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Clark Bateman wrote:
Interesting points, George. It's going to take me a while to get my head around them. Do you see Tohei Sensei being a "spiritual" leader in his own organization? I am friends with one of his most longtime direct students, and I'm not sure there is a feeling of spiritual deification there, although there certainly is one of great loyalty and respect, not unlike that which I see in other arts directed to those of considerable accomplishment and charisma, or within other lines of Aikido, such as is (or was) enjoyed by Saotome Sensei, Yamada Sensei, Saito Sensei, Shioda Sensei, and other notables within their own groups. Do you think Tohei fell short in the Ki Society of what he was trying to achieve, through ego or other motivation, within Aikikai? I wonder if, instead, he was simply frustrated that the Aikikai hierarchy was, in his view, so strongly opposed to the concepts of "ki" being held aloft as the foundation of Aikido, and indeed the foundation of the universal construct. To be told to smother something he personally believed in so strongly would be cathartic to most anyone. I'm not sure anyone will ever be able to understand fully what went on back then, as even the descriptions of many who were closely in witness to it have changed over the years, and many would say it was an episode best forgotten. I've talked to a lot of people, and can appreciate both sides, but I still am not sure I'll ever understand it, or even decide which side was more in the right. It was, and continues to be, an incredibly polarizing thing. Wish I had answers, but still only have questions.  |
Hello Clark,
I think there is a proverb: You cannot have two queens in the same beehive. When there are, the Japanese way of handling the problems caused is perhaps different.
Over the years I have lived here, I have often wondered why the three pairs of concepts: tatemae/honne; uchi/soto; omote/ura are so fundamental for understanding Japanese culture. After all, the values attached to the Public and the Private (of which the three concepts are different aspects) exist in every culture. In Japan these concepts are almost like pre-cognitive 'frames' (in Goffman's sense), through which every potential conflict is seen. These conflicts are hardly ever seen as 'win-win' situations, in the sense implied by Terry Dobson and the aikido 'self-help' manuals. The winners ( = the powerful) win; the losers ( = the powerless) lose, but the point is do both 'gracefully', so that the tatemae of 'wa' is preserved.
You can see this in the ancient texts like the Kojiki and Nihon-shoki. The background to the early stories is the constant problem posed by the 'earthly' deities, who prevent the 'heavenly' deities like Masakatsu Agatsu from descending from heaven to 'rule' the land. The latter eventually do so and 'wa' is established, but only after these pesky earthly deities have been 'pacified'.
Best wishes,