstrating thing.
• He appears to do different techniques than in his other demos.  One of the most notable instances is the first ura technique is usually demonstrated as osotogari countered by ukiotoshi, but here it is osotogari countered by sukashi.  This suggests to me that either 1) the kata was not finished when this film was made, or 2) the techniques might have been somewhat interchangeable.  I have suspected for a while that the techniques were somewhat interchangeable... Something to think on for a while...

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Energy, Frequency, Vibration

Many of the worlds' greatest thinkers and warriors have been telling us the same thing.  Ueshiba, Tesla, Hirano, Laban, Tohei, Solomon.  The influential school of jujutsu, Kitoryu, was all about the waxing and waning of energy.  Henry Kono said (in essence) that he didn't understand aikido until he realized that Ueshiba was talking about yin-yang, and the implications of that.

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Karl Geis was fond of telling us, "You can do anything you want if you have perfect timing."

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Some of the lessons in Nanatsu

In some ways, Nanatsu no kata seems to be a better introduction to randori than does Nagenokata.  Watch the above video and observe, among other lessons,

• It has a good technical range - several ashiwaza, koshiwaza, tewaza, and sutemiwaza spread out across the gokyo
• It teaches tori to throw right-sided against both left and right postures by uke.
• It teaches tori to throw uke out of jijotai as well as shizentai.
• It teaches tori to throw tori out of light, moderate, and strong resistance conditions (watch uke's posture and arms going into each technique).
• It teaches tori a counter (or a weakness to watch for) to each technique.

Nagenokata is also a good exercise and a good introduction to randori techniques, but I would not be offended if any of my shodan candidates chose to work up Nanatsu no kata for their shodan demonstration.

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Be like water, My Friend

Hirano was putting this lecture into a physical instead of verbal form when he devised and demonstrated Nanatsu no kata.

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Why all the arm waving and spinning!?

Modern judoka, competitive and recreational alike, seem to have about two distinct initial opinions about Tokio Hirano when they see his videos - 

1. Whoa! This guy has amazing light technique that still gets big amplitude throws!
2. What the hell is all that arm waving and spinning around nonsense!?

Those were certainly my initial thoughts, but then the question struck me, "how did he get from those crazy practice motions to that amazing skill?" or "What is the meaning and idea behind those unorthodox training motions?"

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I spent most of a year or so obsessed with Hirano and his videos and his crazy kata. I did searches on Google for info about Hirano and the kata. I played with what I could understand of the kata. But it still took a long time for me to get a glimmer of what I think he was getting at.

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Follow me here...

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The name of the kata is Nanatsu no kata, which means something like "seven forms." Not much help there. But then I found somewhere on the net some French practitioners that refer to it as le "kata des vagues" or "The Form of Waves." I like to use my own loose translations, so i call it "Seven Waveforms."

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It seems that Hirano was obsessed with ocean waves and spent a lot of time watching them and thinking about how they behave. He came to see judo throws as similar to the motions of waves. I also think that he was looking at the waves in a naturalistic, non-scientific way - like art, because his Waveforms kata is a work of art and not a Physics thesis.

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Once I started thinking along the lines of "He is demonstrating seven kinds of waves that exemplify judo throws." all of a sudden the pieces fell into order.

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Also note, there is video of Hirano's students on the net doing the kata and they don't always do the arm-waving thing, so apparently that was a teaching or a demonstration or a sometimes-practice sort of thing.

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Hirano was a stranger in a strange land. There was probably a language barrier and there was certainly a skill-level barrier between him and his European students. It must have been hard to communicate advanced ideas like he wished he could. Here's what I think. Here is the monologue that is running in my head as I watch Hirano do Nanatsu...

"Alright, listen up, monstrous, clumsy westerners. I'm about to really lay an idea on you. Judo is like waves..."

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(Imagine Hirano holding a giant paintbrush and painting a huge wave on the wall beside him...)

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"Some waves wash in and subside like this...Some judo is like that... Some waves wash in and cut along the shoreline like this...Some judo is like that... Some waves wash in and hit a rock and splash back like this...Some judo is like that... Some waves come in and become whirlpools like this...Some judo is like that..."

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He was saying the same thing as Bruce Lee in Lee's famous "Be like water, my friend" lecture.
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Hirano was, as literally as practical, painting you a picture of the sort of motion happening in the waves and the judo throws.  Watch it again and let me know if the arm waving thing makes more sense.

