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Old 04-08-2012, 10:36 AM   #223
Ellis Amdur
 
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Location: Seattle
Join Date: May 2003
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Re: The Founder's Teaching Ability

Quote:
I am aware of one certain story of Takeda's aiki being used with a bath towel. It was witnessed by the Japanese public of the time. I don't know where the account was first penned or the author. My speculation is it was a third party. The account of the eye witness say Takeda put "aiki in" a bath towel to make it rigid, turning it into a weapon fighting off attackers.
Oh, please God. Jackie, you are writing a lot of good, thought provoking stuff - but as soon as the laws of physics are violated, . . .That one's like Ueshiba being asked if he could do ninjutsu and suddenly he teleported to the top of the stairs and when asked to do it again, he berated his students, saying that each time he did it, he took ten years off his life. (I bet he had to practice more than a few times before he got it - if it hadn't been for that damn trick he'd have lived several thousand years!).

As for the film:
1. Stan Pranin first reported publicly that the Takumakai filmed Takeda - as I recall, Takeda didn't even grasp what a film was. He's made numerous inquiries and has found nothing.
2. I heard a rumor that the film - or another one - was owned by the Kodokai. The person who told me the story could not have seen it - but said he had heard a first person account of someone who had. I sent an inquiry to one of the top split-off shihan from the Kodokai and he sent back (true or false) that he'd never heard of such a thing.
3. One reason I doubt that the Takumakai had such a film is if they did, I strongly believe their DR would be different in execution and methodology. One of the leading Takumakai shihan stated in an interview that they and Yoshinkai were doing, essentially, the same thing. (waza different, execution the same).

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Ellis Amdur

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