Among other noticeable publications, Cardiff University Press stands out for promoting a Journal of Martial Arts Studies, a publication exclusively dedicated to studies and academic publications dedicated to the world of Martial Arts.
Last July, a contribution by Greet De Baets, professor and researcher of Business Communication at the University of Ghent, Belgium, was published. The article caught our attention right from the title: Je Suis Pas Tatamisé: Five Spectrums of Variation in the Narratives of 20 Aikido Experts Worldwide in 2020.
The professor’s profile is interesting, because her research activity aims at making sense of intercultural business communication training based on Aikido, as embodied pedagogy.
The article is no exception because it allows a contextualization of Aikido and Martial Arts according to criteria specific to the social sciences and thus offers interesting perspectives and very intelligent questions, which lead to conclusions that are worth being investigated.
Quoting the studies of Sixt Wetzler, she recalls that in general a person finds a dimension of meaning in the practice of Martial Arts in one or more of the following main areas: training for violent conflict, sports competition and play, performance, transcendent goals and a kind of well-being tied to health care purposes.
This first indication already deserves to be considered: in a more or less conscious way, a person approaches the world of Martial Arts because driven by a mix of such elements – and an instructor should be aware of this.
Yet Prof. De Baets goes further. From an anthropological and ethnographic point of view, it is necessary to add a careful analysis of how factors such as time, place, culture, identity, reputation and motivation bring out new meanings in the practice of a discipline such as Aikido.
In fact, the researcher faces the phenomenology of Aikido more than fifty years after the death of its founder and asks herself: what is the meaning of Aikido today?
A question that is anything but trivial and, in the perspective of research, very interesting. In fact, by interviewing a sample of high-level practitioners, representative of the various styles of Aikido and the different continents, the Belgian researcher gets to the heart of the matter.
With respect to Aikido, there are as many narratives as there are experts interviewed. Although it is clear that, at the root there is something unitary, which we can label as Aikido, the different experiences, perspectives and the uniqueness of personal interests, lead to an object that is still defined as Aikido. An object that is clearly divergent from the other narratives that lead to the same result.
In the words of Greet De Baets: a single language with many dialects.
The research comes to identify five spectrums transversal to the practice of Aikido. Five elements that are common to any narrative. Five fundamental structures of a language that has evolved (or involved?) in a plethora of dialects.
The physical dimension of the practice. The practice has a spectrum that goes from a soft modality to a hard, violent and exhausting practice.
Motivation. The interviewees’ narratives ranged from one extreme of the spectrum, represented by the search for a self-defense methodology, to the other extreme, given by the need for personal evolution.
Social impact. For some interviewees, the practice of Aikido can serve to counter violence in society, while for others it can have much broader applications.
Tangible values. The research highlighted how in many cases the continuous practice of Aikido has led to a narrative open to a process of incremental “Japanization”, which has a varied phenomenology. From the study of the Japanese language and culture to the purchase of Japanese-inspired clothing and furniture; from the need to spend periods of study or even move to Japan, up to tattoo kanji and so on… The opposite end of the spectrum is to remain “non-tatamized”, as the title of the study suggests. To devote oneself to practice while remaining impermeable to the tangible influence of the culture in which Aikido was born.
Intangible values. The densest paragraph of the study is dedicated to intangible values. For some, Aikido is a religion, for others a surrogate for a religious practice. On the contrary, for others, the correct practice of Aikido must not include even the slightest spiritual perspective.
It is a very slippery path, because, as the researcher reports, Aikido has its origins in an anthropological, cultural, philosophical, spiritual and religious mix that has shades of Buddhism, Shintoism, Confucianism and Taoism, in which, we add, the influence of Oomoto-Kyo in the experience lived by Ueshiba should not be forgotten.
It is something that is already complex to try to know from an intellectual point of view. And it is even more complex to try to perceive and to fully understand.
The result, rather obvious, is that what is complex to be understood ends up being taken as it is, almost uncritically. The researcher reports in this regard an interview with a practitioner to whom she asks what the right meditation is, receiving in response “I’m not going to say. In any case, the central point of meditation should be Buddha”.
On what is intangible probably the greatest derivation from the original root of Aikido is consumed and embodies, by reflection, the most extreme of characterizations. Thus, for some, Aikido is defined as a “peace and love” practice and for others, who say with the same conviction that they practice Aikido too, to reject the “peace and love” dimension, stressing the need for a purely and harshly physical practice.
Similarly, the intangible Ki is addressed as if it were tangible, to the point of proposing physical training to develop what is not physical and, at the same time, there are groups in which the subtle dimension is totally ignored, relegating it exclusively to the experience of O’Sensei.
Again: we know there are groups where by internal regulation it is forbidden to talk about topics that may even simply refer to religious themes and there are groups that are born within religiously inspired realities. And again, there are various groups that are structured in the relationships and perspectives of the practice dictated by their referents like small clans or cults.
So what?
The more faceted a diamond is, the better it shines. Having as many “Aikidos” as there are narratives is not necessarily a problem. In some ways it is an enrichment, because the flourishing branches do not have to fear any involuted drifts. Indeed: if we really wanted to trust the human being, sooner or later we should admit that a wide range of chances makes the proposals of value more evident.
It is equally true that this presupposes a capacity for discernment that is not always so developed. And this is because, as said at the beginning, in the end we all attended a Martial Arts class, even if it was Aikido, attracted by the desire to learn to defend ourselves, to compete, wanting to feel good and only to a minimal extent pushed by “nobler” ideals (whatever that means).
In this context it may not be so easy to realize in time that we have ended up in a dysfunctional or at least confusing environment.
Freedom is too precious to think that the problem of too many parallel narratives must be solved. And even less so by gagging anyone.
At the same time, research like this is a stimulus, for everyone, to place themselves in a dimension of serious practice, at least from a philological and technical point of view.
Not stopping to ask and to ask why forces the student and the instructor not to be satisfied with repeating a story heard from others but to make the teachings their own and transmit in turn what makes sense.
Then the number of dialects can be reduced and there can be greater understanding, even recognizing from the tone of voice, the origin of each, with his/her own story inside.
Disclaimer: picture by Dobromir Hristov from Pexels