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Old 09-07-2014, 10:29 AM   #398
Cliff Judge
Location: Kawasaki, Kanagawa
Join Date: Sep 2005
Posts: 1,276
Japan
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Re: Demonstrating aiki, demontrating aikido.Same thing ?

I don't get why we throw around English translations of interviews and writings and hang off them like they are factual evidence taken at face value.

I mean I get why we throw them around - they are all we have. But they rarely come with contextual information as to the level of candor and possible motivations of the interviewee or writer. I always assume these things are an omote, tatamae type statements. I especially think that when I read what Tokimune Takeda had to say

Regarding anything at all about Sagawa, I assume there was an atmosphere of credulousness in his dojo; at the very least, the culture of the dojo was such that if you talked about anything that went on in there, you made it sound like the most amazing crap ever.

Even Ueshiba. In the films, his ukes are tanking. Even in the Asahi dojo one, because that wasn't the same material he was teaching for defense of the presses. So we want to take everything these guys say - who all had some investment in maintaining the image of Osensei as the world's most advanced martial artist - at face value when they describe Ueshiba's skills. Sure, okay!
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