by Jan Kallenbach

Sawai soshi, founder of Tai Ki Ken

Tai ki kenpo has been developed by our Japanese grand master Sawai
Kenichi (1903- 1988) Sawai sensei taught it as a budo discipline and a
way of life and certainly not as sport. Tai Ki is strongly connected with its
Chinese counterpart Yi-chuan, also known as Da Cheng Chuan during a
certain period.
Yi-chuan has been developed by grand master Wang Zhang Zhai (1885 –
1963) from Beijing. Master Sawai had a classical budotraining in kenjutsu
and jujutsu and went to China. Here he met and trained with the famous
Yi-chuan master Wang, who was called “the national hand of China”
then.
This meeting resulted in strong ties and with Wang’s permission Sawai
sensei started his own school in Japan, which he called Tai Sei Ken in
Japanese first and Tai Ki Ken later. Sawai sensei’s Tai Ki Ken school soon
flourished in Japan and now his senior students continue his tradition and
direct students like myself set forth his teaching and created their own
schools.
Nowadays Yi-chuan is taught to us by master Li Yuan Ju (now age 77)
from Beijing and it is trained and practised hand in hand with Tai Ki Kenpo
in our dojo ShinBuKen in Amsterdam.

Zen standing discipline, ‘standing like a tree’

Realize: in Tai Ki, every thing starts and finishes with Stillness Training
 Please take good notice of the following Tai Ki
discipline:
We do know Fundamentals: 1= Ritsu Zen, 2= Hay, 3= Yuri + Neri (=
waza, or technique developing) and Chi-kung, that will be shown here
first, later on we will show the Tai Ki concepts.

1* Ritsu Zen Standing still Training

tatsu / or ritsu Zen
t

Every thing starts with Stillness Training: ‘Ritsu Zen’

So we start with the ritsu-zen posture as preparing, for deep
relaxation and deep sensivity energytraining and meditational
awareness. We have to open ourselves for the most original quality
our cosmos is showing us… upon we even in our own micro cosmic
systems will become aware of it…the quality of Tao: jing and yang…
and finally will become able to arouse ‘ki’.
We do call this exercise ‘training in stillness’…some people like to
call it meditation.
The term meditation can be misinterpreted as a way of training the
mind only.
Taiki and Yi-chuan are body-mind budo disciplines…they do not
separate mind from body. Be careful!

When people get more feeling in the standing still exercise and
master the
‘standing like a tree posture’ and do feel their yuan chi or original
chi …we will introduce more postures. They all can help us to
develop ‘ki’, something so important that Sawai sensei called his art
Tai ‘Ki’ Ken.

ki

When we finish exercising Ritsu Zen we do the ‘small yuri form’

Small Yuri = swaying, pendeling of the tantien point.

It is meant to continue the sensations of energy and deep feeling of ritsu
zen and to keep notice of the two basic qualities of life: jing and yang.
We take a small step to the left side and bring our shoulders, arms and
hands out in a form like we are holding a ball. Move the arms and hands
out and in, at least three times and then we do this moving on the right
side. We come back to the basic standing position to close.
To close we bring our arms and breathing down several times.
Small yuri is a minimized form of the great yuri, which is one of three
explicit forms of Taiki to be trained.
It is always used to close a form or action, when we go to another and to
regulate our breathing and tension when we have exerted ourselves.

small yuri swaying on the right side and on the left side, at one spot

After this, we come to the middle and we finish with the hakkè / jing
power feeling. This is a kind of internal explosion typical for Taiki and we
deliver this with a deep sound called...’haa’ or ’hawn!’
Nb. Like we mentioned usually we close all exercising with the small yuri swaying +
hakkè. Senior students develop all different ways of delivering hakkè later on.

The element heaven/our spirit/energy coming from air and the awakening
of our mental energetic powers have to become united through our hara-
breathing. Combined with the energy coming from the soil...together they
make the natural energetic sound of our hakkè.
Take a good breath and bring the air and energy down…use the energy
you can feel with your feet coming from the element earth /the ground,
combine this generated power with the art of natural breathing from the
deep abdomen,
and make a sound like coming from a empty barrel, or growl like an
animal/ like bear-/or tiger-grudging.
This will make the hakkè-sound.
 pictures are showing hakkè (when gripped): the way of generating and
directing ki
energy, here shown as a way to free yourself from gripping

After the closing of exercise no 1 with small yuri and hakkè, we prepare for
motion with displacement called Hay. Also done quiet and very balanced
and harmonious in order to preserve the feeling of ki. This small yuri part
of the training is the core of Tai Ki…meant to get the sensation of
‘ki’...”without ki no Taiki”…said our grandmaster.

