AikiWeb: The Source for Aikido Information AikiWeb's principal purpose is to serve the Internet community as a repository and dissemination point for aikido information.
Hello and thank you for visiting AikiWeb, the
world's most active online Aikido community! This site is home to
over 22,000 aikido practitioners from around the world and covers a
wide range of aikido topics including techniques, philosophy, history,
humor, beginner issues, the marketplace, and more.
If you wish to join in the discussions or use the other advanced
features available, you will need to register first. Registration is
absolutely free and takes only a few minutes to complete so sign up today!
I never thought I would want a white kitchen. It just seemed soooo.....designer. I used to love the remodeling trades magazines, thinking of all the new hardware like suns and half moons on the cabinet doors....
Now I am so into plants. Our five or seven Cactus bloomed already starting around Thanksgiving. They had been on what my husband called "vacation" out in the front yard. Now the snow is beginning to fall off the branches but in the dark of night it started to be this amazing fluffy stuff on the branches we could see in the back.
We haven't had much snow this year but this morning I am thinking of Mary Eastland and her beautiful word pictures from nature one year at the start of each season. By coincidence I see she has posted a notice of her and Ron's Spring Seminar.
We are organizing our house it has stuff from my late parents my live brothers in their eighties who love mementoes and letters from friends and relatives but the plants are leading the osojo efforts, the word added in if you are of the Shinto persuasion. Anyway, the mortgage requires it.
My husband discovered Sensei Koichi Tohei's Ki Exercises on YouTube which he is now able to get on his Blackberry. He is into judo on and off since 2011 or so. His late brother was a wrestling champ in high school so he has a competitive streak. We had a friend on line for a while of the British Tomiki persuasion but haven't heard from him in recent years. Hope he is okay.
I haven't read :Linda Holliday's book yet, but I am grateful to Sojourner's posting such a great recommendation on my last entry. When I have an opportunity I will grab it...
Grab as in Seize the Day. I'm not sure what today will bring but I did get up early and start some organizing around the house. As far as my husband is concerned, and my former student if they decide to work together on the painting and repair job nearby, I am grateful to Linda Eskin for her piece in Columns for July. She is one of the writers of the group "The Mirror" who take turns from month to month.
I like the once a month conferences a student has with the sensei at the dojo where she trains that lasts an hour if I remember correctly, and I think this can have positive implications in a person's job and home life, even if one is not training in a dojo at the moment.
I am not currently training, but I was for about twenty years, so some of my reading is reminiscing and some of it is applicable in the here and now. I find Linda Eskin's observations will be a great help to me at this point in my life as there are a plethora of people I have to deal with in addition to my husband and his friends working on projects here.
So if any of this rings a bell with any of you, please read something by either of the Lindas, or both!
It has been a long time since I wrote a blog entry but this news;is interesting to me and probably some who might look at my blog.
Those who read some of my earlier blogs might remember Marianne was my student for a couple of years in the late 1970's at the local Y here in Stamford CT and then moved briefly to Hartford where she studied with Ralph Chiaradia whom I remember well from summer camp days in the Catskills and recommended she attend his dojo which she liked very much.
Then she moved back to Long Island and has been a librarian there for many years and attends Aikido of Nassau County. And whom should she meet but Linda Holiday whom I had met in California back in the late 1970's. I will have to check my books which are among many family books all over the family home for the book Women in Aikido I think the title was, and I think there is an article she wrote in it.
But the big news is that she has written a book which Marianne says is about her studies in Shingu with Hikitsuchi Sensei, Anno Sensei and others.... I remember seeing them and Yanase Sensei at demos at the Japan Society I think it was, and definitely at Yale and the New Haven Aikikai so I am happy to mention her book which I hope to be able to read soon.
Catch her book tour if it passes through an area near you or look for it on Amazon dot com I am sure you will find it very inspiring and interesting......
my laptop is acting up so I will sign off for now. These days practice is very
...More
Now here's another book I should have read long ago, Mark Twain's "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court" so I should try to find a copy and finally read it!
