shadowedge
08-27-2010, 12:30 PM
Greetings everyone! It's been quite a while since my last post, so first off,regards to everyone.
I've been viewing a number of Aikido vids on youtube recently. And I've noticed an association (dojo? / kai?) named Nihonden Mugen Ryu.
Youtube is full of fake videos containing the title "Akido vs (insert word here)" that show all sorts of nonsense. Of course, this fact isn't new at all. However, I've been noticing a couple of vids that show martial artists wearing hakamas participating in MMA matches (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLqovX4G8Z0), doing striking kata (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMKaO_bA9QE), and demonstrating brick breaking chops (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9IbkOh6yv5E) and the like (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHEhfy9eLLo).
Initially, my reaction was to dismiss most of these videos as rubbish, but then I noticed this one armed practitioner (named Tetsu Yamazaki (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R797LamA3Vw) in one vid) appearing in most of the vids. After doing a search, I could barely find anything on the name of this association, or on Yamazaki San. One of the things I noticed tho, was this youtube user (http://www.youtube.com/user/masakarikinta24#p/f) who seems to have a collection of videos(uploaded within the last 2 years) showing this association.
With that said, I would like to humbly express my thoughts about the vids...
I feel like the videos are misleading as to what Aikido is about. I think that they could easily give people the wrong ideas about Aikido. And in all honesty, I think they make our art look really bad.
Please don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to start a thread of hatred toward Nihonden Mugen Ryu. In fact, I am a bit curious about this association's origins. As bad as I think the video's looked, they all seemed to be sincere, hard working martial artists. A fact about them that I respect.
Like I previously mentioned, we all know that youtube contains all sorts of rubbish. But the vids with this association, show a genuine effort to promote "Aikido." This is what really disturbs me. I feel like I should bring this to your attention because I honestly don't know what to make of it.
Thank you all and have a great day!
PS.
I hope I posted this in the right forum. My apologies if this was a mistake.