Are there kata/forms in Aikido or Japanese JJ?

[Dekan]

Are there usually any forms/katas taught in Aikido or JJJ dojos???

 

If not, what are usually used for belt promotions???

[Kensai]

Having just passed my 4th kyu I can tell you pretty accurately.

 

Firstly Aikido has no unarmed forms. Well not in the same as a kata. Aikido does have exercises that we learn to use for application. These are called the misogi. They are rights of purifiction taken from the Shintoist religon. These movements form the bases of Aikido 2 man exercises.

 

As for the gradings, in the Federation of which I am proud to be a member you do the following:

 

Ki tests: which show to some degree an understanding of the 4 Aikido prinicples. (Relaxation, centeralisation, extension and having a light posture) During his you are pushed and pulled to "test" if you can keep your balance.

 

Aikido: So you will have something called out to you like 1st form Tenchi nage, so your attacker will attack you first form which is a grab to the opposite side wrist. The tori will do the throw tenchi nage.

 

(high grades)

 

kneeling techniques.

 

 

 

defence against knife

 

bokken and Jo kata.

 

Defence armed and un armed against Bokken and Jo.

 

2-4 muiltiple attackers all at once, so you would have one person holding down each arm, one behind putting on a rear naked choke and one around your legs or trying to punch you. So you have to remove all the attackers.

 

4-8 attacker single attacks. So between 4 and 8 men would stand around you, then attack you one at a time but randomly from around the circle. Any attack from 1st to 8th form.

 

Hope this helps.

[RoninJon]

Good answer, Kensai, I'll try to add a little bit. There aren't kata in aikido nor jui-jitsu like there are in karate or other punching arts. The exercises that are done are to train the body in the movements that will be used to execute the techniques.

 

Aikido is taught by demonstration and repetition. A technique is demonstrted and then the class pairs off and practices the technique to the satisfaction of the instructor. A technique consists of a particular attack and a particular response.

 

Testing and advancement is by demonstration of progressively complex techniques. At each belt or rank level, the instructor calls out a technique and the person testing has to demonstrate prowess. As the student continues to pass belt exams, there are more and more techniques which are more and more complex. One thought about the objective of testing is to reach a point such that the attack doesn't matter and the number of attackers doesn't matter. The term for this is randori, literally chaotic attack. For upper ranks, 1st kyu and and the dan ranks, randori is a significant part of the exam. From three to six attackers will attempt to subdue the student. The attacks are random, from various punches to grabs - kicks get a little too dangerousthough are not out of the question, and the student must take control of the situation and toss folks aside.

 

Done well, it looks, well, it looks orchestrated, almost too good to be true. But as an attacker and as a defender in those instances, I can tell you is like being in a blank space. You don't hear anything except your own breathing. When it works, it's like magic. And when it doens't, and I've have trainging sessions that haven't, it's like being in a car wreck.

 

Aikido can't really be studied by a single person. It takes two or more to really study it. There aren't individual exercises except for the movement. And that won't teach you technique.

[Kirves]

Japanese arts (jujutsu, judo, iaido, iaijutsu, etc.) do have their kata but their kata is not solo but partner work (except iaido and iaijutsu which have solo forms). Just go see any book on Judo and you'll see what I mean, they have two-person katas which don't resemble the solo forms of Okinawan karate. I don't know if Aikido has katas but classical Japansese jujutsu styles have plenty of them. A typical judo or jujutsu kata lasts about 2-20 seconds and contains attacks and counterattacks and the final submission.

[yoriki816]

Are there usually any forms/katas taught in Aikido or JJJ dojos???

 

If not, what are usually used for belt promotions???

 

Not to contradict Kensai or any of the other folks who have posted replies to this question, but I would have to say that YES there are definately kata taught in Aikido dojos, in fact my Shodan exam was full of them. To be true some of them involved weapon work. (knife and sword to be specific) but at least one was pure aikido.

 

I realize that Yoseikan Aikido is unusual in this regard, and that the previous replies were correct when applied to their respective styles, but some styles do use kata. I can think of three specific kata that do not involve weapons or karate and I'll give you a brief run down of them.

 

Jutsuri No Kata or Form of the Soft Catch: in this kata you and a partner demonstrate several basic aikido principles of deflection and redirection through very slowly setting up a variety of techniques only to execute them with power.

 

Tai Sabaki No Kata or Form of Body Shifting: in this kata the 10 basic methods for avoiding a strike are demonstrated with a technique that uses only that one piece of footwork to execute.

 

Hiori No Kata or Form of Escape and Reversal: in this kata two students go through a series of techniques that are continually countered and reversed until one student actually ends up on the mat.

 

There are more but those are the major ones.

 

Hope this helps.