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Christopher Li wrote:
Fair enough, but not conclusive - and it ignores most of what he actually said when defining things.
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For the purposes of the present conversation, I am ignoring anything that does not lead to a practical, functional definition of the word
aikido. O Sensei was making up aikido as he went; he had the luxury of defining it as he saw fit. I have no such luxury; I need a word with a specific definition I can use.
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As I said, some of them would state categorically that what you are doing isn't Aikido. Moriteru Ueshiba has stated categorically that what some of them are doing isn't Aikido. So it's hardly that simple, despite similar sounding names.
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In my experience it has been exactly that simple. It is the practical way all martial arts are defined. The fact that the old masters squabbled over whose aikido was the real aikido doesn't change the use of the word in practice.
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Ueshiba himself stated that Aikido was a principle based art - so did Takeda. It follows that anyone following those principles (leaving aside for the moment the question of whether or not any particular MMA guy is doing so) can be said to be doing Aikido.
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No, it does not follow. The fact that aikido is founded on certain principles does not necessarily mean that all things utilizing those principles are aikido.
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"Aiki-do" = "The Way of Aiki" = anybody practicing the principle of Aiki could be said to be doing "Aikido".
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According to this logic, anyone who is doing anything with empty hands (clapping, swimming, sign language) can be said to be doing karate. And everything done with a sword is kendo. And everything done gently is judo.
If anything aiki is aikido, (a) there is no reason to have the word
aikido at all, since we already have the word
aiki, and (b) we need a new name for the martial art we do in the dojo so that we can distinguish it from an aiki way of making pancakes.
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"Aikido" itself, as a term, isn't exclusive to Ueshiba's art anyway, so it can get a little tricky.
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Who used the term before O Sensei?