Quote:
Christopher Li wrote:
You may wish to rething that standard, the title "shihan" has very little meaning in and of itself - in Hawaii, for example, there are eight Aikikai 7th dans....and no shihans.
Best,
Chris
|
Hello Chris,
I am curious. The Aikikai has published a list of organizations in the USA, but no organization in Hawaii seems to be on the list. The ASU is not on the list either. When I asked the present Doshu why the ASU was not on the list, he answered that all the dan promotions were processed through Mitsugi Saotome personally.
I see that both Mitsugi Saotome and Hiroshi Ikeda are referred to as shihans -- but only these two in the ASU. I can understand this in Mr Saotome's case (perhaps Mr Tani unintentionally omitted his name from one of his lists), but I am curious about Mr Ikeda. Similarly, for the organization(s) in Hawaii. I assume that dan ranks are processed through individual dojos or sub-groups. Is this correct? Similarly, no dojo or sub-group in Hawaii has ever asked the Aikikai to award shihan titles. Would this be correct also?
I should add that here in Hiroshima, there is also a similar number of Aikikai 7th dans, but no one has ever received any shihan titles from the Aikikai. Of course, aikido in Japan is far more disorganized than is usually believed.
Best wishes,
PAG