From Abundant Peace by John Stevens.
http://www.amazon.com/Abundant-Peace...2290355&sr=1-1
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John Stevens wrote:
When Sokaku returned to Hokkaido a few years later, inevitably he and Morihei crossed paths. Morihei had known of Sokaku's presence in Hokkaido for some time. Once, after thrashing a sumo wrestler in an impromptu contest, Morihei was asked if he was the "famous Sokaku Takeda." On a trip to Engaru, Morihei learned that Sokaku was conducting a session in a nearby inn and immediately rushed there to attend.
After witnessing an impressive demonstration and being deftly handled by the skinny Sokaku, Morihei applied for admission to the "Daito Ryu," as Sokaku styled his teaching, and was accepted. Morihei forgot about everything else, staying at the inn for a month, training day and night with Sokaku; following thirty days of practice, Morihei was presented with a first-level teaching license.
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The next para states that Morihei returned to Shirataki and invited Sokaku there.
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John Stevens wrote:
... and received private instruction each morning for two hours. Sokaku also taught a group lesson later in the day.
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Quite a bit of what has been written follows this example. Ueshiba doesn't have a lot of time with Takeda to learn. Thirty days of practice, even morning and night doesn't add up to much.
If you train 2 hours a day, 3 days a week for a year -- that gives you about 26 days of training if you were to factor in each day's training lasting 12 hours.
So, really, that month is about one year of training. Two at most. Adding up the training times for Ueshiba, it wasn't all that long. I would venture to guess that most people in Aikido who have 20 years of training have way more time on the mat than Ueshiba had with Takeda.
And judging by how well Ueshiba did with the first meeting, his vaunted skills were useless. According to Stevens, Ueshiba was even mistaken for Takeda. Skilled? Yes. Skilled in a way that Takeda was? Not even close. Ueshiba's skills were as nothing to Takeda.