Hi Chris,
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Christopher Li wrote:
Actually, the word "dojo" comes from a word for a temple originally - it was later adopted by martial artists.
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Probably Taoist.
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Ironically, many of the people who are against competition use exactly the same argument - that competition leads to watering down of the martial arts as they are passed from generation to generation. Gichin Funakoshi argued from that perspective, and so do a number of prominent Judo instructors who ended up disillusioned with what competition did to the art,
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Competitions do not kill the art, the rules of competitions do. Competitions are transitional - things that we do in our youth. Funakoshi also said that karate-do is a lifelong study. Personally I have made the transition from competition (kumite & kata) back to traditional. It was this pursue that took me to aikido. At one point, I was disillusioned with aikido and I concentrated just on traditional karate. Studying the oyo of the traditional kata I saw the similarities with aikido movements and I realized the weakness was not in the art but with the people purporting to teach the art. Sadly, there are more serious injuries in aikido than I have seen in karate and most of such injuries were dished out by incompetent instructors - an unilateral act of violence perhaps due to lack of competition.
I read that J Kano sensei also realized the pros and cons of competitions. Aside from randori, he also drew up sets of kata for the purpose of solo practice and to preserve the martial techniques. Are these kata still practised in Kodokan and in all judo institutions?
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snip..In the end, I don't think that either approach can really offer a guarantee - you make your choice, do the best that you can, and hope that things turn out OK.
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This I agree. Morihei Ueshiba didn't emphasize on the concept of Shu-Ha-Ri to transmit his art. For him, aikido is ever evolving. But for us the students, the path has to start from one point. The differences (or some may see it as a competition itself) between the various aikido schools and even between the aikikai shihan are because they started us on the path at different points. Somewhere on this path is a stretch that is marked "Competition"; it is either one passed through this stretch or take a detour. The detour may cost us the extra time and effort and like you said, there is no guarantee that we will arrive.
Best regards
David Y