The rituals of etiquette in martial arts

“Keiko ga owarimashita domo arigato gozaimashita”

It’s the hot summer of 2010, the class at Aso Ryu Aikido, (at the Deighton sports arena) has just finished, we are kneeling around the edge of the tatami.

The class started with kihon, but picked up the pace and ended in randori, for those of us preparing for our Yudansha promotions at the end of the year.

We say our closing phrase, and perform a full kneeling bow to the kamiza (the kamiza is adorned with two pictures, one of course is Morihei Ueshiba O’Sensei, (the founder of Aikido) the other is a photo of his student Kinjo Aso Sensei, the teacher of Billy McAuley our Sensei and whom the club is named after.

Of all the martial arts in my near 40 years of training, Aikido was the martial art which had the most ritual and etiquette, and I loved it.

In Karate and Taekwondo, we would begin and end class with a traditional standing bow, but it wasn’t as formal as the full kneeling bow of Aikido.

Some people, when they first join a traditional martial arts club, find all the rituals of etiquette both confusing and off putting, and so the modern trend is for (especially so for commercial) instructors to start doing away with these formalities and terminology thus creating a more casual atmosphere for their (customers – sorry) students.

For some reason, the atmosphere and seemingly strange customs didn’t phase me when I first began to train, which is surprising really, considering the scrawny, bullied introvert of a kid I was when I first walked in to my first dojo.

In fact I found the environment of mutual respect and courtesy refreshing and comforting, these tough looking teens I was facing were bowing and showing me respect and helping me improve my technique, unlike the sports I was exposed to in school, where there was very little mutual respect and was very cliquey.

So is there a problem with eliminating these rituals of etiquette?

No, of course not, each to their own. If your modern gym uses a fist bump before training and a high five to end class, then so be it.

After all these traditional rituals don’t improve your training, they don’t make our techniques better or worse.

In fact I don’t recall using any formalities when having private lessons with my karate sensei in his converted garage dojo.

So why do I consider these rituals of etiquette important (or maybe I should I say valuable) well that is the nub of the question isn’t it?

Well it isn’t just so we blindly follow tradition, without knowing why, which isn’t useful, and it isn’t about just about being stuck in the past.

There is, I think something special in these rituals of etiquette and let me give you 3 of my personal reasons for this;

1. Respect – this is showing respect to your classmates, teacher and lineage. This lineage contains all those who trained and sacrificed to preserve and pass down these teachings, so that you can train today, these people whom you may never meet, are still part of the living history you too are part of.
2. 2. A sense of separation – these rituals give you a sense of separation of your everyday life and your time in the dojo. In the 2010 example which I began this post, I would travel straight from the office (and a job I didn’t enjoy) to the class in Huddersfield. It was a moment to settle the mind and body before training, put away your everyday thoughts and just be completely present. We should really value our time in the dojo, that short time we share together, it wont happen again, In that 2010 example, the club described no longer exists, and Sensei McAuley sadly passed away during the pandemic. So always value your time with your teacher.
3. Culture – as we are practising a martial arts from Asia, these ritualised forms of etiquette are part of the cultural history of what we are practising (this may not be very popular these days) but it does link us here in the 21^st century to the founders of the system which may date back one, two or three centuries.

Recently in our Zen class (which is full of ritualised etiquette) our sensei told us that these rituals are there to support of actual practice, and are not itself the practice.

So that’s my rant for this month, if all the bowing and rituals isn’t for you, then fair enough, don’t let me spoil your martial arts.

Keep training and enjoy the journey.