Quote:
Peter A Goldsbury wrote:
Hello Jonathan,
A few points.
PAG. In your earlier post you mentioned that you have never had a Japanese teacher as your main teacher. George and I have had a different experience. Saotome Shihan was George's teacher and I have had a whole succession of teachers--all Japanese. So for me, studying the culture was a major necessity, if only to understand what they were after. In terms of aikido history and culture, I have talked the most with Shihans Chiba, Arikawa and the late Kisshomaru Doshu. However, all this did not really affect my training. This was done in the dojo, not in the library. Studying the language and culture was interesting for its own sake, but training was quite different, and the only overlap was being able to understand explanations given in Japanese during training, by shihans like Tada and Arikawa (I mean in seminars here in Japan). Understanding the explanations was crucial for training correctly.
PAG. Yes, I agree. I have managed to keep my studies of aikido history separate from my training in the dojo. O Sensei was a very unusual person and is regarded as a major icon. But I am finding out more and more that the kind of life he led and the kind of life I am leading right now are so different, that finding differences is much easier than finding similarities. I am much closer in thinking to the second Doshu and his generation of deshi. But there are loads of aikidoka in Japan who knew O Sensei and were taught by him / received their dan directly from him--and treasure these memories: as I would, had I been born ten years earlier.
However, I appear to have a talent for writing and it is only now, after 30 years of living here, that I have come to understand what kind of man O Sensei was and what he stood for. And I believe this is rather different from what people have been led to believe from the 'official' biographies. So, I am writing, a bit like Stan Pranin felt he had to do when he lived here.
Deep down, I feel that there is an ethical problem here, for I have been taught by Chiba Shihan that aikido is all about honesty and commitment--and you can see this very clearly when you face Chiba S in full cry with a bokken. The self-honesty on the mat should lead to self-honesty off the mat, but this can be interpreted in various ways, mainly according to the ethical standards of the culture. It has taken me a long time to realize that the ethical standards of Japanese shihans in Japan are not mine: they are not better or worse--they are different: a product of a culture that I have come to know very well, but which I have entered only partially. I think Terry Dobson had this problem, also.
Best wishes,
PAG
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Hi Peter,
Well, we went quite a ways down the road with the discussion of O-Sensei as "myth", further than I had expected. I only really brought up the concept as part of my musings about what happens to a culture when it loses its heroes. It seems to be our tendency to idealize figures and then lose faith when they turn out to be human after all. Certainly, O-Sensei has been idealized. It is fascinating to read your column and realize that there was far more going on politically and socially with that idealization, more intentionality even, than I had ever dreamed. There were almost no books available when I started Aikido. What I knew of the Founder came directly from Saotome Sensei in the form of stories he told, typically sitting around the dojo after class over a couple beers. So it was all very personal and alive feeling, like having someone telling you about a grandfather who had passed away just before you came along.
I read everything I can get my hands on concerning the Founder. But you are certainly right that his context cannot be my context. After trying to be as informed as possible about the man and his ideas, it's still a matter of picking and choosing what things are meaningful to me and what aren't.
So for me, as regards my own practice, O-Sensei remains an inspirational figure rather than one I see as a role model. Kisshomaru Ueshiba fit the bill in that regard a lot better. I only had a chance to train with him a couple of times and I was fortunate to have him spend a bit of time with him at his home when I visited. I found him to be the consummate gentleman. I think the Founder understood that his son was better equipped to make Aikido into something that could be practiced by many people around the world than he was himself.
So as regards the Founder, I try to work towards being able to do what he did technically and understand how his spiritual ideas influenced his ability to take things to such a high level. But it is the Nidai Doshu who represents a figure that one might wish to emulate. He was a class act all around, in my experience.