Thanks again to everyone who commented.
I called the thread "The Founder's Teaching Ability" because I'm interested in Osensei's ability to transmit his art. Although I mentioned his title in my self-quote from another thread, I think the meaning of that title is a separate issue from that teaching ability. Regardless of how we call it, is he deserving of that position only for providing the source material? Was he also able to transmit it?
Quote:
Szczepan Janczuk wrote:
It is well know that O sensei saw himself as a shaman. If you study the phenomenon of shamanism, it is fairly common study as an apprentice for 20 years or more. It can be death or life activity,sometimes if shaman is not able to fulfill his duty, tribe simply kills him.
I'm pretty sure that the way of teaching such stuff has nothing to do with our western image of a school teacher.
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I'd agree that the traditional Japanese way of teaching is different from the West but it obviously works well enough to survive from generation to generation in most traditional professions.
Regarding shamanism, I would be interested to know if that could be the thing that threw a spanner (wrench) in the works regarding Osensei's teaching? I asked if he was crazy among other things in my first post but that is just one possible interpretation of a religious state he could have been in. For example, was he so "divinely inspired" that the traditional apprenticeship process was impaired as he lost touch with reality?
Carl