All I state is that the Boshin war was a context for both Sokichi and Sokaku. You are reading in too concrete terms to interpret what I say as "this is the key" to all that Sokaku became. Merely, this is the context which, very likely, explains how Sokaku grew to be the wandering comet of a man he became. In the best of times, he would have been a proud, prickly, aggressive guy.

The source of Sokaku's character - a parallel concern of equal if not more importance to me - is nature and nurture. I am NOT - in any way - attributing Takeda's skill to how his father treated him, to the Boshin war, etc., except, possibly that his early experiences may have given him the drive to excel. These two things run in parallel to me. The chapter was not an attempt to tease out internal training skills on the part of Takeda as a product of bad experiences. I tried to do three things: First, if possible, to trace a line towards the actual roots of Daito-ryu, the martial art. Second, to sketch out what I believe is a truer picture of Takeda's character, rather than the cartoon we usually have, where, as I stated above, "I see the central endeavor of his life as a path towards morality and attempts to connect with others and bequeath something to them." Three, some hint on how Takeda learned internal skills - this, the most minor of the three to me (having the least data to work with) is simply that his dad taught him, not Hoshina - and I would bet that were Sokaku the easiest kid in the world, had he the talent and the drive, his dad would have taught him too.