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Old 09-21-2009, 11:41 PM   #39
Ellis Amdur
 
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Join Date: May 2003
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Re: "Hidden in Plain Sight" - Takeda Sokaku

Mike - thanks for bringing it back on track. Actually, it seems likely that Takeda was "softer" than Ueshiba. Sagawa's descriptions of Takeda sound remarkably like huajin. If Ueshiba got that soft - it was only as an old guy - and it was then combined with his expansive way of doing technique. As I wrote elsewhere, I think Ueshiba was "power proud," - it was hard to let go of his rather massive muscular power - we see him posing for photos in the mid-fifties, in full flex, as cut as a body builder - obviously proud of the red meat he had under the skin. I wouldn't be at all surprised that some of his post-war technical development was when he finally "got" what Takeda had been doing all along.
es, Takeda did some twisty nasty jujutsu, but if I'm reading the accounts correctly (and this includes those of some of Ueshiba's students), what enabled him to twist people up was his total domination - by "getting inside" the opponent, their force reflected back within them + his own additive. It's very difficult, however, to be able to tell what Takeda did - as each line seems to have a different interpretation based on what they were taught and what they figured out.
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Ellis Amdur

Last edited by Ellis Amdur : 09-21-2009 at 11:45 PM.

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