I'll have to dig through my library but there are several seminal texts out there that really go a long way towards illustrating much of what I'm mentioning. Years ago I did study Aikido and I completely enjoyed it. However there were always many questions I'd had about application and practice... fortunately years later I'd had the chanceo study Daito-ryu (for an admittedly short period of two years) and it really opened my eyes to Aikido. It was an epiphany of sorts. Though even if you no longer study Aikido you will find the history/context of Ueshiba sensei's life fascinating and once you begin to delve into the personalities involved in many of the ryu's and in particular Daito-ryu you can start to see just how hard as nails many of the old timers were in the transitional years in Japan. Fascinating subject.
Wow sorry but your teachers comments may be some of the stupidest Ive ever heard. Sorry to say this but I have serious doubts and concerns about your teachers background and experience if they can even think that. Im sorry but your not going to learn anything about Aikido with things like that being said.
Most Aikido techniques 'could' be used to quite devastating effect if need be. I thought the dark side was to use these techniques in, lets say, anger?
Slip, didn't the American occupation at the end of world war 2 had a lot to do with the change as well?
And the peace & love Hippie movement, at least for the USA. That was the era when it came to the USA.
Not so much the occupation.MacArthur didn't make anyone change their practices once he started letting them practice again. Ueshiba's seniors said that the loss of the war had a huge effect on him,and that was when things began to change.
Some interesting comments: here's a few thoughts of my own. Aikido was developed as an effective fighting system to suit "modern" Japanese needs (i.e. the inter-war years). the aiki-bunny approach is in many ways a marketing tool and a result of the loss of the war. O sensei was once asked when he bacame a pacifist. it's quite amusing to read the transcript of the conversation where he (and Kissamorhu) try to work out what a pacifist is! His personal philosophy was highly influenced by the Omoto religion but that didn't mean he gave up bein a martial artist. Just as an aside I was once at a seminar when Chba Sensei was asked where one could see aiki-jutsu. His reply "Just watch me".
Nothing personal, but that doesn't count for much if what he's teaching is false. This is one of those things that sounds ridiculous enough that it bears further inspection, and upon that inspection turns out to be complete fabrication either on his part of someone he picked it up from. So either he's lying to you or is easily misled to the point of passing on extremely and obviously incorrect information on basic components of the very craft he teaches. I don't think "good teacher" can be salvaged from either of those two options. Maybe this isn't indicative of what he's teaching, but it'd have to be very much an outlier for the meat of the training to be anywhere near sensible.
Slip, you sure you aren't a PhD candidate/history professor? You sure sound like one and, believe me, I'd know! And heck, as someone who trains an art not even remotely connected to Aikido, I miss Koyo's sage martial advice. RIP.
