I'm fairly familiar with Saotome, he gave me my first couple of dan ranks - but except for a weekend when he passed through Japan ten years ago I haven't really had any contact with him since the last '80's.

In any case, I've certainly never said that pain is not Aikido. What I said is that the pain compliance part is:

a) Very easy.
b) Not very interesting, mainly because of (a).
c) Done by every store front martial arts kids class, which also contributes a bit to (b).

The non-painful variant that Shioda talks about is operating along some different lines, IMO. A number of people seem to think that this is a high level (maybe too high a level) thing - but that would just make it more interesting, to me.

I'm not particularly concerned about causing anybody pain, it just doesn't interest me much.

On a purely practical level, hit 'em with a two-by-four. It always works, is eminently practical, and can be done by just about anybody - which covers most of the arguments for focusing on the pain compliance aspects of nikyo.

FWIW...

Best,

Chris