Mark, I answered your "Ueshiba *was* a Daito ryu man, through and through" claim back in the thread where you first made it, and you never posted a rebuttal. Did you miss it?

The summary is that by the time of the Asahi News demo in 1935, I think Ueshiba has already moved well beyond Daito-Ryu to something that looks a lot like modern aikido. This is before any handing over of the art to his son, and before any post-war epiphany. When did the final break with Takeda happen? After this?

I spent the flight to Chicago re-reading the weapons chapter in HIPS. Picking up on Dan's point, the idea that a serious martial artist of the period wouldn't be training sword somehow is unlikely, and it's certainly likely he learned from Takeda.

Is there any video around of Ueshiba switching the sword from hand to hand? Where's the evidence for that? Asking because I don't think it's mentioned in HIPS and it would be cool to see.