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BenDuckett
06-04-2005, 04:23 PM
HI,
Forgive me if this has been answered already, if so please post me the links. My question is this. O Sensei did many martial arts during his life before and, presumably, during his development of Aikido. Are there any references to the people with whom he trained and maybe could be considered "co-inventors" of Aikido? I'm careful not to step on peoples' toes and denegrate O Sensei, but he must have had someone to practise on and with. My proposition is that he must have tried techniques on people to see if they were effective and it seems reasonable to assume that they had some input into developing the techniques. Are these people lost in history or did they get recognition?
Many thanks,
Ben

AikiSean!
06-04-2005, 04:34 PM
From what I have read, O'sensei got a lot of the base that is Aikido from Aikijujutsu (Datio Ryu). Not sure who he studied under but It is available online somewhere I'm sure. I know that there was a post some time ago that contained a link about a man that helped with aikido(i think) In fact, I think he gave it the name. O'sensei wanted to call Aikibudo, but I could absolutely be wrong. There are many people here on this site who could give much deeper explainations.

batemanb
06-05-2005, 02:21 AM
A very quick potted response.

O Sensei trained in a number of arts, but mainly under Takeda Sokaku to learn Daito Ryu Aikijujutsu. He was quite a religious man, and was involved in the Omoto Kyo religion where he was heavily influenced by Onisaburo Deguchi. Aikido was O Sensei's way of combining his religious and budo beliefs and training. The art went through a number of name changes (including Aikibudo)before being finally called Aikido sometime around 1942 (ish).

The best place for more detailed historical research on Aikido is over at Aikido Journal (www.aikidojournal.com). Stan Pranin has a very large archive of information that contains the answers to your questions, and will give more precise details on what I have said above, including how/ when where/ and who gave Aikido it's current name.

Yes, I know I should know all this by now :blush: :)

kind regards

Bryan

aikigirl10
06-05-2005, 08:05 AM
My sensei was trained by O sensei's son , if im not mistaken . I cant remember his name at the time but my sensei's name is Tom Berry and he teaches aikido in ashland ,kentucky.

George S. Ledyard
06-05-2005, 10:20 AM
HI,
Forgive me if this has been answered already, if so please post me the links. My question is this. O Sensei did many martial arts during his life before and, presumably, during his development of Aikido. Are there any references to the people with whom he trained and maybe could be considered "co-inventors" of Aikido? I'm careful not to step on peoples' toes and denegrate O Sensei, but he must have had someone to practise on and with. My proposition is that he must have tried techniques on people to see if they were effective and it seems reasonable to assume that they had some input into developing the techniques. Are these people lost in history or did they get recognition?
Many thanks,
Ben
This is just straight Aikido history and simply requires some effort at self education:

Subscribe to Aikido Journal On-line and you get access to the articles which they have been doing since the seventies. There are interviews with virtually every prominent student of the Founder starting with his nephew Inoue Sensei.

Build your library: Aikido Journal now has a bibliography and lists vitrtually every book written about Aikido in English. Some of them deal with the history of the art. Aikido Journal sells a book just on the pre-war deshi. Some of the deshi, like Gozo Shioda, have themselves written books and tey are also very helpful. Of course there is always John Steven's biography of O-Sensei, Invincible Warrior as a starting point, although you have to be careful about his tendency to use superlatives when speaking about O-Sensei.

There is a ton of information out there about Aikido history. people just need to take advantage of it. I think it is admirable that you are thinking about this. I have friends who are lifelong Aikido practitioners and run their own dojos whose interest in the history is minimal. They know very little about how it developed, who contributed, how the Founder's ideas developed over time... I think it hurts their credibility.

BenDuckett
06-05-2005, 02:51 PM
Many thanks for the help, as a newbie to Aikido I'm trying to find out as much as possible (under the illusion that knowledge will make up for lack of technical ability at this stage! ;) ) One of the problems of the internet that although all of the information is out there knowing where to look is often the problem
Now if I can only get a handle on
a) learning the names of all of the techniques
b) getting my foorwork AND my upper body to work at the same time and
c) being able to do the techniques two days later when I'm next on the mat.
Still, give it another 30 years and I should be getting somewhere :freaky:

Many thanks, and if you find yourself in New Zealand pop in and visit our Dojo!
Ben

AikiSean!
06-05-2005, 03:27 PM
My sensei always told me dont worry about your hands or arms first. Always, Always! Work Taisabaki !