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A glimpse into Hirano's head (maybe)

I think watching this instructor makes Hirano's rhythmic work make much more sense. He (Hirano) appears to have been decomposing whole-body motion into its constituent components and drilling each technique with each movement component - the thesis being, if tori is skilled enough at fitting with each of several components then he will be able to fit with chaotic-seeming motion that is made up of those previously-understood components.

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Check out the last 3 throws on the video - tori spazzes out (chaotic motion) and then finds the throw inside the chaos.

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Patrick Parker
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Tokio Hirano tachiwaza (esp. sumiotoshi)

Watch this video of Hirano sensei with an eye to his rhythmic application of tsukuri.  I think my favorite throw on this video (there are many!) is the superb sumiotoshi at 5:15, but they are all worth studying.  The wealth of Hirano sensei's material that is available on Youtube is an outstanding resource!

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Patrick Parker
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Where does Hirano's magic live?

I am signed up to lead an exploration of Tokio Hirano sensei's cool/crazy rhythmic exercises and training methods at OKC at the Summer 2015 seminar.  Check out this video (The first 2 minutes) of some of what I mean by cool/crazy.

Here's a hint as to my line of thinking/exploration on this stuff. Notice in the title at the beginning of the film what he calls this material - kumikata - "forms of gripping!" This strange, rhythmic thing that he is doing that we think of as kuzushi or tsukuri - he is calling that gripping.

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With that in mind, check out this excerpt from JudoInfo's essay of Hirano...

Traditional nage-waza (throwing techniques) were taught in the following sequence: kumu (gripping), tsukuru (the entry and proper fitting of your body into position taken just before the movement required for completion of your throwing technique), kakeru (completing), and nageru (throwing). 

Hirano revolutionized the order to tsukuru, kumu, kakeru and nageru. This is the current European style Judo. This is a proven method to defeat bigger opponents, as demonstrated by Hirano's stunning success.

The magic that he is doing seems to live within the "fit-in-and-grip" stages of the conflict.  That makes sense, because it is much harder to induce a useful vibe into uke if you have already set your grips (like in the Classical Kodokan approach above) because your grips tend to damp out that vibration (like holding a bell while trying to ring it).  But on the other hand, uke should be more susceptible to that vibe-induction thing as you are coming to grips, while he still has freedom to oscillate.

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So it seems we're going to be studying how to come to grips with gentle, facile hands while inducing a vibe into uke and/or matching yourself to uke's oscillation.

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Patrick Parker
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2014 review, 2015 preview

2015 is officially here - 2014 is a thing of the past.  Over the course of the past year, we had a baby born and a sensei pass away.  Last year I posted a list of several technical emphases for my practice in 2014 - sort of like budo resolutions.  Like any resolutions, some worked out and some got sidetracked.

2014 TECHNICAL EMPHASIS

• Ukemi - esp. wrt. Nagenokata
• Kito ryu aiki-jujutsu - Koshiki no Kata esp. Y.Kono's students'
• Nanatsu no Kata & Hirano's rhythmic uchikomi & his students' & more of his students' work.
• Koryu Dai Ni & Daito & internal strength
• Non-dominant seoi, osoto, hiza, and ouchi
• Kuzushi upon contact and throughout the encounter
• Jodo, Aiki-jo, Tanjo, Role of tanto in aikido

We did have a definite emphasis on Nagenokata, and particularly on uke's role.  The kids did a demo of the first 9 of nagenokata in the Spring and it really worked out well.  In September I got to go to Union University and show those guys some of what I've been working on wrt Nage no Kata. Later in the Fall, three old heads from Union University demonstrated Nagenokata for Shodan and Nidan ranks.

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We also did a goodly amount of Koshiki no kata, and I recently had the honor of leading some classes at Windsong in OKC on some exercises that bear at least some superficial resemblance to Koshiki.  This was well-received, because these forms are ...

1. ...good ukemi practice for both partners
2. ...good introduction to the structure and attacks and basic form of Koshiki
3. ...good intro to both aikido and judo ideas

The other Patrick (P4) is currently working on Koryu Dai Ni for his next rank promotion, so put a check mark beside that one.

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I have continued my aiki-jo studies throughout the year.  Jack has been hammering kamae and honte this past year, and Eric has recently shown me a good many holes (get it?) in my knife defense work, so we'll put a check on that one and move it forward to next year for continued study.

