Tomiki meeting Ueshiba

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[PeterR]

This little gem came up on my radar.

There are a few points where my emphasis would be a bit different and I have never heard anyone claim Tomiki was Judo 8th Dan when he met Ueshiba but it does put things in context.

http://tomikiaikido.blogspot.fi/2009/11/there-is-correction-that-needs-to-be.html

[iron horse]

To me it is all just common sense. In recent times, people learned Karate, figured out it didn't work in freestyle, so they invented Kickboxing. At first, many of its practitioners were good at Karate but over time we ended up with people who know almost no Karate and just do - Freestyle. MMA has gone the same way. It used to be people of different arts fighting, now, MMA is just a separate thing unto itself.
Tomiki, having learned Judo and becoming proficient through testing it in randori, he simply sought to do the same with his Aikido. He wanted to test it, he wanted to make it work, he wanted to make it better. He was an educator - he wanted to educate and to do that everything needs to be logical. In addition, he designed many interesting katas that his students still practice today whereas katas have all but been ignored in Judo. I think Tomiki would turn in his grave at the sight of modern Judo, as would Kano. I wonder what Judoka think of Tomiki? I did Judo for years and never heard his name mentioned.