崩す (Kuzusu) means unbalance, to level, to pull down. A transitive verb in Japanese language.
The character 崩 is form with two different types of Kanji： 山(yama)=mountain, and
月(tsuki)= the moon.
I have read few explanations about kuzusu and one of them was if you would remove a moon then the mountain would fall. We need to develop further this concept so I would like to offer another explanation.
In Japanese, Monday is: 月曜日(getsuyubi), the same character 月(tsuki) is also present. So, if you are having a bad day on Monday then the rest of your week might not be so good. The character 月 is also present in the construction of the months in Japanese.
If we look further into the character for Monday: 月曜日 there are two important characters：月 and 日 (nichi). Tsuki is a yin element and nichi (the daylight) is a yang element. Yin and yang are always balanced to create life and to keep Nature balanced. People usually relaxed on weekends (yin) so they can be ready for the week of work (yang). If people don’t relax and party too much on weekends, then they will be too tired on Monday and they won't have enough Yang to be productive.
The yin and yang principles are simplified by drawing a mountain with the sunny side (yang) and the dark side (yin). If there is too much yang and not enough yin then the force will be overpowering and it will collapse. If there is too much yin and not enough yang, it will also collapse because the yin forces will destabilize the yang forces.
If we return to our character 崩, we understand that too much power 山(yama) will put too much pressure on one or both pillars that are represented by 月(tsuki) and vice versa.
Balance is everything!
In the next blog, we will discuss how it applies to Aikido.
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