But just the title reminded me of my trips to Boston, around 1979-1980 if I remember correctly. I was teaching at the local YMCA here, for those of you who remember me mentioning it in earlier entries. I had an assistant, and he had his own assistant, a rugby player, and they loved to "bash" each other. At least that's what they called it, although I don't think we had any flying breakfalls. The only time anyone from that group got injured was the time the rugby player and one of the young women students got bored in my class and snuck off to the (no doors, so don't get any ideas!) wrestling room that had mats and injured each other. I must have afterwards given them the message, "now you see why we do things the way we do..."
But more on that group later, with Larry in charge I knew I could take off for Boston without any worries. My friend from summer camp 1973 liived in Marblehead, and a former student from the Y lived around Central Square, so I had places to stay and people I really wanted to visit and who really wanted me to visit them!
But now I remember another story, "The Wizard of Oz." Not that it directly relates to my going to Boston, but Kanai Sensei was rather mysterious and fascinating, yet I think, besides the excellent Aikido training, it's what he drew out of people. I got a lot
...More
A one word title. If someone else has used it for his or her blog entry, sorry to "steal it," but then, if I happen to find it later, I will be very interested to read it.
The title just came to me, and reminded me of some concepts. I remember the tide-ebbing jewel and its opposite, though I can't remember the words for that one, from translations of the ancient Japanese books that some call history and some call mythology.
It just occurred to me that it can be quite ordinary, you exert yourself, you are tired, you rest a bit, then you feel better.
When you take ukemi, is it restful while you are in the air? Is it like breathing, when you grab the nage and are thrown, tension and release, is it like the ebb and flow of the ocean?
I like reading the various blogs, the techniques, the personal impressions of people about themselves and other people (so long as it is mostly positive!). Then again if some anonymous error is pointed out, we can learn from that too.
But I also enjoy the poetry and the impressions of nature, and the cultural observations, quotes and references.
I almost remember the title of a book by the Dalai Lama, I think it is called "Ocean of Wisdom." I always thought that was a beautiful title for a book, and a spiritual leader. Plus, I liked the fact that he smiles a lot and stresses the importance of kindness.
But today I wanted to mention boats. Rowboats are nice, you can row to a marshy edge of a pond like the one near our
...More
Not to say I have good timing, but I thought I would share something from years learning Aikido in New York. The teacher was good, the senpai were good, in general the people to practice with were good, we could learn from those junior to us, etc.
But I have to mention one particular practice session where the technique was hanmi handachi ushiro waza, probably kokyu nage. After uke grabs the right hand with his or her right hand he or she then circles around to grab the left wrist of nage, who is still seated. Sorry about the awkward description, but I wanted people to be able to picture what is going on.
The nage was someone probably in her twenties as I was, had joined a few years after myself, and had progressed rapidly. Was good at ukemi, too. Myself, taller and not so naturally coordinated as she. I have hesitated telling this story before, because it might sound like sour grapes! Yes she was very good at Aikido but I did find one thing to correct, although I did it in a rather annoyed way at the time, although I usually didn't like to interrupt people, and I shouldn't have acted annoyed. But I think she was the first to act annoyed.... As I said I was rather young and immature, and she probably thought I was just trying to stop her technique.
She was trying to throw me before I had gone round from her right to her left and so was pulling on my arm before I had arrived.
I don't know if I derived any satisfaction from the thought "Gee, she's not perf
...More
A friend of mine and I were in noon class. We were getting over bronchitis, which I seemed to get frequently while living in New York City. I was a proofreader and would hop on the subway at the western end of Bryant Park in midtown and end up pretty close to the dojo on 18th Street between Sixth and Seventh Avenue. Even though it ended up more than a one hour lunch hour, being a proofreader seemed to be justification for doing something totally different for a couple of hours to beat that midafternoon slump so many office workers feel. Oh, correction, class started at one p.m. not literally noon.
"Noon" class was less crowded and sometimes I could call it "easier" but that didn't mean we didn't get exellent teaching. Sometimes it was a tough class, and Sensei often threw whoever was there. But that day I guess I just wanted to blend into the woodwork. It turned out to be not such a good idea, although it was nice to practice while recuperating.... I thought. Sensei didn't throw me after that for many months I seemed to notice. Here's why, I think.
