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Carina Reinhardt
26th April 2015, 09:34
I would like to share my latest post

http://www.aikidoacademyusa.com/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=516

P Goldsbury
26th April 2015, 15:11
Hello Carina,

Many thanks for your post.

I think Morihei Ueshiba is an enigma. He certainly is to me. Since I began aikido in 1970, nearly all the teachers I have had were his direct students, but they all gave me different messages about the man. So, after I came to Japan, I began researching about him, but the research was different from the research carried out by Stanley Pranin. Stan and I are good friends and I think he was a pioneer -- a lonely pioneer, and he started to scratch the surface and uncover much about Morihei Ueshiba that we did not know. Stan was trying to find the roots of Ueshiba's art; I have been trying to place him in an authentic cultural context -- which is something that is rarely done, especially outside Japan.

Apart from Stan Pranin, I would mention (with thanks) Ellis Amdur and Chris Li as serious researchers about Morihei Ueshiba and his art.

But I agree with your sentiments.


Best wishes,

PAG

Carina Reinhardt
26th April 2015, 16:08
Thank you Prof. Goldsbury for your kind reply, telling us about your huge experience with the Founders direct students and your excellent research, which you unfortunately don't share in E-Budo, ok maybe just 10%, because you did in your above reply. I respect the work of Stanley Pranin and the other researchers you mentioned, but i have sometimes the feeling that they research only with their mind, they base themselves in cold facts, and I think, just my private thinking, so please forgive me if I say this, but researchers should also bring their heart into their work, I wonder why there is no woman researcher, or at least you didn't mention any.

Chris Li
27th April 2015, 04:30
Thanks for the mention Peter!

Carina - I don't know of any women doing in depth research at the moment, at least not that are sharing online in English.

Bringing one's "heart" into things is difficult in an online environment and is subject to misinterpretations that are hard to discuss without some kind of common ground (and we all know how those things tend to go south quickly!), which is why I generally try to keep it for in person encounters (sometimes one gets dragged in though :) ).

Best,

Chris

Carina Reinhardt
27th April 2015, 08:45
Hi Chris,
Thank you for your kind reply.
You are doing a great work in http://www.aikidosangenkai.org/blog/

We are talking about an extraordinary human being, who cannot speak for himself anymore and because the written material is few and difficult to figure out and the spoken material is also very difficult to interpret and as Prof Goldsbury wrote above "all the teachers I have had were his direct students, but they all gave me different messages about the man" so it is impossible to really know the background without one's heart.

P Goldsbury
27th April 2015, 09:20
Thank you Prof. Goldsbury for your kind reply, telling us about your huge experience with the Founders direct students and your excellent research, which you unfortunately don't share in E-Budo, ok maybe just 10%, because you did in your above reply. I respect the work of Stanley Pranin and the other researchers you mentioned, but i have sometimes the feeling that they research only with their mind, they base themselves in cold facts, and I think, just my private thinking, so please forgive me if I say this, but researchers should also bring their heart into their work, I wonder why there is no woman researcher, or at least you didn't mention any.

Hello Carina,

I am in a something of a dilemma about publishing my research on E-Budo. I plan to revise the articles I have been writing and publish them here, but this will take time. However, the research is still going on and Jun Akiyama has kindly agreed to publish it as columns on AikiWeb. The new E-Budo has a blog function and Peter Boylan has also been publishing his posts with links to his own blogs, like you do with Francis Takahashi's material. This is all very good, but the problem for me is time.

I have not come across any women researchers here in Japan, but there might be some in the US. I don't know. There are one or two formidable women scholars of Japanese history and I discuss the work of two in my forthcoming column.

As for the heart, I agree with Chris Li's comments. Personally, I am becoming more and more convinced that there is much that we do not know about Morihei Ueshiba -and perhaps that we will never know. In cases like this, Japanese writers like Eiji Yoshikawa and Shiba Ryotaro use 'imaginative sympathy / empathy' to fill in the gaps with fictional accounts.

Best wishes,

Carina Reinhardt
27th April 2015, 11:28
Hello Prof. Goldsbury


That is very good news, I'm looking forward to read your interesting articles here in E-Budo. I also understand your lack of time.


I still didn't see the blog function of the new E-Budo, maybe I don't know how to use it, only Mr Goldstein published Tuttle Publishing Book Reviews in the blogs part of E-Budo. I just posted the link to AAUSA under Aikido. Peter Boylan does the same, he simply copies the link to his own blog. It would be an improvement for E-Budo to have a part for blogs, so I could publish here directly and upload the photos like I publish in my blogs Entrenando Aikido and Wir trainieren Aikido, I asked Cady last year about that and she told me that it would take time.


