Quote:
Christian Mikkelson wrote:
In another thread, a writer mentions that Shioda Gozo suddenly disappeared from Ueshiba's farm and popped up again with the founding of the Yoshinkan dojo.
In Shioda's Aikido Jinsei, recently translated by Payet and Johnson, the story of the Yoshinkan's founding is pretty well laid out. However, the disappearance from the farm is kind of glossed over.
From Shioda's narrative, it is pretty clear that he went to Ueshiba's farm just because he was trying to find a way to put food on the table in the post-war economic chaos. He doesn't really say anything about the circumstances surrounding his leaving the farm.
If I had to guess, I'd say working the farm wasn't an adequate way of making a living for Shioda. Maybe he was even a net drag on resources for Ueshiba. I'm wondering what alternative theories there might be about Shioda's exit. Anybody heard one?
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Kisshomaru said that he was there one day and gone the next - nobody was sure where he went, and that he (Kisshomaru) always thought that he left because he didn't like the farming lifestyle in Iwama.
I think that the next time that they heard anything about him he was putting on that public demonstration held by the Life Extension Society, and then when he opened the Yoshinkan. It was pretty easy for people to fall out of touch in those days.
Best,