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UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SANTA CRUZ AIKIDO SENSIBILITIES: THE SOCIOSOMATICS OF CONNECTION AND ITS ROLE IN THE CONSTITUTION OF COMMUNITY AT NORTH BAY AIKIDO IN SANTA CRUZ, CALIFORNIA A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in ANTHROPOLOGY by Renée Rothman December 2000 The Dissertation of Renée Rothman is approved: Professor Olga Nájera-Ramírez, Chair Professor Donald Brenneis Professor Daniel Linger Vice Provost and Dean of Graduate Studies Copyright © by Renée Rothman 2000 TABLE OF CONTENTS TABLE OF ILLUSTRATIONS . .iv ABSTRACT . .vii DEDICATION . .ix ACKNOWLEDGMENTS . .x INTRODUCTION . .1 PART I. HISTORY AND DESCRIPTION OF NORTH BAY AIKIDO Chapter 1. Demographic profile of North Bay Aikido membership . .33 Chapter 2. Histories: Asian Martial Arts and Aikido . .45 Chapter 3. North Bay Aikido Dojo . .61 PART II. THEORIES OF BODIES AND PRACTICE Chapter 4. The body and its senses: touching and feeling . .99 Chapter 5. Collective bodies and social change . .126 PART III. THE SOCIOSOMATICS OF CONNECTION Chapter 6. Class Description . .154 Chapter 7. “Grab my Wrist”: Somatic aspects of Connection . .166 Chapter 8. “Aikido is a metaphor for life”: Socializing aspects of Connection . .206 CONCLUSION . .261 APPENDICES A. Glossary . .272 B. North Bay Aikido exam guidelines . .280 C. Basic Dojo Etiquette . .282 D. Research Questionnaire . .284 BIBLIOGRAPHY . .287 iii TABLE OF ILLUSTRATIONS1 Illustration 1. Extension practice. .157 Illustration 2. Forward roll. .159 Illustration 3. Back roll. .159 Illustration 4. Shomen uchi strike. .161 Illustration 5. Ikkyo in tenkan and irimi. .161 Illustration 6. Shomen uchi nikyo in suwari waza. .163 Illustration 7. Kokyu ho. .165 Illustration 8. Nikyo standing with detail. .184 1 Illustrations are from Aikido and the Dynamic Sphere by Adele Westbrook and Oscar Ratti, published by Charles E. Tuttle Company. Reprinted courtesy of Futuro Designs and Publications. LIST OF EXERCISES 1. Spatial summation and adaptation. .107 2. Double touch. .111 3. Kinesthetic memory. .167 4. Handshake. .189 LIST OF FIGURES2 Figure 1. Morihei Ueshiba Osensei portrait. .3 Figure 2. Morihei Ueshiba Osensei training. .3 Figure 3. Gaza Bowen. .90 Figure 4. Glen Kimoto. .90 Figure 5. Dave Bryan and Bob Tingleff. .90 Figure 6. Lunch was always provided for workers. .90 Figure 7. Construction on new dojo. .91 iv Figure 8. Construction on new dojo. .91 Figure 9. Training room with cosmetic touches. .91 Figure 10. Linda supervises the placement of rock. .92 Figure 11. Japanese garden in front of dojo. .92 Figure 12. Japanese garden in front of dojo. .92 Figure 13. Lori Talcott, et. al. .93 Figure 14. Jesse Burgess takes ukemi in Seattle. .94 Figure 15. Penny Sablove and Denise Barry at summer retreat. .94 Figure 16. New Year’s Day training at Natural Bridges State Park. .95 Figure 17. Shin kokyu in surf at Natural Bridges State Park. .95 Figure 18. Kangeiko at UCSC dojo. .96 Figure 19. The close of kangeiko with certificate presentation. .96 Figure 20. Lunch at Grand Opening of the new dojo. .97 Figure 21. Bob Tingleff, Hope Malcolm, Charles Ruhe relaxing after class. .97 Figure 22. Linda Holiday and her son, Nathan. .98 Figure 23. Takashi Tamasu and Jan Mathers. .98 Figure 24. Jesse Burgess, et al. .98 Figure 25. Linda Holiday training with a student. .255 Figure 26. Bob Frager with Aimen Al-Refai. .255 Figure 27. Alan Holiday directing a workshop for teachers. .256 Figure 28. Glen Kimoto and Hiram Clawson. .256 Figure 29. Blandy Merrill doing sankyo. .257 Figure 30. Aimen Al-Refai and Yannick Loyer. .257 Figure 31. General class doing nikyo. .257 Figure 32. Dennis Wheeler doing wrist stretch. .258 v Figure 33. Jerilyn Munyon and Mary Gibino. .258 Figure 34. Masaye Harrison turns her focus inward. .259 Figure 35. Blandy Marrill and Tarik Ghbeish. .259 Figure 36. The author’s first view of aikido . .259 Figures 37 through 41. Grab my wrist. .260 2 All photos by author unless otherwise noted. vi Aikido Sensibilities: The Sociosomatics of Connection and its Role in the Constitution of Community at North Bay Aikido in Santa Cruz, California by Renée Rothman This dissertation examines the sociosomatics of tactility and kinesthesia through the modern, Japanese martial art, aikido. Aikido’s reliance on dyadic training partnerships in immediate physical proximity is a central element in the constitution of social solidarity among its practitioners. At North Bay Aikido dojo, the site of my research, a sense of “community” is deliberately cultivated. This study demonstrates that the very physicality of aikido—its modes of attention to self and others through tactility and kinesthesia—combines with its principles of “loving protection” and non-competitiveness to produce a sense of group solidarity. Training partners are seeking a state and sensibility of “connectedness.” “Connection,” in the context of aikido, is a metaphorical concept with correspondences in physiological, social, and spiritual experiences. Complex muscular, energetic, and shaped movements are the first ways connections are