Ki-Aikido is a martial art that focuses on learning to control your mind and body in order to perform at your best, whether it’s doing a technique in the dojo or undertaking some action in your daily life. I’ve been training in this for quite a while now and have written a few articles on the topic which you can see listed here.
Training face-to-face in person is the best way to learn Ki-Aikido and Ki principles, but reading books on the topic is a good way to get important context and background information that will help you have a deeper understanding of the principles and related history. But there are only a handful of Ki-Aikido books available in English, and most of the newer Japanese ones haven’t been translated to English yet.
The president and chief instructor of the Ki Society is Shin’ichi Tohei (藤平光一), the son of Kouichi Tohei, the founder of Ki-Aikido (who took the Aikido at the time and made significant alterations). I’ve read a few of his books (as well as his father’s books), but what I would really like to do is get some in-person training with him. As it turns out, I have two events scheduled in the next two years where I will see him in person, but when I was searching for other ways to learn about Ki-Aikido I discovered an audiobook of his on Audiobook Japan.
It’s titled “講演CD：氣の滞りを解消する”, which can be translated to “CD Lecture: Removing Ki Blockages”. I’m not quite sure where it was recorded, but I am guessing from the CD in the title, it was originally sold as a CD that was converted to a digital audiobook.
Regardless, being able to listen to a lecture by Shin’ichi Tohei––actually let’s just call him Shin’ichi Sensei––is quite a rare thing, so I decided to pay the 3080 Yen (around $19 USD at the time of writing) to get this relatively short audiobook, clocking in at 76 minutes.
I finished the audiobook the day I bought it, and while there was little completely new information that I hadn’t heard or read before, overall it was a great experience and totally worth the money. I want to talk about this audiobook from two perspectives: those new to Ki-Aikido, and experienced Ki-Aikido students.
For those with little or no experience of Ki-Aikido, this is a really good way to learn about this martial art because the content is intended for such an audience. In the first few chapters, Shin’ichi Sensei talks about how he applied Ki principles to help a professional baseball team in the US, which is a compelling tale and a good way to introduce the power of what he teaches.
It looks like that this lecture was recorded right before one of Shin’ichi Sensei’s books came out, and accordingly he talks about this book some detail. I won’t go into that book here too much because I already reviewed it here, but it’s about Ki (氣) and how he connects the idea of Ki to the research of a certain professor.
I would say roughly a third of this audiobook is about Ki itself, which he talks about from a few different angles. Honestly, understanding Ki is one thing I have struggled with over the last few years, and I think in a short space he manages to give a pretty good treatment for newcomers.
I feel that the most memorable part of this audiobook is the story about when his father asked him “You don’t really believe in ‘Ki’, do you?” Shin’ichi Sensei relates this story and talks about how he is a scientific-minded person, and to him Ki isn’t something you should believe in without some sort of proof. Specifically, he says how is father said that anything which is true should fulfill two criteria: 普遍性 (fuhensei) and 再現性 (saigensei), which can be translated in English as “universality” and “repeatability”. Shin’ichi Sensei suggests that you first assume Ki exists, and then try to find evidence yourself to back that up.
Just to interject an opinion on my part here: even though Ki-Aikido does have some connections to spirituality/religion in some form or another (perhaps indirectly related to Shinto in some ways, though it’s fair to say that aspects of both Shinto and Buddhism are deeply rooted into Japanese culture), ultimately it is not a religion, but is instead a pragmatic system that works on principles that you can see actually work during training. Being able to throw people around on the mat is one aspect, but ultimately what you learn in class should be applicable to your daily life (I happen to have another article planned for this topic).
Another memorable part of the lecture was when he briefly talked about an award-winning Japanese NASCAR manager who mentioned times when he is in “the zone” (this is a paraphrase/translation on my part) and can perceive all the cars around him, instead of focusing on a specific one. This is essentially about seeing the big picture, which is strongly tied to the concept of Ki.
For those who already have significant experience in Ki-Aikido, this brief lecture is a good summary of some core principles, not to mention that different Sensei’s can have different interpretations of things, so it’s always good to hear things directly from Shin’ichi Sensei. It’s easy to get lost in the details of things, and this talk is (coincidentally?) a good way to help you see the big picture about Ki-Aikido.
This audiobook is also great Japanese listening practice, regardless of your ability level, and especially great if you are training in Aikido and know some of these things already. For the most part he uses everyday language, though there are some words you may not know like 滞り (“todokoori”, “blockage”) and 順応 (“jun’nou”, “adaptation”).
I don’t have much negative to say about this audiobook except that it’s a bit expensive given the length, and there are a few minor editing issues. But if you are into Ki-Aikido or want to get into it, those shouldn’t deter you from trying it out.
If you end up buying this audiobook, please let me know in the comments. Also, if you want more like this that you can consume online, there isn’t much exactly like this, but you can check out the Ki Society’s main Japanese Youtube channel here.
Also, if you want some more details on Ki-Aikido you can check out this article where I summarize some of the core aspects in detail.