What Does Kokikai Mean?
A Kokikai Aikido student recently asked, "What does 'Kokikai' mean?" Ko 光 "light," means "radiant" or "shining" when used as an adjective. Ki 氣 usually translated as something like "life force," "health," "energy." Often translated into English as..."ki." Kai 会 "association" Back when Sensei was trying to come up with a name for his new Aikido school, he was in the car with Dan McDougall Sensei on a dark March evening, heading for class in Princeton. Sensei suddenly said to Dan, "Look at the headlights! What do you call what the lights do?" "Oh, well... shine , Sensei?" "No! Another word! Stronger!" Dan ran through a few similes, and when he hit on "radiant," Sensei said "Exactly! Radiating, like nuclear power!" This is why we usually translate Kokikai as "School of Radiant Ki." A word on the character 光 ...