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Old 02-20-2018, 07:21 AM   #4
Carl Thompson
 
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Location: Kasama
Join Date: Nov 2006
Posts: 507
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Re: Beyond the method

Quote:
Leon Bournazel wrote: View Post
I will resume the translations soon...

But in the meantime...
http://www.aikidotakemusu.org/en/art...annoying-ghost

About an annoying ghost...

Enjoy
Dear Leon,

I think the annoying ghost is not actually Saito Sensei, but a meme propagated by people not on the scene, that doesn't really represent what is actually happening in the erstwhile town of Iwama.

Quote:
Alain didn't want to leave Iwama without paying a sentimental visit to O sensei's old dojo where he was uchi deshi in the late eighties. He was welcomed by three uchi deshi and naturally introduced himself: "Hello, I am Alain Grason, former uchi deshi of Morihiro Saito". These few words seemed to strike these three unfortunate fellows like thunder. "Sshhh ! Don't say that name here… it is frowned upon" answered one with a strong Canadian accent.
As someone who has been training in the old dojo since 2006, I thought I should just say, "Morihiro Saito Sensei! Morihiro Saito Sensei! Morihiro Saito Sensei!"

Actually a friend shared this article among a few of us on Facebook this weekend, and I can reassure you that we all told Voarino Sensei that Alain's account is not the case. I mean, logically, can you imagine anyone you know who would want to go to all the trouble to train as an uchi deshi in Iwama, who would happily agree to not even mention Saito Sensei? It's like going to a brewery and not being allowed to even mention (let alone drink) beer. A normal person, - even one trying aikido for the first time, who has no idea who Saito Sensei is, - would balk at the idea of having to do this kind of thing, and get right out of there, right? Okay, a minority of people are exceptionally gullible (alright, maybe more, give recent political events), but given the large numbers of foreigners coming and going, that's quite a feat of regular, repeated indoctrination, don't you think?

Never mind that we haven't had a Canadian uchi deshi in years (come and look at the records), that there are articles by the Iwama teachers clearly giving credit to Saito Sensei (some of which I have translated), TV documentaries in which you can see uchi deshi showing Saito's books as the reason they came (the late Stanley Pranin uploaded my English-subtitled, accidentally-copyright-infringing copy to Aikido Journal) and so on.

We're all human and make mistakes and I think Alain may have inadvertently misinformed Voarino Sensei in this instance.

Regards

Carl
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