2* Hay
Hay = walking…moving body- /foot- and arm-work together in great
harmony,
walking and moving the trinity of the upper/ middle and lower parts
of the body in harmony and without disturbances or unbalancing

After finishing training no 1, we continue with a displacement exercise

where we do move a bit zig zag to our front and back with about five
steps… called Hay.
Japanese say ‘crawling’, because it is supposed to be done slowly and
concentrated with arms spread out and our feet carefully placed only
when we feel ‘full and empty’.
We also call it ‘san t’i moving’, the union of heaven, man and earth in
moving or more literally the union of hands, body and feet.

We practise several forms, low, medium and high. The left form showed
here is more easy and the high form is more heavy.
Take notice that hay has a strong feeling/intention of moving towards or
backwards from somebody opposing you.
As a guideline for slow moving: senior students go 5 steps forward and 5
steps back in 5 min.
If you master that…all quicker moving will be no problem.
 Hay walking

hay walking, low hay walking, high

Always one leg full and one leg empty, notice that we bend the back-leg so far, as if we
sit on it comfortably. The hara is always kept straight and open and the shoulders are
low. Keep the arms living, light and sensitive as to keep you well balanced (left) or as if
you would catch a punch (right) or are anytime ready to punch yourself.
There is indeed no need to perform this walking quickly…no we do it as
slow and deep and controlled as we can, because we regard this as a kind
of ‘overload training’, as we want our legs and especially our back-leg to
become strong.
After the hay exercise that can be even more heavy when we do the
hands-high type combined with deeper walking…we come back to our
starting point, raise our back and do the small yuri again, to stay supple
and subtle.
Here after we follow with the big yuri form.

3* Yuri
Great Yuri = swaying, pendeling of the tantien point like in the
small yuri, but done with stepping forward and backward now

Now we make the movement larger and bigger with displacements zig zag
front and back and like we say… with more excessive movement in three
dimensions all in great harmony.
Hands, arms, shoulders have to move altogether with feet, legs and hips in
forward and backward direction like pulling and pushing an invisible
opponent.
Enlarged in 3 dimensions, and bigger because you have to feel bodily
bigger now than while performing the small yuri on the place…this
movement will help us later to feel how to deal with opponents and yet
stay tactile and not rigid.
It is a great help when one can accompany the movements with the
breathing and feel the air literally go out and in.
Breathe out through the almost closed mouth and in through the nose and
we twist and rotate the arms a little bit when moving out and in too.
Nb.
Later on, one will feel the great connection of the yuri exercise with the pushing hands
exercise and the way you have to deal with gripping attackers.

great Yuri

Great Yuri , swaying to both sides with stepping diagonal footwork forward and
backward

We usually walk zig zag front and back 5 or more steps…and as we feel…
sometimes forward to the opposite site of the place or dojo, and then we
go backward still facing the same direction. When we come to the starting
place we close the great yuri form,

come to a neutral middle position with the two equally loaded and step out
left to do the small finishing yuri left.
We do this little yuri left and right minimal 3 times. This yuri is done with
more careful attention for our tantien, and it looks like almost ónly this
point is moving now. We close again in a neutral position on two full legs,
bringing our ‘chi’ down and ‘shen’ up.
We take a kamae (selfdefence posture) then, charge with air and energy
and give our ki-breathing hakkè outburst of ki energy.

As one might have understood already, this hakkè is an important item in

Taiki .
The accompanying sound can be undirected and open and going in all
directions like ringing ‘a bell in the valley’.
This is the first way of energetic kiai, inside starting but exterior oriented
kiai. It can produce a big sound.
It can also be directed and pointed in a special way as to apply ki as an
answer to a certain grip to free yourself, or direct it in breaking a board.
This is the martial way and second type of kiai.
We call it ‘internal kiai’ . It starts inside and stays inside, to arouse more
spontaneous ki power…the accompanying sound is also kept more inside,
like in deep grumbling.
It is the core of Tai Ki Kenpo, not so easy to imitate and seldom matched
by other stylists.
This energetic reaction moving has to work in all directions, against
punching, grabbing, seizing/embracing, kicking, multiple attacks and
attacks by weapons and put into form by our natural moving, spontaneous
reactions and developed by our yuri it can be used anytime in our moving
(= waza+)

The whole process of developing waza is called Neri, which can be

translated as ‘polishing’.

Neri =< Waza,

Neri means ‘kneading’ literally, so with neri sensei meant kneading
the body (as raw material like clay) until it will get shape.
By further polishing it, the fundamental moving will develop into
techniques.

