# Difference between aikido and aikibudo



## Charbel Hanna (Jul 14, 2020)

Greetings! I hope you are well.

Here I come with my third thread in this website, again to try to understand the differences between styles taught in dojos near where I live. As always, I keep in mind that each dojo will have its own peculiarities and that I ultimately will have to visit them, but with that in mind, and in order to hopefully be a little bit less clueless about the art when I visit the dojo, here come my questions.

What is the difference between aikido and aikibudo?
Are there atemi waza (striking) and ne waza (ground techniques) in aikidudo?
Is aikibudo maybe less circular than aikido, closer to jujitsu (or not at all and I'm just wrongly assuming stuff)?
Anything else an aikibudo practitioner might want to tell me about this art?

Thank you all for your answers!


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## Headhunter (Jul 14, 2020)

One Word has do at the end one has budo at the end


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## Gerry Seymour (Jul 14, 2020)

Charbel Hanna said:


> Greetings! I hope you are well.
> 
> Here I come with my third thread in this website, again to try to understand the differences between styles taught in dojos near where I live. As always, I keep in mind that each dojo will have its own peculiarities and that I ultimately will have to visit them, but with that in mind, and in order to hopefully be a little bit less clueless about the art when I visit the dojo, here come my questions.
> 
> ...


There may be a very specific linguistic difference in those terms in Japan. However, much of what we (outside Japan) see in JMA is through people with very limited understanding of the language - they often just know the terms they use in training, and are actually mis-using some of those.

As I understand it (and I'm one of those folks I warn about), "aikibudo" would simply be "the way of the warrior" related to aiki. So, Aikido would fit within the blanket term of Aikibudo. My guess is that some folks have chosen Aikibudo as a term to indicate they are somehow "more than just Aikido".

More to the point of your question, what's included in each term will vary widely. My primary art is Nihon Goshin Aikido, so safely within the family of Aikido (though not the style that bears that term as its whole name). We do have striking, ground work, standing work (including some close-in, Judo-derived grappling), and weapons. But how much of each you'd get would be different from dojo to dojo. I teach much more striking and in-close grappling than my primary instructor, so trying to answer your question is complicated just comparing two instructors who are directly related within a single art.


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## Charbel Hanna (Jul 14, 2020)

gpseymour said:


> There may be a very specific linguistic difference in those terms in Japan. However, much of what we (outside Japan) see in JMA is through people with very limited understanding of the language - they often just know the terms they use in training, and are actually mis-using some of those.
> 
> As I understand it (and I'm one of those folks I warn about), "aikibudo" would simply be "the way of the warrior" related to aiki. So, Aikido would fit within the blanket term of Aikibudo. My guess is that some folks have chosen Aikibudo as a term to indicate they are somehow "more than just Aikido".
> 
> More to the point of your question, what's included in each term will vary widely. My primary art is Nihon Goshin Aikido, so safely within the family of Aikido (though not the style that bears that term as its whole name). We do have striking, ground work, standing work (including some close-in, Judo-derived grappling), and weapons. But how much of each you'd get would be different from dojo to dojo. I teach much more striking and in-close grappling than my primary instructor, so trying to answer your question is complicated just comparing two instructors who are directly related within a single art.



Interesting. Thank you for your answer!
On a side note, I hope the aiki dojos will be able to practice despite social distancing measures. I may not have chosen the best time to start martial arts, haha!


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## O'Malley (Jul 15, 2020)

Hi again,

What is the difference between aikido and aikibudo?

Aikido is the empty-hand martial art founded by Morihei Ueshiba. It includes stylised strikes as well as grabs, locks, throws and pins. I won't go into detail here but there are many (and I mean MANY!) different aikido styles. Also, since Ueshiba didn't really care about names he called his style aikibudo at some point as well.

That said, the aikibudo in your city is basically a variant of aikido. It was founded by Alain Floquet, a student of Minoru Mochizuki, who was a student of Ueshiba. To make aikibudo, Floquet mixed Mochizuki-style aikido and a bit of Katori Shinto Ryu (a traditional Japanese sword school). He also studied judo and kendo.

From a technical POV, aikibudo includes a lot of the locks and throws that you can find in aikido and the training and randori looks similar enough. Based on Mochizuki's book, _Ma Méthode d'aiki-jujitsu_, and the official syllabus of the Canadian aikibudo federation, aikibudo adds several things to the mix. This includes some judo/jujutsu throws, some karate strikes, some grab escapes and some sword forms.

Are there atemi waza (striking) and ne waza (ground techniques) in aikibudo?

They do teach atemi waza but I don't think they teach ne waza.

Is aikibudo maybe less circular than aikido, closer to jujitsu (or not at all and I'm just wrongly assuming stuff)?

Depends on what you mean by circular. And aikido. And jujitsu. 

Hope it helps.


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## Charbel Hanna (Jul 15, 2020)

O'Malley said:


> Hi again,
> 
> What is the difference between aikido and aikibudo?
> 
> ...



Yes, it helps, of course! Thank you for your answer!


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## Gerry Seymour (Jul 15, 2020)

O'Malley said:


> Hi again,
> 
> What is the difference between aikido and aikibudo?
> 
> ...


Very informative, as usual.
One correction: “Aikido” is an ambiguous term. The Dai-Nippon Buttoku-Kai designated it as a name for a family of arts, including the art of the then-head of the committee making that decision (Harai Minoru, if memory serves). Then, as now, the most well known art in that family was Ueshiba’s.


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## O'Malley (Jul 17, 2020)

Thanks for the precision. 

And it was indeed Minoru Hirai who coined the term.


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