Quote:
Niall Matthews wrote:
Mark let me help you. Let's leave Tim's unsupported throwaway remark aside. I called him on it and you jumped in.
Your translated secondary sources showed 1.some people found O Sensei difficult to understand and 2.he sometimes did things without explanation.
I have a serious problem that you extrapolate that to assume that he was not a good teacher. I already explained that Japanese teaching methods have a completely different cultural context.
So my advice to you is to say what you can prove. (for example)
And you have your citations. You have satisfied the demands of logic and reasonable scholarship. To take the intellectual jump to say he was not a good teacher is not supported. You just undermine your credibility. And that is a pity. Some of the information you have put together is interesting.
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Spiritual:
It wasn't "some" people who didn't understand him, but more like 90-95% of *all* his students, including his son. A hallmark of a good teacher is one who can make his/her students understand the material such that they, too, can teach it or pass it on. On the spiritual side, Ueshiba fails. And not just from post-war, but from pre-war also.
Here we have 1/2 of aikido from Ueshiba (it is both a spiritual and martial vision) that did not get passed on. What did get passed on was Kisshomaru's changes to his father's spiritual ideology. Why? To appeal to a wider audience, in post war, so that they can understand the changed vision. Here, Kisshomaru passes with flying colors.
Techniques:
It wasn't "sometimes" that he did things without explanation, but rather 90-95% of the time. Even his own son states that Morihei used his students as training partners rather than teaching. His own son. Who was it that codified the techniques? It was Ueshiba's students, after class that got together and compared notes about what they had done that day. They wrote down the techniques. They were the ones who passed down the technical syllabus of aikido. From what I understand, even koryu has a structured training regimen. Ueshiba did not pass down techniques to his students. He didn't want to.
Yes, the Japanese have a different cultural context. However, we find that when Ueshiba was teaching Daito ryu, he created Shioda, Tomiki, Shirata, etc. When Ueshiba taught aikido, he created ... ?
When Takeda taught, he created Sagawa, Kodo, Ueshiba, Yoshida, Hisa, etc. When Sagawa finally taught, he found those select students getting it. Kodo created at least two. Sagawa and Kodo did so post war. All of Takeda's students knew how to replicate Takeda's teaching such that they could create another aiki great. In fact, Ueshiba proved it pre-war with those famous students.
Aiki has to be directly shown and trained. Takeda stated it was easy to steal so he kept his training closed away from prying eyes. Takeda's students knew this and kept their personal training very private.
The intellectual jump is supported. Unfortunately, before I started training in aiki, I would have thought my conclusions were tenuous. So, my frame of mind is very different now. There were things hidden in plain sight that I never would have seen. And, I always make room that I'm wrong.
