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Niall Matthews wrote:
1. Chris, when you said Morihei Ueshiba used the term internal power what phrase did you mean?
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Sorry - "kokyu-ryoku".
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Niall Matthews wrote:
2. Do you have any examples of Morihei Ueshiba using the word aiki when it can unequivocally mean internal power and only internal power? Rather than aikido or aiki arts or something more general. Perhaps there are layers of meanings in some of Morihei Ueshiba's teachings but there are some doka that that are large in scale. Like this one from The Essence of Aikido.
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I don't think that anybody's ever said that "aiki" means internal power - that is
only internal power. Of course, Ueshiba often gets larger in scale when talking about "aiki" - it's kind of a natural outgrowth of the type of training, and it was quite common in many Chinese arts as well.
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Niall Matthews wrote:
3. I don't know anything about the Aunkai but Minoru Akuzawa seems to have had a background in Chinese martial arts and started teaching this internal work relatively recently. The Tempukai and the Ichikukai are interesting examples of serious cross-training. But I don't know if that kind of ascetic training develops the kind of internal power you refer to.
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I don't know either, but I think that the reason that many of the post-war students went to those things was for that reason.
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Niall Matthews wrote:
Most aikidoka who have trained with Tada Sensei would probably consider that he shows internal power. I certainly do. What is your take on that? Do you think he does? Great interview with Tada Sensei on your blog by the way, thanks.
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It's been too many years since I've seen him to say - but every major student of the Founder seemed to come away with something, so my guess would be yes - but it's not really a binary condition.
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Niall Matthews wrote:
4. So I can see more clearly what you mean when you talk about internal power can I ask you what you think about Takeshi Yamashima? I saw that you invited him to teach a seminar in Hawaii. Do you think he has internal power? So you can see what I mean when I talk about internal power again I certainly do.
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I think that he has certain very good things (again, it's not a binary condition) with some limitations. He does struggle with explaining what he did get, and I think that's symptomatic of how things came down through Ueshiba.
Best,
Chris