Quote:
Joshua Reyer wrote:
Saito, a long time student who had more hands-on time with Ueshiba than anyone this board said, "That meant 'hanmi'." What we're doing now is discussing the validity of that.
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Acutally, if I understand the discussion, we're in agreement that roppo means hanmi, just from the point of view of where the feet go. I think the debate is about whether "roppo" is a more insightful term than "hanmi", having richer implications and ties to other concepts.
So Saito may be correct in saying "O-Sensei meant put your feet like this", but we still may prefer the older term for the insight it offers. None of this would matter much, except that if O-Sensei's teachings have been over-simplified, then important aspects of his art have been forgotten. We're sifting through his writings for clues that will help recover them.