Thread: O Sensei bokken
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Old 06-06-2012, 10:55 AM   #14
Cliff Judge
Location: Kawasaki, Kanagawa
Join Date: Sep 2005
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Re: O Sensei bokken

Quote:
David Soroko wrote: View Post
I have a little collection of photos here:

https://picasaweb.google.com/sorokod...baWithWeapons#

of the founder with weapons. Currently I have only one with something which looks like a shinken. I'd be interested to see more photos of founder with a steel sword.
In the post-WWII period from whence we get most of our photographs of Ueshiba, swords were not the kind of thing you would carry around or display in public. I imagine if you were trying to maintain your ability to do your work to harmonize the heavens and the earth you would not pose for a lot of photos with a sword....if you had a more down-to-earth, college-educated son trying to build a martial arts organization around your teachings he might find a way to keep your sword off camera in those days as well.

That's just speculation but regardless, I can't credit the lack of photographic evidence of Ueshiba wielding a sword as proof that Aikiken is a system that uses a short staff or club to explore the principles of aiki.
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