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Old 04-11-2008, 06:41 AM   #16
Peter Goldsbury
 
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Re: Making sense of aikido lineage/associations

Hello Mark,

Quote:
Mark Murray wrote: View Post
Sensei,
Hope you are doing well. Have you retired yet? What are you planning on doing with all that "free" time once you do?
I am fine, thank you. I retired at midnight on March 31. A few days beforehand, the President gave me a piece of paper looking rather like a dan diploma, which stated that I was a Meiyo Kyouju (Emeritus Professor). I do not know what this means in the US, but in Japan it means that you have retired as a 'normal' prof.

What will I do? Well, I have loads of books on Japanese culture and other subjects which I still need to read, but I intend to write at least one. I would like to write an aikido novel, a thriller with an intense and convoluted plot and lots of mysterious murders done by a serial killer (who clearly seems to be an expert in 'internal' skills), probably set in some intensive summer training seminar. Something like The Name of the Rose or the Cadfael thrillers, with an honest but 'dumb' hero, who is constantly aided by 'experts'.

Quote:
Mark Murray wrote: View Post
And you've posted some news. There are quite a few ripples that could come of that. How are they going to handle the current Japanese instructors already abroad? How are they going to handle the aikido organizations once the current Japanese instructors are gone? There are tons of questions ... this is a major step for the Aikikai. Can you elaborate more on this?

Thanks,
Mark
I think the writing has been on the wall for some time, only it has not been very legible. If you look at how the Aikikai's international regulations have changed over the years, you will see that there has been a subtle shift from individual shihans to aikido organizations. Thus, in any recognized organization there is a 'person in charge' (Japanese: sekininsha), who may (or, NOTE, who may not) be in charge of teaching & examining.

Aikikai recognition is always tied to the power to conduct dan examinations and this has recently been coupled with a classification of shihan ranks. The classification was a response to requests from Japanese shihans residing in the US, that non-Japanese of 6th and 7th dan should also be shihans.

Thus, there are 'super' shihan, like (in the US) Yamada, Chiba and Sugano, who were direct students of O Sensei, and who can award dan grades anywhere. 'Lesser' shihan (which includes all non-Japanese shihan) can award grades only within their 'sphere of influence', which might be an organization or only a dojo. Eventually, there will be no more 'super shihan' and so the shihan title will be very closely tied to the organization.

At present the USAF 'shihan-kai' does not include any non-Japanese shihan, so there will need to be a change at some point, otherwise it will cease to exist. (Actually, the shihankai was created before the USAF existed and was simply a friendship and mutual support group of the Japanese shihans residing in the US: Yamada, Kanai, Tohei Akira, later, Chiba, Shibata, Kawahara from Canada, and Kurita from Mexico.)

I suspect that those instructors abroad who are 'super-shihan' are quite upset about the changes. In the past few months I have had serious conversations with two 8th dan shihans, who are worried about the possibility that all they have tried to do while living abroad and teaching aikido as they learned from the Founder will go for nothing.

One part of the problem is a generation shift. If you have trained with the Founder, then things are never quite the same afterwards. Another part of the problem is a change in attitudes. The Aikikai is no longer an organization of individual 'uchi-deshi', living a semi-monastic existence and undergoing daily shugyou for hours at a time. This might have been true in the Golden Age of the Kobukan (though I doubt this ever existed), but it is not true now. Why this is so, I am trying to explore in the AikiWeb columns I am writing.

I hope you can see the dilemma facing the Hombu. (It faces the IAF as well.) It is a bit like Neo taking the red pill, but the consequences are reversed. The blue pill will send you back to the early days (which I suspect the shihans would like very much). The red pill will open up vistas unimagined for aikido. It will be the 'real world', but there will also be unexpected consequences (which Aikido Neo has to find out for himself). In my opinion, the present Doshu is not really equipped to take the red pill, but has no other choice.

You state that that there are 'tons of questions'. Well, ask a few.

Best wishes,

PAG

P A Goldsbury
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