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Old 02-15-2005, 10:17 AM   #21
phil farmer
Dojo: Nacogdoches
Location: Texas
Join Date: Nov 2004
Posts: 47
United_States
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Re: Difference between Aikido and Aikibudo

Hello Darin,

The Yoseikan aikido you are referring to is the older version that was taught at Hombu dojo in Shizuoka and the seifukai and Yoseikan International and the other old groups teach the old versions. If you saw the seifukai, then you saw what these various styles do. In my opinion, these groups are pursuing a form of Yoseikan that is stagnant and perhaps even dead as a practice. I say this because Minoru Sensei was always changing and improving Yoseikan (a characteristic his son also possesses). A long time teacher came to visit him several years ago, in France, and told Master Minoru that he was faithfully teaching what Sensei had taught 30 years before. Minoru Sensei laughed at him and was sad that the teacher had not grown in 30 years. This is the problem with these groups who want to follow the traditional way, it died on May 30, 2003. If these teachers in so many places will not move on to new things, they did not know Sensei Minoru very well.

In truth, there is not a great difference between these traditional groups and YWF. YWF does all of the throws that have ever been done in Yoseikan, with one difference, Hiroo Sensei has taken out the techniques that are ineffective or inefficient. The other important difference is this: YWF instructors are better at doing all of these traditional techniques from very realistic and dynamic attacks. YWF is Yoseikan but it is a living and dynamicart that is constantly being refined and reviewed for effectiveness and efficiency. I have the unique perspective of my teacher being a direct student of Minoru Sensei and one of those students at the Redstone Arsenal so many years ago and teaching me the traditional. Then we went to France together and he saw what is being done and was able to explain to me, while we watched, the connections. His belief, the YWF instructors are better at Yoseikan and can perform the techniques from every possible attack with great proficiency. And, to brag on my teacher only a little, he is recognized by Master Hiroo as a Master Teacher of Yoseikan Budo, because my teacher has been able to make the bridge from traditional to current. It is a consistent system. By the way, in addressing this thread's main question, aiki budo is practiced by Floquet and others that do the traditional. Yoseikan Budo is not an aikido style, it is its own martial art. In conversation with Hiroo Sensei, he believes that what his father created should never have been called aikido but should have been called a soft jiujitsu. In light of this thread, I think Master Hiroo's belief is very accurate. Yoseikan Traditional is much closer to daito ryu than aikido.

Phil Farmer
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