50 Años de Aikido en España: Yasunari Kitaura Shihan

This video has been reviewed by Aikikai Foundation [Music] ACAE presents with the collaboration of Aikido Villava [Music] A documentary about 50 years of Aikido in Spain since our teacher Yasunari Kitaura Shihan introduced it in 1967 as a designated Aikikai delegate for Spain by Doshu Kisshomaru Ueshiba This one is a tribute to his dedication and effort to spread this way of life in which so many have been inspired. A small tribute to our sensei, from the gratitude, for his great work. Made and directed by: Javier Bravo and Alberto Sánchez [Music] Morihei Ueshiba is heir to a tradition that is largely silent but he has been capable and circumstance has been able to… curdle that tradition in such a way current. That atomic bomb baptism and defeat in the Second World War has taken hold in his heart very deeply, then, that also reflects in some way in Aikido. That reflection reflection that… it is not simply…

01:50 - he was not a fighter, but was a life edge and I believe that everyone who approaches Aikido and is interested, I believe that they understand that human aspect and reflexive. Reflective, in the sense that within… in that conception is, let’s say, this awareness about that tragic aspect of existence. That is somehow leaked. So, it is not simply fighting and winning. That, already, everyone understands. Get there at the center, its core. From there your action begins, your Ki line does not impose your action, your Ki line there is a subtle difference. But, actively. Aikido as everyone who has practiced knows is not just an activity . Harmony, etc.

we talk, 03:49 - but harmony has to be built on the basis of that relationship that is fundamentally warlike and is a confrontation. That, strictly respecting. It is not prefabricated harmony, but harmony that you have to build starting from this confrontation […] But, this is Ki, kokyu So, your Hara is breathing widely. That exercise So, this…. [sound displacement on tatami and fall] It is not hooking the hand, but it is tracing energetically, from its center its Ki this action of catching you is an offer of its Ki its Ki advances, then you from Inside you drive [sound displacement on tatami and fall] That relationship Expand, not contract His body, does not work more than contracting in this case because you withdraw, the other grabs, that relationship is this relationship (hook). But that, if it attends to that, it already becomes one more particle of that relationship that everyone establishes mechanically. So, your Hara breathes.

06:11 - Tenchinage, kokyunage, all that breathing exercise. Not pulmonary but Hara breathing. Last… sound displacement on tatami and fall] My main interest was to recover my health that I had, let’s say, quite deteriorated by the illness a little prolonged then, my maternal uncle recommended (Aikido) and, I started and, little by little I was enthusiastic and, fortunately I believe that contact with Aikido has been a series of fortunes because Master Ueshiba was an exceptional personality and, on top of that, he had sympathy for me, enthusing me [Taiko Music] At that time, many masters later important in the dissemination of Aikido, as teacher Tamura teacher Yamada teacher Asai Katsuaki Asai, also a very old disciple of Morihei Ueshiba, because he started when he was very young, a child almost teacher Noro teacher Chiba teacher Kanai teacher Sugano. They were all young and we could deal with a familiarity, friendship. Above all I have had a close friendship with Master Chiba, Master Sugano especially. Master Kanai also had a close relationship and I have been able to train as companions while filming, and….

10:11 - In this aspect, that coexistence has been an experience for the formation of important Aikido [Music] All these people are, each personality very different, but they are intelligent each very intelligent personality, and I think that was an interesting community, which would dissipate if it had not been a figure, say, big as Morihei Ueshiba [Music] Master founder, Morihei Ueshiba moved to Iwama to Tokyo, two hours and a half of travel every month, to live with him (his son). So it was a moment of contact except for your visits to Iwama Ibaraki, ibaraki prefecture, which is, not far from Tokyo, but, after all, you have to make a trip. He (O’Sensei) lived there but for half a month he lived in Tokyo with his son and that was the occasion to make contact with him. Many Aikido practitioners who practiced at Hombu dojo and, logically, their son, teacher Kisshomaru Ueshiba, led the class every day , therefore I have met the Founder, but rather, through his son [Music] this… is a letter that I received from Morihei Ueshiba that I published in the book is this [Music] I have had a good relationship with the Founder but his teacher son Kisshomaru Ueshiba was a daily contact, and when he found out that I was coming to Spain he took me out one night to Shinjuku and we were having dinner together and he told me: “try not to forget Aikido” [sound displacement on tatami and fall] I came here in the summer of 67 but Aikido activity I started doing from the first spring of the following year 68 and from there with enough continuity and, what I remember is we have started with judo practitioners.

15:29 - The Spanish Judo Federation became interested, so it included (Aikido) as a subject in its program of courses, which lasted two weeks each fall and they came from all over, including the Canary Islands, and that made it easier for me to expand Aikido to different provinces such as: San Sebastián, Granada, Palma de Mayorca Valencia, etc. And, on the other hand, I began to form the Aikidoka groups themselves. That is, they are no longer judokas who attend their compulsory subject , but rather, who are interested. Among them there were also judokas, but already people who are interested in Aikido. A few years later we entered the university campus.

