Thanks Kent,

It makes more sense to me if I think of it as body manipulation or even body handling.

If Ueshiba could get kuzushi from the touch at the end of a bokken, I think kendo people would be very interested in that. It wouldn't be the physical movement, really, that they would be interested in, but rather the body manipulations that Ueshiba was doing to get that kind of kuzushi on contact, even from the tip of a bokken.