When we finished our fundamental no 3, the big yuri + hakkè and master
these fundamentals fully…we can start practising and developing our
own movements and polish them (neri ) , until the movements finally
becomes our waza.

Waza are techniques that work…you train them in order to master them
until they work not only in one case, but in all cases…and under all
circumstances…that is the meaning of real ‘waza’!
So after the three fundamentals the technical way ahead of the kenpoka is
open and free and after a while you can see people doing the same
technique in different ways, i.g. in different spheres and directions or with
different intentions.
For the observer this can be confusing, but careful observation will make
one see and learn that although the movements look different yet they
can have a certain familiarity, because the used concepts and principles
are the same.
That is the reason why Taiki and Yi-chuan can be difficult to continue after
a while, especially when training alone! Yet it can be the starting point of
your own never ending way of budo and master-ship. Especially when you
find out that even when training alone you can continue and develop
because of your understanding of the principles. In this light, you will
understand our masters who found it of no help to train series of fixed
forms we have to master first.
No, our teacher told us convincingly: ‘don’t hang on forms…don’t copy
them…make your own waza!’
This whole process of creating and polishing is called ‘neri’.
Chi-kung

Sport-management students training Chi Kung

So far the disciplines of postures and moving of zen – hay – yuri and the
breathing exercises are enough to keep you supple healthy and sensitive
for daily life.

One can practise these exercises whenever one needs or likes and the
beneficial aspects do develop slowly but steadily when one repeats the
exercises over and over…until internal awareness grows and one precisely
can distinguish how one feels an how the energy balance is.
It starts with the zhang zhuan standing like a tree exercise.
This chi-kung exercise develops a lot of positive internal and external
efficacies and after some corrections by a teacher can be maintained and
practised alone.

It enhances the sensitivity for life quality and teaches us how to keep or
spend or evoke energy…and stay supple, open and gentle.
And when we talk about suppleness we do not only strive for suppleness
on the outside -like every sportsman knows and wants to maintain- but
we especially strive for ‘souplesse’ of our inside. And then we think of
organs and nerves but also emotions and mind.

Sometimes I ask new students standing in zhang-zhuan/zen posture like above, if they
are aware of their blood circulation and are able to feel their heart palpitation beating in
their fingertips.
A lot of persons can have problems in standing quiet, but after a while and after
accommodation they stand correctly but still do feel nothing in their fingertips.
This becomes -together with breating, deep relaxation and correct posture building- one
of the entrances in Yang Sheng Kung training.
After some time they do indeed feel some beating in their left index finger…but still not in
the other fingers…and still not in the right hand and slowly they detect they are able to
start feeling!

This is the ‘health side’ or chi-kung of TaiKi, also called Yang Sheng
Kung.

If one however wants to go deeper and further and wants to study wushu
as a way of selfdefence…it is necessary to study and practice the Tai Ki
concepts.
Basic discipline however stays the routine-training from above to develop
the inner awareness and the feeling of ‘ki’.
 “ki wa nashi…Tai Ki wa nai ’’ …Sawai sensei said…”no ki …no Taiki”

So when a student wants to study more about martial arts and wants to
develop himself, he needs above all to stay in good health and to
‘develop his ki ‘.
Because by experience we know that being spirited and charged with ki
are the main factors in a confrontation or a fight to decide between
winning or loosing!

Nb.
There is one problem with the Taiki nei-chia concept of attaining ki. If one is not open
minded enough or willing to submit himself to ki training, or not prepared to investigate
in ki training…
mostly because one cannot grasp it immediately at will and can not wait for it to come…
something that often plays a role with budoka who have already been training in their
own way for a long time, and have their own experiences, or
….if one has been educated with the idea that ‘hard = is best”, and never has learnt the
shadow sides of this thinking…it will be difficult to achieve ki.

We need conviction, perseverance, patience and a good example to continue ki-training.

And we have to practise it daily with intelligence and where ever we can.
Sometimes people get an accident in their budo career that forces them to train in a
other or new way with more attention to their inner moving factors. Then they can
discover the ki-concept -let us say - by accident!
Also I do know colleagues -exponents of the harder disciplines- who at an elder age look
for a healthier way of training and start training Tai Chi Chuan or Chi Kung.

being one with

nature and it ‘s
original chi
(called yuan chi),
the author is
training han-zen
at the costal side
of the south of
France
near Marseille

Like mentioned we can train Taiki where and when ever we want, also
because ki training needs to be done daily and other all circumstances,
because then it will manifest itself.
We especially like to train outside under good conditions and near trees
that produce good oxygen.
With a good view and good atmosphere a kenpoka will feel relaxed and
harmonious with nature.
Inside and outside have become one and good yuan chi will come and give
us energy and a mental balance.