That is a nice description 'imaginative sympathy / empathy' for what I wanted to say with researching with one's heart. I understand your agreeing with Chris Li's comments, I think few men would understand my point of view, but we are not talking about exact science, so we cannot base the research in facts difficult to interpret and stories of people who knew the founder and each one saying different things about him.

Joseph Svinth
28th April 2015, 08:33
Carina --

One thing to consider is that women are a comparatively recent phenomenon in judo and aikido. As far as I know, Fujiko Tamura Gardner was one of the first American women to achieve yudansha status in Japan. Mrs. Gardner started aikido in Japan in 1966, while her husband was a civilian employee of the US Army stationed in Japan. Growing up, her brothers had all been judoka, and as a teen, she had wanted to learn judo. But her parents weren't having that. Fast forward a couple decades, and in Japan with her husband and children? Mom and the aunties were a long way away, and down to the dojo she went. Isoyama scratched his head, said what the heck, and there she was, studying aikido in Tokyo. http://www.tacomaaikidoclub.com/subpage.html

Another thing to consider is that deshi status means you become part of a bachelor subculture. Until recently, there weren't many women who wanted to devote themselves to a bachelor subculture for a decade or so.

Finally, if you are looking or a place to publish original academic research in Spanish, Portuguese, or English, consider Revista de Artes Marciales Asiáticas, http://revpubli.unileon.es/ojs/index.php/artesmarciales/

Carina Reinhardt
28th April 2015, 08:44
Hello Joe,

Thank you for your interesting story about Fujiko Tamura Gardner, I like it.
Joe I don't do serious research, I like to read it, if it is interesting, but I do my blogs as a hobby, if you like things I wrote, not only about aikido, but about plants and animals of my island, I shared them all in aikido Academy USA, most of them under Open Topics, maybe they are not for E-budo, but sometimes if I think one could be interesting like the memory of the Founder I share a link here.
Today I published an imaginary story of my memories, as I didn't think it could be that interesting I didn't even translate it in english, so it is only in spanish and german.

Thank you very much anyway :)

P Goldsbury
28th April 2015, 11:35
This is partly relevant to Joe's post. All through my aikido 'life' I have encountered women students, in the UK, in the USA, and in Japan. The numbers were fewer than for male students, but in my dojo in Higashi-Hiroshima the balance is pretty well even. In the university sports clubs there are some women students, but sometimes they are 'managers'. However, this was not the case in the aikido club. In the dojo in Hiroshima City, also, the balance is pretty well even and there are one or two whole families training.

One of the most interesting things about Morihei Ueshiba is the fact that he is invoked in support of widely different cultural traditions. So my first teacher presented him as an ardent supporter of Shinto, but my second teacher placed great stress on Zen Buddhism and I think Stan Pranin has published a book on the subject. Neither is strictly true. Ueshiba was brought up in Shingon Buddhism, but then he embraced the new Omoto religion and remained a 'believer' until he died. So it was to resolve the contradictions in what my teachers told me that I decided to study by myself. And I had the advantage of living in the country and having a job that allowed much time for aikido training and research in Japanese language and culture. One of my greatest regrets is that I never learned Chinese -- and it is a bit late to start now.

Carina Reinhardt
28th April 2015, 12:15
This is partly relevant to Joe's post. All through my aikido 'life' I have encountered women students, in the UK, in the USA, and in Japan. The numbers were fewer than for male students, but in my dojo in Higashi-Hiroshima the balance is pretty well even. In the university sports clubs there are some women students, but sometimes they are 'managers'. However, this was not the case in the aikido club. In the dojo in Hiroshima City, also, the balance is pretty well even and there are one or two whole families training.

I went to Seminars of Tissier Shihan and the balance was even between male and female attendants. Unfortunately in Spain there are still more male students than female. I trained in dojos where I was the only woman.



One of the most interesting things about Morihei Ueshiba is the fact that he is invoked in support of widely different cultural traditions. So my first teacher presented him as an ardent supporter of Shinto, but my second teacher placed great stress on Zen Buddhism and I think Stan Pranin has published a book on the subject. Neither is strictly true. Ueshiba was brought up in Shingon Buddhism, but then he embraced the new Omoto religion and remained a 'believer' until he died. So it was to resolve the contradictions in what my teachers told me that I decided to study by myself. And I had the advantage of living in the country and having a job that allowed much time for aikido training and research in Japanese language and culture. One of my greatest regrets is that I never learned Chinese -- and it is a bit late to start now.
Thank you for sharing this Prof. Goldsbury and it is never too late to learn anything, just the opposite it is very healthy to learn a new language

Joseph Svinth
29th April 2015, 02:30
Carina --

Lots of people publish their imaginary histories of martial arts. Hagiographies are everywhere. And, as a rule, hagiographies sell pretty well.

