by Régis Soavi

From September 2023, in the Itsuo Tsuda School dojos in Paris, Toulouse and Milan, in addition to the daily sessions, a weekly Aikido session will be reserved exclusively for women.

A session for women, run by women, led by women

Perhaps it is important to make it clear from the beginning that this is not a new version of Aikido, or even a softer Aikido, and certainly not “women’s Aikido”, but “chosen non-mixed Aikido”, conceived as an act of “empowerment”.

In principle, it is not aimed at female practitioners who already know our School and who already come to the other sessions, although they are welcome to be Senpai or to help newcomers discover the practice. The aim is to allow new participants to practise Aikido in a way that respects their diversity, and thus to have a different vision from those spread by the various media, which all too often seek sensationalism, exaggeration and even vulgarity. We have all heard the words of a companion or friend who, after hearing us talk about Aikido, has said “no, no, it is not for me, it is too violent” or “it is a man’s thing”. Today, we need to present Aikido as a realistic way to allow women to rediscover “a self-confidence” that is often altered by the dominant atmosphere in the martial arts, and to assert themselves not as a separate community, but rather as a group that emancipates itself – a group that leaves behind a certain type of social relationship in order to try to find, find again or continue the path, “the way” – that is endlessly to be rediscovered – towards a simpler, more peaceful and thus more real humanity.

Proposing a separate session for women in a martial art as specifically recognised as Aikido is nothing revolutionary or new to us, as women have always been numerous and very often the majority in the Itsuo Tsuda School. But there is the danger that creating an additional session of this type will be so misunderstood by a large proportion of both male and female practitioners, whatever school they come from, that this innovation will be seen as awkward, disruptive, pointless and therefore counterproductive. I am afraid that this misunderstanding will not be limited to those involved in our art, because I am already hearing a lot of criticism, both in form and in content, which would have its own raison d’être if today’s world were really what it claims to be and not what it really is. In my opinion, this approach has become even more necessary in the twenty-first century than in previous centuries, simply because of the ideological modernisation of the mind, which would have us believe in a new, more equal normality when it is, in fact, nothing more than the reification of the old world.

When Barbara Glowczewski writes about the Australian Aborigines, she gives us the reasons for this need for “entre-soi” ¹, which, in my opinion, has always existed, even if it has been hindered or disguised so as to persist despite societal disapproval: ‘If this demand for an “entre-soi” exists, it is because historically there has been a disappropriation, a dispossession of what belonged to them, or rather of what signalled their belonging, both in terms of knowledge and in terms of the land, they have developed over centuries, even millennia.’ ²

That says it all.

Why have I kindled and determinedly supported this project?

Perhaps because, since I have been practising martial arts for 60 years and Aikido in particular for 50 years, I have always been interested in the Yin side, which is so important in our art as an intrinsic part of the whole and which is so often belittled – just as the Ura side has often been devalued in favour of the Omote, seemingly so much brighter and therefore wrongly considered stronger, more “valid” in a scale of values that has been distorted for centuries.

Perhaps these aspects represent what I lacked or, rather, what I had difficulty developing naturally in me within this very Yang society, and which the teachings of my master Tsuda Itsuo urged me to seek out, to rediscover within myself. Surely it is also what I imagined I had to suppress or at least moderate in order to survive and try to live as I thought I wanted to, as society suggested. It is also thanks to my personal family life, with all its richness and above all its radicalism in relation to the social world, that I have been able to find my way into this universe, too often ignored by half of humanity, which is the world of the feminine – a world that is neither totally Yin, as some would have us believe at first sight, nor devoid of Yang, quite the contrary.

As for Tsuda sensei’s Aikido, it allowed me to grasp another dimension that went far beyond what I had been able to perceive in my initial approach to the martial arts. Already in 1982, for that matter, Tsuda Itsuo presciently wrote: ‘Aikido, conceived as a sacred movement by Mr Ueshiba, is disappearing to make way for athletic Aikido, a combat sport, more in accordance with the demands of civilised people.’ ³ He had this way of touching our sensitive points often with just a few words, of opening doors in our minds to make us (his students) reflect on the concrete, on everyday life.

