Talk:Aiki (martial arts principle)

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I have started this article, and look forward to contributions from other wikipedians to help improve it. Womble bee 10:09, 12 December 2006 (UTC)

You might want to rewrite the "Dominating the assailant" section (I'm leaving in a moment or I'd do it myself). Nage is not the receiver of the technique that is uke (not capitilized, but italisized). The section also reads like a bit of clumsy legal brief. Not sure how to make it better but for starters uke is used too many times (party of the first part, etc.). Not a great help I know but ....Peter Rehse 10:48, 18 December 2006 (UTC)

I have tried revising the paragraph but I'm still not 100% happy with it... Womble bee 12:13, 18 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Kanji for "ki"

I'm not trying to start an old fight in a new place, but even if the older kanji for ki (氣) was appropriate on the aikido page (supposedly due to common usage solely in the aikido community and in spite of Japanese gov't reforms regarding official kanji use in Japanese schools and publications), I really don't think it belongs here. How do you feel about changing to the "new" kanji: 気? Bradford44 15:59, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

P.S. The original discusion may be found here - Talk:Aikido#Pre-war kanji 氣. Bradford44 16:05, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

I believe the concept of aiki is not limited to Japanese culture alone, and thus the 'old' hanja (^wink^) 氣 is more appropriate. Kbarends 21:04, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

I'm in agreement with Klaas, here. Although the correct Japanese character to use is the post 1945 one, to do so limits the concept to Japan alone as only they simplified this character in this way. I also think that the use of the older character allows a more easily understood graphical understanding of the original meaning of the components of this character, as is discussed in the article.--Mateo2006 06:48, 9 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] ai/hap translated as 'harmony'

I like the explanation if 'aiki/hapki' much better here than on the kiai page where ai is extended to mean 'harmony'. Ueshiba sometimes referred to it is as 'love' which was definitively not the original martial arts concept but suited his purposes and philosophy. I made some changes over there on the kiai page. See if you concur.

In aikijujutsu and sword work it seems that aiki is used to decribe the coordination or relationship of energies or forces in their many manifestations rather than their 'harmony', which I think is more specific and narrow in meaning than 'coordination'. In sword work I've heard 'aiki' translated as 'matched ki'. 'Harmonizing' or 'blending' is just one manifestation of aiki in Daito-ryu and not the sole one. I think there is a sense of this in the aiki article's treatment of the subject which was lacking over there on the kiai page.

On the Daito-ryu page I give Sokaku Takeda's definition of aiki which was 'to win at a single glance' or something of that nature.

Karl Friday translates aiki as 'reciprocal spirit' --Mateo2006 07:06, 9 July 2007 (UTC)

Well, I think its important to keep in mind the difference between meaning and translation. The dictionaries I use consistently translate ai as meeting and joining, and wa as harmony. So an argument could be made that if it was supposed to mean harmony, it would be waki, instead. This is an oversimplification, though. Obviously, Japanese words don't have an exact English analog, so really, we just use whatever term best approximates their meanings. If harmony is in fact the best conceptualization of the practice, then that's what it means, regardless of any dictionary. My argument, though, is that "harmony" may be the way some people think of aiki, but not all. Therefore, it is better to be more dictionary-like (albeit perhaps less meaningful), and translate the term as "joining spirit". This way, it can be explained that Ueshiba and subsequent followers used aiki in a harmonious way to defuse a conflict, while historical use of aiki was for destructive purposes, etc... Bradford44 13:53, 9 July 2007 (UTC)