Peter --

I know there are lots of women in aikido (far more than in, say, Kyokushin Kai karate), but there aren't that many *senior* practitioners. Kendo, naginata-do, on the other hand, have quite a few. Judo and taekwondo are getting there, too. There is much one can dislike about Olympic sport, but one cannot deny that it has done a lot for women's sport. For those who don't know, for a sport to remain in or be considered for the Olympics, there must be both men's and women's divisions. This is significant because at a national level, it's much cheaper and easier to develop a serious candidate for a women's medal in Olympic archery, judo, boxing, or taekwondo than it is to develop an equally serious candidate for a women's medal in gymnastics or a men's medal in basketball. To give just one example, without the Olympic incentive, I'm certain that we wouldn't have seen women's boxing in places such as Jordan for a while yet. http://www.thenational.ae/news/world/middle-east/jordanian-women-climb-into-the-boxing-ring

Carina Reinhardt
29th April 2015, 08:48
Carina --

Lots of people publish their imaginary histories of martial arts. Hagiographies are everywhere. And, as a rule, hagiographies sell pretty well.



Hi Joe,

Not everything is money, what I earn is enough for the life I'm living, I'm happy with it.

I thought to share my articles here to give more life to this forum, I do not write to make money. I am very grateful to Takahashi Shihan for letting me share my articles on his website. Besides the most valuable thing we have is our time and the best we can do with it, is to share it with our loved ones.

Besides I have the camera always ready, so I share my best pictures on my blog and they decorate my articles, which even they are about animals, most are related to aikido, for example: Mai or Ma ai (http://www.aikidoacademyusa.com/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=510) or The turtledove who wanted to be white (http://www.aikidoacademyusa.com/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=474)

have a nice day

P Goldsbury
29th April 2015, 10:47
Hello Carina,

I don't think Joe was thinking about you when he wrote about hagiography. At least, that is not how I read the post. I have many saints' biographies in my life and the martial arts seems to lend itself to biographies about the valiant and daring deeds done by the founders and masters of such martial arts.

Since you mentioned blogs, Anders and I have been thinking again about a system for E-Budo. It is in place, but needs some admin work.


Best wishes,

PAG

Carina Reinhardt
29th April 2015, 11:27
Thank you Prof. Goldsbury for clarifying Joe's reply, I didn't know what hagiography was, searched in the translator and thought that it had maybe more meanings.

As for the blogs, whenever you like, we can continue like now, I share the links to the articles I publish in AAUSA when I think they may interest E-Budo readers, and if there are people who would like to read more, they can find all my articles in the mentioned web.

Have a nice day!

Joseph Svinth
30th April 2015, 01:55
Carina --

I was not referring to you.

A hagiography is literally a book about a saint. In sportswriting, Paul Gallico described the practice as "godding up the ballplayers."

The shelves of the bookstore marked "Martial Arts" are filled with such books.

P Goldsbury
30th April 2015, 11:42
Peter --

I know there are lots of women in aikido (far more than in, say, Kyokushin Kai karate), but there aren't that many *senior* practitioners. Kendo, naginata-do, on the other hand, have quite a few. Judo and taekwondo are getting there, too. There is much one can dislike about Olympic sport, but one cannot deny that it has done a lot for women's sport. For those who don't know, for a sport to remain in or be considered for the Olympics, there must be both men's and women's divisions. This is significant because at a national level, it's much cheaper and easier to develop a serious candidate for a women's medal in Olympic archery, judo, boxing, or taekwondo than it is to develop an equally serious candidate for a women's medal in gymnastics or a men's medal in basketball. To give just one example, without the Olympic incentive, I'm certain that we wouldn't have seen women's boxing in places such as Jordan for a while yet. http://www.thenational.ae/news/world/middle-east/jordanian-women-climb-into-the-boxing-ring

Joe,

I followed the judo competitions at the Tokyo Olympics and later met a few who were involved in the fracas concerning the women judoka -- which pretty well speaks a few volumes about some of the martial arts in Japan. I agree that there are no many 'senior' practitioners and by 'senior' I would think of practitioners in the two highest dan ranks in the Aikikai. There are zero female 8th dan holders and very few 7th dan holders. The majority of the latter are non-Japanese and reside outside Japan.

carina
30th April 2015, 16:41
Carina --

Lots of people publish their imaginary histories of martial arts. Hagiographies are everywhere. And, as a rule, hagiographies sell pretty well.



don't understand it Joe, if you don't were reffering to me, has it anything to do with this thread?
thanks

P Goldsbury
1st May 2015, 15:09
Hello Carina,

I am not Joe, but I do think there is a connection between hagiography and this thread.

