View Single Post
Old 09-02-2009, 03:31 PM   #20
Pat Togher
Location: Seattle
Join Date: Oct 2008
Posts: 88
United_States
Offline
Re: "Hidden in Plain Sight" - Specific Internal Training

Quote:
Ellis Amdur wrote: View Post
I read an interview with Ohba Sensei one time, which, for the life of me, I've never been able to find again. He described seeing Takeda Tokimune doing what was, to him, a pretty remarkable demonstration of aiki - I think it was being pinned down by four guys, and sending them flying with an apparently small movement. Tomiki sensei said something like, "Oh, that. Like this?" And did the same thing on Ohba (and maybe some others). The sense I got from the interview was that Tomiki thought these things kind of show-offy and didn't like demonstrating. And they may have been peripheral to his goals, I think.
Ellis Amdur
Hi Ellis,
http://homepage2.nifty.com/shodokan/en/oshie3.html

Describes a similar demonstration. No author cited on the website, but presumably it's Nariyama. Text below.

About the same time there was some special training with a Daitoryu Aikijujitsu teacher in the small dojo in the Japan Budokan and we joined in immediately. During his demonstration he showed a technique that left an impression on me in particular. He was spread-eagled face up on the tatami with four people holding his ankles and wrists and in an instant these four people were thrown off. We had difficulty believing this because it was difficult enough against just one person in randori practice or a match. It was a very strange spectacle but the talk of all my fellow students was that it didn't appear to be a fake technique. Later I asked Tomiki Shihan about it and his unexpected reply was, "I can do that anytime!". However, straight away I didn't believe him and doubt remained somewhere in my mind.

In July 1979, more than ten years later, the 2nd All Japan Competitive Aikido Meeting was held following on from the previous year. It was organised by the JAA and took place in Shihan's home town of Kakunodate in Akita prefecture. He had only just made a comeback from abdominal surgery in August of the previous year and taught with bandages wrapped around his abdomen. I was nominated as his uke for both days. It was an opportunity for him to show me the technique that I had been shown more than ten years earlier by the Daitoryu teacher. He did it very easily and without effort. Once again, needless to say, I was astonished at the depth of techniques.
  Reply With Quote