The article below has been selected from the extensive archives of the Online Aikido Journal. We believe that an informed readership with knowledge of the history, techniques and philosophy of aikido is essential to the growth of the art and its adherence to the principles espoused by Aikido Founder Morihei Ueshiba.
In terms of technique and the direction, there’s not really a forward dynamic thinking that I can see that comes out of the organization, so one of the purposes of the expo is to create a situation, of a dynamic mix of people from different kinds of Aikido and other arts who can get together. By just being in proximity with a diverse mix of people like that and being able to see their techniques, feel their techniques, tends to be really stimulating and if you look at O’sensei’s background, he did a lot of cross training to, so those who criticize the expo for venturing into other areas which aren’t related to Aikido should maybe look back at the history and see what O’sensei and his teacher Sokaku Takeda did and their personal training.
“Recently I was introduced to a gentleman interested in martial arts training. He was not really aware of what I teach or of what constitutes Nihon Koryu Jujutsu. He just assumed that because I taught it, that I must believe it to be “the best”. When I told him I did not believe the art I taught to be “the best”, an uncomfortable silence ensued. I finally broke this taciturn moment by explaining that there is actually no such thing as a “best” martial art. Despite a noble effort to grasp what I was talking about, the gentleman in question eventually regressed, unable to shake the impression that if I was not convinced that what I taught was superior to all other forms of martial arts, that I was somehow unworthy of teaching him. I politely encouraged him to look around, consider what I had said and contact me again if he had any further questions. A few days later I received an e-mail from this gentleman in which he explained that he had indeed found someone convinced that they taught the ultimate style of martial arts. It was called “mixed martial arts” because it embodied only the best of all the styles. I just smiled to myself as I politely responded, congratulating him on his fortuitous discovery. ”
This is a principle that works for everything, not just budo.
Firstly, a comment on the article “Perceptions and Deceptions” by Stanley Pranin. Pranin writes “that there is no direct correspondence between reality as it is perceived by the individual and reality as it is.” Continuing Pranin also writes that “the world around us is nothing more than an abstraction based on the sum of our subjective perceptions.”
“Speaker / Facilitator Tommy Nugent teaches the ‘Aiki’ Way of Conflict Resolution at Spring ’08 National Conference on Student Leadership”
Brian Kagen is an avid web researcher with a particular interest in martial arts. His training background includes both judo and aikido. He has contributed hundreds of article links over the years for AJ readers.
I woke up with the sun glaring from my window. The cell phone on my side incessantly whines telling me to get up, it was 7:30 am. My body still hurts after the late night practice, it was necessary practice but I think I overdid it. While brushing my teeth I stared blankly at the mirror, my hair standing up, my eyes still demanded sleep and my mouth foaming with white bubbles. I hardly had the urge for breakfast, got a cup of hot choco and walked around the house. 8:00 am, time to get ready. Standing directly underneath the shower feeling the cold water run through my spine, I’m still half awake but I need to get going. Finally got dressed, checked my bag for my gi and the tanto. Seminar starts at 10:00am, I’ll leave at 9:30am. So much time to spare, mixed feelings, doubt and excitement, eager yet uncertain. So I sat on my bed and prayed, prayed hard, prayed like my life meant it, prayed like there was no tomorrow. 9:30 am, got to go, it’s now or never, the shodan exam awaits.
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A search of the Internet has yielded the following video clip which may be of interest to Aikido Journal readers.
“A mini-documentary on Bartitsu, a martial art and self defence system founded by E. W. Barton-Wright in the year 1899. Bartitsu combined jiujitsu, savate, boxing and stick fighting; it was perhaps the first fighting art to have incorporated both Asian and European styles. After a few brief years of glory, Bartitsu was all but forgotten throughout most of the 20th Century.”
Ellis Amdur has trained in a number of other martial systems over the years, most notably Aikido with Terry Dobson, Yoshio Kuroiwa and Yasunori Kuwamori; Kodokan judo at Tokai University’s Fifth Branch High School; Muay Thai at Koei Gym in Tokyo; Chen Taiji chu’an, and Gao Bagua ch’uan. For many years, a primary focus of his training has been Xingyi chu’an, first with Su Dong Chen and with Chris Bates, and most recently, with Zhang Yun. He can be contacted at: 
“Basically, at a workshop, I lay out how to do things. People can do them: there’s no escaping that they work. The logic is that either this is how it really works or I have stumbled on, by myself, a third system of movement that is just as effective: I’m not that much of a genius. So, I lay it out but I don’t say much to anybody personally. Some of them know it: they suddenly know that they’ve wasted time. I did: at a certain point I realized that as beautiful a form as I did, and as much as I was learning at push hands and so on, I wasn’t doing T’ai Chi. I had to stop and go back to absolute scratch.”
Brian Kagen is an avid web researcher with a particular interest in martial arts. His training background includes both judo and aikido. He has contributed hundreds of article links over the years for AJ readers.
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