Josh Gold“If you stand naturally you can enter immediately when it appears that your
opponent is about to move. When your opponent moves you have already won.”
The young are often moved to action by heroic images. Like their heroes, they long to become strong and just. As they are young and inexperienced, the path most immediately obvious to them is that followed by their heroes before them. Uncritical imitation is the first step in the quest of the young to become like their heroes.
From time in memoriam, the warrior-soldier is the most likely candidate for a culture’s heroes in that most nations have armies and engage in warfare. In our modern world, where the actual battles now take place in third-world proxy nations, the martial artist has risen to the warrior-soldier level in the eyes of our young due mainly to the impact of the mass media.
Turning back the clock to war-ravaged Japan of 1945, the image of the martial artist would overnight supplant the soldier/hero who had gone down to defeat in the devastating conflict just ended. The choice for the 18-year-old Shoji Nishio would be to continue his training in judo in order to develop his body and become strong like his martial heroes.
Born in 1927 in Aomori Prefecture, Nishio made his way to Tokyo as a teenager to work just prior to the outbreak of the war. He soon took up judo at a local dojo in order to improve his frail physical condition. When the war ended, training in martial arts was severely limited by the occupation forces and the famous Kodokan Judo headquarters had all but ceased operations.
Gradually, as troops repatriated to Japan after the war, activity at the Kodokan picked up and Nishio was able to resume his judo training. An enthusiastic, hard trainer, he steadily rose through the ranks eventually receiving a 4th dan. However, Nishio found himself dissatisfied with judo because of the compromises made to the art’s techniques to accomodate competition.
As a supplement to his judo training, Nishio took up karate in the late 1940s under the famous Yasuhiro Konishi (1893-1983), founder of Shindo Jinen Ryu. Nishio practiced karate for several years through 1952, but also found this art limited for similar reasons. There was a strong initiative afoot to modify the traditional techniques of Okinawan karate to bring this art into conformity with modern budo forms—primarily judo and kendo—which had been converted into sports.
By the mid-1950s, aikido was undergoing steady growth as many branch dojos, and university and company clubs sprang up all over Japan. Nishio began teaching more and more on the outside and frequenting the Hombu Dojo less and less. He was employed at the Japanese Mint during the day and taught aikido at night at various locations in Tokyo and its suburbs. Nishio’s network of dojos practiced methods that were widely seen as a deviation from the standard curriculum of Hombu that was based primarily on the approaches of Kisshomaru Ueshiba and Koichi Tohei. He did, however, maintain close ties with the headquarters organization and regularly participated in large aikido demonstrations and social events. The founder Ueshiba and his son would often appear as guests at the functions of Nishio-affiliated dojos.
When Nishio retired from his job with the government mint in 1980, he was an aikido 8th dan, iaido 7th dan, judo 6th dan, and karate 5th dan. This signaled a new era as he was free to devote full time to aikido instruction. His activities were not only limited to Japan, but he also made frequent trips to Scandanavia, the USA, and various European countries, in particular, France. Nishio maintained an active teaching schedule including regular trips abroad for some 20 years. Declining health gradually caused him to curtail his activities in the last years of his life.
Nishio Aikido
Technical
Nishio’s technical legacy is totally unique. Although Morihiro Saito’s aikido also included the use of the sword and staff, what Saito did was to preserve and formalize the founder’s weapons techniques with little modification. Nishio, instead, mastered the basics of several of the modern weapons systems from which he drew many elements in addition to his prior experience in judo and karate.
What then emerged as Nishio Aikido is an amalgamation of elements drawn from judo, karate, iaido, and jojutsu built on the aikido technical framework and philosophy. To supplement his martially-oriented taijutsu or empty-handed techniques, Nishio also developed an elaborate series of sword, staff, and iaido variations.
What are the basics of his system? “In my dojo I teach how to grab, how to stand up, how to swing the sword, the tsuki and oblique stance (hanmen) and yokomen. Proper grabbing, proper swinging and striking are transformed into atemi instantly.”
The highly-principled concepts of aikido take on a physical dimension in Nishio’s aikido. For example, one should adopt a natural stance when confronted by an adversary. “If you stand naturally you can enter immediately when it appears that your opponent is about to move. When your opponent moves you have already won.”
Applied in a social context, the natural stance might be akin to maintaining silence in a verbal exchange until your conversation partner expresses what he wants to say as opposed to arguing with him. Not having defined one’s position allows one to listen to and consider another’s intent and desires before acting. “Human beings should not fight. They should instead love each other, help each other, and complement each other. By doing so, they create a humane world.”
Another important concept is the matching of breathing in unison with the opponent. “We don’t disrupt the opponent’s breathing because, in the aikido way, the opponent changes his breathing and we adjust our breathing accordingly.” Breathing is the key component of the process of unification with an opponent and corresponds to the breathing employed when using the sword which serves as the basis for Nishio’s atemi.
While atemi or “preemptive strikes” have fallen into disuse in mainstream styles of aikido, Nishio saw their employment as essential to the success of aikido techniques: “I regard atemi as the soul of Japanese martial arts. Atemi temporarily neutralize the opponent’s fighting ability and allow him to correct his attitude and return to his previous condition.”
Aikido is a “budo,” a “martial way,” and therefore inextricably rooted in “jujutsu” or “martial technique.” Yet when I look at the aikido world today, I see very little “budo-ness” being expressed in technique, and I wonder if people haven’t begun to forget these important roots…”
Aikido—Yurusu Budo is a comprehensive look at Nishio Aikido and present the key principles of his art through the presentation of gyakuhanmi, aihanmi katatedori, sodedori, katadori menuchi, shomenuchi, and yokomenuchi techniques. Both empty-handed versions as well as techniques using the sword and staff are covered.
