Aikido, Counter Judo Theories, and Tactile Disinformation

A lot of my Aikido thinking comes from sitting in the dark drinking Coffee in the morning.  My mental processes are like dry peas in a Folgers coffee can rattling around.  Every once and awhile I'll tilt my head and slap my ear until a pea falls out the other ear.  

Here's the most recent pea to fall out:

How much does the development of Aikido have to do with Judo?  What I"m driving at is if Judo never existed, that is Jigoro Kano didn't do what he did to develop and propogate it, could modern Aikido have developed?  Even Simpler,  If Morty didnt have such good UKE's who were primarly Judo players, or at least Judo exposed, could the Ki master have laid it all out for us.  And here's the big question:  How much of aikido is one man's (Morty Youshibas) way of countering Judo. 

.  Here's the article I read that got my peas rattling.     Its a shishida article thats been floating around for years. 

It's was hard for me believe that Aikido was a Judo countering method because Judo Guys tend to eat my lunch.  They are used to one armed distancing,  and they are patient enough to just let you walk into their distance.   The other day I was working some Yon Kata with my friend Sam who is a Judo Player.  I was trying out some iriminage ideas, and when I didnt do things quite right he could judo counter me in some way.   When I was experimenting with my off hand, trying to cradle his neck, or place it on the small of his back, or contacting hs chest with my irimi arm, he'd have me in some sort of judo set up.

He told me he was getting tactile feedback from my hands and my arms and it was essentially telling him where I was at and allowing him to set up an counter technique.  However, a couple of times(out of maybe 20) I just swept my arm at his head and eyes and didnt give him anyother tactile points of reference.  The technique seemed to execute it self when I was sweeping at air(eyes) than with anything else.  Just like morty did it.  

 Then this pea hit:  I read how Nariyama charaterized judo as throwing from two points of contact and Aikido was throwing from one point of contact.  I could reword this as throwing from one point of contact while denying the uke any type of orientating feedback.  If you can throw your free hand towards Ukes eyes so much the better.  One point touching,  light contact, sweeping contact, constant movement.  Or the unnamed principle of Tactile Blindness, or tactile disinformation. 

Then I looked at the shishida article. I think the emphasis here is on the word tries.   

 1) All of the techniques except No. 36 are standing techniques. Many of the techniques applied instantly to case of attack, because skilled judo practitioners break an opponent’s balance as soon as they grab their opponent’s clothes somewhere. We can see the instantaneous nature of most counter techniques in the following expressions: as soon as an opponent tries to touch the collar and sleeve (No. 9 and 26); both sleeves (No. 13 and 23); right sleeve (No. 20); tries to touch with both hands extended (No. 14). Granted that when fighting against an excellent judo practitioner, balance breaking is required just before grasped at the collar(s) or sleeve(s).
 
Then I got thinking about this old school shirata video.  a lot of movement and one point throwing.

contrast this type of movement with what you see in daito ryu.     If you take daito ryu and then replace the daito ryu uke with a Judo guy what do you get?  How would you have to move to nullify his attacks, and deny him close tactile contact.  Or how do you blind a judo guy? 

I was watching this clip recently.  Its a Nishio style Aikido.   Shoji Nishio is a good study because his Aikido was very karate and judo aware.    Sam, My judo friend,  told me one time that he didn't like Sumi otoshi because there wasn't any counters to it.  I take that to mean is that there are no sacrifice throws as well.  Its a very uncomfortable throwing area, the back corner.  If you notice in the clip, The Tori here is throwing Uke into a backfall.   Air fall kote gaeshi/sumi otoshi rely on a give and take set up and the positioning is different and possibly open to a counter.    Where these  backfall ideas separate into either Tori easing up to allow a softer fall, or asshole mode.

  I have been told that iriminage without another contact hand either on the neck or supporting the lowerback is also asshole mode, according to the Morty-ryu folks.  ( Morty was fond of the horse collar approach or no contact sweeping towards the head/eyes).  Safer methodology means more stylin' throws that chicks dig but it also means more tactile feedback which is what Judo folks dig. 

While a lot of this maybe obvious to some of you guys with a lot more experience,  If you look at Aikido outside of the restraint and pin basics(ikkyo, nikyo, sankyo,)  most of the other ideas take you into a either a sumi otoshi type, back corner relationship, or a gyaku gamae ate, iriminage type arrangement that are attacking the eyes to provide an attack that has minimal tactile feedback.    I

Look at  Senta Yamada, The guy who I consider to be the Rosetta stone of Tomiki Aikido,   What people don't know is this guy studied with both Morty and Tomiki.   You'll notice in this clip right out of the chute he does two sumi otoshi type, back corner type throws, and they he turns around and throws from the back corner.  Also, notice he's doing the Atemi waza from the 15 kata.   His shomenate is shomen ate, but his other two are akin to gyaku gamae ate/ aigame ate. The aigamae ate is actually more like an iriminage.  Yoshinkan aikido classifys both of these too movements as iriminage: sokumen iriminage( gyaku) and shomen(irimi/ aigamae ate).   You notice that he attacks the head/ eyes with both. All movements deal with sweeping a hand away into a setup position while providing visual startle reflex.  

But what the man is showing here is pretty much the whole basis of aikido.  The arm is going to either two positions and techniques swing back and forth from these two positions.  There is a lot of backcorner positioning. Either to or from.   

Anyway,  my whole point on this is to say that Aikido may owe more to Morty's counter judo movements and ideas than a lot of folks want to own up to.   The turning and keeping the feet moving, the hand changing, the one point of contact throwing, the backcorner positioning and techniques, atemi waza movements towards the eyes, principles and philosophies that cut down on the amount of tactile feedback, or the principle of tactile disinformation.  These aren't restraint and pin ideas.  They come from somewhere else.   Is the heart of aikido actually Morty's idiosyncratic Judo counters?    If anybody knows something more, I'd like to hear about it.