Feminist Aikidoka: Virginia Mayhew

One of the most fundamental techniques in Aikido is irimi or entering. It is a basic body stance where one moves forward or to the side in response to an attack. It is essentially entering an attack and I am still trying to grasp it because it seems counter-intuitive to actually move towards someone who is attacking you. Irimi is also called blending embodying the idea that when you blend or become one with your opponent's attack you are diffusing the conflict because your opponent is left without a place to strike.

Both Shomen Uchi Irimi Nage and Katate-Dori Shiho Nage require this entering technique and they were both on my 5th kyu test that I took last month. I thought it was painfully obvious during the test that I am not sure what to do with the blend. But the 5th kyu test was unlike any other test I have taken before. It wasn't the academia model of testing that I am more used to, because it seemed to be more about lifting you up rather than beating you down. The test was really useful to me on two fronts: 1) it helped amp up my training for a short period of time and 2) it helped me become more aware of my self deprecating narratives particularly the one about being the most uncoordinated person on the planet and the slowest beginner in the history of Aikido!

I have gotten a lot out of training in Aikido over these past ten months not only because there is such a vibrant sense of community at Aikido of Santa Cruz but also because it has been a platform for me to understand my mother who makes much more sense in the context of Aikido philosophy.

Being completely in the moment, relaxed, centered and aware is central to Aikido and it seems to me this was something my mom had really been working on even before she found out about Aikido. She spent two years studying awareness techniques and the sacred whirling Dervish dances with Jeanne de Salzmann who launched the Gurdjieff Foundation in New York City in 1949 and five years pursuing budo through the Gentle Way (Judo). I am sure all of that training in integrating the spirituality of certain body movements must of helped when she first came to Aikido. I bet she was a great beginner!

A very huge thank you to Sensei Eddie Hagihara and Sensei Adam Pilipshen from the Long Island Aikikai for saving, scanning, and sending this photo my way!

According to our friends at the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Enpowerment of Women, women in urban areas are twice as likely as men to experience violence. And just a quick survey of Aikido literature written by women demonstrates that female Aikidoka may be very well aware of this fact. The short story "Hitchhiking" in Secret Histories: Stories of Courage, Risk, and Revelation is Sensei Kimberly Richardson's personal account of averting violence through reason and compassion - a great case of using Aikido without lifting a finger. In Women in Aikido there is an account of Sensei Lorraine DiAnne successfully defending herself when a drunk friend broke into her apartment and tried to assault her. Anyone who doesn't think that Aikido is a legitimate art of self defense probably needs to talk to a woman practitioner.

Part of the reason I am both paralyzed and fascinated with the concept of irimi is because I remember my mom utilizing it once to diffuse a potentially violent situation. When I was seven my mom and I moved to southern California and lived in a old motel in downtown Los Angeles. Late one night, when we were returning to our room an angry man wielding a bat blocked our path and demanded our money. My mom tried to reason with him and offered to share her money. That just seemed to make him angrier and he came at my mom swinging his bat menacingly above him. I remember being frightened the minute my mom moved towards him. I didn't understand irimi then so it didn't make sense to me why she would move towards a man who was about to hit her with a bat. The actual confrontation lasted only a matter of seconds. The bat never connected with my mom because all of a sudden it was in her hands and then she had the guy's wrist in a painful wrist lock. She leaned down close to him and said, "I am not going to hurt you but you should know that it is unwise to attack a woman especially when her child is present. When I let you go you'll leave peacefully but we will be keeping your bat." When she finally did let go of his wrist her would-be attacker couldn't flee fast enough. Yet that incident wasn't my mom's first experience with having to use Aikido in the real world. Apparently she was also a good friend to have in a riot. (Woman Saved Cop from Riot Mob) I am sure irimi is one of those thirty year techniques I often hear about but if I could just get more comfortable with the blend I am sure the other movements would follow.

Virginia Mayhew demonstrating an aspect of irimi, Hong Kong 1967

Falling hurts. There is no way around it or so I thought. Ukemi is the art (or technique) of falling safely and I am obsessed with it. The idea of absorbing a fall by rolling diagonally onto my arm and on to my back at first seemed very unnatural. But after absorbing the impact with my shoulders and head a number of times, I can honestly say that falling on your arm and back hurts way less. What's more perplexing is when I fall right it doesn't hurt at all. Falling on purpose is still a scary thing for me. And the floor is a really long way away when you need to do a standing forward roll.

According to Dennis Sensei, falling safely allows you to quickly pick your self up, find your balance, and locate your center. One practice that has been helping me is Linda Sensei's penchant for pairing newbies with black belts for individual instruction on our ukemi at the beginning of the intermediate class. This has been super useful because everyone has a different way of describing mae ukemi (forward rolls). I have heard about how your arms should form a wheel, that you should extend your ki (life force, energy) into your arms, and that I should think of the un-bendable arm exercise. Yet it wasn't until last week when Cory told me that I just needed to imagine myself as a ball puffed up with air that my rolls started to improve. I could envision being a perfectly inflated round basketball. The perfect bounce comes from the air inside the ball as it embraces the ground. The light bulb moment for me was realizing that the extension of ki requires effort on my part in that I need to be aware of my body (while I'm falling) long enough to make it round. Even so, it's still hard to know if I am falling correctly. It's difficult to watch yourself fall! Thankfully, Aikido of Santa Cruz has amazing practitioners like Sadie who doesn't mind staying after class to help me obsess over ukemi.

