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Old 05-10-2014, 06:50 PM   #66
Peter Goldsbury
 
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Re: Why bother keeping Aikido 'pure'?

Quote:
Jonathan Hay wrote: View Post
Perhaps, then, in deciding what techniques properly constitute Aikido it would be easier to work from techniques that are universally (or near-universally) agreed upon as distinctive to Aikido: shihonage, iriminage, kotegaeshi, ikkyo, nikyo, sankyo, kaitenage, etc. Rather than defining what isn't Aikido, it might be better to define what is.

Sure. I've been studying this very thing for the last half-dozen years or so. I'm too heavily invested (25 years in now) in Aikido to simply abandon it in favor of something less archaic in its forms or more immediately martially effective. So, I've been "updating" things and the results are quite satisfying to me.
Hello Jonathan,

I have discussed this matter occasionally with the present Doshu, the main issue being what kind of things should be included in a demonstration of aikido at general sporting events. Doshu is always very concerned that what is demonstrated at such events is 'pure' aikido, but there is no accepted definition of 'pure' other than what was taught by the founder of the art. Who, when asked in an interview how many aikido waza there were, gave a huge figure. When this discussion is conducted in Japanese, the term kihon is inevitably used and Doshu always relies on the ambiguity that lies in this term. 'Basic' also captures the ambiguity: what is fundamental and what is usually studied first.

In this connection, I once participated in a demonstration to mark an anniversary in Yamaguchi Prefecture. Yamaguchi was the base of the late Murashige Aritoshi and the present chief instructor for Yamaguchi Prefecture was his student. I think I was about 3rd or 4th dan and I had a good uke. I had been practicing the kata guruma waza favoured by Hiroshi Isoyama and so this and koshi waza featured prominently in the demonstration. This boisterous demonstration seemed to go down well with the audience, but later I heard from my own teacher that Kisshomaru Doshu, who always attends such events, was not so happy: I did not demonstrate kihon waza, as I should have done.

So I believe that Kisshomaru Ueshiba also taught and demonstrated 'kihon waza', but he was well aware, and the present Doshu is also well aware, that such waza constitute only a small part of the total art. It seems to me that there is a broad division between what is 'officially' taught at the Hombu and what is taught elsewhere, including Iwama and local dojos like the one here in Hiroshima. When I came here, I was surprised to encounter very interesting waza that I had not seen before and sometimes discussed this with the senior yudansha here: at some point the discussion usually mentioned Daito-ryu, the Takumakai, and what Morihei Ueshiba taught in Osaka.

I have asked Doshu and other Hombu teachers whether Morihei Ueshiba did IP training and the answer was yes, but with the rider that he never taught it: he left this type of training to students who perceived it and wanted to do it. The corollary was (is) that this type of training should be a complement to one's 'kihon' training, but not a substitute for it.

In Hidden in Plain Sight, Ellis Amdur discusses the matter of reducing the vast number of waza found in Daito-ryu. The accepted tradition is that Kisshomaru did this, but Ellis makes a strong case that Morihei himself did it (I do not have the book in front of me, but I think it is discussed in Chapter 4: the 'religious' chapter). So one might conclude that Morihei Ueshiba did this as part of his religious mission to bring the three worlds into harmony, but that Kisshomaru, who set little store by such religious theories, accepted the reduction because it made aikido far more accessible to a large number of people and so ensured its survival.

The problem of keeping aikido 'pure' is that it automatically sets up a dialectical conflict between the 'pure' and everything else and I have spent some effort arguing elsewhere that neither Morihei Ueshiba nor his spiritual teacher Onisaburo Deguchi saw the world in such terms.

Best wishes,

PAG

P A Goldsbury
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