The actual quote is kind of different . . . It is in an interview with Takeda TOKIMUNE - and he says that his father was invited to the Omotokyo headquarters because Ueshiba couldn't handle the stronger students. And then he says that his father taught him jujutsu - that with aiki alone, Ueshiba wasn't able to handle them.
This really messes things up, doesn't it?
But WHAT was Tokimune's definition of aiki. Tokimune, if I recall correctly, first studied with his mother, and did 'train' with his father, when a small child (his father basically would have him try to defend himself with a bokken against him, and he'd knock the bokken out of his hands and he'd have to dig it out of the snow and try again. Tokimune was largely abandoned as a teenager, his mother dead and his father on the road. He used to go to the Horikawa's per Missus H., but it is unclear if he went there for comfort and kindness, or if he also learned some lessons.
3. What Tokimune did (and Kondo follows) looks like a different aiki (jutsu/do) than Hisa, than Horikawa, than, Shikoku, . . . what did he mean by aiki.
I've read through the thread in one go, so I can't cite who said what. But I know of no one but the Ta cheng ch'uan (aka I-ch'uan) who claim that training in IS alone (in their case, post standing) will make you a strong fighter (and the best of them cheat by bootlegging back in the xingyi they abandoned - or Western boxing). The most significant of the individuals who have attempted to distill general principles of IS from various martial traditions, all of whom I know, do NOT claim that training aiki or qijin alone will make you a fighter. That is like building a wonderful car engine, leaving it on a frame, turning it on and expecting to travel. But to strain the metaphor, some martial arts are like having a wonderful car, with beautiful wheels and running it on a rubber band. Or, if not so bad, you've got a great car with a fine engine, but one with so much friction, that it breaks easily and is hard to repair, and gets worse with age.
So aiki? Changing the engine, or at least, radically changing the gear ratios. Making the engine self-lubricating and self-repairing, so it gets stronger with age. What's your vehicle? How about aikido?
So, how about this. You do no solo exercises (even though O-sensei did). You just do aikido. And through the process, you develop aiki. May so. But I have found, in another context that when my trainees learn a kata, there are sticking points, there are flaws and no matter how many times we go through the kata (pattern drill) those flaws impair the development of everything. So I break out a single portion of the kata, maybe a single waza, maybe a fraction of the waza - maybe I have them repeat the movement on their own . . . .what's this? We are back to solo training exercises to hone specific skills.
So given that we need to do that anyway, why not make use of the methodologies that O-sensei felt were essential to develop his aikido? (not just his aiki)
Of course, others may regard the martial art itself as overly stylized, as inefficient - - - - maybe all that's true too. But it's also a fairly wonderful idea to have a 1938 Packard with a supercharged engine and 26 coats of opalescent black lacquer paint. (hint - that's a metaphor
