Quote:
Mark Murray wrote:
How many top kendo people trained under Ueshiba? So, historically, even kendo people found Ueshiba's aikido worth studying/learning. Ueshiba's "weapons" work was not kendo, yet it applied to kendo. How many can state this today? Which high ranking person in the kendo world trains under a top ranked aikido shihan to learn "taisabaki"?
|
Err, but don't you think that kendo has moved on somewhat in the time since?
(btw, I don't regard kendo then
or now as an archaic form. IMO it's a modern sport form.)
[quote=Mark Murray;257947]
I am unsure what weapons training you are doing, but the weapons training I have done, am doing, and will do is very meaningful in modern day applications. Just because I hold a sword in my hand and practice a cut does not mean that all I am training is to hold a Japanese sword of bygone days and pretend that I'm cutting some thing or some one -- or that someone will attack me using a sword. [/quit]
Perhaps you're not, but then we're doing two different things, and we'll agree to disagree. My first weapons teacher (shindo muso ryu jodo) didn't teach how to use jo against sword by talking about how it would be equally applicable against a baseball bat...for the simple reason that he didn't believe it was. That's where I come down too.
Quote:
Mark Murray wrote:
I would imagine that the cut is probably the least important factor in weapons training.
|
That depends on the style, to a degree and on who's doing the teaching. It sounds a lot like what I've read about kyudo, for example, but as far as sword and jo, it's not what I was ever taught.
Quote:
Mark Murray wrote:
Does it really matter at that point if it is a bokken, a katana, a knife, a tire iron, a bat, an article of clothing, etc? Just what should we really be working on when we practice weapons in aikido?
|
Two different questions. My answer to the first is, yes, it absolutely makes a difference whether the weapon is short or long, if it's edged or pointed or blunt, if it has one "business end" or two. The physical characteristics of the weapon dictate the body of techniques that are developed with that weapon in mind.
With that said, I'll admin that I remain agnostic on the party-line reasoning for practicing weapons in aikido (to improve one's empty-hand techniques). I'm not saying that's a bad reason to be doing it, but I think people frequently confuse the reason and the method. When you've got a sword or a jo in your hands, you should not be acting as you would with empty hands (except, perhaps, at the most abstract level). You should not be trying to do things with a weapon that only make sense with empty hands, and vice versa.