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Old 01-03-2013, 10:43 PM   #10
ChrisHein
 
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Dojo: Aikido of Fresno
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Re: Shiro Omiya Shihan on "Aiki"

Quote:
Christopher Li wrote: View Post
Shiro Omiya claimed to be a student of Tsuruyama Kozui, who was controversial in his own right, but held a legitimate 8th dan from Takuma Hisa.

I trained with Tsuruyama's dojo in Japan for a number of years - he had already passed away, but most of the senior folks had trained with him for many years.

After seeing the Omiya book I asked the head instructor about Omiya and Omiya's relationship to Tsuruyama. His exact words were "Well, I guess that if you train with someone even once you could call them your teacher".

I know the translator of the Omiya book - he translated it only on the condition that his name not be attached to it. His exact words were "That guy was just making it up".

You have to be careful whose material you're examining.

Best,

Chris
Man, what I'm going to say is going to sound like an attack, and personal, but it's not. If we're going to look at lineage, and teachers, this becomes valid, because we can't have it both ways. If you're going to claim one guy must be wrong because of his credentials, then you'll have to look at everyones credentials.

You reference Dan all the time Chris Li. Dan's credentials are at least as spotty as Omiya's. I know of one high ranking Daito ryu teacher that Dan studied under. If you ask that teacher directly about Dan, he won't give you a reply, he changes the subject. So if you're going to uphold Dan, and say we shouldn't look at his teachers and lineage as a reference, then you can't turn around and attack someone else's credentials, especially if you don't have the whole story.

I'm okay with looking at lineage, if that's what we want to do, I'm okay with not looking at lineage and just looking at some one's work, but we can't play both sides.

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