Origins of Kushida Takashi Sensei's Bukiwaza

My area of expertise is in Kushida Sensei’s toshu and buki waza. It is a unique and beautiful art form that pays dividends in the practice of any martial art or movement system. If you are interested in koryu, I would look to Ellis Amdur and Meik and Diane Skoss plus others who are deeply committed to the study of various koryu.

Kushida Sensei’s Aikibuki system is based on the following koryu:

Tachi: Kashima Shinto Ryu and Katori Shinto Ryu. These were used in the times when people wore various coverings to protect themselves. The movements reflect the constraint of the protective clothing with stopping between the movements in order to study balance and precision.

The use of circles with cardinal lines and chords are the same you that you would see in the schools teaching sword in medieval Europe. A classic example being the Spanish Circle also known as La Destreza.

There were also kenjutsu schools in the same time period such as Kusumi Shinto Ryu that have similar kata. However, Kushida Sensei’s Aikbuki system does not reflect the style of later schools, such as Yagyu Shinkage.

Why is this relevant to Yoshinkan Aikido? If you look at a listing of people who studied Kashima Shinto Ryu you’ll see Ueshiba Morihei’s name. His Aikido of that time was very much like Yoshinkan Aikido.

 

 

 

 

Jo: Most of the Jo kata are based on Shindo Muso Ryu JoJutsu. One time, Kushida Sensei mentioned a spear koryu called Hozoin-ryu. But that doesn’t quite fit as Hozoin ryu has a crescent on the shaft to trip your opponents. Owari Kan Ryu Yari seems to be a better example.

Tanto: Kushia Sensei’s tanto kata are a mix of various tanto jutsu and Katori Shinto ryu wakizashi (short sword).

You’ll find plenty of examples of the koryu mentioned above on YouTube. I would recommend the website by Meik and Diane Skoss as an excellent resource to better understand the various Koryu. And Ellis Amdur’s Kogenbudo website as well as his various books are well worth your time.

Kushida Sensei’s kata, Kumi or Tandoku, can be used as a precise overlay of Yoshinkan Aikido technique.

The study of bukiwaza may not be for you, but I’m convinced, after studying them for 45 years, they add depth and precision to your Aikido and to your martial thinking.

How I Learned Kushida Takashi Sensei's Toshu and Bukiwaza

I studied under Kushida Takashi Sensei for many years. A good friend of mine and I decided to learn all of Kushida Sensei’s toshu and bukiwaza systems. It took us about a year and a half of intense practice to accomplish our goal.

Many of the bukiwaza were never trained in class. Candidly, Kushida Sensei was reluctant to teach the more advanced toshu and bukiwaza systems unless you were a member of his family.

If we had questions on how or why a particular kata was created, we, I mean my senior and I, would ask Sensei and he would tell us. If he wasn’t available we asked his son, Akira, who would then ask Sensei and then relay his answer. This is how we learned Kushida-Sensei’s vast system of bukiwaza and toshuwaza.

Sometimes, Sensei would tell us their origins and, of course, we did our own research. We also had the advantage of knowing many of his original students who also helped us.

Kushida Sensei would tell us how bukiwaza were, in principle, connected to Yoshinkan Aikido technique. He had a vocabulary for Tai Sabaki movements, such as Kamami, Hirakimi, Hitoemi, Irimi, Tenkan and Tenkai, among many others that you could use in his bukiwaza to enhance your Aikido. This helped us be precise with our Tai Sabaki as we switched back and forth between Aikido and bukiwaza.

Kushida Sensei was not perfect and we had our disagreements. But, in my opinion, he was one of the great teachers of Aikibudo.

Kushida Takashi Sensei

After Shioda Kancho banished him, there seems to be a general erasing of the innovations he created and his role in the spread of Yoshinkan Aikido. That is very sad. It truncates the art of Yoshinkan Aikido.

I’ve been studying Kushida Sensei’s bukiwaza for 45 years and I can say, with confidence, that they have been essential to my deeper understanding of the martial way.

Exploring the World Through Movement

Much Ado about Movement

 Movement: the final frontier. Ok, I lifted that from Star Trek but in many ways it best describes how the understanding of movement, primarily in living systems, is still in it’s infancy. 

Because movement in life is complex with no perfectly repeated event, the understanding lies not in reductive thinking but is better understood as a system. In a system, it becomes, how is the relationship between parts change in order maintain a balanced but dynamic environment?

 Why should you interested in this beyond the fact that it’s something you haven’t heard of? It doesn’t really affect you anyway. But it does make an impact on all of your life. Your movement can’t be repeated, making it a creative experience every moment you’re alive. 

This gives you a powerful vehicle for change not only in the way you move but also as an understanding of the world around you. 

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By creating your movement every moment, you are at the center of a whirlwind of change that connects you with all movement on our planet. It’s not just physical movement but also a way of thinking that is creative, incisive and fun.

 Come back and check in with these musings. They will show you the many different dots and their connections that create not only your life but the world you live in.