An art that emancipates

Getting off the well-trodden beaten track, ploughed by the ploughshare of conventions and the heavy wagons ballasted with prefabricated ideas is, to be sure, a difficult job but this job is more than necessary.

The time has now come to step out of line, to take advantage of a state of consciousness that has emerged in the West thanks to the feminist movement, thus echoing the demands of previous generations, before new ideologues in the service of power – or rather the powers – confuse everything that is true in this emergence with a supposedly innovative discourse, recycling old worn-out refrains, mixing them when necessary with the ideas in vogue, at best thinking they are doing the right thing, at worst acting as lackeys of the dominant ideologies.

If Aikido is an art that emancipates the individual – and this is its main raison d’être in our School –, then it is necessary, indeed imperative, to open our eyes to the world around us. This emancipation, however, must not be limited. Even if it is sometimes painful to look things in the face, it is always very healthy to do so.

Observing our art being without any heirs and the consequent lack of interest it seems to arouse among teenagers and young adults – and very notoriously in half of humanity (the female world) – has become a matter of fact for a great number of male and female martial arts teachers. The most common response to recruiting new practitioners is to offer demonstrations of effectiveness and comparative trails between different trends, schools or different arts, or even to mix techniques from all over the world in order to create a melting pot that will – so we think – appeal to as many people as possible! What if the problem was not there? What if it was not at all where we are vainly digging and striving for a solution?

An emancipated person is an autonomous, independent, free person: this is the direction of our research. By creating spaces of freedom, places that are different by their very nature, we can make it possible for conditions that allow for the fulfilment of being to be put in place in a truly autonomous way. Dojos are such places. But who knows that?! The fear of finding the same conditions as in everything that surrounds them and “discreetly” oppresses them does not encourage women to enter one of our dojos to see what really happens there, disillusioned as they are by the unsuccessful attempts they have already experienced or by the falsehood of the often soothing, albeit socially acceptable, discourses. It seems to me that we need to create situations along the lines of American affirmative action, which I believe is wrongly translated [in French] as “positive discrimination”, and which was made possible by J. F. Kennedy’s initiative at the beginning of the 1960s. A new situation, a positioning of the dojos that allows women who, although attracted to the martial arts, do not want to face sexism once again (even if it is unintentional and kind). Allowing them to try – because they have their own relationship with their bodies, different from that of men, which for once will not be reproached or accepted in a condescending way – to find pleasure as well as efficiency through physical development in the movements, stability and balance in the harmonisation of breathing without ambiguity or complacency. As there is no competition, they can discover the full potential of their “being”, of the totality of their body and mind in an environment made safe by the non-mixed aspect. The martial side, which is not forgotten either, will allow them to rediscover their abilities and confidence in the face of adversity in a world dominated by masculine power.

An art which emancipates itself

Since Louise Michel and her fellow sisters during the Paris Commune, and even before them, since Olympe de Gouge at the dawn of the French Revolution, women have been calling for Liberty, Equality and Fraternity (or Sorority) for all without ever finding it, except for a few rare historical moments, and even then in a very relative way.

Now, what if Aikido were this driving lever that could change our society, the instrument that, by freeing itself from habits, preconceived ideas and the accoutrements that have been added to it, could once again become – or at least come closer to – the ideals of its founder Ueshiba Morihei, who saw the world as one big family?

O sensei insisted on the importance of the balance between Yin and Yang, on their alternation within Unity. Tsuda sensei always talked about Ka Mi breathing, which also alternates between breathing in and breathing out within Life. In both examples, they were actually talking about Tao, One. To return to this search for unity rather than separation, it is sometimes necessary to take a step back – as any good sociologist would do – to analyse what has brought Aikido to the impasse it is in today, when in the 1960s and 1970s it was considered to be one of the most important martial arts, both from a philosophical point of view and in terms of its physical aspects, accessible to all and everyone, regardless of age or physical form.

