by Régis Soavi

Shisei is the reflection of the soul as well as the health of the body, both physical and psychological. It is the indisputable detector of a state, permanent or temporary, for those who know how to read the posture in the expression of its manifestation of life. ‘[P]osture is the product of unconscious movement.’ ¹

Posture and involuntary

Modern scientific research has shown that, apart from problems of body or mental structure, illness or age, posture is most often the result of education and the efforts we make to adapt to our cultural and social environment. It is therefore through a mixture of the voluntary and the involuntary that we achieve the posture we desire. We must realise that, unless we become rigid, the involuntary, whatever we call it (unconscious, subconscious or autonomous nervous system), always takes precedence over the voluntary. However, it is often difficult for us to accept this, to be fully aware of it. The proof of our lack of understanding is our desire to correct our posture using the voluntary system, in the hope of compensating for a lack, an indisposition, personal suffering or for all sorts of other reasons, each of which has its own value in our eyes.

Our involuntary system is at the service of the life that works within each of us. It is there, among other things, to correct our postural difficulties and to help us maintain as natural a balance as possible so that life can continue within us. And this, sometimes, even at the cost of pain or deformity, if we resist its regulatory impulses and persist in refusing to let go, thus stiffening ourselves by fighting against it. It is therefore important to stimulate this involuntary system through exercises that, instead of endangering it or trying to dominate it, give it the freedom to do its job and bring us back into balance whenever necessary.

Katsugen Undo, introduced in France under the name of Regenerating Movement by Tsuda Itsuo sensei in the early 1970s, was exactly the answer that many of us martial arts practitioners were already looking for at that time to improve our posture. Of course, this was not the only method that existed, and some found in various disciplines or therapies means that allowed them to move forward without harm. But it was obviously not within everyone’s reach, either financially or in terms of the commitment it required in continuity, endurance or time.

This method of activating the involuntary, Katsugen Undo, discovered by Noguchi Haruchika sensei, has been practised by thousands of Japanese people for over half a century. Because of its simplicity, its philosophy and the very low cost of initiation and membership, not only it is an activity that is not only accessible to everyone but, above all, it is of great help to everyone thanks to its ability to solve numerous postural problems by activating the involuntary system. It is an opportunity for anyone who wishes to find their own independent path to health. A large number of researchers, doctors and shiatsuka who had focused their research on the benefits of a flexible, strong and healthy posture, leading individuals towards autonomy and independence in the management of their own health, visited Noguchi sensei to make contact and exchange their points of view and even their techniques, such as Moshe Feldenkrais, whose method is well known in France, or Kishi sensei, who developed his own technique under the name of Sei-ki.

Breath

Not so long ago, a mirror was placed in front of the mouth of a dying person in order to determine whether there was still a little life left or whether death had already come. This method, although primitive, gave an indication, albeit a relative one, but it clearly showed the importance attached to breath, to respiration, and thus to this manifestation of the life of the person in front of whom it was placed. Today, the mirror is no longer enough, we test brain activity in the hope of not being mistaken about the person’s ability to return to a normal life, in any case we have applied the imposed protocol, we have put the machines into operation, so we are legally protected. Breath, however, is something very different from lung breathing, because it carries a much greater energy, although few people are aware of this or recognise it.

Breath is the food of the posture, simply because of its internal composition, the visible and invisible elements it carries. Who can believe in a strong posture, in the real power of a person, when you can see that their breathing is blocked? You will not expand your breath with exercises, these will – perhaps – simply free the psyche, calm the spirit, so that the Ki can circulate freely again in this finally tension-free body.

Posture: personal well-being

The search for a posture at all costs entails risks for the body, especially when the proposed techniques include exercises designed to stiffen it in order to conform to an idea of the body publicised today by social networks. Images and representations play an increasingly important role in everyday life, to the detriment of a simple reality that is considered unattractive. The postures that emerge from the presence of the Old Masters are less and less attractive, because they are too often misunderstood and seem to be hidden from most people. It is only after many years of practice that the inner eyes open to reveal to us what we might have seen, had we not been blinded by the spectacle of the world.

When Tsuda sensei writes to give us a better understanding of O sensei Ueshiba, he always does so in a special way, and it seems important to me to find the testimonies of masters who, like him, knew the founder of Aikido:

The Center

A good balance, a good Shisei, requires a good, well-positioned centre, but how do you find it, maintain it and keep it? Tsuda sensei recounts³ that during the meditation that O sensei called “Ka-Mi” (meditation practised standing at the beginning of the session), he would say to his students: Ame-tsuchi no hajime “put yourself at the beginning of the Universe”. Today, it has become very difficult to propose such an image, which runs the risk of not being understood, or of being understood only literally, which amounts to a purely mental understanding when this is something completely different. Only experience can lead us to the realisation of this centre. We must go to the heart of our sensibility, be without thought, be truly present “here and now”. Science has broken this simple relationship with our environment, with what we can feel, we no longer even know who we are or where we are.

It seems to me that there was a time when the human being did not ask themselves any more questions about their position in the universe than were necessary for them to live their daily life. Space, planets and constellations were of little importance, except for what directly affected their daily life, agriculture, the weather, the movement of animals and their reproductive cycles. The knowledge of astrology was aimed at the human being and what was around them. Where they were became the centre of their life and therefore of their universe. It was thanks to this that they felt part of a world, “their world, their cosmos”. Science has expanded our concept and perception of the universe, which is all well and good, but the result is a destabilisation of our reality.

