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Old 04-04-2011, 10:50 AM   #27
Diana Frese
Dojo: Aikikai of S.W. Conn. (formerly)
Location: Stamford Connecticut
Join Date: Nov 2010
Posts: 386
United_States
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Re: Zen in the Art of Aikido

It sounds like a case of me too, so I will be me three ...as we used to say around here, and maybe everywhere kids are making little jokes about common phrases.

Anything you all feel like sharing about Arikawa Sensei, I'm all ears, I mean eyes.... That reminds me of an article I wrote for Federation News, years ago. It was a very small article, so I think what I later read someone describing his Aikido as an "elemental force in nature" wasn't quoting me!

He was very kind to us "ladies in sanji keiko (3 p.m. class)" but I'm sure the ukemi was tough in the evening classes for those who were up to it....

This Buddhist reference isn't exactly Zen, but in the same article, I wrote about the statue of Magora-O in the Sanjusangendo, that vaguely resembled Arikawa Sensei. The statue had five eyes and looked very fierce, but the eyes seemed kind. Kind of a paradox.

There were women with far better Aikido than mine, like Mary Heiny, who studied with him. Once I was watching a seminar taught by Lorraine DiAnne. I don't know if she knew I had taken his classes at Hombu, and at seminars here, but she said, "and here's a technique from Arikawa Sensei." How great it was to see his particular way of throwing again....

Niall, in case you want to answer our request, there is the technique and also what he talked about. He was said to be a scholar of Budo history, I remember reading.

I looked up the cat link. I hate to think about a cat being killed. Maybe it was just a parable about the need to say something, the need to act.... I hope so.
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