This post first started as a basic post regarding an aiki rensei that comes from 11th Book which basically teaches hiji ryoku (臂力), or elbow power. It is also referred to as hiji ryoku no yorei (臂力ノ養成) in other lines, but Amatsu sensei only ever said just elbow power. But we will get back to that, as it kind of morphed into a hybrid of hiji royku, kyoku and moving from your hara/koshi. The catalyst for this change was a response to one of my videos from some internet ‘experts’ that Daito Ryu didn’t use hara (insert WTF here), they used the term dantien, as it is a chinese martial art group on Facebook called 6H. Anyway they asked for a video of me waving my arm around showing that I could move from my hara. Anyway I started to think about it, and I didn’t want to do some half arsed taiji move, as I dont do taiji. So I thought I would give a Daito Ryu response to the request and combine it with my hiji ryoku article as it is all related anyway.

Aiki Rensei

The main points of this aiki rensei

• Don’t stand in front and move teki to your side.
• Don’t concentrate on your wrist, that is for aiki locking.
• Using an aiki connection, create a package that encompasses teki, but you are not connected to this package. You are outside of the package, and you just move the package, not teki. Don’t concentrate on his extremities, just the package.
• Think back to your elbow, and even further to your hara. Drive this movement with your hara.
• Don’t raise your wrist, it keeps one point. Draw/lower your elbow in a spiral towards your hara.
• Keep your weight under side. Meaning Don’t use your front side muscles like your shoulders and arms. Use your back muscles (Lats).
• Breathe naturally

Solo Training

Here are some basic solo exercises to co-ordinate the mind, body and spirit. So some basic pointers:

• Stand in natural posture i.e. Shizen Hontai
• Don’t force your breath, keep your breath away from the extremities.
• Normal breath is breath in, and belly expands.
• Reverse breath is breath in, and belly contracts. The contraction draws towards your hara, and powers your upper cross.
• Keep your weight under side. Meaning Don’t use your front side muscles like your shoulders and arms. Use your back muscles (Lats).
• Lead / Draw with your elbow. In the Hachiriki it talks about leading teki into empitness. This is driven by your hara and directed by your elbow.
• Don’t turn your wrists, spiral your elbows.

6 video(s) found

3:12

Solo Training 1

Posted on April 22, 2023

Soden (総傳)

Gavin Slater, Gavin's House, Kyoku, Move With Hara, Solo Training

28 views

Solo Training 1

2:04

Solo Training 2

Posted on April 22, 2023

Soden (総傳)

Gavin Slater, Gavin's House, Kyoku, Move With Hara, Solo Training

16 views

Solo Training 2

3:18

Solo Training 3

Posted on April 22, 2023

Soden (総傳)

Gavin Slater, Gavin's House, Kyoku, Move With Hara, Solo Training

24 views

Solo Training 3

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Te Kagami And Your Elbow

This Hanza Handachi waza uses hiji ryoku as well, notice at the end of the video Jryki sensei notes about its like throwing a ball. Lead with your elbow, to create the forward momentum. There is an interesting note to make about this waza in the Soden, in the books it doesn’t mention or even allude to Te Kagami in this waza. Now this could be for many reasons it was left out of the book. One might be it is kuden, so it is not in the books. But, one other reason is the students in the photo’s had only just practiced this waza, as the routine was, they would do the lessons, then Hisa sensei would take their sensei to the bath. The students would then use the Asahi newspaper camera’s to take these photos, without their teachers permission. So lucky for us they were a little shady, and did it so that we have this wonderful resource to look back on.

But there is Kuden from Takeda in relation to using the hand mirror kuden in this waza, as teki grabs your wrist, do kakete and turn your palm up. This creates hiji no bashi on teki’s grabbing arm. Looking into the mirror, raise your hand leading with your elbow, and turn your thumb to the inside using asagao no te.

Hiji Ryoku In Asahi Ryu

Notice below that Amatsu sensei is teaching us hiji ryoku from Asahi Ryu (6th Book). Notice sensei leads with his elbow, and that drops teki. This waza is interesting because it is clearly evident that you need an aiki body to make this work.

Some Other Related Content

Here is some other related pictures of hiji rokyu from other Daito Ryu and Aikido lines.

If you liked this content please subscribe to Aiki Cloud as we have lots of awesome content coming up for the members area, including:

• Takeda’s Kote Gaeshi Hiden
• A complete expose on Kote Gaeshi. Going from Shoden, Chuden, Okuden and Hiden, there is nothing like this that exists that I know of.

And lastly a big thank you! to all of the people working in the background supporting me, I can’t name everyone but this information is not my own as I am just passing it on.