Without in any way entering into a deterministic debate about the world, we can at least say that phenomena are not without effect, and that the effects of some are to some extent the causes of others. The world thus appears to be ordered according to laws, and the object of physics is to study them.
Aikido too is ordered according to laws, and these laws are related to those that organise the world. I will try to highlight this relationship. I hope that this conclusion to the corrections to the Kajo will provide some answers to the questions that my approach may have raised.
The origin of Aikido lies in non-being. I prefer to say non-being rather than void, because no one can know if non-being is void. Why non-being comes into existence is obviously an unanswerable question. It is a mystery.
We can, however, see the way in which it comes into existence, and that is by division. This was explained in "Kajo (correction) # 3 ’: the One (non-being) divides within itself, and by this division becomes Three. This is not yet existence, but the condition of possibility of existence.
The Taiji diagram by Zhang Huang 章潢 (1527-1608) helps to visualise the process of appearance of this original trinity:
The circle represents non-being. At the heart of this non-being begins the making of the universe, through the production first of the two modalities of energy, perfectly harmonious in their opposition. At this point, these three are one. The single origin is threefold. Around it are the eight antagonistic forces that will work to create the world.
Translated into Aikido terms: Irimi, the One Spirit (Ichi Rei) - which is at rest in the hanmi position (hanmi-irimi), and not yet manifested - produces irimi-tenkan (the Two). The Three is found in the very process of this division. The origin of Aikido is therefore threefold, like that of the world, and this is why it is called San Gen (three origins).
As far as the human body is concerned, the means by which irimi becomes irimi-tenkan in Aikido is called tai no henka, which is therefore directly related to the formula of division chosen by the One to manifest itself. Tai no henka is not a technique, nor is it a simple displacement: tai no henka is what gives rise to the irimi-tenkan duality that will then give rise to the technique, it is the agent at the start of every Aikido technique. It is for this reason that tai no henka must be practised at the beginning of every training session:
"Daily training begins with tai no henka ’ - O Sensei
What is metaphysical is also physical. This is why the same process of division of the One is reproduced this time at the material level of technique. We saw in "Kajo (correction) # 3 ’ that the first and purest production of irimi-tenkan is a movement called irimi nage. It is the archetype of all Aikido movements. This archetype, which is the result of a division, divides in its turn, thus revealing two initial technical principles: ikkyo and shiho nage. These two principles are opposites and complementary, just as irimi and tenkan were at the previous stage.
The strictly technical origin of Aikido movements is therefore also threefold, in the same way as its metaphysical model, and always according to the diagram:
Irimi nage ˃ ˃ ˃ ˃ ˃ ˃ ˃ ˃ tai no henka ˃ ˃ ˃ ˃ ˃ ˃ ˃ ˃ ˃ ikkyo-shiho nage
which corresponds well to the diagram :
Hanmi-Irimi ˃ ˃ ˃ ˃ tai no henka ˃ ˃ ˃ ˃ ˃ irimi-tenkan
Ikkyo and Shiho nage are each at the head of a technical lineage that they engender:
- Ikkyo is the root of the nikyo, sankyo and yonkyo technical principles of immobilisation, which like him turn from sky to earth.
- Shiho nage is the root of the technical principles of projection kote gaeshi, kaiten nage and tenchi nage which, like him, turn from earth to sky.
These eight principles, antagonistic but complementary, are the eight powers: Hachi Riki.
Because they are related in pairs, they are organised into four families, the four souls: Shi Kon. In Aikido, these four souls are called kajo, and they are as follows:
.......................................................................IRIMI NAGE
Ikkajo - Ikkyo --------------------------- Shiho nage
l l
Nikajo - Nikyo --------------------------- Kote gaeshi
l l
Sankajo - Sankyo -------------------------- Kaiten nage
l l
Yonkajo - Yonkyo -------------------------- Tenchi nage
...........................................................................AIKI NAGE
The above ladder corresponds - as far as Aikido is concerned - to what is known in Japan as Ame no Ukihashi(天の浮橋), the Floating Bridge of Heaven. Irimi nage is at one end of the bridge, aiki nage is at the other. Aiki nage is the technique that arises spontaneously when the technique has been surpassed; it is the mastery of Aikido. The technique, in the form in which it was assimilated during decades of learning, has now disappeared. The eight technical principles give rise to the ten thousand techniques, but to reach aiki nage, the way of Aiki, the return to the One, these ten thousand techniques must one day be forgotten.
There is nothing to say about aiki nage, it cannot be transmitted, it can only be attained.
Ichirei Shikon Sangen Hachiriki, the form that structures the universe, is therefore also the form that structures Aikido. This is what the founder of Aikido insisted on making us understand:
合気道とは和合の道であり、即ち一霊四魂三元八力の生ける姿、宇宙経綸の姿
"Aikido is the way of harmony, the living form of Ichirei Shikon Sangen Hachiriki, the form by which the universe was created.
- O Sensei Morihei Ueshiba -
Happy New Year to all practitioners, in the hope that this work on Kajo, completed between Christmas and New Year's Day, will reach you, carried by the strong wind (gale) that blows at this time of year at this end of the world where I live, where my companions are the ocean as far as the eye can see, and the distant and cold winter moon.
Dea-mhéin
Philippe Voarino, Oileán Chléire, 04 January 2025
