Thirty spokes gather around a hub.
The use of the chariot depends on its emptiness.
- Lao Tzu - Tao te king
The motor of the action is motionless; it is motionless because it occupies the centre of gravity of this action, and this is where tori must be to direct the movement.
However, in the teaching of the method, the irimi nage movement is taught in such a way that it is tori who moves around uke to reach his back, in order to then throw him. In such a case, it is uke who occupies the centre of the action, as the video explains:
Such a blatant contradiction with the very principle of Aikido clearly shows that the method must be understood as a necessary pedagogical stage, but that Aikido can in no way be summed up in it. There is work to be done, starting with the method, to discover Aikido, and only then can we speak of Takemusu Aiki.
To practise Aikido, tori must apply the principle of irimi-tenkan, which is the rotation of the vertical axis of the body around itself. Irimi-tenkan is manifested by tai no henka. If he wants to respect the principle of Aikido, tori cannot in any way walk around uke with steps. Tori does not walk, he only pivots, but permanently, around his axis. This is the meaning of the expression ‘walking without legs’ used by Master Nakazono. Uke is driven by tori's rotation and turns around him according to what physics calls angular velocity.
One day, in Iwama, a student asked master Saito a question typical of a period of study when it has not yet been understood that there is no point in asking questions without first having gone part of the way. He naively asked what the secret of Aikido was. Master Saito replied: ‘The secret of Aikido... but it's right there at your feet’. The essence of the work in Aikido consists in understanding the principle of displacement. If the footwork is understood and respected, the techniques arise spontaneously, because they are part of the rotational logic of this movement, and appear as its natural consequence. It is only then that the marvellous production of Takemusu Aiki that O Sensei talks about emerges.
