Article

Name: Towards the Semiotics of Aikido

Authors: G. A. Ghazaryan

Yerevan State University

Abstract: Nonverbal language incorporates a vast number of wordless cues through which people communicate, including postures, gestures, stances, and movements, all of which can be analyzed and explained through the use of the instruments of a semiotic methodology. The study of signs through the rituals, conventions and overall nonverbal interactions in the diaculture of modern Japanese martial arts, reveals the characteristics of the sign language used in such martial arts as Kenjutsu and Aikido. The latter makes wide use of nonverbal cues that are characterized by features of indexicality, iconicity and symbolicity, and echo concrete social norms and conventions. Those social conventions are materialized and translated into the setting of trainings through philosophical concepts and ideas. The author of the present article analyzes key issues of modelling of certain social and interpersonal relations through signs of non-verbal communication in the diaculture of Oriental martial arts, studying the particular case of Aikido. The paper focuses on the semiotic nature of the fundamental concepts used in Aikido and their expressions within the setting of trainings. In the mentioned martial art, the mat represents a mini-model of the universe, where multiple interpersonal relationships are modeled on the basis of conflict situations. Conflict or confrontation is mostly conventional in the training environment where physical interaction is realized in a «question-and-answer» or «statement-and-reply» format. This makes the discussion about the nonverbal and iconic character of combat language almost inevitable. Moreover, nowadays Aikido is often explained in rather far-reaching abstractions, in which we often come across comparisons between physical contact and dialogue or conversation. Special attention is paid to such concepts as the Centre («hara»), Distance («maai») and Sword («katana»), the analysis of which reveals conceptual ties between the conventional forms of «kata», concrete gestures and the general ideology of Aikido. In the given context the sword («katana») represents an important point of ideological reference, since postures, gestures, stances, and movements in Aikido are “drawn” in circles, the “imaginary weapon” being the sword, which is usually substituted or imitated by hands kept in a position that looks like holding a sword in front of one’s own body.Unlike other forms of art, here the use of the mentioned types of signs has not only an aesthetic but also a didactic purpose. In other words, it helps to transmit the message from master to students through tacit forms of communication and through patterned forms known as the «kata». Based on the opinion that non-verbal signs in combat episodes represent kinеtic correlates of concrete verbal acts, parallels are drawn with verbal communication. The paper is an attempt to study the diaculture of Aikido in light of the modern research data in semiotics and theory of verbal communication.

Keywords: Aikido, iconic sign, diagram, nonverbal semiotics, interpersonal distance, communication

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