Tsuda sensei, like all of O sensei’s students, had his own – very special somewhat – way of communicating what he had seen and understood in his master’s teaching. From the beginning, his research was directed towards Non-Doing. Not a young man – he was forty-five when he began practising Aikido with Master Ueshiba –, he discovered something that young Uchi-Deshi could not see or understand, as Tamura sensei explains so well⁴. In fact, Tsuda sensei did not teach, he passed on to us what he had discovered with the masters he knew, including Ueshiba sensei, Noguchi sensei and Marcel Granet and Marcel Mauss. This transmission made a deep impression on me and has been the guiding principle of my teaching over the years. It has enabled me to speak to both men and women, regardless of gender, age, level, physical ability, difficulty or even disability. It has also been an opportunity for me to improve my teaching and to insist on certain aspects in order to move towards the freedom and autonomy of the individual.

Aikido is about overcoming conflict: ai-nuke, it is about understanding how to deal with problems in society. Tsuda sensei writes: ‘Master Ueshiba’s Aikido, from what I sensed, was completely filled with that spirit of ai-nuke, which he called “non-resistance”. After his death, this spirit disappeared, only the technique remained. Aikido originally meant the path of coordination for ki. Understood in this sense, it is not an art of combat. When coordination is established, the opponent ceases to be the opponent.’ ⁵. It is up to each and every one of us to take control of this instrument, because it is in our hands that it can become truly effective, not through speeches but by serving as an example of the possibilities within our reach. By opening our bodies, we open our eyes to reality. Now or never, it is up to us teachers to allow our art, meant to be more clear-sighted, to be the art that surpasses the ancient arts, drawing on its origins, which are not to be denied but understood as the – certainly archaic – a bygone era.

By creating the necessary conditions to enable women to reclaim, at least in our School, what has eluded them and been missing for so many centuries, we are creating a context, an environment, an indispensable atmosphere, an essential framework, so that this work of reconquest can be accomplished. In a way, these dedicated sessions are merely a way of creating a situation of rebalancing that should extend to all areas, in the martial arts as well as outside in society, and primarily to every aspect of daily life. Kunigoshi Takako sensei, one of the few female students at the Kobukan Dojo, recalled these words from O sensei: ‘Whether you practice the tea ceremony or the flower arrangement, there are points in common with Aikido, since the whole world (Tenchi) is made up of movement and calm, light and shadow. If everything moved and changed then everything would be complete chaos, right?’ ⁶

Régis Soavi

‘Aikido: an art which emancipates people, an art which emancipates itself’, an article by Régis Soavi published in April 2023 in Self et Dragon Spécial Aikido n° 15.

1. [Editor’s note: The entre-soi (trans. lit.: between oneself) is the situation in which one is alone with one’s fellow human beings.]
2. Barbara Glowczewski, Réveiller les esprits de la Terre [Awakening the Spirits of Earth], 2021, éditions dehors (trans. Itsuo Tsuda School)
3. Tsuda Itsuo, The Way of the Gods, Chap. XVII, 2021, Yume Editions, p. 133 (1^st ed. in French, 1982, pub. Le Courrier du Livre (Paris), p. 128)
4. see for instance this Aikido Journal two-part interview (1983-4) or Tamura sensei’s interview by Leo Tamaki published on his (French) blog
5. Tsuda Itsuo, Facing Science, 2023, Yume Editions, Chap. III, p. 24 (1^st ed. in French, 1983, pub. Le Courrier du Livre (Paris), p. 25)
6. interview of Kᴜɴɪɢᴏsʜɪ Takako by Stanley Pʀᴀɴɪɴ made on 26 Aug. 1981, ‘The Dainty Lady Who Lit Up Morihei Ueshiba’s Kobukan Dojo’, Aiki News n° 47, April 1982 (excerpt available online – at the very end)