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Old 08-09-2011, 09:51 AM   #10
Cliff Judge
Location: Kawasaki, Kanagawa
Join Date: Sep 2005
Posts: 1,276
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Re: The Descent of Aiki

Quote:
Mark Murray wrote: View Post
Ono-ha Itto-ryu
I have reason to believe that in some of the kenjutsu schools, there are/were training methods which rebuilt the body such that it created "internal structure". It's possible that some of these schools might have had a bit more training in internal skills than just that. We can guess that Takeda must have learned some internal training from Ono-ha Itto-ryu.
I don't think this is the right tree to be barking up. It is possible that Ono ha Itto ryu contains such training, but if it does, it is 100% hidden and secret. I've been to their hombu and they clean the place up, do some stretches, run through kamae really quick, and then they practice their extremely straightforward kata. No sumo stuff, no silk reeling....nothing at all fancy really, just clean technique.

I chatted with Rodney Uhler of Nine Circles a few weeks ago, he has been training the Takeda flavor of Ono ha Itto ryu for a number of years and he confirmed that it is practiced differently in the Daito ryu. I asked him how it was different and he said "it is done with Aiki." What this tells me is that, if there is an internal strength dimension in Takeda's Itto ryu, he put it there from another source.

What source could that be then? If you are thinking there was some input into Takeda's IP from kenjutsu, the obvious candidate would be Jikishinkage ryu. Those guys basically spend 75% of their training time packing ki into their centers and releasing it in very specific, controlled fashions through their kiai. Whether or not this actually has anything to do with internal power or not I have no idea but it is the starting point of their training as opposed to a possible, I think unlikely, hidden secret.
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