Re: Hakema color.
Saito Sensei once told me that in the old days the students in Iwama wore white hakama because they were the cheapest to buy. The dying process was what made the colored hakama more expensive. Later on I think the idea was that it was only O-Sensei who wore the white hakama. I remember when Saito Sensei came to Stockholm back in 1985 ( he did seminars in Gothenburg and Stockholm) there was one Swedish guy who showed up in a white hakama. Sensei thought that it was a little bit strange... (Jakob-any idea who this could have been?)
In Iwama it was either black or blue for the hakama. I have also only seen Nidai and Sandai Doshu in the grey striped hakama (very nice looking). Saito Sensei sometimes wore a blue (indigo) hakama with narrow legs (stovepipe hakama?) when we trained weapons outdoors.
In Aiki,
Ethan Weisgard
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