The living being felt themselves at the centre of the planet, “their earth’, wherever they were, wherever they lived. Then came the onset of mental disorganisation. Although it was necessary for them to escape the religious oppression of the Middle Ages, it came as a shock, followed by upheavals that were to become increasingly disturbing. First they were taught that the Earth was round like a ball, then that it revolved around an axis, then that it revolved around the Sun and finally that the Sun was at the centre of the solar system. The human being then found themselves off-centre, no longer the centre of a universe but cast outwards. As if that was not enough, they learnt that the solar system was part of a gigantic galaxy, the Milky Way, a white trail that they could see in their sky, that the solar system itself was in competition with other solar systems, black holes and so on. But here again they found that they were not the centre of this galaxy, but rather on one of its outer edges, a sort of horn of stars in a distant periphery. Even more recently, it was discovered that this galaxy is almost nothing compared to the billions of billions of billions of galaxies that are known, or simply guessed at, or conceptualised through the art of mathematics. The human thing has found itself very small, insignificant even in the face of all that surrounds it.

The question remains: how to find, to retrieve your centre in these conditions?

Ameno-minaka-nushi

At the beginning of the Aikido session, right after the funakogi undo, the “rowing movement” as O sensei’s young students called it, comes a kind of meditation in movement, but very slow at first, tama-no-hireburi “the vibration of the soul”. It is practised with the hands clasped, in front of the Hara, the left hand on top of the right. The hands are made to vibrate, not excessively, but regularly. One of the peculiarities of this meditation is that it should be done during a single inhalation, which should be very, very slow. This exercise should be repeated three times, each time slightly accelerating the rhythm of the vibration. It was just before this practice that O sensei would make evocations, invoking aloud the names of the Kami that Tsuda sensei passed on to us in the last years of his life. For me, it is like a crack, a small space, a small opening, and at the same time it is a direction, a door and a key that allows me to re-centre myself. Every morning during pratice, it allows me to sneak into what, despite everything, I am aware can be “a risk”. The risk of falling into a parallel mental universe, a kind of schizophrenia or mystical vortex from which it is difficult to escape. However, one need only keep a cool head, physical and mental lucidity, in order to remain present to oneself.

O Sensei used Shinto rituals as a kind of transposition of his sensations – in the same way as a writer, musician or painter transposes their sensations when composing a work, or introduces us to a world of their own. In Shinto, Ameno-minaka-nushi is considered to be the Kami Centre of the Universe, and is the first evocation. Then it is the turn of Kuni-toko-tachi, Eternal Earth, the materialisation of the world – as a human being, as a practitioner, we take shape, we realise matter, what we are so to speak, almost flesh and blood. Last, Amaterasu-o-mi-kami presents herself to our consciousness, and there is no alternative but to accept her. A feminine principle, Amaterasu is the⁴ Kami Sun, both life and the stimulus of life, creation. Between each moment of vibration, the vibration continues, nothing stops, the rhythm of the oar movements, funakogi undo, accelerates from slow to medium-fast to very fast. Tsuda Itsuo sensei explained that this rhythm reminded him of the recitation of the Noh which he had studied for almost twenty-five years, and in which there are three different rhythms that follow each other: Jo, Ha and Kyu⁵. For us Europeans, we can, for example, evoke the musical rhythms of largo, andante, then presto, prestissimo. Tsuda sensei gives us some indications of his own understanding of O Sensei’s invocations:

The reflection of the soul

Our mental state can only be reflected in our posture, no matter what theory, perhaps, we made our own. Everyone’s posture is influenced by the moment one is experiencing, by the people around us, our immediate or distant surroundings – in fact, by all internal and external circumstances. Our ability to maintain a correct posture, capable of reacting, is nevertheless something that can be worked on and give good results if we do not go against what is good for the body and what we are deep inside ourselves.

Régis Soavi

‘Mirror’, an article by Régis Soavi published in April 2024 in Self et Dragon Spécial Aikido n° 17.

1. 1. Tsuda Itsuo, Heart of Pure Sky (posthumous work), ‘Interviews with Master Tsuda […] on France Culture Radio’, ‘Broadcast no. 2’, 2025???, Yume Editions
   2. Tsuda Itsuo, The Dialogue of Silence, Chap. XI, Yume Editions, 2018, p. 90 (1^st ed. in French: 1979, Le Courrier du Livre (Paris), pp. 75–76)
   3. See for instance Tsuda Itsuo, The Science of the Particular, Chap. XVIII, 2015, Yume Editions, p. 148, or (same author & publisher) The Way of the Gods, chap. XIII, 2021, p. 101 (1^st ed. in French: 1976, p. 132; 1982, p. 96)
   4. [Translator’s note: In French, ‘Sun’ is a masculine word but the author uses here the feminine determinant ‘la’ and emphasises the gender contrast (using a capital letter, bold font and quotation marks). We chose to render this emphasis slightly earlier on ‘herself’.]
   5. See for instance The Science of the Particular (op. cit.), end of Chap. XVIII
   6. The Way of the Gods, loc. cit.
   7. Poem by writer and poet Bing Xin (1900–1999), quoted by Fabienne Verdier in her book Passagère du silence [Passenger of Silence], Eng. transl. The Dragon’s Brush: A Journey to China in Search of a True Master, Sept. 2006, Shambhala Publications Inc. (1^st ed. in French: Sept. 2003, Albin Michel (Paris), p. 111).
      [Translator’s note: We chose to stick to the French quoted by the author so as to keep the resonance with what he wrote just above. As for the original Chinese poem, it might possibly be n° 33 in the collection 清水 Spring Water (available online): 墙角的花！ 你孤芳自赏时，天地便小了. The English translation given in the same collection reads: ‘O flower in the corner of the wall, / Your fragrance is for yourself. / You are too much alone. / But in gazing upon you / Heaven and earth become small.’]