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.
So old master took me to see a movie of karate champion Mas Oyama killing a bull with his bare fists, which is how I start Zen Combat. After seeing it I still wasn’t sure of what he meant, but decided this “swordless sword play” was worth a look. He arranged for me to meet Oyama, writing the formal letter customary to all oriental introductions. Interspersed with the Chinese ideographs common to written Japanese, he drew in minute tick-tack-toe doodles I had never seen in Chinese or Japanese. I questioned these
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Worth reading in its entirety. …now wonder if I can use any of it with my students…
Remembering some of the first hand experiences the author had that went into the chapters of Zen Combat brings to mind one scenario. One master was quietly eating his bowl of noodles and only with his chopsticks, and the inferred mastery of swordsmanship, sent a couple of would be trouble makers packing. I would give anything just to have been in one of the places and with one of the masters Gluck encountered in his travels in Japan that inspired Zen Combat. Those few pages and the wisdom imparted therein has lasted a lifetime.