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Old 11-18-2007, 07:06 AM   #78
Amir Krause
Dojo: Shirokan Dojo / Tel Aviv Israel
Join Date: Jan 2005
Posts: 692
Israel
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Re: Defining "Aikido"

I wish to contribute my own 2 cents,
Though I do not speak nor read Japanese.

I think I can make some very minor contribution:

When a Korindo Aikido Shihan came to visit the dojo , he told me about the meaning of Aiki in a an analogy, which I must admit I do not understand still, and may distort it somewhat:
He talked of the AI of aikido more in the sense of matching, or somewhere along the line of finding the right key for a lock, but not exactly.
He talked of Ki as the essence that stays the same in a branch, even after being in a fire. (I am not sure I understood him)

The person I am talking about was a Japanese working as a traditional \ old Japanese language teacher in a Japanese university. Thus I guess it is worth it to give you my impressions of that conversation with him. Though one should be careful - we talked in English while I was driving, English is not the native language of either of us, and we clearly did not have the same cultural connotations.

Amir
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