The Wooden Sword, Stick and Knife of Aikido
SENSEI PHONG THONG DANG
Sixth-Degree Aikido Black Belt
Founder of the International Tenshinkai Aikido Federation
Two-Time Inductee into the World Martial Arts Hall of Fame
Chief Instructor, Westminster Aikikai Dojo
LYNN SEISER, PH.D.
Third-Degree Aikido Black Belt
Founder of Aiki-Solutions
TUTTLE Publishing
Tokyo | Rutland, Vermont | Singapore
Contents
Acknowledgments and Appreciation
Kihon: Basics and Fundamentals
Boken: Wooden Sword
Jo: Wooden Staff
Tanto: Wooden Knife
Zanshin: A Lingering Connection
References, Resources, and Recommendations
Dedication
I would like to dedicate this book to the founder of aikido, O’Sensei Morihei Ueshiba; his son, Kisshomaru Ueshiba; and his grandson, the current Doshu Moriteru Ueshiba. I want to thank the Aikikai Foundation, and Secretary General Shihan Masatake Fujita for his ongoing support and encouragement. I also dedicate this work to my first aikido instructor, Shihan Mutsuro Nakazono, and my late brother, Sensei Tri Thong Dang.
I dedicate this book, and my life’s work, to my students.
As always, I dedicate this book to my loving and patient family.
—Sensei Phong Thong Dang
As always, first I must dedicate this book, our third together, with my deepest respect and humility, to my aikido sensei, Phong Thong Dang. His technical precision and expertise are exceptional. His patience with his students demonstrates and illustrates a deep compassion and desire to communicate and perpetuate his life’s work and the shared passion and vision of aikido founder O’Sensei Morihei Ueshiba. It is truly a humbling honor to train under such a man, a legend in martial arts, to share in his vision and be entrusted with assisting in presenting this knowledge, as limited as my understanding may be and as inadequate as my words are. “Sensei, Domo Arigato Gozaimashita.”
I dedicate this work to all the people I have ever had the honor and pleasure to train with. The hours we have spent in sweat and in laughter have contributed greatly to this work and to my life. What they have given me freely I have tried to pass on as freely and completely as it was given. I hope that in some small way these works will help those training partners I will never meet but who share a similar journey.
I dedicate this work, my love, and my life, to my family. Their patience, encouragement, and support make my training possible, my dreams come true, and my life worthwhile. With them in my heart and mind, my training is always an art and discipline of loving protection.
—Lynn Seiser, Ph.D.
Acknowledgments and Appreciation
The authors express their deepest acknowledgments, appreciation, and gratitude to their editor, Jennifer Brown, at Tuttle Publishing, for her patience, support, encouragement, and expertise. Without her, our two previous volumes would not have been possible. It is hard to transform men of action into men of words. The authors also want to express their appreciation to Amanda Dupuis for her guidance, assistance, and patience with this, our third volume.
John Tran, of the Westminster Aikikai Dojo, took the photographs used in this book. His patience, and his knowing eye for technique, are acknowledged and deeply appreciated.
The models used in this book, along with Sensei Phong Thong Dang, were Westminster Aikikai students Minhhai Nguyen, Bryan Tate, and Richmond Neff. The task of receiving a technique and taking a fall is difficult and often dangerous. Without good training partners, there is no aikido training or practice. These gentlemen are some of the best.
Pamela Seiser, wife of Lynn Seiser, has read, reread, and proofread every word, of every page, of every draft, of every book. Her eye for spelling, grammar, style, and general readability has been an invaluable service to the authors, the editor, and those of you who read these works. Her support and encouragement made these works possible. Her expertise and eye for detail have made them presentable.
Lynn Seiser painted the original kanji calligraphy for each chapter.
Introduction
The history of the world is often told by the history of war, recorded by the victor. Warriors have always used weapons to fight wars, and any complete fighting system includes the use of weapons. While aikido is an effective and efficient means of self-defense and protection—popularly practiced primarily as a means of personal, social, and spiritual development—it is still, at its core, a martial art.
JAPANESE WEAPON ARTS
The mystique of the use of Japanese weapons appears in the Kojiki or legendary stories of old Japan. The Japanese feudal warrior was called bushi, but later commonly became known as samurai (meaning “to serve”), in the Muromachi period (1392–1573). The bushi’s trade was bugei, or martial arts. Bugei, combative effective martial art systems, were known by the jutsu suffix. They developed systematically from around the tenth century, through vigorous traditional training discipline, for the sole purpose of group protection. The martial arts included both unarmed and armed fighting arts, as well as arts of camouflage and deception, binding, speed walking and running, jumping, climbing, dodging, swimming, fortification, deployment, gunnery, and fire. Within those armed or weapons martial arts were kyu-jutsu (bow and arrow), so-jutsu (spear), gekikan-jutsu (ball and chain), shuriken-jutsu (blade throwing), jutte-jutsu (metal truncheon), tessen-jutsu (iron fan), tetsubo-jutsu (iron bar), sodegarami-jutsu (barbed pole), sasu-mata-jutsu (forked staff), and juken-jutsu (bayonet). The more common weapons were ken-jutsu (offensive swordsmanship), iai-jutsu (defensive swordsmanship), bo-jutsu (staff over five feet long), and jo-jutsu (staff or stick under five feet long). (Draeger and Smith 1969, p. 83)
The bushi’s moral code of ethics, moral standards, philosophy, and national consciousness was bushido, “the way of the warrior.” Many recognize three