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05-15-2005, 01:10 PM
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#1
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Dojo: ChiDoKai Dojo
Location: Arizona
Join Date: May 2005
Posts: 1
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To those concerned with Osensei Rosen
Greetings fellow martial artists! My name is Michael Rosen and I was encouraged to join this forum due to the fact that there seemed to be quite a good discussion on the Aikiweb site, although erroneous in most accounts, about my teaching and my ryu. I do not teach Aikido, and so I am not sure why these individuals were concerned in the first place. I teach the system of Byakko Ryu Jujutsu.
I am thankful however, and surprised, to learn that the ideas and motives of an insignificant person such as myself have been contemplated by so many! However, I did feel that it would be appropriate to clarify a few things, although I doubt if any of the same people who presumed to judge me will take the time to read this.
Before I go on, let me say that my Japanese language skills are not so great as to make presumptions, however I have found that many others grossly misinterpret and over romanticize the language. I apologize in advance for any errors on my part, and welcome knowledgeable direction.
I never presumed to call myself Osensei. I was first called Osensei by a wonderful Japanese woman whose son I had been teaching for some time. When I presumed to correct her, she kindly let me know that as there were several teachers of the system which I was teaching, and all of them had been taught by me, I was the teacher of teachers, or the head teacher. She went on to state that as the founder of the system, with no other direct teachers above me, the title of Osensei was indeed correct. She continued to press the point by saying that, over the many years of our relationship, she had found that my teachings transcended the simple concepts of my art and directed students toward a truer understanding of themselves and their place in the community. This, she said, was the main reason that she addressed me as Osensei. I was both humbled and honored to receive her compliment. Other students began to address me in this way, and I would laugh it off with such remarks as "are you saying I am the fattest of teachers?" (O sensei).
In my twenty five years of the study and practice of martial arts, I have found that rank and title are thrown around like so much fertilizer within the systems. I have tried to stay true to the traditions, and according to Professor Sig Kufferath (Dan Zan Ryu), no longer with us in body, I had done a decent job of it. I knew that creating a style would open myself and my students to ridicule, but I also new that anyone who had become familiar with my methods and my system, were able to appreciate it.
There were many other errors in the conversation I read in the Aikiweb forum, but as the entire forum was based upon what was obviously a rudimentary browsing of the ChiDoKai web site, I will address those issues as seriously interested martial artists bring them directly to my attention.
I will close, however, be stating that I do appreciate those teachers who do not charge for their teachings. I myself have given away over $100,000 dollars worth of classes in the past ten years to low income children and to children who were referred to me with Autism and Downs Syndrome. I also know that in order to offer classes seven hours per day, five days per week, it is hard to find time to keep an outside source of income. As many of my students have come to me with vast martial experience as well as police officers and military special forces, I doubt that they would pay me if they did not see the value of my teachings.
I am thankful every day for the hundreds of students who have trained in our Washington State and Arizona training halls, and to those teachers who continue to teach Byakko Ryu Jujutsu. I am confident that they have received the best possible foundation in martial arts.
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05-15-2005, 02:50 PM
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#2
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Dojo: Aikido of Fresno
Location: Fresno , CA
Join Date: Apr 2005
Posts: 1,646
Offline
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Re: To those concerned with Osensei Rosen
You should google your name.
-Chris Hein
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05-15-2005, 04:25 PM
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#3
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Dojo: Houston Ki Aikido
Location: Houston,TX
Join Date: Aug 2000
Posts: 1,038
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Re: To those concerned with Osensei Rosen
Michael Rosen who ?
all I get when I google is Michael Rosen's radical sex photographs.
????
Was there some big discussion I missed ?
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05-15-2005, 05:53 PM
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#4
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Dojo: Aikido Yoshinkan Sacramento - Seikeikan Dojo
Location: Orangevale, CA
Join Date: Jun 2002
Posts: 643
Offline
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Re: To those concerned with Osensei Rosen
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05-17-2005, 11:41 PM
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#5
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Location: Florida, USA
Join Date: Sep 2004
Posts: 185
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Re: To those concerned with Osensei Rosen
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05-20-2005, 09:10 AM
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#6
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Dojo: White Rose Aikido - Durham University
Location: Gateshead
Join Date: Oct 2003
Posts: 916
Offline
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Re: To those concerned with Osensei Rosen
Nice post Michael, thanks for explaining the reasons behind your title! Welcome to aikiweb.
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They're all screaming about the rock n roll, but I would say that it's getting old. - REFUSED.
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05-20-2005, 12:23 PM
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#7
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Dojo: Aikido of Midland
Location: Midland Texas
Join Date: Dec 2000
Posts: 1,652
Offline
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Re: To those concerned with Osensei Rosen
"I never presumed to call myself Osensei. I was first called Osensei by a wonderful Japanese woman whose son I had been teaching for some time. When I presumed to correct her, she kindly let me know that as there were several teachers of the system which I was teaching, and all of them had been taught by me, I was the teacher of teachers, or the head teacher. She went on to state that as the founder of the system, with no other direct teachers above me, the title of Osensei was indeed correct. She continued to press the point by saying that, over the many years of our relationship, she had found that my teachings transcended the simple concepts of my art and directed students toward a truer understanding of themselves and their place in the community. This, she said, was the main reason that she addressed me as Osensei. I was both humbled and honored to receive her compliment. Other students began to address me in this way, and I would laugh it off with such remarks as "are you saying I am the fattest of teachers?" (O sensei)."
Michael: I don't know the intricacies of assigning names. However, the title O'Sensei is generally for the founder of arts after 40 or 50 years of study. As some of the links above point out when you google your name, your profile shows you studied kung fu, tae kwan do and then 5 years of jujitus and then founded your own style. From your site: "Rosen found that Jujutsu provided an excellent balance to his Kung Fu training, and after five years of study, separated from Professor Jennings' school in order to fully devote his time to the development of Byakko Ryu Jujutsu." Founding your own style of an art you only spent 5 years studying and then ending up with the title of O'Sensei is probably why you got grief on Bushido. However, the aikiweb thread I read was more about how much you charged. Your point though is well taken. I'm not sure why you ended up on an aikido site. If you had called your art Byakko Ryu Aikido, then you would have been fair game. You sound like a concerned person and help out children and I applaud that.
This site has had a lot of discussion on issues of titles and frauds (see my thread on Aikido Frauds-which had over 13,000 viewings). It resulted in somewhat of a guideline for telling when people in aikido were likely frauds. I have it posted on my website if you'd like to read the criteria that evolved out of this discussion: members.cox.net/aikidoc1 (go tothe instructor link and scroll to the bottom and click on the link for choosing instructors and schools). Please don't misinterpret this as me insinuating you are a fraud. I'm not. However, in the Aikido world we are starting to see lots of lofty titles crop up like O'Sensei, Soke, Professor, Doctor, Hanshi, etc. Other than O'Sensei for the founder, these are not titles commonly used in our art and generally are indicative of frauds or someone who bought their title from some Soke organization that sells them. Generally, these are people not qualified by years of experience to be recognized at such lofty titles. Generally, in Aikido you are looking at 1st or 2nd degree black belt in 4-5 years. This would not qualify someone to start their own style of aikido-they'd be laughed out of the art. Many in the art do not want to see this go the way of other arts where the ranking system becomes totally bastardized
Last edited by aikidoc : 05-20-2005 at 12:25 PM.
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