Lineage

Joe Bowen wrote: Sorry. I know you, for some reason you really want him to be. Honestly, don't know why some people seem to want to come down hard on Ueshiba.K.

I don't think you do know me Joe, I don't particularly want Tohei K to be senior to Ueshiba K., I just thought that was the case. And I certainly don't want to 'come down hard' on Ueshiba K., just feel that he's not a paritcularly important part of my personal lineage, thats all.

Greg Jennings wrote: Without the "critical mass" of practitioners and teachers created by the evangelizing of Ueshiba K., Tohei K., many of us might not be practicing aikido...even the Yosh guys despite the interesting and effective organizational structure of the Yoshinkan.

On the subject of that "critical mass", I think there's someone else who deserves some credit and seems to be very rarely acknowledged in Aikido circles. In the UK at least, and I guess in much of the rest of the world, Aikido first arrived to find some people already dressing up in white pyjamas to practice a devious japanese martial art based on 'yielding'.
The concept was already established in the public conciousness.
There were already dojos, in which people were wearing dogi and using the kyu/dan ranking system. They were, of course, Judo dojos, and the first generation of Aikido students and teachers were drawn from those dojos, or had come here to teach in them.

I suspect Aikido would be very much less widespread by now if all that pioneering groundwork hadn't been done in the half century or so leading up to the foundation of our art, so a big hand please, for Jigoro Kano and the Kodokan.

Sean
x

Sean Orchard wrote: On the subject of that "critical mass", I think there's someone else who deserves some credit and seems to be very rarely acknowledged in Aikido circles. In the UK at least, and I guess in much of the rest of the world, Aikido first arrived to find some people already dressing up in white pyjamas to practice a devious japanese martial art based on 'yielding'. The concept was already established in the public conciousness. There were already dojos, in which people were wearing dogi and using the kyu/dan ranking system. They were, of course, Judo dojos, and the first generation of Aikido students and teachers were drawn from those dojos, or had come here to teach in them. I suspect Aikido would be very much less widespread by now if all that pioneering groundwork hadn't been done in the half century or so leading up to the foundation of our art, so a big hand please, for Jigoro Kano and the Kodokan.

Hi Sean,
No arguments from me there. My conversation was only related to the contributions of Tohei Sensei and the late Doshu.

Sean Orchard wrote: I suspect Aikido would be very much less widespread by now if all that pioneering groundwork hadn't been done in the half century or so leading up to the foundation of our art, so a big hand please, for Jigoro Kano and the Kodokan.Sean x

No argument on that one from me either. I think that Martial Arts in general owe a good deal to Jigoro Kano. He was truly a great man.

Joe

Yep,

Kisshomaru Ueshiba had nothing to do with me training Aikido (nearly prevented me from doing so), but Jigaro Kano certainly did. I started training Judo over 20 years ago and it was my introduction to martial arts. Also, my late teacher was looking for Judo while in Malaysia, but Thamby Sensei had stopped teaching Judo and was only teaching Aikido, So Sensei Stratton started Aikido.

Thank you Kano Sensei.

And a huge thank you to Sensei Stratton and Thamby Sensei!!!!!!!!!