Musubi - 結び

Musubi is a concept that I believes forms one of the core principles of aiki based art forms. Over my years of training I have felt various artists express it in radically different ways but at the end of the day musubi 結び, or connection between centers, is one of the common denominators high level people all have mastery of in their practice. After 30 years in the art, this is the quality I look for to see if people are understanding the art. How connected are they?

As I often do, when exploring a concept I love to break down the kanji, the Chinese character to see what secrets lie in store for us.

結び - むすび ending; conclusion; union

結び目- むすびめ knot

結び方 - むすびかた way of tying a knot


So from a budo perspective, I would say

結び - to be connected or related; to join together

Now let us explore the kanji 結 deeper and explore it's construction and etymology.



結う

to do up (hair); to braid; to fasten; to fix


結ぶ

1: to tie; to bind; to link;
2: to bear (fruit);
3: to close (e.g. deal); to confirm; to conclude;
4: to close tightly; to purse (e.g. lips);
5: to unite (with); to ally; to join hands

Here is what you get if you type 結 into Google search.





The character is made up of two clusters of ideas. 糸 and 吉


糸 a fine thread

Pictographically the writing 糸 represents a twisted string.




吉 - good / lucky / auspicious / propitious / favorable / fortunate

the speech 口(mouth) of a sage 士(a man of learning) = 吉 auspicious


Now that I have beaten you to death with kanji lets see it in action




First we see Goldberg Sensei, the head of Kiyamakan Kodokai Daito Ryu. He has an intense musubi so it is good for illustrative purposes. He connects deeply with Aiki-no-Tai AikiBody. It profoundly affects his partner. Centers are connected. He is imposeing on his partners center, while his own remains structured.



Then we see Stenudd Sensei. Watch as he moves right into the structure of the person. Both Kondo and Stenudd have intense musubi that really sock it to the structre of their partners.

And here I give a brief description of what musubi is and how it is created. I have 10 more years experience on this topic now, so I would make some corrections in my own presentation - but the lesson is still a good starting place if you are trying to wrap your head around the concept.


On the softer side of musubi practice we will see a short lecture by Lowry Sensei. He talks about the quality of touch it requires to establish musubi. This is a really useful lecture he has here that should be viewed often.







And as a final piece of musubi trivia for the day. Musubi (different character) also means sushi made from spam. Go figure.