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Re: Japanese, Aikido word- for leading?
Hello Ethan,
Happy New Year! I look forward to more meetings in Japan during 2017.
Did you ever meet Hiroshi Somemiya? He was an old Hombu hand and he once told me with some pride that he had received his 3rd dan directly from Morihei Ueshiba. He could speak English well and used to translate for me when I first came to Japan and visited the Hombu. It was he who first explained sasou and michibiku.
When I became more proficient I used to be uke for a number of senior Hombu instructors and those who stand out were Tada, Yamaguchi, and Fujita. With Fujita and Tada the leading was fairly direct and unerring -- and always led to an inevitable conclusion that that you could determine beforehand, but could do nothing about. With Yamaguchi Seigo, on the other hand, he expected feedback and the way he took account of this feedback when you were his uke was sometimes very illuminating, though it always led to a similar inevitable conclusion. But the way he got there was always very interesting.
Best wishes,
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