Quote:
Christopher Li wrote:
Morihei was pretty rigorous about Asagao, if you watch the old films and pictures. Kisshomaru was too, as far as I recall, although I don't remember him ever mentioning it specifically. Sometimes Kisshomaru would mention "te-gatana" - but people seem to interpret that differently than Asagao.
Saito used to complain about how "some people" held their hands, IIRC.
The background image on www.aikidosangenkai.org is actually a photo of a kimono fabric with....an Asagao pattern. 
Best,
Chris |
Thanks Chris
What I thought was interesting was the difference: Keeping the hands straight vs. the "slight rotation". Am I right in thinking that while Takeda and Osensei emphasised the
"te-no-kaeshi", Sagawa changed it to keeping the hands straight? I notice
Akuzawa Sensei of the Aunkai also keeps the hands straight. I haven't found any videos of other IP/Aiki exponents doing the exercise to compare, but it seems that even
te sabaki can be viewed as
"waza". In other words, could stripping it down be a way of going for "raw"
kokyu-ryoku outside of the method of deployment?
NB:
Suwari Kokyu-Ho is one of only two "techniques" that Osensei didn't seem to mind having written down in a list of rules as something that should be done in daily practice.
Carl