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Old 01-15-2011, 06:18 AM   #25
Hellis
Dojo: Ellis Schools of Traditional Aikido
Location: Bracknell
Join Date: Feb 2010
Posts: 657
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Re: Golden Center Aikido for your pleasure

Quote:
Mark Freeman wrote: View Post
As far as I know Tohei Sensei did not ever teach at the Hut (although I stand to be corrected). My teacher Sensei Ken Williams was the first to receive Aikido training there from Kenshiro Abbe Sensei who introduced Aikido to the UK.

Sensei Henry Ellis' website http://www.british-aikido.com/BritishAikidoTree.htm has extensive material documenting the history of British Aikido and has dealt with many claims of people saying they were there in the beginning and simply weren't. Mr Muspratt may well have trained at the Hut (many people did) but only those recorded on Sensei Ellis' website were actually there in the early days.

Noro Sensei was invited came to teach as did Senseis Nakazono, Tamera and Tada.

Tohei Sensei was not (again as far as I know) part of the British Aikido scene until after Abbe Sensei returned to Japan in the mid 1960's. I will talk to Sensei Williams to clarify, if/when Tohei came to the UK before he went to study under him in Japan, some fair few years after Abbe Sensei left.

I just found the pic referred to in Graham's post above. http://marbella.to/aikido/sensei.htm Mike Muspratt did indeed receive instruction from Tohei in 1978 but it wasn't at the infamous Hut.

regards,

Mark
Mark

I must have previously missed this thread. You are correct that Ken Williams Sensei was the first student of Aikido in the UK with Kenshiro Abbe Sensei. The British Aikido community owe a great deal to the efforts of Williams Sensei in those early days.

Tohei Sensei never visited the Hut Dojo.

I have no axe to grind with Mr Muspratt, I have never seen any claims by him that I would dispute.
I would though dispute Grahams claim that Mr Muspratt was training at the Hut Dojo in " the beginning "..( 1955 ).I personally have no memory of Mr Muspratt training at the Hut Dojo, I don't doubt that he may well have visited in the 60s.. I do remember Foster Sensei visiting the small dojo in Watford of Mr Muspratt..

Kenshiro Abbe Sensei invited several teachers from France to visit the UK, Tadashi Abe 1958? ~ Mikoto Nakazono 1960 ? M Noro 1963.

I looked at the said photo, I did not recognise anyone other than Tohei Sensei. The dojo looks rather nice and modern, where as the Hut Dojo looked more like ``Stalag 17 ``

I am sorry to say Graham, having watched your video, I can assure that Mr Muspratt would not have learned any of that from the Hut Dojo and the instructors there.

Henry Ellis
http://aikidoarticles.blogspot.com/
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