Conclusion
In the annals of aikido, there are perhaps ten or so teachers who have commanded universal respect for their high level of skill and major contributions to the spread of aikido. Among this elite list of exceptional figures who have left an indelible impression on today’s aikido, Shoji Nishio stands out as one of the foremost technical innovators and strongest proponents of the founder’s philosophy.
Aikido Journal has just released an ebook version of Shoji Nishio Sensei’s Aikido — Yurusu Budo in PDF format for $7.99. Click here for further information.
That Cross-training….is still important today….and makes your Aikido WORK when the chips are down.
Hi Stan,
This article is terrific! While stationed in Japan, I didn’t ask questions of Nishio Sensei, cause my Japanese was terrible and I knew I would not understand even half of what came back at me. I missed so much because of this limitation. After about a year at the Matsuo Dojo, I was often invited to go along with Sensei’s group to dinner after class. He often told stories or expanded on someone’s question from class. There was so much that I didn’t understand. I did understand that his techniques were often changing and tried to keep up with this. It meant, watch very closely and imitate as close as possible. Other than this, I was often in a thick fog, especially with the Iaido. I don’t recall him stating names for the Iaido techniques. He would just stop one kata and show the next.
A few years ago, a Japanese student of mine was able to translate what he was saying on some of my videos and there really wasn’t much explanation. The translation was variously, “Do this, then this, then go here and turn and do this”. Watching very closely and imitate worked just fine. Perhaps the end result all along was to discover on your own. The discoveries are exciting after all this time!
Around 1993, the Navy was trying to implement quality management techniques and the management and production quality control theories of William Edwards Deming were taught. This man is practically unknown in America, but to the Japanese, he was very highly respected business and economics “master”. His guidance took the Japanese trashy products of the 50’s and early 60’s to the extremely good quality that started showing up in the late 60’s and have been continuously improving ever since. A word the Japanese use very often is “kaizen”. It means improvement, but their usage of it is more along the lines of “continuously striving to improve”.
I believe Nishio Sensei was always in this mode of “striving to improve”. It’s just normal for him that if he found or recognized something that would improve the technique, he would incorporate that in his teaching.
I have a feeling that much of Aikido does not subscribe to “kaizen”. In explaining techniques in my classes, the movements are broken down to discover why they work and sometimes small tweaks lead to better/easier execution. This leads to replies to videos of; “THAT’S NOT IWAMA (OR NISHIO) STYLE!!! THAT’S NOT THE WAY YOU DO IT!!!” Explanation makes no difference.
On the point about the use of atemi, sometimes the atemi is to draw a response that is then used. In the Iwama style I understand this as “sanso”. I don’t recall ever hearing Nishio Sensei use that term, but I didn’t recall him using the term “kuzushi”, but now that I know it and review the tapes, he was often talking about it. Some people in this area, where atemi and blocking are not really taught, think of me as a bully. Often the University of Florida students would come with an off-balanced attack and would not block and would run into the atemi. My students are taught to both throw the atemi and to block and to keep balance during the attack.
That’s my thoughts. Thanks so much for your articles.
Tom Huffman
Wonderful insights, Tom! Thanks very much for your input!
“When the war ended, training in martial arts was severely limited by the occupation forces and the famous Kodokan Judo headquarters had all but ceased operations.”
Here is another version of the post WWII ban on martial arts training according to some of my teachers:
The Japanese government supposedly declared that it was going to ban martial arts in order to prevent occupation forces from doing it and it never passed the bill.
Sen no sen?
Is there historical evidence of what really happened?
Some answers here…..
http://ejmas.com/jcs/jcsart_svinth_1202.htm
Another thing is you need to to learn some ground work…..Judo/BJJ Newaza…because sometimes you will end up on the ground…even if you don’t think so.
The groundwork in Aikido is Suwariwaza.
Suwariwaza literally means sitting technique and doesn’t imply ground. Osae waza (grappling) could encompass ground grappling as well. My sensei trained under Cleber Luciano as well as Hikitsuchi Michio, and osae waza is what we have always called it when we train ground fighting.
Realistically, suwari waza isn’t practical. WIth shoes and concrete in the world, it’s not that good of an option. Ground fighting is always a terrible option, but sometimes it goes there.
Go look at some old pridefc videos, a lot of the guys got there head stomped on. Newaza in not practical on the street in most scenarios, 1 on 1 yes but 1 on more or more on more no. The best martial arts for the street are stand up martial arts where you have the opportunity to escape. Boxing, Karate (Goju Ryu, Uechi Ryu, Kyokushinkai) Muai Thai (old school, Muai Boran), Dutch Kickboxing, Savate, Wrestling(Greco Romanian style), Judo (Tachi Waza, Sutemi Waza and some Kansetsu Waza), Aikido (Aikikai, Yoshinkan, Tomiki, Iwama).
Also go look at the way Kazushi Sakuraba used his movement on his knees to altercate Royce Gracies attempts to submit him, that’s pure suwari waza and he trained in catch wrestling.
As always, Stan, thanks for another interesting and well-researched article. After reading it, I have a greater grasp of the unique approaches to techniques that Nishio Sensei demonstrated in his dvd series.
i believe that it’s difficult to grasp the full meaning of innovation without having at least some knowledge of the history in which the innovations were born. Thanks for giving us at least a peak into the mind and process of Nishio Sensei. Any more on him that we can look forward to?