THE PHYSICAL DIMENSION
Seen from the outside aikido looks like an endless physical flow, made up of an endless variety of specific forms. We see a wide range of throwing or holding-down movements, repeated again and again. These movements Uyeshiba derived from sword, stick, and spear techniques, and from particular techniques developed by the practitioners of an old form of jiu-jitsu. Once he started developing aikido Uyeshiba never stopped. He developed techniques that he went on refining for the rest of his life. He also went on inventing new ones. There is a story told about one of Uyeshiba's students. This man started to write down all the techniques he saw Uyeshiba use. After listing a couple of thousand he gave up. He realised that his teacher's movements were spontaneous. Uyeshiba was improvising. There were certainly many techniques he seemed to repeat. Others, however, he made up as he went along. This meant that there was potentially no limit to the number of aikido techniques. Uyeshiba's ability to improvise set a powerful example. There are no limits to the ways in which we can be attacked. There are no limits either to the ways in which we can respond. Improvised forms flow naturally from unselfconscious movement. Unselfconscious movement can be applied in a myriad contexts. Aikido is a single response, yet that one response can be adapted without effort to an infinite variety of self-defence situations. It was the unity underlying all Uyeshiba's movements that enabled him to respond to surprise attacks in a creative manner. His techniques were really variations on one single theme. This theme began long before the attack began and it continued long after it was finished. Uyeshiba saw himself synchronising his movements with those of the universe. Because he felt himself to be part of the cosmic energy flow there were no surprises in the space and time in which he moved. He never looked out-of- step. His movements were deliberate. They were also in harmony with those of his opponents. They never had a chance. There is a piece of old movie footage of Uyeshiba in which he is attacked by a ring of swordsmen. He is surrounded by about fifteen men with Japanese swords. They attack together. Suddenly they are all in a heap and he is standing a short distance away looking back at them. It looks impossible, even a little ridiculous, like a comedy routine in a circus. I watched this film on video once and slowed it down to try and see what Uyeshiba did. Advancing the video frame by frame I could work out what had happened. As the swordsmen attacked Uyeshiba sank down slightly. Then he moved with astonishing speed out of the ring, passing between two of the swordsmen. He moved so fast that on film his image was blurred. He was moving, in other words, faster than the film could shoot.
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