Editor’s Note:<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text admin_label=”Meeting O-sensei” _builder_version=”3.0.47″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]<\/p>\n By Walther von Krenner with Ken Jeremiah<\/span><\/p>\n In 1967, O-Sensei did not have a scheduled class at Hombu Dojo. He showed up when he wanted and taught what he wished. I was lucky that when I showed up at the dojo for the morning class, he happened to be there. After the class had ended, Bob Frager brought me to his office and introduced me. O-Sensei was kind. He smiled, welcomed me, and then proceeded to talk for about a half hour about things I could not understand. I was not alone; it turns out that few people could understand him, because his talks were seemingly a nonsensical combination of esoteric Shinto ideas, Omoto-kyo ideology, and practical martial art methods. He even quoted from the Chinese Classics frequently. Many of the senior students did not even try to understand what he was talking about; that is how difficult it was to comprehend.<\/span><\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row _builder_version=”3.0.47″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat”][et_pb_column type=”1_3″][et_pb_image admin_label=”Osensei” src=”https:\/\/tambulimedia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/vonKrenner11.1.jpg” alt=”Morihei Ueshiba Meeting O-Sensei” title_text=”Aikido O-Sensei” url=”https:\/\/tambulimedia.com\/japanese-okinawan-martial-arts-welcome\/following-martial-path\/” align=”center” _builder_version=”3.0.91″ use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid” animation=”off” sticky=”off” border_color_all=”#ffffff” border_style_all=”solid” animation_direction=”off” show_bottom_space=”off”] Languages contain unique words.\u00a0Lithuanian, for example, has terms for multiple shades of gray, and the Japanese language has numerous words for a fish called the gray mullet, differentiated by the age and size of the fish. Other Japanese terms have no direct equivalent in other languages, terms like wabi and sabi. The former means something like \u201crefined elegance\u201d or \u201cunpolished beauty.\u201d The latter is similar, but conveys a sense of loneliness. Such words cannot be easily understood by speakers of different languages and from diverse cultures. When trying to understand such concepts, listeners might be confused, or they might believe that they understand even though they are mistaken. Thinking of these examples might help to understand the problems that students had when trying to understand O-Sensei\u2019s speeches. He seemed to have his own terminology, which does not directly translate into other known languages. This made comprehension difficult. Upon meeting him for the first time, I too had the same difficulty. O-Sensei was a complicated individual, and he created the martial art Aikido based upon two paths: Daito-ryu Aikijujutsu was the marital side of the equation, while Omoto-kyo was the spiritual side. According to legend, Daito-ryu was handed down by a legendary warrior named Shinra Saburo Minamoto no Yoshimitsu (1045-1127). He lived in a mansion called Daito (Great Eastern Palace) in Omi province, modern Shiga prefecture, which is from where the art\u2019s name stems. Yoshimitsu supposedly studied the Chinese Classics and other books about military strategy, and he learned about the human body and how to control joints by dissecting corpses. Aiki is said to have originated in the art of tegoi and been passed down as a secret martial principle of the Minamoto clan. However, this history cannot be verified, and it is therefore much more likely that the art was developed by Ueshiba Sensei\u2019s teacher, Takeda Sokaku. Takeda Sensei was an interesting person. Highly distrustful of others, he always carried weapons. He killed numerous people, and he almost killed his own son in an episode that is informative when trying to determine the type of person that Takeda was: One day Takeda Sokaku was sleeping, and Soke (Tokimune) wanted to put a cover on him to keep him warm. Sokaku, always being in a state of awareness, even when sleeping, grabbed his dagger and went to stab Soke in the heart just as Soke was about to put the cover over Sokaku. Soke was barely quick enough to move to the side, got off the line, and the dagger that was going for his heart stabbed him in the shoulder. Afterwards, Takeda Sokaku scolded his son severely saying, “What kind of fool are you?! You should never carelessly come up on someone by surprise! It is your own fault that you were stabbed. If you would have been aware I would not have cut you!\u201d That\u2019s the kind of man Takeda Sokaku was.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n **Read more of this insightful and compelling chapter, as well as many others, in Sensei von Krenner’s book,<\/span> Following the Martial Path<\/strong><\/em><\/a>. [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image admin_label=”Book Cover” src=”https:\/\/tambulimedia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/Following-Cover-LS.jpg” url=”https:\/\/tambulimedia.com\/japanese-okinawan-martial-arts-welcome\/following-martial-path\/” align=”center” _builder_version=”3.0.91″ use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid” animation=”off” sticky=”off” alt=”Meeting O-Sensei” border_color_all=”#ffffff” border_style_all=”solid” animation_direction=”off” show_bottom_space=”off”] [et_pb_section bb_built=”1″ admin_label=”section” _builder_version=”3.0.47″][et_pb_row admin_label=”row” _builder_version=”3.0.47″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_text _builder_version=”3.0.47″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”] Editor’s Note: It’s no secret that I am a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7030,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"template-page-builder.php","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"footnotes":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[320279203,320279148,320279290,320279291],"tags":[320279211,320279262,320279626,320279263,320279256,320279215,320279625,320279254,210198469,320279210,320279214],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\n“Meeting O-Sensei”<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/h3>\n
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