Daily Creativity: Shumatsu Dosa Ichi – After Class Exercise Number One

Daily Creativity: Shumatsu Dosa Ichi - After Class Exercise Number OneDaily Creativity: Shumatsu Dosa Ichi

Shumatsu Dosa Ichi is After Class Exercise Number One in English. The clearest use of this basic movement is directly applicable to Shihonage. Being able to move your partner, get under them, and shift them in order to bring them down simplified in this exercise. There are a lot of little bits in this movement too, and moments when other basic movements show up. Being sure to stay low is key and not giving up your balance to your partner is how you maintain control over their body and balance. I wanted to be able to show the proper position of the hands but no matter how I tried, it didn’t flow. Ink on Paper.

Daily Creativity: Hiriki No Yosei Ni Elbow – Power Number Two

Daily Creativity: Hiriki No Yosei Ni Elbow - Power Number TwoDaily Creativity: Hiriki No Yosei Ni Elbow – Power Number Two

Hiriki No Yosei Ni, Elbow Power Number Two in english, is about moving your body, and your partner’s body with as much distance you can without moving your feet. Shifting your weight and moving direction. It’s important to move on the balls of your feet, not your heels. It’s important to be stable all through the movement. Then you get under uke with elbow power. Much like Ichi, Ni is also about getting under your partner. The shift, is called yoy, we yoy a lot in aikido. Ink on Paper.

Daily Creativity: Hiriki No Yosei Ichi – Elbow Power Number One

Hiriki No Yosei IchiDaily Creativity: Hiriki No Yosei Ichi – Elbow Power Number One

Hiriki No Yosei Ichi is one of the basic movements for aikido. It’s called Elbow Power number one in english. By sliding forward and under you push your elbow forward to get control of your opponent. This movement is found in so many of the techniques you learn in aikido. It sounds simple but is so difficult to learn. Like all of the basic movements, mastering this will improve every aspect of your aikido.

I first drew this with pencil getting all of the lines and angles acurate and then used a brush pen to draw the lines you see. I then erased the pencil lines leaving only the fluid ink brush strokes to try to evoke movement and simplicity. Ink on paper.

Daily Creativity: Tai No Henko Ni – 95 degree pivot

Daily Creativity: Tai No Henko Ni - 95 degree pivotDaily Creativity: Tai No Henko Ni – 95 degree pivot

Tai No Henko Ni is the second of the basic movements in Yoshinkan Aikido. In english we call it 95 degree pivot, it is used when uke is pushing on you and you need to get out of the way to let uke follow that energy. I know this looks a lot like Tai No Henko Ichi, but that makes sense because most of these movements we start in a classic kamae stance, and end in an altered stance, but still kamae because everything is on the center line. The difference here is the figure is lower to the ground, knees bent more, and hands at a different position. Yes, you may have to be an aikinerd to see the difference, yes I am that aikinerd. The photo I used this time was not someone I knew personally, but someone from the hombu dojo.

Ink on Paper.

Daily Creativity: Tai No Henko Ichi – Cross Step and Body Change

Daily Creativity: Tai No Henko Ichi - Cross Step and Body ChangeDaily Creativity: Tai No Henko Ichi – Cross Step and Body Change

Tai No Henko Ichi is the first of the basic movements in Yoshinkan Aikido. In english we call it cross step and body change. It allows you to divert your energy around something, like a person or a strong point, to find the weak point, and end up on top of uke.

Funny thing, while looking for photos to work from for this, the one I used ended up being someone I know I have worked with at a previous kenshu. I found other pictures of him with the sensei running the kenshu I was at last weekend. Yoshinkan is a small world.

Ink on paper.