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Old 04-03-2013, 05:15 AM   #55
Ecosamurai
 
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Dojo: Takagashira Dojo
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Re: The Empty Body

Quote:
Christopher Li wrote: View Post
Koichi Tohei, Morihei Ueshiba, Kodo Horikawa, Yukiyoshi Sagawa, etc. all demonstrated what were essentially very similiar things. Where are the Tempukai guys demonstrating those things?

Tohei later claimed to have learned little from Ueshiba - but I wonder if that was true, or it was just part of the dance of hurt feelings that went back and forth among the involved parties.

It was my impression that the Tempukai provided the framework through which Tohei understood (as much as he did) Ueshiba's "stuff", not that it provided the "stuff" itself, but opinions will certainly vary.

Best,

Chris
There is an excellent section on this in an interview Stanley Pranin did available here: http://members.aikidojournal.com/pub...oichi-tohei-2/ Tohei Sensei specifically states that his four principles came from Ueshiba NOT the Tempukai, he says they were what he observed O Sensei doing, though the words as he formulated them may have more to do with how the Tempukai explained these things. Tohei Sensei further states:
"The only thing I learned from Tempu Nakamura, for example, was that gthe mind leads the body.h On all other matters he used to ask me questions! He was very modest and humble in that respect. When I said that I did not know the answer, he would then say, gWell, let us study it together then.h"

Somewhere else I can't find right now Tohei Sensei discusses the focusing on keeping one point and how in the Tempukai they did it by tensing the muscles of the abdomen which was exhausting, but that Nakamura and he did it simply by concentrating on it, but that after Nakamura died everyone in the Tempukai went back to tensing their muscles. In the interview I linked to above you can see that Tohei is clearly crediting Ueshiba as the source of his methods (via careful observation of what Ueshiba did), though the language Tohei used to teach was far different than the religious language of the founder, and probably came from Tohei Sensei's time at the Tempukai, the Ichikukai and his experiences teaching foreigners in Hawaii.

As an aside, I rarely bother with aikiweb anymore, but glad to see that people are finally acknowledging Tohei Sensei's methods as being IS/IP (or at least compatible with it), I used to clash with Mike Sigman and Dan Harden about it when I last posted regularly. They now seem to be agreeing with what I was saying all along, no doubt they'll choose to remember it differently

Mike

"Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men."
-Martin Luther King Jr
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