learned and explored. Practitioners create interpersonal relatedness kinesthetically by mutually “extending” an energetic sense (“ki”) into the bodies of their partners. The tactile phenomenon of “double touch” (the simultaneous sense of being the agent and subject of touch) combined with the kinesthetic experience of moving in concert with others diminishes the sense of an autonomous self while heightening the sense of union with the group. Two potential challenges to creating and maintaining connection are gender and rank. Pre-aikido gendered experiences are re-experienced and re-configured as women and men engage with one another in cross-gender or same-gender partnerships. Democratic ideals of equality of status and responsibility are upheld within a system of rank based on advancing (but non-competitive) performances of aikido principles and techniques in the context of exams. Resolution of gendered and other conflicts are practiced “on the mat” through the techniques themselves. Embodied experiences of social connection are then deliberately applied to interpersonal relationships beyond the training center and its membership. Here, practitioners both interpret and perform social interactions via aikido metaphors. Movement metaphors become models of and for proper social behaviors that resolve conflict appropriately, effectively, and peacefully. Dedicated to the memory of my mother Patricia Kendrick Rothman And in honor of my father Conrad Rothman and my husband Charles Frederick Ruhe ix ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Research, critical thinking, and writing are never solitary activities. This dissertation represents the long evolution of my interests in culture, dance, and human experience. Along the way, countless individuals have offered their own passion and wisdom now embodied in me and expressed in this dissertation. I must begin, therefore, by thanking my parents, Conrad and Patricia Rothman, who allowed me to be inquisitive and taught me the value of research long before I became an academic. I’d also like to acknowledge my first anthropology teachers: Gail Kaufman (who introduced me to the field way back in 1972 at the Street Academy in Springfield, Massachusetts); Lynn Morgan, Deborah Battaglia, and Andrew Lass (my teachers and mentors at Mount Holyoke College who stirred my passion for this field and encouraged me try graduate school); and Ann Kingsolver and Steve Caton (my first year advisors at the University of California, Santa Cruz). The following people contributed to my scholarship in important ways: Nancy Chen (for her ever-enthusiastic support of my research topic); Steve Feld (whose ethnography Sound and Sentiment inspired me to pursue the anthropology of movement and sensory experience); Ellen Lewin (who encouraged my interest in American cultures); and Lisa Rofel (who turned a seemingly a self-evident term—community—into a subject worthy of close investigation). Ann Lauten merits very special thanks: Ann was always there with a sympathetic ear and the patience to be both guide and advocate through the bureaucratic system. Thank you to my dissertation committee: to Don Brenneis for his guidance and wisdom regarding my professionalization; and to Dan Linger who always challenged my assumptions and clarified my intentions. And finally, immeasurable gratitude and affection for my dissertation advisor, Olga Nájera-Ramírez. Olga inspired me as a student, a teacher, and a scholar, in addition to helping me navigate the doctoral process. x I would also like to thank the professors that I served under as a teaching assistant. Although the dissertation is the most concrete evidence of my accomplishments as a doctoral student, these professors contributed enormously to my teaching abilities, a skill I value highly. It was a pleasure to work under and learn from Don Brenneis, Nancy Chen, Triloki Pandy, Anna Tsing, and Olga Nájera-Ramírez. Thanks also to Kathy Foley in the theater arts department for giving me the opportunity to develop my teaching abilities in my own courses. I must thank Linda Holiday for her permission to carry out this research at North Bay Aikido. Linda also provided me with most of the history of aikido in this region, assisted in the development of the survey, read early drafts, and took time to comment on the final draft (and in the process saving me from several potential embarassments). Linda was, for me, a consultant and editor, but more importantly, she was my sensei with all the implications that position carries. I would also like to express my appreciation for the inspired teaching from my first aikido instructors, senseis Martha Jordan, Jesse Burgess, and Dennis Wheeler. I must thank the following people from North Bay Aikido for their assistance in creating and pre-testing the survey: Linda Holiday, Frank Kirk, Kahlil Al Refai, Jenni Fickling, Rex Walters, Hope Malcom, and Charles Ruhe. To the dojo members who volunteered to participated in this survey and who consented to being interviewed, my gratitude and affection. Thanks to Adele Westbrook and Oscar Ratti for their gracious permission to re-print Mr.