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Old 04-09-2002, 09:52 AM   #28
Bruce Baker
Dojo: LBI Aikikai/LBI ,NJ
Location: Barnegaat, NJ
Join Date: Sep 2001
Posts: 893
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Bugei studies

Hey Chuck,

I really wish I had kept that article I saw about the older evidence in North America, might have been USA today magazine?

Anyway, because of Ancestry of my namesakes being lost until a few years ago, I have been looking for clues as to why my uncles and father were so involved in the Indian affairs of Six Nations. Getting caught up on a culture whose history is vertually verbal until the USA comes into being is pretty tough. But when the notes/diarys of Quakers and Jesuit missionarys confirm much of what is spoken from their journals and historical accounts ... I have had to rethink the learn white history or Manifest Destiny verses what actually was an early genocide to Native Americans by the so called settlers of this country.

That aside, I am repulsed to the thought that those studying Aikido have thrown themselves almost to mythical purportions to learning Japanese culture while neglecting the history and cultures of the land you live in? I too am guilty and repulsed at my own ignorance as I continue to read, study and learn, but at least I am trying to see what really was verses the glossy text history book we all get in our school learning?

Maybe I am most guilty of being the independent student (is that what this Bugei thread is about?) who is on one hand the actual student who studies without a teacher, but on the other hand studies Aikido with a teacher? I guess I would rather find the value of trying than being told it is impossible.

In our last one hundred years we have prove we can do the impropable, the impossible just takes longer...

I guess I could pull out my College text of history of Japan and China, but isn't that another partial text with clinical quotes by professors? No, there will always be those who look from inside and outside ... why didn't Donn Draeger write more when he was on the inside, I am sure he would have cleared this up.
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