When I started aikido, I did not know anything about Morihei Ueshiba and we did not have his picture in the dojo when we practiced. The instructor was Japanese and had received his dan ranks from Ueshiba himself. He clearly knew him, but still, we did not bow to his picture. We bowed to each other. However, we practiced quite hard and our method of training was, also, quite hard.

My second teacher did talk about Morihei Ueshiba quite a lot. He was proud to have been one of his immediate students. But, as I stated earlier, what he told me and what my first teacher told me were quite different.

Then I moved to the USA and practiced with yet a third teacher, who also had been one of Morihei Ueshiba's direct students. He never discussed Ueshiba, but at the time I found a book about aikido. It was entitled Aikido and was written by Kisshomaru Ueshiba. It contained some biography, but not much.

When I returned to the UK I met more teachers who had been direct students of Morihei Ueshiba. In response to my questions, they told me to learn Japanese, so I could read what he stated for myself. I was surprised by this rather rough answer.

I came to Japan eventually, learned Japanese, and have read everything I can find that has been written by and about Morihei Ueshiba. My conclusion is that there is much written and stated about him that is hagiography. He is regarded as a kind of saint, but this approach is very selective. You use only the 'good' bits, in order to show what a wonderful man he was. You ignore the 'bad' bits, or sweep them under the carpet.

Morihei Ueshiba had at least two teachers. One was Takeda Sokaku and the other was Deguchi Onisaburo. Both have had biographies written about them and there is a similar mix between hagiography and -- shall we say -- more 'dispassionate' history. The lives of both Takeda and Deguchi were more turbulent than Ueshiba's, but I think it is harder to write hagiography about Takeda -- and the 'spiritual' aspects of his life are not emphasized so much. Deguchi was the propagator of a new religion, so his ‘spirituality’ has been emphasized very much. However, his life has been written by his grandson, but what struck me were the differences between the Japanese original and the English translation, with some parts left untranslated.

So, indeed we should remember Morihei Ueshiba, as you stated in your opening post, but your reason for remembering him might well be quite different from mine.

Here in Hiroshima, people do not really remember him. They do not know anything about him to begin with and their education has not equipped them to know anything about the Omoto religion. They study aikido quite hard, but do not really have much time for the person who created it and regard my preoccupation with the minutiae of his life as, well, unusual.

Best wishes,

Josh Reyer
2nd May 2015, 19:53
Here in Hiroshima, people do not really remember him. They do not know anything about him to begin with and their education has not equipped them to know anything about the Omoto religion. They study aikido quite hard, but do not really have much time for the person who created it and regard my preoccupation with the minutiae of his life as, well, unusual.

I remember studying aikido in the U.S., and everyone referred to Ueshiba Morihei as "Osensei". And since we called whoever was teaching "Sensei", there seemed to be a kind of personal connection. Like, Sensei is our teacher, but Osensei is the teacher of all of us in aikido. And of course we had the requisite photo up on the shomen, with Ueshiba looking the very picture of the venerable Asian sage.

When I studied aikido here in Japan, we practiced in a municipal judo dojo. No picture of Ueshiba. And people didn't call him "Osensei". They called him, when they referred to him, "Kaiso", the Founder. It definitely felt more distant. In the U.S., Ueshiba was the common goal, the man we all strove together to emulate (in a very ad-hoc fashion). In Japan, for my dojo at least, it was more like Kano's position in judo. Respected founder, everyone knows the broad strokes, maybe some of the philosophy, but really not nearly so relevant to one's practice as one's immediate context, (i.e., one's teacher and one's teacher's teacher, be that Ueshiba or not).

Mileage may vary, though.

P Goldsbury
3rd May 2015, 00:01
Hello Josh,

My experience in the US was very similar to yours. In Hiroshima, we have the picture, but it could just as well be a picture of any other 'venerable Asian sage.' Apart from making sure it is there, people do not pay much attention to it.

Carina Reinhardt
14th May 2015, 09:42
Thank you Prof Goldsbury and Josh, I had problems with my account and password, now suddenly they got solved.

Just wanted to clarify that even though we bow in front of the photo of the Founder, we don't think he was a Saint, and you all know that Spain is a very catholic country in which there are a lot of saints. The founder was an extraordinary man, very ahead of his time who left as a beautiful martial art to develop and study, that is what I think.