Peter Goldsbury

Hello,

Thank you for your post. Let me take the questions separately, but first, a note of caution. I think I have mentioned a few times that there are limitations in taking Morihei Ueshiba's own discourses at face value and this for two reasons. First, I know from other sources that they have been severely edited—with some items omitted—and, secondly, they have been incorporated into what we might term a ‘postwar narrative' concerning aikido. So, it is important to approach the life and work of Morihei Ueshiba from other, non-aikido, sources, and I have done this in a number of the columns, notably Column 9a / 22a.
I see you use the word noosphere and this reminded me of Teilhard de Chardin's use of the term, along with the Omega Point. Have you read him?

In Japan, the terms 右翼 [u-yoku: right-wing] and 左翼 [sa-yoku: left wing] are commonly used and the respective members of each group are clearly identifiable. On certain days of the year, the black sound trucks can be seen broadcasting military songs very loudly and, on the other hand, the radicals that disrupted university campuses in the late 60s were an extension of what happened in France, but were rather less violent.

The martial arts, understood collectively as a group, tend to be placed on the right of this spectrum, but the Aikikai studiously avoids any suggestion of political allegiance and employs the life of Morihei Ueshiba as a means to this end. On the other hand, I have direct experience of aikido clubs that regard aikido, along with other Japanese budo and bujutsu arts, as a powerful means to restore the ‘emperor system' to its rightful place, after its displacement by the US / Allied occupation in 1945. In so far as the postwar Aikikai colludes in this displacement, it, too, is thought to be misguided.

I think John Stevens has produced a book with this title and this, too, fits the ‘postwar narrative' concerning aikido. And Stevens might be right. He has arranged the quotes into a series of aphorisms that could serve as postwar slogans. I live in Hiroshima and the protestations concerning world peace form a local ‘noosphere' here. However, it is sometimes used as a slogan that masks similar inequalities and discrimination against minorities that can be found in other large cities.

The issue here is whether the Stevens interpretation is what Ueshiba actually meant, and whether it is the only possible interpretation.

I suggest that you take a close look at Thomas Nadolski's doctoral thesis concerning the suppression of Omoto and follow this up with Nancy Stalker's book on Omoto. I think that Deguchi certainly changed his views about this.

I think I have explained Kisshomaru's aims and motivations up to a point, but evidence is lacking as to whether these are in any way connected with communism, socialism or Marxism. Even if they were, I do not think we would find this in the publications produced by the Aikikai.

Best wishes,