Nihon Goshin Aikido

In NGA ukemi is important because a bad landing may cause injury.

"Why call it Aikido?"
We don't, the name is Nihon Goshin Aikido, this is what Master Morita named it.

This system allows for a variety of expressions, some students are karate like, and some very soft and fluid. As long as they adhere to the principles that are taught they are doing Nihon Goshin Aikido.

Walt



[Edited by ronin_10562 on March 18, 2001 at 06:51am]

Warriors Code wrote: Does any one know what Sensei Macewen is doing now? I have read nor heard anything about him in awhile,last i heard he was doing stunt work in movies.Is he still teaching or has he passed that on to one of his students.

Mr. MacEwen still teaches in the Middletown NY dojo. He has a very highly sought after video libray that he sells also. His web page is listed on the AikiWeb.

Walter Kopitv mention that Mr Bowe gets all of the credit for Nihon Goshin and he implies that Mr. MacEwen does not. Mr. Bowe when he was younger had set about writting and demonstrating the art Nihon Goshin Aikido in the US and South America. Since Mr. Bowe is is now in his sixties and has a very busy schedule as a laywer and he was Mayor of his town, he has quite doing so much of the demonstrating and writting about Nihon Goshin Aikido. Mr. MacEwen has assumed that role with the support of Mr. Bowe. Mr. MacEwen does not write as much these days but he is still very sought after for demonstrations. He use to do a lot of demonstrations tours with Bill Wallace and Dany Lane and joe Lewis. He is mostly doing demostrations for Nihon Goshin schools and as his schedule premits he will do other schools and events.

I don't see anything wrong with Shihan Bowe receiving credit for NGA with out the mention of anyone else. If it wasn't for Shihan Bowe then this art would not exist. If Sensei MacEwen wasn't around this art would still be here. The one person that I would think should also be mentioned is the most senior and highest ranked instructor of NGA after Shihan Bowe, and he is Sensei Weber. He is a man that has worked very dilegently in NGA and being the highest rank will probably suceed Shihan Bowe, if Shihan ever retires.

Ego is the enemy. Train hard and conquer it.

Uh...to the guy who said that about pre-arranged attacks. I as a 16 year old take offense to that. I go to school where guys want to fight you for no reason at all and it helps to learn these attacks that you call "pre-arranged". They are that way so you can learn how to handle situations if it were to happen if they attacked you in that manner. Shomenuchi and a punch are pretty much the same thing in my eyes, so it all depends on the side. Same side, use one of the techiques I learned that involves that. Cross ways, then I use something like kotegeish (however you spell it) or ikkiyo (I think thats right). All in all, you learn more for more effectiveness in different techniques. In a sense, its like if your attacker comes at you, you have the choice in which technique to use, and if you make Aikido apart of your life...which means that you live, breathe, sleep ect. it, then everything should come to you naturally. This is what Wedell sensei was getting at and it makes perfect sense when I read the doka when I log on to this website.

I know this probably didnt make much sense..but whatever.

about ten years ago I studied aikikai for almost two years (I was in my young twenties) felt it was too soft and impractical. Although I was fresh out of the Corps (having learned many martial techniques thru drunken brawls) and threw everything at the sensei to "test" him and he swiftly defeated me everytime.

I left martial arts for a couple years and then went back and studied NGA under sensei Phelps in Buffalo NY. I felt that it was more "effective". I went up to Ni-Kyu and then left -- a year before I started studying Iaido at a private dojo in Canada under 5th & 6th dan sensei. This dojo was not advertised and concentrated on Budo in a traditional sense. I saw demonstrations of 'ki' not as mystical powers but refined subtleties of technique that did not allow openings for attack and therefore created defeat for an opponent before a conflict starts.

I left NGA for college and am now finishing my masters in california and in my final year am getting back into aikido through the Doshinkai Aikido with Matsouka Sensei.

My opinion is this, there's no difference ultimately it's up to the practitioner. Aikikai styles are effective arts, but many of the schools don't concentrate on real world scenarios, if you feel the "need" for immediate self defense technique I think NGA is the more effective. I also think that some of the "ineffective or impractical" techniques of Aikikai type styles or arts such as Iaido teach subtle body techniques that NGA lacks. The soft styles teach a refined technique that takes a long time to really grasp and I think sometimes bottles practitioners into not being able to see it's street effectiveness, NGA concentrates on street effectiveness - so what may be deemed as "sloppy" technique by the soft styles is overrided by effectiveness, but a investigation into the refinement of the softer styles may greatly improve the NGA style.

In short a seminar between systems would probably benefit all.

As for names, who started what, and so on. I studied Iaido under Mears Sensei 5th dan, Ohmi Goyo Sensei 7th dan under the direction of the late Haruna Matsuo Sensei 8th dan (Chief Instructor of Musashi Dojo, Ohara, Okayama-Ken, Japan). The one piece of advice I held onto was when topics of lineage and who started what come up I was told, "everyone's a liar!" So who cares -- that lineage I listed didn't make me a better martial artist, better person, etc.

ryan

Ryan Schoelerman wrote: I saw demonstrations of 'ki' not as mystical powers but refined subtleties of technique that did not allow openings for attack and therefore created defeat for an opponent before a conflict starts. I left NGA for college and am now finishing my masters in california and in my final year am getting back into aikido through the Doshinkai Aikido with Matsuoka Sensei.

Ryan,

So how do you like the classes with Matsuoka Sensei? Have you had any experiences with Matsuoka Sensei or the senior students at the dojo that reflect what you wrote in your first paragraph, above?

The one piece of advice I held onto was when topics of lineage and who started what come up I was told, "everyone's a liar!" So who cares -- that lineage I listed didn't make me a better martial artist, better person, etc.

Well, I can say, when it comes to lineage, if the person is lying, then you are right, "Who cares." However, the only time it really does matter is when they are telling the truth, as this will determine your path, whether you know it or not. In your case, with Matsuoka Sensei, I wouldn't worry about this at all... You are in the best of hands