Why Bukiwaza?

by Hoa Newens

​There should be no question as to the significance of bukiwaza in Aikido training. One just need to glean from all the available pictures of O Sensei holding a bokken or a jo to realize that it was an important aspect of his Aikido training. The practical question that arises often is not whether, but how much bukiwaza: how many hours a week should be devoted to bukiwaza, versus taijutsu?

What is bukiwaza?
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Let’s first clarify this distinction. In Aikido, taijutsu means “body techniques”, and refers to the practice of empty-hand techniques that do not involve the use of weapons. Bukiwaza means “weapon techniques” and refers to the practice of Aikido using weapons such as bokken (wooden sword) and jo (wooden staff). For the purpose of our discussion, we regard the practice of weapon-taking, bukidori, as part of taijutsu.

Though we often see O Sensei wielding a bokken or a jo in extant movies and photographs, it is widely recognized that his student of 23 years in Iwama, Saito Morihiro Shihan, was the key proponent of Aiki Ken and Aiki Jo, the two components of bukiwaza. Saito Shihan organized bukiwaza into six types of practices:

1. Tanren: spirit forging practice such as tanren uchi, which consists of striking with a suburito against a hard object. A similar practice existed with the jo.
2. Suburi: simple moves with the ken (7 ken suburi) or the jo (20 jo suburi)
3. Kata: series of moves with the jo stringed together (13-jo kata and 31-jo kata)
4. Awase: paired practice consisting of simple moves with the ken or jo
5. Kumi: paired practice consisting of complex moves with the ken (kumitachi) or jo (kumijo), or both (kentaijo).
6. Henka and Riai: variations of the above, and correlations between bukiwaza and taijutsu.

 
We should note at this point that there are related arts involving the use of ken (e.g. iaido) and jo (e.g. jodo) that are part of Budo (Japanese martial arts) but are essentially different from Aiki Ken and Aiki Jo in several respects. For our purpose here, suffice it to point out that the key difference is that, in Aiki Ken and Aiki Jo, the weapons serve the body, whereas in the other arts the weapons take precedence and the users have to adapt their bodies to maximize the effectiveness of the weapons.
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Aiki Ken and Aiki Jo are especially created to support taijutsu, and are not intended to be intrinsic arts in themselves. Therefore, no comparison should be made with these other systems of training involving blades or staff.
 
Saito Shihan considered Aiki Ken and Aiki Jo an integral practice of Aikido and went as far as creating an instructor certification program to protect and preserve the critical components of bukiwaza. In order to determine how much bukiwaza to practice, we must first understand how it affects our practice of Aikido.
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​Why bukiwaza?

There are six observable aspects of bukiwaza training that enhance taijutsu and make it an integral part of Aikido training.
 
Reinforce the foundational stances. Aiki Ken is based on the hanmi stance and Aiki Jo is based on the hito e mi stance. These two stances form the foundations of Aikido techniques. Continued practice of Aiki Ken and Aiki Jo reinforces these stances by constantly putting them to the test. Without a solid stance, the ken or jo technique would fail, whereas this is not so obvious in taijutsu.
 
Enhance precision of movement. When using the ken and the jo we treat them as extensions of the body, thus the effect of our hip movements is enlarged, and errors and inaccuracies are easier to spot and fix. The ease of correction contributes to increased precision.
 
Promote extension of Ki. The use of a ken or jo requires constant extension of consciousness and ki (energy) through the weapon, either extending downward when striking with a ken or extending forward when thrusting with a jo. This sustained effort to extend energy creates pathways of energy that help students maintain ki extension in empty-hands techniques.
 
Reinforce alignment and connection of energies. To execute Aiki Ken and Aiki Jo properly we need to continually check the alignment of the weapon with our body center; and the alignment of our center, weapon and partner’s center. This practice ingrains the feeling of alignment and connection between our center and the partner’s center in the long run and transfers it into taijutsu.
 
Promote body integration. In Aikido, we hold the ken and jo with two hands, creating a merging of ki from both sides of the body that is directed toward the target. The two sides of the body bolster each other and work in tandem, such that even when the weapons are not used, as in taijutsu, the feeling of oneness and circularity between right and left persists.
 
Encourage alertness. Use of hard weapons in practice increases the risk of injury through accidents. A simple error in timing or angle may result in a severe bruise. The higher risk encourages the students to be more alert during practice, and this awareness is often carried over into taijutsu.

Bukiwaza alone is not Aikido

As explained above, bukiwaza is important to Aikido practice; it complements Aikido taijutsu but does not represent Aikido. Bukiwaza serves Aikido similar to how the suburi helps to strengthen the kumitachi. The benefits of bukiwaza practice are reflected in the quality of taijutsu. Bukiwaza is not an intrinsic end product in itself; in other words, we do not become sword or jo experts as a result of training in Aiki Ken and Aiki Jo.
 
We should recognize this subordinate relationship to correctly assess the need for bukiwaza within an Aikido training program.
 
Let’s also make it clear that an overemphasis on bukiwaza can be detrimental to a student’s training, mostly due to its lack of human physical contact. To understand this, we need to hark back to the ultimate purpose of Aikido training, which we stated in another blog: we train on the mat to get feedback from our partners as to where our center is and hence, find out who we are. This feedback is initially physical and results from the constant interaction of bodies on the mat. Therefore, when we remove the physical contact, or replace it with a bridge that involves wooden weapons, we diminish the amount and quality of the feedback.
 
Only those experts who have mastered their energy bodies would benefit from an interaction of the energetic bodies during bukiwaza training, with minimum taijutsu training.
 

Bukiwaza training program

We return to the basic question of how much bukiwaza training is optimal?
Based on the complex issues discussed above the reader might have guessed correctly that there is no simple answer. My experience indicates that the sooner the student starts on a weapon training program, the better; what is important is the relative composition of the program. I recommend the following approach.
 
In the first five years (e.g. through shodan) when the student is focused on learning kihon waza (basic techniques) he should emphasize tanren practice, suburi and kata.
 
This solid groundwork will prepare the student well for the next five years (nidan and sandan) during which they can emphasize awase and kumi practice.
 
Once they are thoroughly proficient in the core bukiwaza curriculum, students (around yondan and godan) can explore in earnest the henka and riai practices.
 
Seasoned practitioners (rokudan and above) may intentionally curtail their taijutsu training (perhaps due to physical limitations in advanced age) and increase the bukiwaza training (which is less physically demanding).
 
I still have not mentioned anything about the amount of time one should devote to bukiwaza on a regular basis. The sensei of each dojo should assess the collective level of bukiwaza skill in her dojo and decide how many buki classes to hold a week. A rule of thumb that worked in our case has been 2:1, that is, one third of the classes are devoted to bukiwaza.
 
The 2:1 ratio may not fit the need of every student, so supplementary training may be necessary; in this case, I recommend that students work on suburi and kata regularly outside of class (before or after). It might be beneficial to get together in small groups to polish up awase, kumitachi and kumijo.
 
For a presentation, either as part of an exam or a public demo, I recommend that no more than one quarter of the time be devoted to bukiwaza and the rest should be taijutsu. We should remember that bukiwaza is only a training tool, not the end product, which is better displayed through taijutsu.
 
In summary, I hope to have conveyed to the reader the essential notions that Aikido would be incomplete without bukiwaza, that excellence in Aikido is built with bukiwaza training, and that bukiwaza is a training tool and not the end goal.
  
Hoa Newens
August 30, 2019