Ryan, Maggie, and whoever else wants to dive into the far spectrum of things ... why not ask Mary exactly what she meant when she posted
Quote:
Mary Malmros wrote:
Out of curiosity, how many shihan are parents? Or, let's be blunt, how many shihan are not men who have dumped their parental responsibilities onto their wives?
There are, and always have been, plenty of men who are deeply dedicated to their career or profession or whatever, and who are fathers only in the biological sense. That's very different from being a parent.
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Because if you read it again in a neutral voice, you'll see that Mary never stated anything specific about any one person. And to pick up the question about time spent becoming a shihan ... just how many hours did these shihan spend in training? From a purely historical perspective, what amount of time did the shihan (all of them) spend in their training to reach that status? How many were married and what amount of time was spent on family life?
Now, toss in how many of the Japanese shihan had work responsibilities that took up (I'm fairly sure) most of their daily life, what proportion of time left went to training and family?
Let's take one famous Japanese, Takeda Sokaku. It's pretty much known that Sue raised Tokimune. Sokaku was rarely at home to do so. Good or bad? Go ahead, be the judge. I certainly won't.
So, why jump all over Mary when she never stated someone specific? I did state someone specific. You want to judge Takeda Sokaku?
How about taking a step back, rereading things without jumping to conclusions? Why not let Mary say the specifics of what she wants to say? You might be surprised at what she really meant. Or maybe not. But you'll never know by taking the route you did take.
Mark