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Re: How Samurai i s aikido
A Samurai was a retainer of a daimyo pr provincial lord, who function was to a a soldier and to be prepared to die for his master at any moment. Thus the word can best be summed up as "servant". The code of bushido ascribed to them did not exist in any structured form until it was printed in a little book by Inobe entitled "bushido" in which many qualities were ascribed to these warriors, most of which are innaccurate historically for the majority of Samurai. Previous to that there are scattered writings such as "The Unfettered Mind" and "Hagakure: which contain elements of thought that were gradually assimilated. One of the most succinct quotes from "Hagakure" is "The business of the samurai is to die!". Does any of this sound like the Aikido we do.
As an insructor of Shinkendo and a student of Obata kaiso, I can only agree with Ron Tisdale, Steffan, I think that Obata would not be thrilled, nor with your rather trite observation that Iado practitioners, however senior know how to handle a live blade.
Alec
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