“I was seventeen when I first heard about the remarkable Japanese martial art Aikido. It was Krister, a friend some years my senior, who told me that he had practiced it. Just how seriously he regarded Aikido, I understood partly from how long he had taken to reveal his knowledge of it – although he must be convinced that it would impress a teen age boy – and partly from his elaborate and solemn way of talking about it.”
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…along about blue belt i was quite evangelical. along about shodan i noticed how few people stuck around. some years later i remarked how few people were interested in studying with me. so, it works for me. a couple folks think it’s worth working with me. didn’t want a big crowd and a lot of management responsibilities anyway, right? besides, it is very possible that it ONLY works for me and a few others…
First let me say that your writing is often poetry and prose at once, therefore a pleasure to read. I was worried at first with your book title of “…the peaceful martial art.” Although many Aikidoka, including me, understand what this means, your usage of the word, peaceful, can be dangerous.
Sometimes attackers avoid conflict with martial artists. Should they know Aikido to be the peaceful martial art, would-be attackers might try for the robbery or whatever sort of assault, thinking that if they fail, at least they will be gently set onto the pavement with not even the slightest of injuries.
So, I read onward to find that you do at least touch on the pain, e.g. your first receipt of nikkyo. You write that your wrist hurt so much it felt like it was broken. Fortunately your buddy knew and respected the threshold, or it could have been snapped.
Your comment about Plato reminds me of an Enigma song on the third album, “Le Roi Est Mort, VIVE Le Roi.” The female vocals beautifully enhance the quote you mention. It is one of those things that I firmly believe is untrue, but to me Plato’s belief of the “nature” of wisdom does in fact suffice. I agree much more with Aristotle on the seemingly neverending nature/nurture (heredity/environment) debate, but knowing which is correct or incorrect really does not affect our lives.
It’s funny. I always agree with most of your essays, including at least one on Aikiweb, but there’s always something in your writing that I want to discuss further to clear it up.
I purchased Aikibatto a few years ago, and I have flipped through it time and again. See, I haven’t trained in Iaido, but I want to take up tameshigiri in the near future. That is when I believe I will read and fully enjoy this book. Your writing ability and style, as far as readability and enjoyment, is way up there with that of George Leonard Sensei and precious few others in the Aiki-nonfiction world.
I agree that Aikido is not only effective (when done well of course), but also true in the sense that it is capable of revealing or disclosing the genesis and structure of conflict in context. Agree Drew, you’ve pointed out the sense in which Aikido is not a peaceful art. And even if it is peaceful in theory, in practice, it can be far from peaceful, if escalation is mandated.