One of the basic principles and founding values of The Perfect Gentleman is Masculinity. What we mean by that is taking care of yourself physically but also learning the ability to defend yourself and others when the time calls for it.
I personally am a great fan of the Martial Arts, having studied a great deal as a younger man and starting to pick it up again as a middle-aged one. As you know we are great fans of Bartitsu here at PG HQ, why because it is described as the Gentlemen’s Martial Art, but it is not the only one.
When we did the research for The Perfect Gentleman, we discovered a number of interesting facts and co-incidences, for me it was the fact that two island nations who built empires were the ones to sustain and develop the ideals of what we term the Gentleman. That was Britain and Japan, now of course there are fundamental differences but there are striking similarities that join these two ‘Gentlemanly’ Journeys and we explore them in detail at our Live Event and in future articles.
But one of the things that is sustained and grew throughout Japan’s history is there love and dedication to Martial Prowess, and their constant development of martial arts such as Karate, Judo and what we are here to discuss is Aikido.
Aikido is one of the most Modern these developed Martial Arts, it was founded by
Morihei Ueshiba, he developed it and brought about it’s philosophy over the course of the late 19th and early 20th century. It has it’s roots in Ju-Jitsu and sword and spear martial arts, but as a blended art developed its own core movements over time. It was taken to the wide world in 1950s.
What is interesting for us at PG, is that the core principle of Aikido is that is about the peaceful resolution of conflict whenever possible. It is in effect another Gentleman’s Martial Art. Though there is no one central philosophy to Aikido, the key pillars on which is rests are ones that we at the Perfect Gentleman share, that of peace and self-improvement.
Martial Arts for me have always been about a sense of honour, discipline and self-awareness. Learning these skills to defend yourself and others gives you confidence across so many levels, but like all skills it takes time to develop. Some people are naturals ease through the lessons and others struggle to succeed but through determination and hard work get there. Never let age or difficulty stop you or hinder you, I suffer from Asthma and remember Jane Malyon (English Cream Tea) got her black belt in Karate at 52. We can always learn new skills and embrace the change at any stage in life. As we say, the Perfect Gentleman is a journey not a destination at that is true for life in general too.
So go out and learn a new skill today, I sure am going to and we are delighted to have Instructor Darian Jenik, to write a series of articles for us over the course of the next few weeks to expand our Martial Arts knowledge and help us gentleman learn to embrace this new Skill.
As always respectfully yours,
Zach
