In Japanese, many verbs have both a transitive (where an action occurs against an object) and intransitive form (where an action occurs on its own, without an object). Even though these forms can be expressed in English to a certain extent, there can be some subtle nuances. Lately I came across a sentence in Japanese that is a great example for how these forms work (and of the challenges of understanding and translations), so I thought I would write an article about it.
I recently got the Ki Society’s 2025 calendar, which contains Koichi Tohei Sensei’s リラックスの五原則 (The Five Principles of Relaxation) written in beautiful calligraphy. The first two of the rules are expressed in Japanese as follows:
- 全身の力を落ち着くべき所に落ち着ける姿勢
- 力が抜けるのではなく、力を抜いた姿勢
While both of these rules have the transitive and intransitive form of a verb, I would like to focus on the second, which is a bit simpler. But I have provided the first rule for context, since in some ways the second builds off the first.
First, let’s look at all the meanings of the words in this second rule:
力 [chikara]: normally “power”, “force”, or “energy”, though in this context “tension” might fit a bit better. From the context of the first rule, we know the “chikara” here is that of the entire body (全身)
が [ga]: subject particle. Signifies that the previous word is the thing performing the action
抜ける [nukeru] = to come out/off (of), to leave <Intransitive verb>
の [no] = here used as a normalizer to allow using a verb as a noun
ではなく[de wa naku] = literally means “not ~ and…”, and here is used to express not the previously mentioned action, but something else
を [o] = object particle. Here used to imply the previous word (力) is the direct object of the following verb.
抜いた (nuita): past tense of “抜く” (nuku), a verb meaning “to remove”, “to take out” <Transitive verb>
姿勢 [shisei] = posture (here referring to physical posture)
Keep in mind that this is one of the rules to achieve relaxation, according to Ki principles.
So you can see we are dealing with the “nuku”/”nukeru” transitive/intransitive verb pair. This passage is interesting because the nuance of these verbs is very different. In fact, you could say the transitive/intransitive difference is the main thing that is being emphasized.
If we were to make an initial guess at a rough translation, we could end up with:
“A posture not where the tension has come out, but where the tension has been removed.”
While this is a reasonable literal translation, it really doesn’t really convey the key meaning very well.
To explain this, I’ll talk briefly about the Ki-Aikido concept of “dead relaxation” vs relaxation where we are extending Ki. “Dead Relaxation” is the state where we are basically exerting no muscle power and our body (or a specific body part) is in a state similar to being asleep. Any attempts to move it will not be met with any resistance, and in a way it’s like a “rag doll”. This corresponds with the 力が抜ける part.
On the other hand, if we are fully relaxed but extending Ki (we also use the expression “with weight underside”), then even though our body is relaxed, any attempts to move it will be difficult. This can be a bit of a cryptic concept at first, so sometimes I like to explain it in terms of using the minimum amount of (muscle) tension, no more. This corresponds with the 力を抜いた part.
Now we can see that the proper posture for relaxation doesn’t involve the tension coming out of our body on its own accord (= dead relaxation), instead it involves a state where just enough tension is purposefully removed (= relaxation with ki). Note that in the latter case we are not literally removing all of the muscle tension, at least in cases where we have to hold up a body part like a hand (although the act of simply standing should involve very little muscle tension if we have proper posture).
Another way to look at the transitive/intransitive difference here is that in the transitive case, the action is controlled (removing only the unnecessary tension), whereas in the intransitive case it happens on its own accord (where all the tension leaves our body, even the tension that is necessary to extend ki).
Now with that understanding, let’s try to make a better translation to accurately convey the original passage’s meaning:
力が抜けるのではなく、力を抜いた姿勢
A posture, not of dead relaxation where all of the tension has left our body, but rather one where we have purposefully removed all the unnecessary tension.
The above is my non-official translation; Out of curiosity, I did a search for an existing English translation and found this:
Relax without loss of power
I’m not sure if this is a canon/official translation by the Ki Society (even if it is, it may be quite old), but either way this is an interesting angle. This is indeed quite succinct and perhaps conveys the spirit of the original passage. My translation, on the other hand, is wordy and could be argued as being overly explanatory. In any case, I know which I prefer (:
I will leave the understanding and translation of the first rule as an exercise to the reader (it also involves a transitive/intransitive pair), but if you have any questions please let me know in the comments.
If you want to learn more about Ki Aikido or the Ki Society, please check out this article.
(Note: explanations about Ki Principles in this article are my own opinion/interpretation, and may not completely reflect the official teachings of the Ki Society.)