It was kaiten nage, and after the turn , when he threw he gave what I thought was an extra flourish is not the exact word I wanted but pretty close. But wait till you hear the explanation one of the senpais later gave me. All I saw at the time was that people were landing on their backs and my friend elbowed me and she and I kept our heads down as the feet progressed down the line stopped briefly near us th
...More
I have taken class with some of the teachers Ellis Amdur mentioned in his It Had To Be Felt series, which others have joined. These are very interesting and valuable columns. As for myself, however, I was just trying to absorb what was being shown and trying to participate in the class to the best of my ability at the time. That is why I wrote my previous blog entry the way I did. I kept it simple, to what the teacher said, and the effect of that teacher through the years until I was able to attend his class again in New York. The other classes were in Japan.
Some people are interested in the point of view of someone of my level at the time. Maybe they can picture themselves attending the class and later having the feeling, whether by observation or actually taking the ukemi, gradually influence their training throughout some years....
The teacher I am going to mention in this entry was recently described by Ellis, and I looked to see if there was a separate thread re: Kanai Sensei in reference to Ellis' account. I will keep looking, but in the meantime I will tell you that suddenly I remembered that I did indeed take ukemi from Kanai Sensei. It was a few months or one year tops after he arrived in the US. Yamada Sensei, his good friend had invited him to New York, a tradition that continued during Kanai Sensei's years in the US every December for the Christmas Seminar.
So I really did forget that first time for many years. I was really new to Aikido, thoug
...More
I only met the former, if you want to know about the latter, why not ask someone who has taken class with him. It is interesting to find out how a son would be similar to, or different from, his father. Same for mothers and daughters in whatever art or practice, of course.
This post follows very soon after my most recent post about Marianne's afternoon at USAF summer camp. The phrase "passing the torch" must have come from the Olympics, which are going on right now in London. We don't have a TV (never got the box to switch our old ones to the new system). I used to love TV, but hubbie says we get a lot more done since the temptation was removed.
It is great fun, though to hear about them from Ginny by phone as she watches them on TV and to see pictures on my hubbie's Blackberry. While not being able to watch on TV, is too bad in one way, on the other hand it actually adds a dimension when others share with me!
Sure I would love to be practicing again, but it is also great fun to hear about things second hand, to see things through another's eyes, so to speak.
Marianne took Osawa Sensei, junior's class. Sorry, I don't know his first name but you, and I, can look it up. Osawa Sensei , senior, was teaching at Hombu dojo when I was there in the mid seventies. I wasn't able to take everyone's classes, schedule and stamina precluded that, but when I was able to take his classes they were fascinating, a real case of "how did he do that? It looked so simple!"
...More
Hi friends, I just got up and am still excited about last night's news so I will share it with you. Marianne took a bit of time off from work and went to the USAF Summer Camp for an afternoon, accompanied by her husband, who does not do Aikido (prefers golf...) But then Marianne studied jiu jitsu or judo for a while when she was a teenager, so interest in martial arts dates way back.
Some of you may know that I attended New York Aikikai many years ago. So Marianne was trying to describe the class after lunch on Tuesday taught by Ed.... and then she said Peteroy. What? I asked. He was at New York Aikikai when I was! She went on to say how great it was that he prefaced the practice with a sense of humor. That's New York Aikikai, at least back then when there were relatively few people who even knew what Aikido was. Solid technique due to Yamada Sensei and the many senpais, but most people had a sense of humor too. Maybe partly because New York city is famous for theater and comedy, but partly it was because Aikido itself had many surprises.
As mentioned elsewhere, in the early days to make Aikido known, the dojo accepted invitations to give short demonstrations in the intermissions of the local karate tournaments. The Manhattan Center near Madison Square Garden, I think, was one location. Not being in the demo, I was sitting in the audience and heard the people next to me say "look at that, they're flying." I didn't say anything, I just smirked to myself.
01-24-2015 09:54 AM 
