PRINCIPLES - TECHNIQUES

seichusen
& embusen

AJ van Dijk - Naoki Ishikawa - Nobuyuki Nukina during seminar Romania 2007. Shihan Ishikawa and Sensei Nukina explaining about embusen/seichusen and the importance of moving off with the body in kihon gumite

 

The litteral meanings are seichusen: correct center line and embusen: demonstration line. The seichusen is the center line of your own body and the center line of the opponents body, while the embusen is the line from your seichusen to your opponents seichusen. Therefore in combat it is of great importance to protect your seichusen at all times. Move off the embusen, creating a new embusen, protect your own seichusen on the way. The new embusen that is created should be good for you and bad for the opponent. Good for you and bad for the opponent are two different things.

Mr. Ashihara shows seichusen in JKFan Magazine.

Bad for the opponent would be such a position, that he is not able to hit you properly without having to move or correct the body. If the opponent has to move or correct his body this will be either a large connected movement or 2 movements, which is even worse. Anyway, it means that his seichusen should not be pointing towards yours.

Good for you is also like the above, but there is more. Off course it is good if his seichusen is not pointing towards yours, if you stand for example at the side of your opponent, but does this mean that your are infact in a good position? The point is, that you have to be in such a postion that you can immediately his a vital point of his body.

In the past when I looked at technique, I was only busy with the person executing the technique, not thinking about all the variables that existed within the situation. So my point is, that you have to regard correct technique not only to the single person who executes the technique, but also how that the person applies the technique to his opponent. So this includes the waza, shikkaku, vital points, ma-ai and the position of your opponent.

To protect the seichusen is to understand all the imaginary lines from your opponent to you and vice versa. Read about the imaginary lines at principles of technique.