Ellis Amdur

Dan - apologies for not taking up every point. I have this other thing to finish writing as well - although I'm getting so tired of the subject that my finger has hovered over the delete button many times. As for a disagreeable character - Sokaku's son is the best witness of that. Anyway, I promise that I will do full justice to Takeda's life and personality in the near future. If I don't get fed up and delete it, I'll be finished in a month or so.
As for deshi - Who were truly long-term deshi? I can only think of four - Horikawa, father and son, Sagawa, (Tokimune, of course) and Ueshiba. As best as I have read, the others studied intensely for a block of time, and then were free of him. Only these guys, I think, really experienced decades+ of a relationship with Takeda.
If one is content to be a disciple, things are a lot easier. I think the Horikawas had that humility. They had nothing to chafe at because they could accept their lot. Sagawa, I can only speculate, but he, like Inoue Noriaki of shinei-taido, apparently had such "healthy" egos (excuse me EGOS) that they could, I believe, be resilient. Tohei Koichi, also, had that kind of ego vis-a-vis Ueshiba - notices his descriptions of the old man in Stan's interviews.
Ueshiba had the most difficult lot. He was both an exquisitely sensitive man, and a striver. I've seen the same thing within the current generation(s) of TSKSR, actually. A few hot-blooded men who, for better or worse, could not stand a life-long swaddling within the ryu. So they break out. And it's not a pretty process, and can reflect poorly on both parties. The content deshi doesn't precipitate this dilemma and simply can accept the quirks of the teacher's personality. (Hisa, Horikawa(s) for examples.