Tohei's resignation letter to the aikikai
 

There have been quite a few people wanting to see this over the years. Stan has just made it available to subscribers on aikidojournal.com.

Re: Tohei's resignation letter to the aikikai
 

A friend of mine had, or has a copy stored away "in a box somewhere" and has told several of us about the contents. It was a shock today to see it published on AJ. While many of those named have passed on, there are still a couple around that probably won't be happy to see it again. Stan Pranin is a treasure as a historian of aikido.

Re: Tohei's resignation letter to the aikikai
 

Agreed. Surely there is some more open discussion about this somewhere.

Re: Tohei's resignation letter to the aikikai
 

I was taken aback at first to see that it was only available to subscribers, which might imply a sort of ownership. But on reflection its a way of supporting a historian, and not releasing the document into the public domain at the same time?

dan

Re: Tohei's resignation letter to the aikikai
 

Any chance of someone telling us non-subscribers what it says...? :)

Re: Tohei's resignation letter to the aikikai
 

Drop some coin and subscribe - there is a wealth of knowledge on the site that all aikidoka could benefit from.

Greg

Re: Tohei's resignation letter to the aikikai
 

Email me if you want to see it for yourself.

Re: Tohei's resignation letter to the aikikai
 

Ha. I wish I could; turns out being a philosophy graduate isn't such a good idea under a conservative government: i'm unemployed.

I hope things are good in the promised land.

Re: Tohei's resignation letter to the aikikai
 

Our philosophy majors here all cite the same mantra: "Do you want fries with that?"

Re: Tohei's resignation letter to the aikikai
 

You can subscribe for a year for less than $3 per month. Anybody can skip one meal a month if they really want the information, and it supports somebody who has revolutionized the way that Aikido history is presented and understood.

Best,

Chris

Re: Tohei's resignation letter to the aikikai
 

If you are already a paid subscriber to the AJ regular site, then there is a link there to have your membership transferred to the new pay site.

Stan has made this new venture a pay site because he intends to put the bulk of his lifetime's work and wealth of Aikido and Daito-Ryu information (interviews, articles, photos, etc.) on that site. It is an incredible amount of work that will take years to catalog and post, but Stan wants to make sure that this irreplaceable material will survive him and be available to us in some durable fashion, so he has dedicated himself to this enormous task. The paid memberships will enable him to offset the cost of the doing.

I urge everybody who has the means to support him in this fashion, because there is history there, and many of us would never know these things about Aikido without this resource.

Re: Tohei's resignation letter to the aikikai
 

Exactly. Often he'll package membership with a DVD or book at a discounted rate for both. Remember that Tohei intended this to be an open letter. Those that do not want to see this letter back out in the wild, well, they have their reasons, one way or the other. On one hand, it is the genuine wish to not provoke any negative backlash: remember that this is Tohei telling the world exactly why he forever split from the Aikkai. For others, the content of this letter is accusatory and embarrassing: remember that this is Tohei telling the world exactly why he forever split from the Aikkai.

Re: Tohei's resignation letter to the aikikai
 

Yes it is - it does shed some in the american aikido group in somewhat of a bad light -

Greg

Re: Tohei's resignation letter to the aikikai
 

There was another letter too - written in response. I wonder if that one's coming down the line...

There are also a lot of interesting side currents that never got into the letters - they hardly tell the whole story.

Best,

Chris

Re: Tohei's resignation letter to the aikikai
 

That's putting it lightly. I say that because I highly doubt that, in such a short time after O'Sensei passed, that something like that would have happened while he was alive. Well, perhaps I can't say that one way or the other, I just like to think that these figureheads of Aikido were actiing in a manner consistent with the respect that should be shown to the Founder for giving us Aikido.

When my full and open statement about how the information in this letter has trickled down to current day status quo between organizations, and it will, I'm sure to catch heck for it. This stuff is crazy.

Re: Tohei's resignation letter to the aikikai
 

When I joined the Ki Society back in 1976 with the Marianas Aiki Kwai in Guam (which was a sub group of the Hawaii Aiki Kwai) the official reason given for the split was that Honbu did not teach ki and would not allow Tohei to teach it as well. Looking at it all today, it appears that that was mostly just the front cover story. If you look at the books by Kisshomaru before the split, you will see that they talk about ki as much as Tohei did.

IMO, the real underlying reason for the split was simply ego, politics, and other unsavory stuff that boils up out of organizations from time to time and that there was fault on both sides.

Greg

Re: Tohei's resignation letter to the aikikai
 

You mean the letter written by Abe Tadashi? He makes Tohei look mild by comparison. I doubt whether either side would like to see that republished.

Best wishes,

PAG

Re: Tohei's resignation letter to the aikikai
 

He does have that one as well, so I hope it gets posted too.

Re: Tohei's resignation letter to the aikikai
 

I don't doubt it - but it may as well all come out at this point.

Best,

Chris

Re: Tohei's resignation letter to the aikikai
 

Of course. But I have to say - the letter is interesting to see again, but is it really news to anyone?

I think the Mitose thread, where Koichi Tohei awarded James Mitose a 10th dan in 1970 (years before he actually left hombu), in order to fund his departure from the Aikikai, has much more soap opera potential. :)

Best,

Chris

Re: Tohei's resignation letter to the aikikai
 

I HAVE Yamada's book which contains an introduction from Tohei gives him praise as his "Master Instructor" and all of the techniques are "Tohei-Waza."

Re: Tohei's resignation letter to the aikikai
 

I understand that Yamada was one of Tohei's favorite ukes when he traveled the US in the 60's.

Greg

Re: Tohei's resignation letter to the aikikai
 

I believe he teaches Tohei's 50 basic arts in the book, and demonstrates ki exercises as well.

Re: Tohei's resignation letter to the aikikai
 

On this occasion, for instance?

Alex

Re: Tohei's resignation letter to the aikikai
 

yep....