When I was younger, I took ukemi for Chiba Sensei and there was always the feeling that you were never quite sure what was going to happen. However, I was recommended to train in the Hombu classes of Arikawa Sadateru Sensei, one of Chiba S's early instructors, and I had a similar feeling then.

I did not learn the kumitachi being demonstrated from Chiba S, but from Saito Morihiro Sensei and from Chiba's successor in the UK, Minoru Kanestuka Shihan. Kumitachi 5 is more complex than the others and there is scope for the ma-ai to become quite close. However, I did not sense a marked change of attitude after Chiba S dropped his bokken. Clearly, it was something that should not have happened in a demonstration, but Chiba himself would know that such things can happen. He once hit Morihei Ueshiba himself on the head with his bokken during a demonstration and everybody was waiting for the blood to flow and the sparks to fly. But nothing happened, at least during the demonstration. Like Arikawa S, Chiba S always gave the impression of being out to bring his ukes close to death from the word go and he was regarded by his senior Hombu colleagues as being closest to embodying the samurai ideal expressed by Yamamoto Tsunetomo in the Hagakure.