Bokken Nage - Aikido revisited

Post date: May 08, 2010 12:21:5 PM

An armed samurai restrained by a variety of hand holds might be prevented from drawing his weapon and thus be rendered immobile or worse. Given that the aikido arts are derived from the swordwork of the samurai wouldn't it be great f those skills to not only be applied to unarmed techniques but also to allowing the sword to be drawn...we ll it seems they can. Serge Mol's "Classical fighting arts or Japan : A complete guide to Koryu Jujutsu" hints that this is the case and so begins an interesting area of exploration. Teachers like David Brown routinely use the boken in the hand of Nage to teach focus and Shoji Nishio has done some impressive research as well. 

Given the opportunity to demonstrate something an Embu held by Junshinkai in Matsusaka, here is my go at Boken Nage