Book: "Transparent Power" (Sagawa Yukiyoshi) book translated

[jdostie]

I didn't write that last message well. I wish there were an edit feature.

What I was trying to say was that I was surprised by the language used - which sounded - uh, very self confident - and Sagawa Sensei comparing himself favorably to HIS Sensei . . . without being rude, if I heard someone talking like that, it would most likely strike me as bragging. And then, to coin a phrase sometimes used - "It ain't bragging if it's true" or something like that.

Lots of cool stuff in this book. I didn't expect to find any technique - though, I will confess that at times it feels like he's on the edge of telling us "do this, or train this way - and you will discover aiki."

Can't sleep tonight, lots of stuff on my mind, and that doesn't make for good writing. Sorry if that last post didn't come off well . . .

[Nathan Scott]

[Post deleted by user]

[Eric Joyce]

Hey guys,

In case anyone is interested, according to a review of our thread on Aikiweb by a "certain former member", our discussion here lacks any meaningful dialogue or any general level of understanding. If ya'll are tired of "guessing, wondering and misunderstanding the nature of the book", feel free to go over there and learn all about aiki from the experts!

http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?p=257082

I know I've got a couple of quotes attributed to me that I didn't write. Anyone else? I guess this propaganda campaign won't end until the traditional arts all die out.

Hi Nathan,

I frequent the Aikiweb forum from time to time and I do find the information that is shared interesting. Still having trouble figuring out exactly what they are talking sometimes. The conversations usually start out fine, but soon turn ugly with some personal attacks which can be distracting when researching this information. Sometimes the arguments remind of the phrases “My kung fu is better than yours,” or “your kung fu is weak old man!” I didn't realize it was you that was being critiqued.

[Nathan Scott]

[Post deleted by user]

[Kendoguy9]

Hello all,

I thought this might be an interesting place for this post. Nathan if you think it should go somewhere else please feel free to move it.

I know some people in the past three or four years have been going on about the tanren methods of Sagawa sensei. There wasn't much how-to in the book by Kimura sensei, but one of his fellow students Takahashi sensei showed a series of tanren methods in the June 2008 issue of Hiden Budo Magazine. I've never seen the issue myself, and to be honest can only read about 300 kanji anyway so it wouldn't have been much help. Well a French blog site translated some of it into French (a language I have a better understanding of). While struggling through the French my girlfriend showed me that Google can translate pages for me. It is a lot better than Babelfish and quicker too!

Anyway, the blog site has divided the article into smaller articles. Some of the photos are missing but you should be able to get an idea of how Sagawa sensei trained. It even posts his training schedule, and how many reps he did of each tanren. It shows two exercises that have been the foundation of my personal training (although I suck and am not even on the radar of great aiki-men) for a few years now; shiko and furibo. The shiko they show is different from both sumo and Aunkai shiko and is actually very challenging. The furibo method is also a little different from the Jikishinkage-ryu furibo methods but seem pretty good. There is also a sort of how-to on one of Sagawa sensei's aikinage that should give people a great deal to work with, as well as some aikikempo.

The Sagawa tanren articles are mixed between some stuff about Kukishin-ryu, Aunkai, Shingan-ryu and other random stuff but might be worth looking into.

One thing that these articles tell me is that the aiki Sagawa sensei did was the result of decades of very hard constant practice, and isn't something that can be learned in a weekend seminar or by the casual student in a year or two. You get what you put into it.

http://budoshugyosha.over-blog.com/

So anyway good luck training and becoming the next Sagawa (do some meditiation with it and you can become Ueshiba! ).

[Robert Wilkins]

Having some very slight exposure to internal strength building solo exercises discussed in Transparent Power, I can tell you, albeit from an unskilled standpoint, that these exercises really do change how you begin to conceptualize and manifest your technique.

Again, I want to stress that I am IN NO WAY claiming, or am trying to give the impression, that I have any real understanding of what's going on with a lot of these exercises other than that they are designed to strengthen fascia and develop an explosive internal power. What I can say, is that my Aikido teacher has been training using these solo exercises, and that his technique has changed radically after doing so.

He also recommends Transparent Power VERY HIGHLY.

[R A Sosnowski]

Check out Amazon.com - translation published in August 2009.

[R A Sosnowski]

Transparent Power (English)