You will recall from the previous post that the question was raised as to why a blocking technique is used in conjunction with an evasive bodymovement in happoken no kata taught by Jan de Jong.
The above image of happoken no kata is taken from Minoru Mochizuki's book, Nihonden Jujutsu: Kuroobi Aikido; Traditional Japanese Jujutsu: Black Belt Aikido (1978).
The kata performer assumes a parallel stance when performing the first block. That makes sense. If no evasive bodymovement is executed in response to an attack, then a blocking technique is required in order to avoid potentially injurious contact with the body. The block in the Yoseikan kata is required because the performer does not execute an evasive body movement.
It could be argued that JDJ introduced the evasive zenkutsu dachi to the happoken kata because the Yoseikan parallel stance appears weak/insipid, however, that introduction then changes the need for a blocking technique.
This is a systems thinking issue. Systems thinking is often contrasted with analysis and associated with synthesis, however, Ackoff (1999) explains that systems thinking involves both analysis and synthesis. Analysis involves breaking a whole into its constituent parts and studying those parts in isolation. Synthesis involves putting the parts back together and studying how they work together in order to achieve the objective of the system. Analysis yields knowledge about the whole and understanding of the parts (seeing the trees); synthesis yields understanding of the whole (seeing the forest). Systems thinking involves both analysis and synthesis thereby yielding both knowledge and understanding of the parts and the whole (seeing the trees and the forest).
If the reason for JDJ's change from the original parallel stance to zenkutsu dachi was to introduce a 'stronger' stance into the kata, then it was an example of analytic thinking being employed and an example of how analytic thinking can cause problems (think the cane toad solution to the cane beetle in Australia).
This then goes into looking at defences as 'phases.' Breaking a defence or technique down into phases makes it easier to teach, learn, and to identify and correct performance errors. For instance, the phases of a golf swing are backswing, swing, impact, and follow through. The phases of a defence taught in the mon grades of JDJ's jujutsu and aikido system are taken from Yoseikan and are uke waza (receiving technique), kuzushi waza (unbalancing technique), and waza (technique). Change any part of that system and it can have effects on the other parts of that system and the accomplishment of the objective of the system. In this case, a change in the uke waza in terms of introducing an evasive bodymoment meant that the blocking technique became redundant. It also meant that the first and second strikes were ineffective.
The parallel stance of the original kata is a bit insipid. It wasn't until I saw this kata performed by European Yoseikan practitioners on YouTube that the insight (see the first part in this series) was complete. The Yoseikan practitioners turned to the side of their parallel stance when executing the strikes and final block while dropping their knee which increased the stability and strength of the stance when performing those techniques. It is very similar to the pasang stance of Indonesia pencak silat that is a major feature of the style of pencak silat that I helped introduce into JDJ's pencak silat teachings.
This approach increases the kintic energy in the strike and the reach by half a body's width.
But wait, there's more. You could argue that the stance in the above Yoseikan image for the first block has changed to kokutsu dachi. And why not? It still makes sense. The stance in the second block could also be kokutsu dachi, but it could also be zenkutsu dachi as in Edgar Kruyning's book, The Art of Ju-Jutsu: The Legacy of Minoru Mochizuki' Yoseikan.
But wait, there's even more. Kruyning's first stance in his book has the wait going forward rather than backward, like a zenkutsu dachi but with the feet inline.
Kruyning' version of happoken includes different strikes. Why not? This becomes a truly versatile kata if one studies it and with a 'What's going on here?' mindset. It has to be said that the martial arts often does not encourage that type of mindset instead preferring blind obedience.
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