My own interest in this area comes from studying the discourses of Morihei Ueshiba, notably the Takemusu Aiki lectures, and attempting to place his thinking in a proper cultural context. Clearly, there is some overlap here between what he studied with Takeda Sokaku in Hokkaido and after, up till 1936, and what he studied under the direction of Onisaburo Deguchi, from around 1919 until 1935. In these lectures he uses the term aiki numerous times and, unfortunately, there is no reliable English translation.
Whether discussions of Ueshiba's use of aiki should go here, or in the aikido forum, or elsewhere, is something that Cady and I will discuss when the need arises.
Peter Goldsbury,
Forum Administrator,
Hiroshima, Japan