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We did get to work some of Tokio Hirano's ideas on and off throughout the year, including his Nanatsu no kata.  Much of what Matl sensei showed at the recent Windsong Winter shindig reminded me of Hirano, so we will be revisiting that in much more detail this coming year.

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The non-dominant throwing and the contact kuzushi ideas got put on the back burner.  they're still back there simmering.

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So, I present to you, our Mokuren Dojo

2015 TECHNICAL EMPHASIS

• Return to my personal yoga practice, which I had forsaken some years back.
• Koryu Dai Ni - P4 Nidan demo
• Judo and aikido kihon - Whit Sankyu demo
• Kamae and honte in jo - let's fix that so Jack doesn't have to correct that particular thing again.
• Role of tanto in aikido, and of Tanjo
• Nanatsu no Kata & Hirano's rhythmic uchikomi & his students' & more of his students' work.

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Patrick Parker
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Nanatsu no kata speaks to the gokyo

When scholars try to figure out how dead languages sounded when spoken by native speakers long ago, it is largely guess-work unless they have access to a body of poetry written in that language.  This is because the poetry provides clues as to how words sounded - what things rhyme with what other things and how the rhythm of the language went.

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I've been contemplating Tokio Hirano sensei's Nanatsu no kata a bit lately.  I personally think Nanatsu is poetry - high art.  And looking at the technical range of Nanatsu provides some clues about the organization of the grammar and syntax of the art (the gokyo).

Nanatsu no kata

Omote

1. osotogari (1st kyo)
2. osotootoshi (4th kyo of the habukareta waza)
3. haraigoshi (2nd kyo)
4. ouchigari(1st kyo)
5. tsurikomigoshi(2nd kyo)
6. uchimata(2nd kyo)
7. taiotoshi(2nd kyo)

Ura

1. osotogari X ukiotoshi (4th kyo)
2. osotootoshi X yoko wakare (5th kyo)
3. haraigoshi X utsuri goshi (4th kyo)
4. ouchigari X ushiro goshi (5th kyo)
5. tsurikomigoshi X taniotoshi (4th kyo)
6. uchimata X sukashi (shinmeisho no waza)
7. taiotoshi X yokoguruma (5th kyo)

I find the selection of techniques interesting.  This kata - basically a record of how Hirano did the amazing things he did  - a record of "his system" - is composed of...

• two large ashiwaza from the 1st kyo
• four techniques from 2nd kyo
• one technique from the old preserved set (habukareta waza)
• six counters, all from the 4th and 5th kyo
• and one counter from the new set (shinmeisho no waza)

So, one might characterize Nanatsu as  mostly fundamentals (1 and 2 kyo) and counters (4 and 5 kyo).  Interesting that there is nothing from 3rd kyo in there. 

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If you look at the 3rd kyo, I think you'll find mostly a pile of miscellaneous minor actions that fill in the corners of the system.  Sure there have been some notable examples of folks that have used tsurigoshi, and you'll sometimes (rarely) see hanegoshi or tomoenage in a tournament, but I think it's fair to say that the 3rd kyo is largely ignored as irrelevant to the modern (post-Hirano) competition crowd.

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What you do see a bunch in tournaments - the place that almost everyone's tokuiwaza comes from - 1st and 2nd kyo.  Foundations.

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So, looking at how Hirano used the techniques of the gokyo in his kata suggests (to me) that the gokyo is basically...

• foundations (1-2)
• miscellany/trivia (3)
• counters (4-5)

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2013 - A year in the life

Lately I've been reflecting on this past year (2013) and projecting some plans...

In 2013 I planned to attend/teach one event per month (including my ABGs here).  I ended up doing 10 instead of 12.  Not bad...

