HARVARD AIKIKAI - Glossary

Basic Terminology

Here are some basic terms that you will hear in the course of practice. Besides the names of the techniques and attacks, these are the terms you should be most familiar with. The original glossary was compiled in 2002 as part of the Harvard Aikikai's website by Jeffery Bayliss and Daryl Muranaka to reflect general Aikido terms and some terms particular to their respective training histories. Harvard Aikikai is proud to share this expanded version of the glossary with the MIT Aikido Club so that it may be posted on both websites.

Body Parts

Below is a basic list of body parts in Japanese that are commonly mentioned or manipulated in Aikido.

Dojo Phrases and Commands

While not all dojo use these terms, they are some common ones that you will here either in this club or at other dojo or at seminars.

Postures, Movements, and Exercises

Attacks

As all forms in Aikido consist of an attack and a defense (or a combination of defenses and attacks), you should become familiar with the various kinds of attacks common to Aikido. While this is not a comprehensive list, this covers all of the most common (and a few uncommon) attacks used in Aikido.

Basic Techniques

The first step in mastering a technique is knowing its name. To that end, we provide you with a list of the basic techniques or kihon waza. There are many more techniques (some with names, and some without), however these are the ones most common in practice. We realize that a simple list of techniques doesn’t give anyone much of a clue of what each technique looks like, however, without regular practice, the association of movement with name cannot be achieved.