Arrrrgh, just looked it up:
"Nor may many pracitioners be aware, that Ushitora-no-Konjin, the folk deity who inspiredt the foundress of �moto and whom Ueshib revered daily at a small shrine in Iwama, was of Daoist origin."
But for this statement she gives no source, just states it.

She then compares the daoist internal alchemy and also cosmology to Ueshibas understanding of aikid�. I haven't read it yet. It's on my list ...
It seems to me she walks the same direction like you do in your blogposts. But while you pick up one piece of the puzzle at a time and look at it in detail, she tries to give an overview.

There are three primary sources in Japanese:
Sunadomari Kanemoto: Aikid� kaiso, Tokyo 1969
Ueshiba Kisshomaru: Aikid� kaiso, Tokyo 1999
Ueshiba Morihei: Takemusu aiki, ed. Takahashi Hideo, Tokyo1986

There are two or three more among the secondary sources, but most is English or French. And most of them you will know, I think. And Aiki News or Aikido Journal is cited a lot ...