Thread: Ueshiba's Aiki
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Old 11-10-2011, 10:39 PM   #74
Ken McGrew
Dojo: Aikido at UAB
Location: Birmingham, Alabama
Join Date: May 2006
Posts: 202
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Re: Ueshiba's Aiki

Quote:
Graham Christian wrote: View Post
Ken. It's very simple really. They are trying to prove that the internal stuff or aiki that Takeda had is the same that O'Sensei had and used as Aikido.

Completely false in my opinion, but they are trying to prove it. That's the nub of the matter as I see it.

Such bits of data as O'Sensei was largely retired after the war or even that in his later years didn't really have much to do with teaching Aikido to me are completely false.

It's best to let them get on with it for obviously it is their path.

Regards.G.
Thanks, Graham. I thought that's what they were saying.

They seem to also be saying that the cooperative training process in Aikido is a problem when it is the strength in Aikido and is exactly what O'Sensei wanted. I'm not opposed to people bringing in new influences to their Nage. I'm concerned about people undermining the training system that O'Sensei developed. What O'Sensei described as destroying Aikido principal, what he described as "a systaem, a training system, an education system. Aikido is process" (Saotome Sensei Aikido and the Harmony of Nature page 179).

Part of this results from the lack of an oral tradition. For example, aside from numerous other sources of evidence, I know that O'Sensei took purification baths every day because I'm part of the oral transmission of this knowledge from his original students down the line. He was very religious/spiritual. To argue otherwise is very ignorant and disrespectful. Why do these guys think there is a mirror on the shoman at the front of most dojos?