Such high dudgeon! About what? As Stanley Pranin noted recently, Ueshiba Morihei was ALREADY doing blending exercises, cooperative training in the 1935 film. And, he was, simultaneously, doing things that none of his students ever reached.
Oda sensei, Tomiki sensei's right hand man, in the famous demo in Manchuria, attacked Ueshiba with everything he had, backed by expertise in judo, karate, and aikibudo - and Ueshiba handled him with electric, sharp techniques that awed the audience - AND - he was furious with Oda for attacking in a way that he had to use such methods, wanting to show, instead a method blended, not stirred. He was only soothed from his rage by the admiration of the formidible naginata teacher Sonobe Hideo. He didn't want to use what I think we can assume is classical Daito-ryu - but he had to
use such methods then to handle a "for-real" attack by an expert.
But the other point is this - Osensei was doing - and WANTED to do - post-war aikido in the prewar period.
Now where does this leave us. I honestly think it is very likely that Ueshiba's post-war personal innovation was to successfully imbue Daito-ryu aiki WITHIN his blending, cooperative form. (This is what is hidden in plain sight, not that he secretly had a pocketful of other waza). Whether he was right or not, I dunno, but I think Osensei thought his postwar accomplishment was the ability to use sharp aiki WITHIN blending - as the t'ai chi masters say, "a needle in cotton."
And this is the failure of modern aikidoka. Osensei's practice method and his techniques are imitated with grace, brilliance and often, considerable power. But most are using their bodies (nervous system, connective tissue, muscles, and the will and breath that drive the former) in a different way from Ueshiba. In my book, I refer to the waza as the bottle - the question is what it is filled with.
Since Dan Harden, among those offering internal training, is the whipping boy of some recent threads, I'll cite him for a moment: all he's offering is aiki training. I think I'm not going to have him jump on my head, feelings hurt, were I to say he has no interest in personally doing aikido waza. BUT - he is asserting this - and I think correctly: that if one acquires skill in aiki, it could be contained WITHIN classical aikido technique, be it nikkyo, kokyunage or any other limb-twining variation, if that's the way you want to use it. In other words, Ken, there is absolutely no requirement in what Dan Harden, Mike Sigman, Minoru Akuzawa, to name three, are teaching, that there be any abandonment of classical aikido practice or technique, if that's what you want to do.
And by the way, I took ukemi for Saotome on many occasions back in the 70's. And I lived in Terry Dobson's dojo for close to a year. And I much admire what both of them can/could (respectively) do on the mat and outside as well (Terry used a pure blending technique when he disarmed the chainsaw wielding logger in the bar in Vermont he was bouncing at). BUT - nothing they do/did merits the kind of awe in expert martial artists (respect, yes - awe, no) that Ueshiba inspired among the very best in Japan.
So one is either content to be religious about it - Ueshiba was a kami, and we mere mortal, or we can say, as Dobson snarled at the other uchi-deshi when they tried to stop him from jumping the fence to study with Wang Shu Chin, "All of you guys want to be Osensei's best student. I wanna be Osensei."
Best
Ellis Amdur