Ukemi - the art of falling safely

Now let me explain ki which is essential to the practice of ukemi. The western tendency to separate out the mind from the spirit and body is a relatively recent development in the history of western theology and philosophy. The concept of ki comes from a tradition where one’s life force is mental, physical, and spiritual and can be affected through practices designed to strengthen it. Ki is thought to originate in one’s center or hara – that one point two inches below the navel. Concentrating on that spot produces the unification of the physical and mental parts of the self which increases the power of ki that fuels Aikido movements. Finding your ki, particularly for those of us at the beginning of our practice, is tough. Apparently we all have ki, but thus far mine seems to be hiding.

Kochi Tohei Sensei, who was primarily responsible for introducing Aikido to the West via Hawaii in the 1950’s, was a huge influence on my mom’s Aikido's practice. Kochi Tohei Sensei felt that one of the most important aspects of Aikido was the cultivation of ki. He felt so strongly that ki should be cultivated in life as well as within the context of Aikido abroad that he founded an offshoot branch of Aikido in 1974 called Shin Shin Toitsu Aikido, also known as Ki Aikido or the Ki Society.

So what can you do with ki other than ukemi? The un-bendable arm exercise of course!!! This and ki are two concepts I remember my mom talking about my whole life. For her ki was the most important principle in life, something she saw as being reflected in the Aikido practice of the un-bendable arm. The basic idea is this: if your arm (stretched out and raised on your partner's shoulder) is stiff, it is very easy to bend but when it is relaxed and the practitioner envisions ki extending from the outstretched arm thousand of miles forward, the arm becomes impossible to bend. This principle was what my mom intended to do at the United Nations demonstration in New York in the 60's. But given she was in an audience of skeptical New Yorkers, she raised the stakes and applied the un-bendable arm exercise to her entire body. My mom was subtle that way.

Virginia Mayhew at the United Nations demonstration

Kochi Tohei and Virginia Mayhew

Another important influence on the practice of Aikido (and my mom’s understanding of it) is the philosophy behind Oomoto-kyo (a re-envisioning and re-fashioning of Shinto religious beliefs that took place in the nineteenth century). Oomoto is defined as the Great Source or Great Origin. Oomoto teaches that there are many different paths to God and that every religious tradition is equally valid because they all come from the same source. Through the unification of dichotomies humans can bring themselves into harmony with the universe and effectively bring about an end to war and conflict – a peaceful stance (with an implied objection to the buildup of military power) that led to the imprisonment of their spiritual leader during World War II. And by the way did I mention that this religion was founded by a woman?

We often hear in official histories of Aikido that O-Sensei was a disciple of Onisaburo Deguchi (a man), the co-founder of the Oomoto religion. While I’m not disputing the undeniable influence of Onisaburo Deguchi (who took the family name of his wife, the second spiritual leader of Oomoto, Sumiko Deguchi), what often gets lost in this statement of history is the influence that Oomoto women had on O-Sensei. Oomoto began with Nao Deguchi, a woman born into poverty, who had lost her husband and was struggling to support her children. Immense socio-economic changes (e.g. imperialism and capitalism) were taking place during the nineteenth century that increased poverty and violence. Nao responded by establishing an activist form of religion – one that emphasized community, cooperation and peace. In February of 1892 at her home in Ayabe, Nao was possessed by a kami, Ushitora no Konjin (an ancient spirit), who declared that he had returned to purify and remake the world. According to his instructions the spiritual leader of Oomoto would always be a female descendant of Nao on the matrilineal line. Given how important this religion was to O-Sensei, I find it surprising that women, particularly Oomoto women, are rarely mentioned in the official histories of Aikido. While this has a definite gendered dimension, I also think class may be at play as well. Onisaburo Deguchi (the male co-founder) was able to take Nao's message (remember Nao was a poor peasant woman) and translate it into a script more readily accessible to the literate elite.

Here is how Pranin (1993 http://omlc.ogi.edu/aikido/talk/osensei/bio/mori2.html ) discusses the emergence of Oomoto:

"The upsurgence of the Omoto religion in the beginning of this century was the product of the efforts of two charismatic figures. The first, its foundress, was an illiterate, peasant woman named Nao Deguchi (1836-1918). The other was the eccentric and energetic Onisaburo Deguchi who masterminded the rise to prominence of this powerful and unorthodox religious sect."

While there is nothing factually untrue here, Pranin draws a parallel that clearly does not recognize the patriarchal society in which Nao lived or the privilege afforded Onisaburo (it also smacks of neo-liberal policies that want to "help" poor women/people who have no agency of their own; it feels patronizing). Moreover, in this same article, Pranin continues to talk about how O-Sensei after his father's death begins to live at the Oomoto center in Ayabe in the spring of 1920. This entire discussion, while again probably factually true only speaks about Onisaburo, and NOT Sumiko Deguchi, the official spiritual leader of Oomoto at the time. Again, I have to wonder if there is more to the story.

Just FYI in Wikipedia about religious influences on Aikido (see below) (obviously not the font of truth, albeit the "truth" of the masses) it contributes the entire religion of Oomoto to Onisaburo Deguchi. Funny how women, particularly poor women get quickly dropped out of official histories.

"After Ueshiba (O-Sensei) left Hokkaido in 1919, he met and was profoundly influenced by Onisaburo Deguchi, the spiritual leader of the Omoto-kyo religion (a neo-Shinto movement) in Ayabe."