About: Yukio Utada: Born in Tokyo, Japan in 1948, the youngest of 9 children, he excelled athletically since a very young age. He was exposed to various Japanese martial arts but was determined to find an art that developed not only the body but also elevated the human spirit. Mr. Utada immersed himself in the study of Aikido.  After training for only nine months at the home dojo in Japan, at the age of 19, Mr. Utada distinguished himself in an unprecedented fashion by attaining his first-degree black belt. In 1972, Mr. Utada journeyed to the United States, accepting an invitation to teach in Detroit, Michigan. Moving to Philadelphia in 1974, Mr. Utada assisted Kushida Sensei in establishing the presence of Yoshinkan Aikido in the United States.

With few resources but a vision of the Yoshinkan school he wanted to build, Utada Sensei opened his first Philadelphia dojo in 1974. From meager beginnings, the spartan school evolved in time into the Aikido Association of North America (AANA). In 1991, Utada Sensei saw an opportunity to move his school to its present location in Philadelphia. The Doshinkan Dojo, located in a freestanding structure, is one of the finest such facilities on the East Coast. This beautiful building and grounds serve as both the school and headquarters for the AANA.

Since its founding, the Doshinkan dojo has continued to flourish, establishing several affiliate schools in the greater Philadelphia area. In addition, Utada Sensei has been a faculty member of Temple University since 1974. Over the years, his popular classes have brought Aikido to thousands of students in and around greater Philadelphia.

About Bushokan: The Bushokan Dojo, which means “house of respect for all martial arts” holds classes at the Havertown Fitness focusing on the Yoshinkan style of Aikido. Aikido, which translates as “the way of harmony”, is not a static art, but places emphasis on the dynamics of movement for defense and resolution to conflict. We invite you to come for a visit and see what Aikido in Philadelphia is all about. Located in the heart of the Main Line in Suburban Philadelphia, classes are held Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays at:

Havertown Health and Fitness
34 Brookline Blvd., Havertown, PA.
EMAIL: info@Bushokan.com

BUSHOKAN is an Affiliate Dojo of The Aikido Association of North America a nation-wide organization of schools and students dedicated to providing the best in Aikido training and education.

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(From Midwest Aikido Center wrote on February 19, 2009)

I’ve been working with beginners a lot lately, and I thought I would

write down some of my tips for remembering technique names.

Fortunately, Aikido technique names and terminology are not as exotic

as some of the other combative arts. You needn’t worry about

deciphering such names as “Monkey Offers Peach”. By contrast, Aikido

names are modular, and border on the unimaginative. For example, the

exotic sounding “kata tori men uchi ikkyo, omote and ura” literally

means shoulder-grab-face-strike-first form, omote and ura. Not quite

“Parting the Wild Horse’s Mane”.

The first thing to remember is that generally speaking, Aikido

techniques are named in a modular fashion. Here’s the basic formula.

Stance + (body part+Attack) + Technique + (omote or ura)

Although it may bring back painful memories for some of you, an easy

way to remember this formula is S-A-T, for Stance-Attack-Technique.

This will work for almost all cases, but, much as we would wish,

nothing is perfect. For example, the stance is sometimes implied in

the attack, and as such, is omitted. Also the terminology can vary

when weapons are involved.

The concept of omote and ura are another discussion altogether, and we

can spend pages on this topic, so we’ll skip it for now. My intent

here is to cover the basics, and arm you with enough to keep this all

straight. This is by no means intended to be a compendium of Aikido

techniques – others have done that, and I am far from qualified to

even attempt it.

So, now that we have the basic formula, then it becomes a matter of

memorizing a few words and combining them appropriately. So here are

the more common terms, organized by category:

STANCE

gyaku hanmi – mirror image, opposite foot forward

ai hanmi – same foot forward

ushiro – approaching from the back or rear

suwari waza – on your knees. Literally, “seated techniques”

hanmi handachi – nage is seated, uke is standing

BODY PARTS

te – hand

kata – shoulder

hiji – elbow

men – mask, generally used to refer to the face or head. The “men”,

strictly speaking, is a kendo mask, which encloses the entire head. As

such, any part of the head that is covered can be refer to as “men”.

kubi – neck, but when combined with hand (tekubi) become hand-neck or

more simply, wrist.

mune – solar plexus, midsection

ATTACKS

tori – grab or take away (when used as part of the name for a weapon

takeaway technique, such as tanto tori)

uchi – strike, usually with an open hand

tsuki – punch, with a closed fist

shime – to close off or pin

sho – top

yoko – side

kata te tori – one hand wrist grab – in this case kata means opposite,

instead of shoulder

moro te tori – two hands on one wrist

ryo te tori – one hand on each wrist

kata tori – shoulder grab

ryo kata tori – one hand on each shoulder

hiji tori – elbow grab

kubi shime – choke, or literally “closing off the neck”

kata tori men uchi – shoulder grab face strike

yoko men uchi – strike to the side of the face

sho men uchi – strike the top of the head

mune tsuki, or simply tsuki – punch to the midsection

TECHNIQUES – I’ll only list the basics in the interest of brevity.

Ikkyo – first form

Nikyo – second form

Sankyo – third form

Yonkyo – fourth form

Gokyo – fifth form

Kote gaeshi – literally “gauntlet turnover”

Shiho Nage – four direction throw

Irimi Nage – entering throw

Kokyu Nage – breath throw, with a gazillion variations. When in doubt,

just call it kokyu nage

Sumi Otoshi – corner drop

Juji Nage – Figure Ten (ten is drawn as a cross in Kanji) throw

Kaiten Nage – cycle or wheel throw

Koshi Nage – hip throw

Ten Chi Nage – heaven earth Throw (OK, so we’re getting close to

“Monkey Offers Peach” – but this is as exotic as it gets)

WEAPONS

jo – short staff, meant as a walking stick

bokken or bokuto – literally “stick sword”

tanto – knife

weapon + tori – technique where nage takes the attacker’s weapon away

weapon + waza – nage is holding the weapon and applies a technique

while holding weapon.

There are many other terms but that should cover the basics.

So, using the S-A-T formula, it should be fairly easy to name the

technique that sensei was just demonstrating. So, if your attempt at

invisibility fails and sensei asks you what a technique is called,

take a deep breath and remember S-A-T.

When testing, and the technique is called out, just begin “assembling”

yourself and uke according to S-A-T. “Ushiro Tekubi Tori Kotegaeshi”

is called out, and you now know that the S is ushiro, or rear

approach, A is a wrist grab, and the T is Kotegaeshi or “gauntlet turn

over”.

Hope you all find this helpful. It’s certainly easier that remembering

all the different permutations individually. If I forgot something,

feel free to add via the comments.

For Youshinkan think… A-T-S.  As in Attack, (Body Part) Technique, Stance.  Shomenuchi, Nikijo, Ichi, Ai “Stance”.

Front Strike to the top of the head, 2nd Control, Number One, Mutual Stance.  (both attacker and defender in Right or left basic stance).

We wish everyone a very Happy Holiday season!