Video of master Hiroshi Isoyama on Youtube

Rough and hard.
Demonstrates the martial potential of Aikido.
He was a long time student of O-sensei in Iwama.
He is currently chief instructor at the dojo that O-sensei built in Iwama, presently known as Ibaraki-Shibu Dojo.

From Aikido Journal’s Encyclopedia of Aikido:
“ISOYAMA, HIROSHI (b. 14 January 1937). 8th dan Aikikai. B. Ibaragi Prefecture. Civil servant, Aikikai Shihan. Began training in June 1949 becoming an UCHIDESHI in IWAMA Dojo while middle school student. Known for his powerful technique.”

There is also a very interesting interview of Isoyama Shihan on Aikido Journal.
(Link to interview here…)

Excerpt from the interview:

“Since many of your students among the American military police must have been much physically larger than you, did you have to come up with new ways to make your techniques work on them?

I certainly did. Practicing with people like that is completely different from working with people who are smaller than you.
Doing even something like ikkyo against a much larger opponent is very difficult, especially in terms of the way you have to enter and the timing you have to use.
Training with people like that was a great experience from which I learned a lot.
My kata guruma and ganseki otoshi techniques, for example, started out with me trying to teach koshi nage.
When I tried to do koshi nage on some of the taller men I found that they could just step over me; no matter how I tried the technique, I couldn’t manage to throw them because the height difference meant I couldn’t get my hips into a good position in front of theirs.
Then I had the idea to try putting them across my shoulders instead of across my hips, and that’s how I started using those techniques. I wasn’t trying to be rough or flashy, I was just trying to get the techniques to work. Necessity is the mother of invention!”

Proper mokuso

In Japanese, ‘mokuso’ means ‘meditation’.
I ask myself: how exactly do we practice proper mokuso ? What is the physical and mental attitude, what is the posture ?

Although ‘mokuso’ means ‘meditation’, practicing mokuso before and after training refers to a few seconds of “cleansing” the mind from the daily thoughts, for a better focus on the training.
At the end of the training, mokuso calms us and lets us reconnect to the external world, to the day-to-day issues.

Mokuso calms the mind (by eliminating the various excess thoughts not linked to the training) and body (by maintaining a still posture for a short period of time).

The usual posture is seiza (sitting on the knees), with the hands together in front of the Center. The hands may style a sphere, left hand above right hand, and thumbs touching each other’s tip.

About hand posture, here is an interesting excerpt from Aikidoka Magazine:
(Link to the article here.)
“In Aikido, we usually put the left hand over the right hand, thus respecting the greater importance that the Japanese place to the left side, which represents for them the soul, the spirit, life, contrary to the right side that represents the physical body, the material substance, the impermanent character of life.
This aspect can also be noticed at the traditional kamiza, which always has on the right side an old tree or something else that reflects the impermanence of the material substance.
Following this concept, we step on the tatami with the left foot and off the tatami with the right foot.”

What exactly do we do during mokuso practice ?

Professor Peter Goldsbury wrote some time ago in a discussion on the E-Budo forum about the teaching he received from some of the great masters he studies with (or studied with, since master Arikawa has left this world meanwhile):
(Link to the discussion here.)
“The two most eminent aikido teachers I have have given theories of 'mokuso'.
Arikawa Sadateru Sensei, for example, focuses on seiza: in silence you focus on lowering your centre.
Tada Hiroshi Sensei focuses on breathing. After hard training, in silence you bring your kokyu back to a state of calm.
To my mind both ways have the same overall aim.”

In other words, we concentrate on one simple thing, to wash away the other thoughts from our mind.

As a conclusion:
Mokuso is a short meditation performed at the beginning and the end of the training session.
The aim of mokuso is cleansing the mind from a multitude of thoughts, to be able to refill and harmonize with what is next (training, or daily life).
In Aikido, we practice mokuso sitting in seiza, with the hands together in front of the Center.
During mokuso, the mind focuses on a single simple thing, like the Center or breathing.

Fujita sensei seminar in Cluj

A couple of days ago, the traditional FRAA Aikido winter school took place in Cluj, a seminar conducted by Masatake Fujita shihan.
As it took place in the city where I live, it was easier for me to participate, usually going to practice directly from work, and then getting back to work.
Truth is that since the kids were born, I haven’t been away to many seminars in other cities, as the juniors are still too young to be taken care easily by one person alone.

During the first practice session of the seminar, I have been Fujita sensei’s Uke.
I enjoyed it very much, but it was pretty stressing. (Especially for my weary back…)
I noticed directly that sensei is carrying himself exceptionally well at his age of 70.
His technique is precise and very energetic, and the steps are economical and efficient, just a few steps on a very small surface.

Around 100 aikidoka from Romania, Moldavia and Serbia participated at the seminar .
Two consecutive evenings, Fujita sensei offered very enlightening lectures, with a lot of answers to questions from the audience.

Congratulations to my colleague Marius for a very good Shodan grading test !

Next Fujita sensei seminar in Romania: July 2008, probably in Arad.