• I started out with a trip to Corpus Christi for a get-away with Eric, Matl, Waddell, Nick, and some other excellent folks.  We ought to do another of those this next year sometime...
• I had the privilege of teaching a benefit seminar in Jackson MS to raise money to send Police trainers to Thailand to show people there how to extract children out of the sex trade.
• I got to attend a most excellent Isshin/Aiki camp at Hazlehurst.  Can't wait for the next one of these.
• I did one seminar at Union University (on kuzushi) but I wasn't able to attend the Fall shindig because of illness.
• I got to teach Koryu Dai Go at Windsong In OKC - what a great group of people!
• We did two Aiki Buddies Gatherings here in Magnolia - at the first one we worked on groundwork and goshin jutsu and we had two excellent Shodan demos - Jason in judo and Todd in aikido.  At the one in the Fall we worked on koshiki kihon and aikijo  - the second one was very well attended.
• In November I got to return to Richmond VA to teach a couple of classes on koshinage and Junokata.
• I made a flying trip to Starkville to work with James Reuster (who I haven't seen in about 15 years).  He taught a profound class on releases that has and will continue to impact my aikido.
• I also got to attend one judo tournament with Mike.

Here at Magnolia, we had several areas of emphasis in our studies...

• Aikijo and modular knife
• Ukemi as the most important, most practical self-defense skill
• Koryu dai go - more proactive, direct initiative "go and get em'" type aikido
• Tomiki's aiki taiso
• The extensive gray area between Kodokan judo and Tomiki aikido - we've been playing more with starting judo throws from releases and ending aikido throws in ukigatame (for instance).
• I've been watching a lot of Yoshinoro Kono - particularly his footwork, his aikijo,  and his students Koshiki no kata.
• I've also been watching a lot of Tokio Hirano and his students - particularly his wave-like entries into uchikomi and his Nanatsu no kata.  This man is inspiring.

There have been many ups and downs.  I've been plagued with elbow and shoulder pain problems for about 8 months.  It's getting better but it really put a damper on my jo work at Windsong this past summer.  I wasn't the only one with shoulder problems - Kel fell over a bush or something and broke his rotator cuff and had to have surgery so that put a major damper on our working together.  I'm looking forward to having him back with us this coming year.  On the positive side, I moved my oldest son, Whit, from kids classes to adult classes and it's been a blast having him as a regular partner.

In the coming year - 2014...

• I would like to attend 1 event per month, with the exception of January (new baby girl is due).  I'm especially looking forward to the Windsong Summer event - sounds like it'll be a hum dinger.
• Mike will attend 1-2 more tournaments this spring.
• I'd like to devote Saturday 9-noon classes for 2014 to embu-mode kata practice with emphasis on Koshiki, Nanatsu, Nage, Katame, Ju, and Nikata.  Hmm.  sounds like 6 katas 2 months each.
• We will continue our emphasis on aikijo and knife.

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Patrick Parker

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Hirano sensei's interesting kaeshiwaza

At about 5:05 in this video of Hirano Sensei doing Nanatsu no Kata, he does a really interesting counter.  Uke is turning in for something like TKgoshi and Sensei just takes a knee.  Uke falls as if it were a taniotoshi, but tori's action looks like a backwards ukiotoshi.

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So... what name would you guys give that thing?

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Shishida on Kano's ideal judo

Fumiaki Shishida demonstrating Itsutsu no Kata.

Professor F. Shishida makes a really interesting assertion in an article titled, Counter techniques against Judo: the process of forming Aikido in 1930s.  His assertion is that Morihei Ueshiba's aikido was largely developed as a foil or counter-art to Kodokan Judo.  Initially, this sounded like a stretch, but the more I think about it, the more it seems to fit with pieces of the judo and aikido apocrypha that we have talked about for a while.

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For instance,  There's the famous story of Kano's visit to watch Ueshiba in 1930, after which Kano supposedly said something confusing and mysterious along the lines of, "Kodokan Judo is the Judo of 90 degree angles and Aikido is the Judo of 180 degree angles.”

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I've had my pet theories for a good while about the meaning of this statement, but Shishida's article suggested an alternate meaning.  What if Kano was saying, "Kodokan judo is regular (proper, 90-degree, upright, orthogonal) judo, and aikido is the flip-side (or 180 degree or counterpoint) to Kodokan judo."  What if Kano was saying that aikido is a counter to judo.

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I know, the whole supposed statement is a historical stretch, and this interpretation might stretch it a bit further, but it makes for an interesting what-if.

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That idea also makes sense when looking at Mifune's and Hirano's judo counter katas.  Watching these things (especially Mifune's) the viewer gets a creeping suspicion they are doing aikido to bust uke's judo maneuvers.
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I and some of my teachers have thought for a while that aikido generally makes a pretty good foil to judo, and it is interesting to see someone much smarter than me (like Shishida sensei) say something similar.

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Patrick Parker
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