Lightening and Rising Moon weapons Kata

Last night Alison sensei taught the importance of connection through paired weapons exercises and touched on some of the paired kata Maruyama sensei introduced in 2003. These kata are the lightening and rising moon kata, which are  tachi dori (paired sword  exercises) and jo and sword paired exercises. The kata are described in 13 Aikido Yuishinkai Syllabus Downloads

They are a series of exercise practised from a 10m distance that closes rapidly to the more usual combat distances. The name Lightening is given for the speed at which you must strike and Rising Moon takes it name from the reflection of the moon the water, in that you reflect the movements of your partner. Many of the movements in rising moon will be familiar to Ki Society members who may remember  taigi 29 - kumitachi

Sensei provided these exercises as a respite from the sanningake exercises done from kneeling position (for nage only) to ensure proper movement from tanden, throwing from the front hand only and then from the rear hand - before finishing the class with the formal tanninzugake practice.

Whilst the paired weapons practice  might seem to have been a respite from the physical practice of tanninzugake - its actually identical training in preparing the mind to extend and connect , the body to enter correctly, pass through the space and then control uke with projection.

We hope to return to rising moon and lightening kata in the near future