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Old 06-15-2009, 08:31 AM   #12
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Re: The role of weapons in Aikido

A relevant section from Peter Goldsbury's TIE article.
http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=14610

Quote:
Peter Goldsbury wrote:
The quotation is from a section entitled, "My Method of Aiki Training" (the kanji for training is 修業 and really means full ascetic training), ...
Then he goes on to the translation. An excerpt:
Quote:
My body was full of power, versatile, free of any obstacles and innumerable waza arose as if naturally. If we were to count them, they would be in the tens of thousands. If I had a sword, I could also freely teach people this way of the sword. Why so many and so powerful waza arose was, I supposed, a mystery.
I think that with all the postings about Morihei Ueshiba and "aiki", I'd have to say that Ueshiba used aiki to power his sword and never the other way around. In other words, I don't think Ueshiba used any koryu sword teachings to build his skill in the sword. Otherwise, we'd have specific koryu-styled weapons work in aikido. The fact that we have all number of people trying to find aikido weapons in this koryu or that koryu just illustrates my point even more.

If you believe all that, then the translated passage makes a lot of sense. If you also believe that the "core aiki" skills weren't passed down from Ueshiba to many of his students, then it also isn't hard to understand why so many went outside to get sword training ... or why aiki-weapons is viewed the way they are by those in koryu.

It looks as if aiki was meant to be the power behind weapons in aikido. No aiki, no weapons skill.
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