Josh Reyer

I can sympathize with Mark's feelings on this. These "columns" are not light reading. In fact, they go far beyond what people expect internet posts and columns to be. If one is expecting the usual "Cliff Notes" version of research that is typically put up in venues such as this, these articles can be positively overwhelming.

But Ellis was spot on with the comparison to Principia Mathematica. In reality, although it may have started out that way, Professor Goldsbury is not just doing a series of columns on aikido history and happening to spam us with logorrhea (researcherrhea?). He is, in fact, writing a great work, a philosophic history of aikido from the foundation up. And he is generous enough to share this with us chapter by chapter. This is a Principia Aikidoa.

A little knowledge can be a dangerous thing, and the unfortunate truth is that Ueshiba's status as a guru Founder has led to much cherry-picking and misintepretation of his comments. Had Professor Goldsbury simply given us the summary of his research, I have no doubt that many people would have simply taken what Professor Goldsbury wrote and incorporated it into their contextless pre-conceptions of Ueshiba. I imagine that will still happen to an extent. But at least now Professor Goldsbury is providing a very comprehensive context by which many can form informed opinions.

So, in my opinion, criticizing this work for being too informative, for presenting too much research, essentially misses the point of what this work was created for.