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In 2002 Maruyama sensei emerged from 10yrs seclusion in a temple and returned to the outside world. He brought with him Aikido Yuishinkai and shared it in Australia in Sep 2002 this is a report of that seminar.
I attended the Koretoshi Maruyamas seminar
on the extended weekends of about Sept 6 and 13 at Goshinkan, Byron bay Australia and had a great time. As some of you may know Maruyama was an original student of O'Sensei and President of the Ki Society before spending 10yrs study in a Japanese temple. He has now returned to teach aikido yuishinkai.
The seminar was attended by many aikido yuishinkai dojos from australia and
OS as well as many visitors from other aikido styles. Many local aikido students from 10 years ago (when maruyama was last in Australai) appeared out of the woodwork and it was great to train with them again. Also very humbling to train with some of the multistylist aikidoka who were dan graded in several aikido styles and had trained and various headquarters in japan (I had taken a certain pride in my ukemi but feel i need to strap on the white belt again ..sigh). All in all I have never been to a seminar where there were so many different aikido styles present and where people were there to train rather than to be seen to be there. A number of the Griffith university juijutsu club also came along and had a good time. It was also interesting that the way Maruyama Sensei teachs is mirrored by many Brisbane senses who had him as their teacher 10yrs ago.
The aikido training was great though the mat was quite crowded at times.
Technically the Yuishinkai style most resembles Ki society but has some
aikikai concepts blended in. Specific superficial examples of this are the use of Ura and Omote concepts ,irimi nage rather then kokyu nage and an emphasis on the sanchusen (centreline).Sensei covered pretty much the sylabus of aikido yuishinkai and so there wasn't much time to focus on specific aspects but more to introduce his style and next seminar he promises to focus on specifics inc. a two day w'shop on yuiki. (see below)
Sensei M. also introduced yuiki (sp?) a kind of kiatsu but through the
palms rather than fingers which has its origins in some earlier exercises (Craig H., I'm not sure if its Tempukai in origin because i don't know what that is but the word sounds familiar). Sensei introduced Katsuendo (sp?) which are exercises for the body done with a partner - these exercises mirror the rhytms of the body and so help it to heal slowly. It seemed to me to be a combination of haku (breathing) breathing and some swaying meditations like I did in tai chi once.
At the end of the seminar a Q & A session was held from written questions
submitted by attendees, below I include some of the responses that may be of intrest to listka.
Please note these are highly paraphrased and passed through the Danny
filter and so may not be accurate in all cases.
Q.Insights after 10yrs in temple
'I am mind itself' (see www.aikidoyuishinkai.com for the motto that
includes statements like this) 'mind creates fortune, we have past_now_future. mind is like a seed in the ground with rain and thunder the seed sprouts grows and becomes a tree. the ground consists of conscious, sub-conscious and super sub conscious mind before reaching the seed.(he mentioned Freuds work in this area) all nutrients are filtered by these levels before reaching the seed. therefore must have a positive filter to allow full development - must have positive mind always. visualisation is important here.'
sensei then shared about what he was visualising whilst in temple and spoke
of australia and goshinkan and seminar and then hawaii and friends there and shared that all had come to pass becasue of this.
Q. Opinion on taigi arts of KNK
He created taigi (FYI taigi are paired kata of 6 or so techniques) with Tohei Sensei to develop rhythm, timing and largness of Ki and that they are good to do. He
said that rhythm very important, but that timing varied depending on size of uke
therefore of limited use. Largeness of Ki was good but could become like dancing and not martial art.
Suggested if we want to practice taigi then pick our own siz techniques and
make one up this is OK and good to do. he said kata is fundamental practice and so to practice technique alone was good since aikido waza is kata
Q. Misogi
yes, good for kiai practice. Kotodama in daily life imortant as well your
voice beconmes a wave and that spreads infinitely and comes back to you. therefore always have positive voice.
Q. on bokken shomen cut
Always straight down never from over the shoulder
Q.Uke-Nage relationship
Uke and Nage are the same e.g. uke extend ki to nage hand, nage extend ki
to uke, with physical movement you get katatedori kokyu nage(oops i mean irimi nage) and uke takes ukemi - he demonstrated this in a no touch technique using palm up palm down and slight movements.
Q. on shomenuchi ikkyo on big powerful people
never try to fight ukes attach instead move their ki first and then body
follow. i.e. when strike came he extended ukes hand away from uke and then sent up and down
Q. not sure on the question but the following came out
you will always attract the same people as your mind. i.e. if you have positive mind then you will attract these types of people.
On a personal note it was a fantastic seminar. maruyama is an extremely
talented aikidoka who remains very humble and approachable and who communicates well in english.
The humility was genuine and not that false kind you see sometimes. His
humor pervaded the seminar with out compromising the serious busness of
training. I enjoyed being able to ask many questions during practice and
have them answered there and then definatively. A big take home point that
'aikido practice is kata' which i sumise to be that resistance training by
uke is not so appropriate when practicing set technique.
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