Yoshinkan Aikido

[Xue Sheng]

Any insight into Yoshinkan Aikido?

How does it compare to Aikikai?

I just found a school, by accident, that claims to teach Yoshinkan Aikido

 

[jks9199]

There's a book called Angry White Pajamas that describes one person's experience of the shinsenshui (Tokyo Riot Police) program. It's a good read, and gives you good insight into Japanese culture (from an outsider's perspective) -- and discusses the aikido along the way.

What I've read and seen via videos, it seems like a very practical and rugged approach to aikido.

 

[K-man]

Any insight into Yoshinkan Aikido?

How does it compare to Aikikai?

I just found a school, by accident, that claims to teach Yoshinkan Aikido

Yoshinkan would be more typical of the aikido taught by Ueshiba Sensei pre-war. As stated in the Wiki link it is hard and very much like the aikijutsu that preceeded what we now know as Aikido. There is a lot of 'physical' in the style which I believe is a shortcoming because physical can be stopped with strength. Aikikai was basically the aikido as left by Ueshiba at his death. It is a much softer style but mostly devoid of atemi. Possibly its most highly skilled practitioner was Koichi Tohei, who left the organisation to form the Ki Society after arguements with Kisshomaru Ueshiba about the teaching of 'ki'. :asian:

 

[dancingalone]

K-man pretty much nailed it. Through interacting with some Yoshinkan folk, I've noticed some differences in their kamae and an emphasis on the use of the hips. They also spend a lot of time on their set of movement forms called kihon dosa.

I am Aikikai myself and it's a rather general umbrella IMO. There are plenty of people within Aikikai who lean to hard side of execution like Yoshinkan does. Hard to generalize...

 

[slink]

I've never trained with the Aikikai folks but I can confirm an emphasis on striking and generating power from the hips for many of the techniques within Yoshinkan. As a refugee from Nihon Goshin I will say that the level of ruggedness does seem quite familiar to me. I have also noticed that Yoshinkan practitioners tend to maintain an upright posture throughout the technique much more so than ASU practitioners (my school does a bit of cross training with them). Finally, Yoshinkan has maintained a technique from aikijutsu (I won't even try to spell it) which amounts to an elbow lock that can quickly be turned into an elbow destruction. I don't know for sure if it's true or not but I'm told that no other branch of Aikido has retained this technique.

 

[hussaf]

do you mean hiji ate? There is also hiji shime and the less used hiji osae...all can be used to destroy the elbow joint if desired. One thing my teacher emphasizes is to not rely on pain compliance with these techniques. They are certainly uncomfortable, but pain is an unreliable motivator, whereas physiological control is more reliable.

In addition to what others have mentioned, Yoshinkan aikido breaks their techniques down in a step-by-step manner. Students are often told to halt mid-technique to correct form, angle, etc. Whereas many aikikai base technical astuteness from their "4 principals of aikido" such as "extend ki," Yoshinkan instructors simply teach how to do a technique correctly through posture and positioning without uttering such phrases very often.

 

[Jenna]

I have some albeit limited exposure to Yoshinkan - I am trained Aikikai. I do not disagree much at all with the above posts.

I think there is a misconception of Yoshinkan being a "hard" style while Aikikai is in some way "softer". I think this is largely due to the training pedagogy. In Yoshinkan techniques are almost "disassembled" I would say and split apart to ensure at each point in that technique it is valid against resistance of uke. This can give it an appearance of being "hard" or perhaps harder than Aikikai. In reality this is not a particularly valid distinction. Both can be as hard or soft as the Aikidoka - assuming a level of expertise - decides.

There are many insignificant differences between the two in posture, occasional terminology etc that add up to make the two stylistlically separate and but even at that those differences do not apply universally to each. I have never used the kiai whereas the Yoshinkan dojo I visited did. Yet that is not a universal rule to either

In essence: both are O'Sensei derived

Jenna x

 

[K-man]

In addition to what others have mentioned, Yoshinkan aikido breaks their techniques down in a step-by-step manner. Students are often told to halt mid-technique to correct form, angle, etc. Whereas many aikikai base technical astuteness from their "4 principals of aikido" such as "extend ki," Yoshinkan instructors simply teach how to do a technique correctly through posture and positioning without uttering such phrases very often.

I don't think Yoshinkan is alone in breaking down the techniques to ensure technically correct form. We do that all the time.
My understanding is that the 'four principles' were stated by Koichi Tohei and certainly in Australia have been taken on by some of Aikikai. Koichi Tohei was one of O'Sensei's last students and one of the few who mastered the use of 'ki' and wanted to teach it to his students. Yoshinkan was begun by Gozo Shioda, probably because, post WW2, Ueshiba Sensei spent a lot of time on philosophy and may have had an unstructured form of instruction. As I posted earlier, Shioda did not train the 'softer' type of 'aikido' but was more familiar with the 'harder' aiki-jutsu of earlier times. :asian:

 

[slink]

do you mean hiji ate?

Yes, that's the one.

In Yoshinkan techniques are almost "disassembled" I would say and split apart to ensure at each point in that technique it is valid against resistance of uke.

I think that as with many things in Aikido the degree to which you will see this will vary from one instructor to the next. My instructor does break things down from time to time but usually he tries to get us to be more flowing. He even kids one of the students for being too mechanical in his movements.