Daito-ryu’s Ippondori… “Where does Aikido’s Ikkyo come from?”

We have repeatedly made the claim that the majority of aikido techniques have their origins in the Daito-ryu Aikijujutsu curriculum. There is perhaps no better example than aikido’s most practiced basic form, ikkyo. The precursor of ikkyo is Daito-ryu’s ippondori.

Ikkyo was altered in some important ways, mostly by the Aikikai in the postwar era. Morihei Ueshiba’s execution of ikkyo in Iwama after the war more closely resembled the Daito-ryu ippondori than what was being practiced in Tokyo. Morihei retained important Daito-ryu principles such as initiating the movement on uke’s in-breath, and off-balancing and controling uke by means of atemi and the application of pressure points. In other words, the Founder preserved the martial spirit of the technique inherited from Daito-ryu Aikijujutsu.

The Tokyo Aikikai made dramatic changes that eliminated the martial emphasis of the original technique to match the anti-militaristic tenor of the times. This tendency can be seen across the board in the modern aikido modifications to the Founder’s techniques. The result is a decidedly non-martial emphasis in today’s aikido, and certainly one of the main reasons aikido is not taken seriously as a martial art in many quarters.