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Old 01-13-2015, 02:02 PM   #23
Keith Larman
Dojo: AIA, Los Angeles, CA
Location: California
Join Date: Apr 2005
Posts: 1,604
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Re: Reconciliation in Aikido?

Quote:
Peter A Goldsbury wrote: View Post
Well, the name was intended as a general category to begin with: a bag able to contain arts that bore a sufficiently close family resemblance to each other to be marked off from the arts in the other general categories -- all in the service of the war currently being waged by Japan (in 1942). This is somewhat different from the idea of one specific art created by Morihei Ueshiba, say in 1931, and given a specific name because he chose it.
Yes, but I think even if we start with the specific art with Ueshiba Morihei, much of the difficulty is also in the way that the art has evolved through subsequent generations of deshi with their, well, let's just say "varied" ideas as to what Ueshiba was in fact teaching, and what was critical to the "true nature" of the art (as they perceived it, of course). Add with additional generations as well there is, I think, a growing realization as to just how differently each of those original deshi and their subsequent deshi answered those questions. So we find ourselves with a new predicament -- at what point has a new "species" evolved? At what point could we give it a new name and say it's not just an evolution but a new thing all together?

I'm not saying such a thing has happened, but I do wonder given the variety out there.

What I find interesting is that as the earlier generations pass on in to history, often some of that generation's personal and political baggage will pass with it. So I think we'll see and ebb and flow of sentiments like this. However, at some point we will need to ask whether reconciliation is still possible given that those problems seem to encourage increased variation.

None of this is to imply any judgments as to the relative value of these various new directions, just that much depends on how much change has occurred. There are certainly some profound differences between your average "hard" dojo and the wonderful video of that fella waving ribbons while wearing a hakama. And they both trace their origins to Ueshiba Morihei. The question is really how far some have deviated from the starting point and therefore whether reconciliation makes sense given the evolution that has occurred in the interim.

Of course we seem to be generally unable to even rigorously define what that starting point was itself with different groups focusing on different aspects of Ueshiba, often with a natural bias towards where they are now.

So I await the next installment of Transmission...

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