Thread: Ueshiba's Aiki
View Single Post
Old 11-08-2011, 07:41 PM   #49
MM
Join Date: Jan 2005
Posts: 1,996
United_States
Offline
Re: Ueshiba's Aiki

Quote:
Matt Morris wrote: View Post
We should cherish the past, but embrace change.

All martial arts morph and change, parts of what "we" do today are similar to what O'Sensei likely did, and parts aren't. Neither is right or wrong. Loosley speaking Aikido tends tend to get more and more embelished as the years past, more and more "art" like.

Make aikido your own. I of course never knew O'Sensei but I'm sure he would agree with that statement.
It is the nature of aiki to change for each individual. However, if you have aiki, you still have certain qualities to your art as can be seen in Ueshiba's peers: Horikawa and Sagawa. Each of them said that they learned from Takeda, went past Takeda in areas, and were still trying to understand aiki. This is *not* Kisshomaru's "aiki". This is the aiki from Takeda. Do not make the mistake of thinking that Ueshiba's aiki is the same as Modern Aikido's aiki.

There is very little in common with what Modern Aikido does today and what Morihei Ueshiba did. And yes, there is a right and wrong when it comes to Ueshiba's aiki. And no, I don't believe Ueshiba would agree with you. Why do you think he stormed into the dojo and yelled at everyone that they weren't doing his aikido? That he said he looked back and no one was following him? That Saito was learning Daito ryu jujutsu techniques in Iwama while Tokyo under Kisshomaru's direction was doing something entirely different? That Ueshiba got angry when people called him religious? That Ueshiba stated strongly that he was a man of budo? That it was extremely common for Ueshiba to have students push on him, yet we do not find this kind of training in Modern Aikido? That Ueshiba was just standing and talking to someone and told his son, look, I'm training even now -- where is that training in Modern Aikido? That no one looked like Ueshiba when they were all doing fune koge? That some post war students came back after the war, took a look at what was going on in Tokyo and left? And not because of the spiritual nature ... they'd heard it all before from Ueshiba himself before the war.