Note the qualifying phrase, "in this sense." "Gay" doesn't mean homosexual, either. But the term has been usurped. Anyway, Kubota is Japanese and probably knows better about what the term means. As Mr. Hall said, we're hung up on minutiae...
Yeah ok I see your point also from now on I shall use the term turkey for car, in this sense it will be ok. The term Soke may have been usurped and used incorrectly but it has only been done so by people who lack the knowledge to use it correctly. So if that's the argument you are using it's pretty weak when you are trying to put forward a system as having a traditional base. If that were true then you wouldn't see so many faux pas committed by Japanese when it comes to Budo. His ethniticity does not grant him automatically knowledge of all things associated with the arts, just as me being English doesn't mean I don't have to work at reading Shakespeare, especially when certain terminology is archaic and specialised. This may help. http://www.koryu.com/library/wbodiford1.html Cop out. It's was used therefore it must have been for a reason. If you wish to pass your system off as having traditional trappings and background then it makes sense to use those trappings correctly, terminology included. If you wish to incorporate traditional terms and dess etc then it probably should be used in the appropriate manner and not whatever "sense" you see fit or use out of ignorance. It's a contradiction to say "in this sense" a term means x when you use using that term in the first place to lend credence and give your system a specific look and flavour. If you aren't going to get it right then why bother in the first place?
I don't consider myself a master of anything. As Rod said, "Sometimes the teacher...Always the student." A PhD can be called "Doctor." The title is given to him by the school he attended, according to the curriculum he completed. I have completed certain curriculum at I.K.A., and therefore have earned a certain rank and been given a title, in similar fashion to the PhD. Does a PhD deserve to be called doctor? Absolutely. Do I deserve to be called Shihan Dai? Absolutely, in my organization.
Perhaps you should jump in your "turkey" and drive away. We're whipping a dead horse here. Thanks for the discussion. It was enlightening.
Did anyone question your "right" to the title? I've always like the meaning behind it as being an exemplar, model or master teacher.
