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Old 09-23-2008, 09:29 AM   #115
DH
Join Date: Aug 2005
Posts: 3,394
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Re: Transmission, Inheritance, Emulation 10

As you know-I agree with what you've written here just now.
Lets go back to this
Quote:
Ellis Amdur wrote: View Post
Dan -
I do not think anyone was drafted into doing weapons taking techniques, etc., against their will. All information that I have was that Ueshiba M. was laissez-faire about most things.
Reconcile that...with the following
Quote:
Finally, Kuroiwa Yoshio once got up at an all shihan meeting and said, as follows, "I think we should stop doing sword and jo taking exhibitions at the Aikikai demos. There are probably real swordsmen in the audience and it is an insult to them, because they could cut anyone in the room in two." He told me that there was dead silence, and then after a long pause, Doshu just changed the subject. After the meeting, Iimura, who taught aikido at the Budokan, said, "I thought there was going to be a bloodbath. I can't believe you got away with that." More interesting, perhaps, was that Saito Morihiro approached him and said, "Yoku Itte kuremashita." which means, essentially, "You did me/us a real favor in saying that." Of course, nothing changed.
What that says to me is that they didn't want to do them. but were compelled to. And not by Ueshiba M., but by Kissomaru.

Quote:
I think many of these people - even shihan - honestly believe they can bring this stuff off - they become as credulous in their weapons and taijutsu as their students, who are taking the dives for them.
While truer words were never spoken, your previous model holds true as well.
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With few exceptions, no one's interested as to where it came from, what it means, or much of anything else.
I think a lot of guys-maybe most- could care less about really testing to see how effective they are, or how true their martial veracity is. They would never have buried a waza in the backyard simply because it didn't work, if they could have fun with it. Of course you have all the cautions and endless arguments about what effective means, but within the margins there are truths that remain relevant-if only to the few who want to test.

Last edited by DH : 09-23-2008 at 09:40 AM.
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