Quote:
Allen Beebe wrote:
I do a lot of thinking in pictures, so when I was looking at the series of Ueshiba pictures, another picture flashed into my head of Takuma Hisa sitting along side of Takeda Sokaku, freshly brushed Menkyo Kaiden in hand. And then a number of facts added up. Osaka was a "Big" territory for Ueshiba with Asahi being one of his dojo and Takuma being one of his students. Yes, Takeda would show up and "take over" for periods of time, but that had been happening and somehow "managed" for years. At some time, Osaka became a turning point though. Takeda decided to stay and Ueshiba seems to have never gone back . . . to Asahi, Takuma and, of course, Takeda. Within a short period of time Takeda awarded Ueshiba's former student Menkyo Kaiden (a rank that had not previously existed.) Now, Ueshiba's former student Takuma Hisa outranked Ueshiba Morihei in the only art Ueshiba was licensed to teach . . .
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Allen,
It's also worth pointing out that the Asahi Shimbun, by 1922, was coming under heavy criticism because of its support for constitutional democracy. Though (at most) a pro-business center-left publication by contemporary standards, by the standards of the militarist right, it was dangerously left. As an associate of senior military personnel such as Admiral Takeshita and an aspirant to official position, Ueshiba had to feel some discomfort -- and sense that his opportunities to teach at the nation's military academies might be constricted -- as a result of his concurrent relationship with the Asahi Shimbun.
If we take this into account, it suggests that Ueshiba hit the trifecta on the occasion of Takeda's final visit: he both provided for and freed himself of his troublesome mentor, Takeda; he ended his politically problematic relationship with the Asahi Shimbun in a way that displaces any hint of a political or pecuniary motivation with the tale of the "break" from Takeda; he provided for his students at the Asahi by insuring that his own teacher would take over the position as their instructor.
I would hasten to emphasize that this explanation doesn't eliminate any of the "anxiety of influence" explanations over which DRAJJ and Aikikai sectarian squabbles have gone on for lo these many years, but rather takes them out of the foreground and puts them in the context of the substantive political and economic currents in which Ueshiba was trying to make his way in the Twenties.
Best regards,
FL