Spring, Gravity and Reflection: the interaction between partners

This is a topic practiced this week in the dojo, in particular with furikomi tsuki, into kata uchi kokyu ho.

When training with a partner, we can sometimes forget that a fundamental aspect of training is that there is no winner, no looser. No good guy, no bad guy. No attacker, no defender, there should be only union, confluence and harmony.

Uke's role is not an antagonistic one. Nage's role is not one of the victor.

Think of it in terms of a cup and saucer: does the cup tell the saucer "You are not as important as me because I hold the liquid!"??

Does the saucer tell the cup "You are nothing without me, because I bring stability!"??

No, the cup and saucer are a PAIR, are together, are 2 things that come together to form a bigger ONE (as in 1+1 = a bigger ONE, not 1+1=2, which is in fact dividing, not coming together), and then is of more use and produces a better outcome together than separate.


So when we train we need to be aware of this, and develop our sensitivity.


Although BOTH partners need to have SPRING and GRAVITY, lets for the moment assign SPRING to uke and GRAVITY to nage.

Nage has gravity in his/her posture (this comes from seika tanden) and is able to absorb uke's grab, by making sure not to be too extended with the arms, and by using the legs/feet.

So when uke grabs (also with seika tanden), he/she must have spring in order to not clash or come too close to nage, and to not loose kokyu, the kokyu that we have in front of us, between our arms, (as in when doing ukemi, the space between the arms is FULL etc.)

EXAMPLE: http://www.youtube.com/user/kjaiki#p/a/u/1/F9gKEB6gOLY

So Nage and Uke come together, and the kokyu that each has (in front of them/between arms) is DOUBLED, and is a REFLECTION of the correspondence between Nage and Uke's work, both are to work the same, since there is no possible development if one fails in working well. It has to be a REFLECTION of your heart from both Uke and Nage. It is an indivisible unity, between them, both make a unity of the same kind.

So lets take it out of the realm of Aikido.
Please see the video below. I am a BIG fan of Taiko music.
One reason is that everything described above is an imperative aspect of Taiko, especially, as you will see in the video, when two people are using one drum.

Especially on the last "scene" where there are two drummers on one drum. The drum represents KOKYU. The act of drumming represents MAAI, which is the space THAT IS USED between the two people (so it is a verb).

They both show gravity and spring, by their posture and by way of being connected to the drum and each other. They can not see each other, but they feel each other (sensativity). And their playing is in total unity, their timing is confluent, and the sound is harmonious.