There seems to be a notion that Aunkai is teaching something more in depth or different from Wado ryu and I have to wonder if it isn't just the way that the two are presented. 'Wa Ten Chi Jin no Ri Do' is at the centre of wado and here it is appearing in another guise as shown by Aunkai. Akuzawa was ‘born in Gunma prefecture, Japan and started Tai Chi when he was 16 and Hsing-Yi when he was 19.’ which has to show quite a different starting point from Ohtsuka meijin with his history and lineage of Japanese koryu, sword arts plus Okinawan karate whose vision was leaning towards sundome shiai and beyond. Yet I can see the same thing but just presented differently. In my experience there are methods in our training that already exist for developing the body in a similar manner to Aunkai but wado ryu is predicated on Ohtsuka meijin's vision of a new martial Japanese art which was heading in a different direction which was well beyond the individual benefits of making the individual body strong for fighting applications.wadoka wrote:The Akuzawa footage particularly interests me as he makes impact. For the junzuki gyakuzuki pair the movement is very reminiscent of Takamizawa sensei's shorter range gyakuzuki. He makes tsugi ashi for the junzuki which could mean for forward body mass transfer than just leading with the front foot.
On the matter of a framework, it is common knowledge that one cannot fight exactly like kata which Akuzawa mentions in one of the articles.He holds the limited need for a framework before eschewing the framework, yet our use of kata in its kaisetsu application shows the the further value of kata is in its ura application and the ongoing value in its conduit function for generations ahead. Perhaps it is just the eyes of the practitioner, but for wado ryu the structure of wado kata may well be analogous to a microcosm of a national structure in Otsuka meijin's vision where kata is an intrinsic dynamic in Japanese history, its society and its martial arts which is where Ohtsuka meijin's heart and spirit were forged.
Wadoka, your Takamizawa tsugi ashi experience you speak of is the same 'connected body' (eyes inward extrapolation) tsugi ashi to be found in Ohtsuka meijin's favourite Pinan yodan kata and it is there for all to pick up and run with - but first the dynamic of its shape is perhaps different in its intent and quite important to absorb into our bodies. We can do this via kaisetsu and then work it through the anvil of ohyo kumite to understand it better beyond its shape and dynamic. In kata the frozen moments of posture in all still born kata is a death of our own making if we continue to place any stance above the essence of wado movement which I think has a different DNA and a broader path in its intent. In both cases we can argue that posture is paramount and we can see where Aunkai presents the fundamental posture and movement having abandoned the framework, a framework that most have yet to examine in their wado kata plus wado requires a very subtle use of this movement to retain its Japanese essence in the wado ryu ethos. It ain't easy but it is there to absorb.
As the man said: "There is only training" so I think I might hang on to my dogi for a little while longer yet,
oneya