This article is the seventh part of our series on the Dublin Aikikai Aikido trip to Japan that took place in May 2008. After the arrival to Tokyo, the first class in the Hombu Dojo and the first strolls around Tokyo, I am about to do a very interesting encounter and to experience an art that is at the roots of Aikido. The more we spend time in Tokyo, the more we realize that the world of Aikido is indeed very small. The beauty of this is that it is during random encounters and acquaintances that we end up making the most crucial experiences for our personal development. Such an acquaintance happened once again on the tatami of the Aikikai Hombu Dojo. Today, I would like to take you for a journey through time, to the discovery of a discipline which is the ancestor of Aikido. Those of you a bit more erudite on the subject know of course that I am talking about the Daito-ryu Aiki- jujutsu.

It is the end of week one; I am training like a lunatic, trying to emulate the dedication of Philippe Gouttard now he has left Tokyo. While I am enjoying the 30 minutes break between the Doshu's and Yokota Sensei's class, I see approaching a tall, well built gentleman who looks kind of familiar. I must admit that this impression is quite common when you practice at the Aikikai because of the numerous famous individuals that roam the premises. Still, the man stepping on the mat that morning looks even more familiar than that... In fact, I will soon realize that the gentleman is in fact Olivier Gaurin, long time student at the Hombu Dojo, author of many books and true martial researcher with whom I had worked via email when he wrote a very interesting article for Aikidoka Magazine. After formally introducing myself to him and talking to him for a while, he proposes that we practice together the following day (traditionally, at the Aikikai, we practice with the same partner for the full hour of the class, even though things are changing a bit lately).

During our discussion, I learn that Olivier is in fact the organiser of the seminar. He as regrouped a small number of practitioners, some of which are Aikidoka, who follow the teaching of Kobayashi Sensei in Tokyo. The man travels regularly from Osaka to Tokyo in order to make sure that the techniques of Daito-ryu Aiki-jujutsu that Sokaku Takeda taught to Takuma Hisa and Morihei Ueshiba live on and to avoid the disappearing of this knowledge and what it has legated to Aikido.

It is now Sunday and I am boarding the famous Yamanote Line for a 40 minutes ride through the centre of Tokyo, travelling from Shinjuku to Kanda. As I enter the Chiyoda-Ku sports complex that is hosting the seminar, I am stroke by the diversity amongst the 15 practitioners present today covering, a wide range of age and morphology. The class is to be given by Kobayashi Kiyohiro, the manager of the Osaka Daito-ryu Honbu and one of the pillars of the Takumakai organisation. The man is of a small stature but of course, I have learnt not to judge a practitioner solely upon this kind of criteria. The truthfulness about this disposition is of course going to be confirmed to me several times that day by the master, using an incredible sense of placement, timing and control. I remember in particular of a choking technique he did on me with his ankle while I was already his prisoner through an arm-lock.

The style of Aiki of the Takumakai is refined, each detail counts and I quickly understand that during the whole 3 hours of the seminar, I will not manage to do a movement absolutely correctly, however how close I think it is from my own discipline of Aikido. Practice is slow; movements are decomposed into several stages in order to understand correctly angles and positions. For an Aikidoka, it is quite unsettling since we are more used to work in a flowing manner, even at the beginning. Thankfully, Kobayashi Sensei often comes to demonstrate to me the movements he showed and I realise the incredible luck I have to be able to participate to this seminar although being totally foreign to the system. Kobayashi Sensei often smiles at my Aikidoka manners but always takes the time to explain the techniques to me patiently. Thankfully, Olivier is also here to provide me with a simultaneous translation of the points Kobayashi Sensei is making.

The number of techniques showed today is quite consequent and I have trouble remembering of one precisely but I will always remember the economy of motion and the efficacy of everything that is being proposed. Of course, I can clearly see similarities between some of the techniques performed and the Aikido movements I am used to such as Ikkyo or Aiki-otoshi but some subtle differences are there. Contrary to what I had imagined, the techniques of Daito-ryu are not violent or executed in a rough way. Olivier explains to me later that Kobayashi Sensei always insists on the fact that pain should never be the purpose of a joint twist but instead, this type of punctual or maintained locks should only be used to guide the opponent's physiological keys in a secure way, which makes the technique easier to execute and infallible.

Kobayashi Sensei performing a Daito-ryu Aiki-jujutsu technique on me

Obviously, you cannot learn such a discipline in one class but I would like to say that every now and then, it is very important to go back to the "source" in order to challenge our own practice and also to keep this historical heritage alive and transmit it. The work achieved by this handful of students is an example to follow and I really hope to come back in order to learn more about this system during my next trip to Japan.

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To go further:

The website of the Takumakai association

The Finish branch of the Takumakai (the most active Daito-Ryu group outside of Japan).

Videos shot in Finland