17:13 - First, in aeronautics, I was there for several years teaching and the Sports Council was called the National Sports Delegation at that time. After INEF already built. Before INEF, its predecessor was Academia de Mando, it was called Academia de José Antonio. I was on General Mola Street. There I began to teach the students of this academy together with Judo leaders. What I remember, we had the first international course in Barcelona in sixty-nine and the following year as well. Then he went to San Sebastián, and that lasted for many years.

18:49 - [Sound of falling on tatami] [sound of bokken crashing] [Music] Ametsuchi… we built with the help of many fellow practitioners [clearing] 87, fall of 87 and, some photos remain, some photos of the work we were doing. They took a series of photos. At the inauguration came Luis Báguena, who was president of the Federation at the time and I received from the embassy , he was a consul at the time, I received a gift of a bottle of sake. Anyway modest, modest opening we made. The following year Doshu master Kisshomaru Ueshiba came with the calligraphy that is hanging here and made a, let’s say, formal opening, so to speak, and brought this calligraphy saying: “for the navel of this Dojo.” The following year…

no, a few years later 23:10 - the then Waka Sensei, Moriteru Ueshiba came. Did a class. That is also… in the book it is in “Fullness of the Void” and years later several years later, Master Chiba, Kazuo Chiba visited us, suddenly, without warning, bringing this beautiful calligraphy from Ryokan. I think I have been internally, I have projected how already moving away from the source, how to rebuild how to project Aikido that is acceptable regardless of localities, regardless of local conditions of our people but at the same time without uprooting, that is, without transforming into something that is not original. I believe that, for that, my respect for terms like Ki, Kokyu, and Hara, which constitute fundamental concepts of Aikido used by the founder [sound of movement on tatami] in that action is solitary action imagining that flow of Ki of the other driving I use that adjective (positive) in the sense of expansive active, positive Hara Hara, that too, we have to focus like this Activa, Hara, always. Although before I said: this draws prominence, abandons prominence of “driver pilot” this one, before yes, before yes until the end, this directed but next, second here leaves Hara, yes Hara, is integrated from Hara draws Master, has been able to express many things with their conviction basing their ideology on their even religion directly on their language.

26:55 - But in the West I have no right or purpose to express in this way, but more… how would I say?… rationally you have to digest, and then, I always repeat in class full integration of that will of the other and, focus here to the maximum, and develop action such as based on the integration and unification and that, structurable strictly structurable seemingly utopian but is not is not something abstract, but thoroughly delicately processable that sense of… intuit your axis and draw along that axis… [Shu Kitaura sensei] A theory of movement for Aikido. And I think that is the most important contribution of my father.

28:42 - how to provide a logical structure with a brilliant vision of a Lord who is O’Sensei and who is capable of combining, extracting a lot of wisdom from the Japanese tradition , but going beyond what is a martial art We are really revaluing the legacy of Master O’Sensei and we are appreciating him by endowing him with a theory of the Aikido movement and in that sense I see that my father has managed to analyze what the underlying theoretical basis is and gives it a meaning and a criterion to know how to distinguish what form of action is correct and which not, which I think is important for any activity [Taiko Music] [Shu Kitaura sensei] Trying to dynamically master the system of dynamic elements that surround you and you start with yourself. First is a solo trip. [Taiko Music] How to learn to move your body in a unified way and from there, how to unify yourself with the rest. And these are not simply empty words that can be said and they stay there but, they are really guidelines that can be rigorously analyzed and carried out in a specific practice. And this is what my father has taught me basically. [Kitaura shihan] Integration. Aikido method of integrating Ki for practice that translation is more affordable than…

the 32:11 - way to harmonize Ki will be more philosophical but, then, it becomes more extensive then, the method of unifying Ki As before we open, we open you have to be careful you are moving forward [sound displacement on tatami and fall] This side, this impossible side unlike the previous one, is now moving forward, this is free and, above all, you open , is there understanding? [displacement sound on tatami] a little more realistic… then, this side, it has to be this side [sound displacement on tatami and fall] last… concretely, elaborately detailed, step by step last… [sound displacement on tatami and fall] one more minute…. [Taiko music] Apparent chaos, if it does not contain an essential structure in itself it could not structure That is the starting point.

So, 35:42 - both El Greco and Ueshiba’s mentality, his way of acting, thinking Fundamentally…. apparent chaos, that is, that How can you understand a struggle, which is a collision that as harmony? Harmony, not understood as a falsification of reality. If it is not a falsification of reality, that apparent, let’s say, chaos, that is, a lie… Collision, struggle is a collision, two men face each other and that to achieve as harmony that in itself that Ueshiba mentality essentially, if it does not have that harmony that structuring achieved is, let’s say, is a forgery or another forgery. It is putting, bringing, a foreign framework and building a structure.

37:28 - It was not, it is not like that, but in its essence there is at its base that structure that is manifested intelligible and understandable and harmonious. And finally a harmony. That, both cases are two totally different things but they have that basic parallel nature. That has been, let’s say, my salvation because if not, I would have set aside as skating. Then it part you. And that did not happen because apparent chaos contains an essential harmony, that unity. I am happy to have chosen El Greco to have chosen this discipline (Aikido) [Music] [Music + final greeting] [Music + applause] [Music + sound of sensei hitting his Hara] [Music + applause] .