<< Front page Sports February 27, 2004

Aikido continues tradition

Spiritual and martial discipline taught in Aikido

By Matthew A. Kaplan

Oberlin College has a long-standing history of excellence in the Japanese marital art of Aikido. Japanese founders defined Aikido as a spiritual martial art, “the way of spiritual harmony.”

“People who attack, who aggress, are breaking with the spirit of the universe,” senior Thomas Harris, an active member of the College Aikido Club, said. “The solution to conflict, thus, is not to continue the breaking of universe through strife, but to maintain one’s own connection to the universe and simply draw the attacker back into the universal harmony.”

This Winter Term, many College students, community members and avid Aikido junkies ventured through the bitter cold, the gloomy winter days and the barren Oberlin campus to Hales Gymnasium to participate in Aikido workshops and seminars. Oberlin’s own Aikido Club, which was founded in 1979, brought in Mary Heiny Sensei, sixth Dan, to help orchestrate the experience.

Heiny, a well-respected Aikido student whose spiritual enlightenment has spanned 30 years, shared her wealth of knowledge and a historical perspective from her relationship with the founder of Aikido, Osensei Morihei.

Heiny began her career in 1965 when she watched Osensei teach a seminar at Hombo Dojo in Tokyo. Heiny, who embodies great martial arts knowledge, prepared to better educate students on the history of Japanese culture as well as an awareness of Shinto and Buddhist religious perspectives.

“What struck me the most was how incredibly light her touch was,” Harris commented. “Some other sensei and higher-level aikido, when you grab or strike them, give you the feeling that you have thrown yourself into a great whirlpool of force or energy from which there is no escape. With her, and this may be because I wasn’t really trying to resist, it was an extremely light touch, almost like a breeze. I could feel that the power was there, and so didn’t resist, but the overall feeling wasn’t a sense of being thrown, but of being guided gently into the ground.”

Martial arts expert Morihei Ueshiba, whose teachings earned him the name “O-Sensei” or “Great Teacher,” founded Aikido in the early 1900s. Aikido is similar to many other forms of martial arts in the physical use of throwing, joint manipulation and highly specialized weaponry training. The underlying emphasis of Aikido focuses on the motion and dynamics of one’s movement and energy. Aikido differs greatly from other martial arts in its philosophy that participants should not strike each other. The fundamental goal of this art is to control of your opponent’s KI (energy within the body) and to “harmonize with the movements of the universe and astonishing power,” believed O-Sensei.

Third degree black belt Jim Klar heads Oberlin’s well-respected Aikido Club. Klar, who practices in Cleveland, leads the advanced Monday night classes from 8 to 10 p.m.

First-degree black belt Andrew Timpone teaches beginner Saturday classes afternoons from 2 to 4 p.m., as well as Tuesday from 7 to 9 p.m. and Thursday from 8 to 10 p.m. First-year Richard Aszling and Michael Thompson head the ExCo.


 
 
   

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