Before and After: An Invisible Standard

Every innovation sets a watershed moment. There is a before. And there is an after, now taken for granted as the standard.

This happens in everything: in technology, in trends, in everyday habits.

And it obviously happened with Aikido too.

A World Before Aikido

Sometimes, driven by the fervor that comes from a strong sense of belonging, we forget that before the charismatic and innovative figure of Morihei Ueshiba, there already existed a martial world. A broad, branching, and interconnected world that continued to exist throughout the structuring of Aikido-and still exists today.

When we forget this, it becomes easy to fall into endless loops of fascinating debates-like the one about whether the bokken should be considered a striking or a cutting weapon, and how that impacts teaching methods.

Topics which, in terms of relevance and contribution to humankind, rank up there with university tests questions during Christmas dinners and commentary on the exit polls of parliamentary elections in the Vanuatu Islands.

Aikido as Innovation

If Aikido is an innovation, as it is, then like all innovations, it is the result of a revolution -both in terms of process and product.

And it’s precisely in the process -later crystallized into the technical curriculum-that we find traces of a deeply interconnected martial world.

Traces from Other Schools

It is rightly said that Aikido’s empty-handed techniques are derived from the sword.

As we’ve explored elsewhere, in the advanced kumitachi exercises, there are clear traces of kata from Kashima Shinto Ryu, which predates Aikido by nearly 500 years.

When discussing koshinage, a technique dear to us, we highlighted how in Judo there’s an entire family of techniques based on the active use of the hips: the koshi waza.

The “Otoshi” Family

Going further, it’s interesting to note the appearance of a family of finishing techniques in the Aikido curriculum known as otoshi.

These include:

• sumi otoshi 隅落とし – corner drop, or dropping with an angular motion
• kiri otoshi 切り落とし – cutting drop, falling along a cutting line
• ganseki otoshi 岩石落とし – boulder drop, literally “dropping a rock”

These techniques have little to do with “Aiki”, whatever we mean by that word.

• Sumi otoshi dislocates the knee.
• Kiri otoshi, in the ushiro version, makes uke fall hard on their backside.
• For ganseki otoshi, there’s an interesting video of a young Bjorn Säw being lifted by Morihiro Saito… then the video cuts off-likely because poor Bjorn landed face first.

The Meaning of “Otosu”

The term otosu 落とす, from which otoshi comes, does indeed mean to drop.

But like all living languages, Japanese has evolved. Within the context of Judo and martial arts, otosu has also come to mean “to make somebody swoon”.

This conjures up not only the image of a limp fruit dropping unconscious to the ground, but also evokes the choking techniques (shime waza) of Ju Jutsu, most of which have been excluded or softened in today’s technical programs.

Contamination as Foundation

So even in the teaching curricula of styles considered the most pedagogically structured or faithful to Ueshiba’s lineage, we find clear evidence of research, integration, and cross-pollination from different martial worlds.

What can we say?

Realizing that the core of innovation lies in adapting past knowledge to current needs means grasping the true, profound meaning of tradition.

A tradition that deserves respect, but not one that must be entirely mastered from the dawn of time in order to be honored.

You don’t do yourself -or Aikido- a favor by trying to become encyclopedic. The study of roots, of koryu, has its dignity but risks drifting into sterile memorization. Likewise, a broad and fundamental understanding of the technical program alone cannot guarantee personal growth, nor can it attract wide audiences-whereas speaking from the heart through technique often can.

Keeping the Fire Alive

And in the end, if we understand tradition as passing on the fire rather than preserving the ashes, then even in our world we can-and must-be more generous toward those sensei who, while preserving a core technical base, do exactly what O Sensei did: experiment.

If their experimentation leads to innovation and gains traction, then they will have created Aikido.
If not…

七転び八起き – nana korobi ya oki
Fall seven times, get up eight.

Discalimer: Picture by MC QUATTRO from Pixabay