20 jo suburi – the building blocks of aiki jo and aiki body

Aiki-jo is usually what is referred to when people who train aikido workout with the 4 feet wooden staff, the Jo. The founder of aikido, Morihei Ueshiba, used the Jo as a training tool, and because of this fact basically all aikido groups and organizations around the world today do too. Morihiro Saito sensei, one of the founder’s closest students and the one who received extensive direct instructions on the aiki-jo from him, explained that he took the movements from the various parts of the founder’s aiki-jo, and broke them down into 20 isolated exercises, the jo suburi.

The point of the suburi is two-fold:
1. to learn the external forms of the founder’s aiki-jo, basically to learn the moves which are used in the paired training,
2. and to provide a means to, on your own, train to use your body as one dynamic unit, every part connected – ground, legs, arms, head and jo – via the dantien in the middle. That is, to inform and improve your aikido, and mainly the empty-handed part of aikido at that.

It is the second point which is my own main focus when I train with the Jo these days. Saito sensei said that the founder would refer to this second point as (aiki)ken-tai-(aiki)jo no riai, that is, the principle of unity between the aikijo, aikiken and use of body (and by extension the empty hand techniques) in aikido. To that end, when I train and teach the suburi I do so in a way to make sure that the suburi are practised so as to inform the empty-handed part of aikido – and vice-versa – not to act to develop as a separate skill parallel to aikido, such as training in jodo or iaido for example. Don’t get me wrong, I know of plenty of excellent aikido exponents who’s main weapons work comes from jodo and iaido, or derivatives of these schools. Many times their ability to wield and use the Jo and japanese sword as weapons are way superior to mine.

Author shows example of aiki jo and taijutsu riai (photo by Jakob Blomquist)

However, if the points of the aiki-jo in general, and the jo suburi in particular, are the two mentioned in the previous paragraph, then the inside forms – what is going on inside the body – are important, more important in fact than the external shape of the suburi.

There are a lot of videos of the 20 suburi. For reference I refer to you mainly to those where Morihiro Saito sensei himself display, as well as talk about the history of them. Today you can find videos as early as the 1960’s and all the way to 2000’s of him showing the suburi. One favourite of mine I already highlighted in a previous post: Personal reflections on a 1979 video of Saito M showing aiki-jo and aiki-ken. There are also many videos by very senior direct students of Saito sensei showing the 20 suburi.

However, in an attempt to keep my own record of the suburi as well as to highlight some important points for each suburi which I feel unlock the true potential of the Jo suburi as tools for building an aiki body, I have finally put together a series of 6 videos of my own. The first five videos include the five sets: tsuki (thrust forms), uchi-komi (striking forms), katate (one-handed forms), hasso gaeshi (parry into hasso kamae forms), and nagare gaeshi (flowing/inter-connecting forms). In these videos I give comments to the individual suburi and they therefore range between just under 5 minutes to just about 11 minutes long. In the sixth video I simply run through the whole set of 20 suburi, one time each and without explanation (and without 100% precision to be honest). I filmed them all in one take in front of a lovely field but was interrupted a couple of times by passersby people, and I had to take care not to flip the whole tripod by getting entangled in the microphone cord. I therefore had to edit them a bit, I know I missed some important points, and the quality might be lacking at times. Still, they are nevertheless uploaded for all to enjoy… or not.

You find all six videos here on my video page and I will include one of them just as a sample in this post:

You will also find all of them in a playlist “Jo Suburi” on my YouTube account.

Please note that it is always best to get feedback from an instructor who are trained in these suburi by Saito or one of their direct students, in order to get the important details which otherwise might be lost by just looking at a video.

Keep it playful!

Text and video by Jakob Blomquist

What should we do now?

In these times of struggles to stay calm and healthy, and, perhaps, stay home, what can we do to not feel so helpless? First realize that there are people much worse off than we right now. Victims of war and conflicts around the world are still struggling to stay alive. For example, as of Feb. 20, 2020: Some 900,000 people in northwest Syria have been displaced by conflict since Dec. 1, 2019. As attacks move further north in Idlib, people are increasingly squeezed into a small area near the closed border with Turkey, which was already hosting hundreds of thousands of displaced people. Children make up more than 60% of those who’ve been driven from shelter.

Closer to home, especially perhaps for those in US, there will be a lot of people who can’t afford or access healthcare, who need food and shelter, and who, more than any other, will be exposed to a harsh reality when society is struggling.

I suggest that in these times you don’t forget about them. There are plenty of support organizations around doing amazing work, both local ones as well as international ones, but they are not able to do so without the support from donations. (I’ll link to some in the bottom).

How about closer to your own reality? Well, if you have to stay away from the dojo due to cancelled classes, why don’t you keep supporting the dojo by keep paying the fees (the dojo will open soon again but in some cases won’t be able to keep their contract of they can’t pay their rent). Work on your own body, for example by doing yoga, tai-chi, or any number of solo training exercises we have using our Jo and Bokken. Maybe go for a jog. Spend more time with your family.

This will pass so try to spend the time in the most productive and compassionate way you can.

Stay safe, and stay generous.

https://www.unhcr.org/
https://www.icrc.org/
https://www.radiohjalpen.se/
https://www.msf.org/
https://www.crisis.org.uk/
https://endhomelessness.org/

Aiki-jo – Piercing through the attack

Aiki-jo is all about body work, blending, owning the line and irimi, piercing straight into the mater at hand.

Here we are studying the irimi of aiki-jo in the form of how we receive an attack by owning the line, blending, parrying, closing the space, and piercing straight through the attack, all in the same instant.

Aiki-jo is also a study in how to use your body as one dynamic unit, every part connected – ground, legs, arms, head and jo – via the dantien in the middle.

One thing moves, everything moves.

Text and video by Jakob Blomquist

How do we meet on equal terms?

On the mat we face each other, touch each other, and work together with a common goal.

It’s a couple of days after the 2016 US election and I’m trying to formulate something smart to say.

I can’t.

It’s easier to respond to comments and share memes than to draft something of your own. There are so many emotions bubbling in me and others that we try to calm down. I think of the words of POTUS Barack Obama: “It’s about the work…”, reflecting about times when he felt overwhelmed with his own perceived failures and limitations. As if to say “Just get on with it. Let the day-to-day work bring you forward, no matter what.”

Still, we have to face people we know voted in ways we have a hard time accepting. They are the same as before… but somehow, different. What, then, is the work that brings us forward? To me it’s the classroom, in front of, and together with, my undergrads. They give me their trust, and I just get on with it. There, in the classroom, I let science enable them to see the world in richer colors, use physics to bring clarity on complex problems like global warming, and perform chemical experiment to teach them about next generation of batteries which will hopefully bring humanity along. Student for student. Class for class.

But still, this is not meeting people on equal terms. I’m the teacher and they are students. They ask me. I answer. We are part of a hierarchy that puts us on unequal terms. As satisfying as it is to see my students progress and develop a greater understanding of their world, ultimately this non-symmetric relationship come packaged in a state of tension and emotions related to personal opinions. Even healthy ones.  Where, then, can I safely meet and connect with people on equal terms, independent of our personal background and baggage?

For me training a martial art, like aikido, really helps. On the mat we face each other, touch each other, and work together with a common goal. There is little, or no, talk on the mat; just trust and connection. My connection with my own center, and my connection with theirs. Everything else is left outside the mat… or should be at least.

And so life goes on.

/Jakob Blomquist

(Photo on top: Face to Face, by Christos Tsoumplekas CC BY-NC 2.0
Bottom photo by Author, Aikido Seminar 2016 in Davao, Philippines)