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Old 01-08-2002, 05:49 AM   #111
Peter Goldsbury
 
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Dojo: Hiroshima Kokusai Dojo
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Peter R.,

A few comments.

Quote:
Originally posted by PeterR


Anyhow - the only reason I go on here was the "true student" statement. I recommend the truely exellent thread where Peter G. contributed greatly. From that I take it that Ueshiba M. never condemed shiai but kyou-sou. Kyou-sou can be found in shiai, in embu, in any and every dojo (including Edward's I am sure) and in every endeavor where more than one person is involved. It seems to be at work here. The trick is to overcome it.

Home > AikiWeb Forums > AikiWeb: Language > "Competition"
Peter R.,

I am not sure about this and I wonder whether my posts in the other forum might have not been misuderstood. The most accessible written text of the Founder's own thoughts about competition is in Aikido Journal, Number 117, Page 21. The text is a translation by Sonoko Tanaka of a passage which appears on Pages 50 of Takemusu Aiki, by Hideo Takahashi.

Just so that there is no shadow of doubt about what the Founder actually stated, I quote the Japanese text and Sonoko Tanaka's translation.

スポーツとは、遊技であり、遊戯である。魂のぬけた遊技である。魄("体)のみの競争なので あり、魂の競いでわない。

Sports are games and pastimes that do not involve the spirit. They are competitions only between physical bodies and not between souls. Thus, they are competitionsmerely for the sake of pleasure.

"--{の武"ケとは、すべてを和合させ守護すう、そしてこの世を栄えさせる愛の実行の競争 ののである。

The Japanese martial arts are a competition in in how we can express and realise love that unites and protects everything in harmony and helps this world to prosper.

世の'を守るところの"ケは、霊魂を守り、魄の世も守り、魂魄'イ合のとれたアウムの呼吸 をもって、すべての生成化育の"ケをば悉く守り、栄えの"ケを愛育すろことの競争である。 この競争こそナギナミ"尊をしての大神のご活--を実在に、今"の世を創ったこと"ッ一に なのである。

The Way that preserves the world is a competition to protect the spirit and also the physical world. It is a competition to completely guard the Way of birth and growth of all nature, and to lovingly cultivate the Way of flourishing of all, through the breath of A-UM (breathing out and in) in which the spirit and physical body are balanced and in harmony. This competition was exactly the same activity as the creation of today's world engaged in by the Great God through the two deities of Izanagi and Izanami.

The terms used by Morihei Ueshibain the sbove passage are kyousou 競争 and kisoi 競い, whether in regard to competition in sport, or the higher form referred to later in the passage. Shiai 試合 is not mentioned once.

The word is, however, mentioned by Kisshomaru Ueshiba in Aikido Ichiro, his autobiography, in a lengthy section devoted to Tomiki Sensei (pp.184 - 188). This section is too long to quote or translate, but Kisshomaru discusses the occasions when Tomiki Sensei visited O Sensei in Iwama after the war and showed him the aiki-taiso exercises he had developped as a POW in Siberia. The Founder's reaction was, そのようなものを「合気」と称されては困る  "If you call this sort of thing 'aiki; it will be a problem".

He goes on to explain that Tomiki Sensei later came to believe that competition 競争化(kyousouka) was necessary as an educational tool. Kisshomaru does not quote Morihei Ueshiba's actual words, but does state that his own opinion and that of his father were the same. He also repeated this a number of times to me in private conversation. Whether it was called 競争 or 試合, it was not part of aikido. Tomiki Sensei eventually established an aikido club at Waseda, his own university, as part of the sports association. Kisshomaru Ueshiba was also a student of Waseda when his father retired to Iwama in 1942 and several years later formed a separate aikido club in the culture circle. The former was kyousou related; the latter was not. The latter was club run by Hiroshi Tada till recently.

Such is my information. it is reliable in the sense that the written word has been confirmed by Kisshomaru himself. It is not, of ocurse, free from bias and you would need to talk to reliable sources in Osaka about the involvement of the Founder himself with Tomiki Sensei's club.

Apologies for the extreme length of this post.

Best regards,

P A Goldsbury
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