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Brion Toss wrote:
This sounds like a correlation/cause error. If you saw a car that had two tires with no tread on them, and the other two of a different side, idling really roughly, you might conclude that the owner was poor, or not good at maintenance. But a little further information might reveal that the car was in fact optimized for drag racing.
Similarly, it seems unlikely that Aikido's evolution was shaped by a consideration for multiple attackers, even if the forms adapt well to that situation. A simpler, more encompassing explanation might be that aiki was stressed, making for, among other things, cleaner, quicker entries, and compassion was stressed, making for, among other things, less time spent with uke.
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You are correct. With your analogy, just looking at the car, we don't know what we have. We can ask questions to the owner of the car, and find out if he is an auto racer or a poor mechanic. Since in our case, the owner of the car is no longer among us, we can only infer from his writings what he was interested in. In my case, I've seen Ueshiba write many times about his interest in multiple attackers, here is a quick example: (from
http://www.aikidofaq.com/interviews/interviews.html)
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"At about the age of 14 or 15. First I learned Tenshinyo-ryu Jujitsu from Tozawa Tokusaburo Sensei, then Kito-ryu, Yagyu Ryu, Aioi-ryu, Shinkage-ryu, all of them Jujitsu forms. However, I thought there might be a true form of Budo elsewhere. I tried Hozoin-ryu Sojitsu and Kendo. But all of these arts are concerned with one-to-one combat forms and they could not satisfy me. So I visited many parts of the country seeking the Way and training. . . but all in vain. "
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My experiences working with the Aikido syllabus within the context of heavy randori I've found that, many things I felt were lacking when doing randori one-on-one, were very effective when looking at multiple attackers.
Again, back to the analogy, we only have the car to look at, that car can teach us, whether the "modifications" were purposeful or due to lack of care. My theory is that these modifications are purposeful, and due to design for a specific task; multiple attackers. But it is only my opinion.