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Old 02-27-2012, 02:25 AM   #4
Ernesto Lemke
Dojo: Seikokan , Leeuwarden
Location: Leeuwarden. the Netherlands
Join Date: Aug 2002
Posts: 150
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Re: Morihei Ueshiba, Budo and Kamae

Quote:
Peter A Goldsbury wrote: View Post
I began to examine the Japanese texts of Budo Renshu and Budo in my TIE columns. I myself have both texts in Japanese, but I suspect that the number of people in the same situation, and who also contribute to AikiWeb, is very small.
Hello Peter,

Well, let me add that "that's where Chris and you come in!" But if either Ellis, Fred, Allen, Dan and others start chiming in, I'll have to include their names as well....

Like you state, the number of individuals who are in the position to offer a qualitative and well founded opinion AND who also offer that opinion on Aikiweb is indeed really very small. That said, the information these people offer do add to what is already "out there." Chris raises several legitimate questions that, in light of the angle of his Blogs, need to be addressed even if one is unwilling to accept there exists such a thing as IP/IT/IS/Aiki etc.
There are Aikiweb readers and posters who do not find anything meaningful or worthwile in that, and there are those who do.
But that is somewhat besides the point isn't it, even though it does influence the way one deals with Chris' questions.

These are Ueshiba's own words. Not the words of an IP/Aiki partisan though maybe brought to us through the lens of one. Of course, one can choose to ignore Chris' point of reference and interpret Ueshiba's words differently but then that becomes a matter of choice. Either deliberate in ignoring those questions or deliberate in ignoring the implications.

All of this, however, can easily become an intellectual debate that really does end in person when faced with the skill that is IP/Aiki. That skill is so overwhelmingly convincing in the physical reality that it's hard to maintain anything other to the contrast. Offering my own experience as a counter argument to there being nothing substansive to IP/Aiki to those who have not felt, is really the weakest of arguments of course. So, up untill everyone has felt, we are left dealing with eachother via the written media that is Aikiweb.

To me, all of this is very exciting and I'm mostly sitting this one out and enjoy the ride. It would be interesting to see a solid counter argument to Chris' findings though. I can't think of one so far. Can you?

Ernesto
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