What I am saying, however, is that knowledge only comes when you admit a possibility. For example, when I wrote Dueling with Osensei, and wrote the chapter on hapkido, I wrote a commentary on my observations of Daito-ryu. I had only seen the current so-called mainline branch, both under Takeda Tokimune and then later under Kondo. I was pretty mild in my description - the truth is that I cannot begin to express how disappointed I was. THIS was the famous Daito-ryu? I remember sitting in the Budokan as Takeda lay on his back, had different people pin his limbs and one guy put on a cross-collar choke, and then he twitched and they implausibly rolled off in all directions, carefully avoiding bumping in to each other. I was sitting next to a high ranking judoka who was whispering under his breath - "I'd love to be the guy putting on the choke."

About the same time there was some special training with a Daitoryu Aikijujitsu teacher in the small dojo in the Japan Budokan and we joined in immediately. During his demonstration he showed a technique that left an impression on me in particular. He was spread-eagled face up on the tatami with four people holding his ankles and wrists and in an instant these four people were thrown off. We had difficulty believing this because it was difficult enough against just one person in randori practice or a match. It was a very strange spectacle but the talk of all my fellow students was that it didn't appear to be a fake technique. Later I asked Tomiki Shihan about it and his unexpected reply was, "I can do that anytime!". However, straight away I didn't believe him and doubt remained somewhere in my mind.

In July 1979, more than ten years later, the 2nd All Japan Competitive Aikido Meeting was held following on from the previous year. It was organised by the JAA and took place in Shihan's home town of Kakunodate in Akita prefecture. He had only just made a comeback from abdominal surgery in August of the previous year and taught with bandages wrapped around his abdomen. I was nominated as his uke for both days. It was an opportunity for him to show me the technique that I had been shown more than ten years earlier by the Daitoryu teacher. He did it very easily and without effort. Once again, needless to say, I was astonished at the depth of techniques.