Samurai and Fair Fights

In a recent post, I responded to a a statement on the aikido forum, quoting a noted aikido instructor, Mr. Isoyama. I criticized his knowledge of at least one aspect of Japanese culture, based on his quoted statement about hakama length. I received a very decent email from one of his students who disagreed with my conclusions – and the upshot of it was we chose to continue to disagree.

It will thus perhaps appear that I bear Mr. Isoyama some animus (I do not!) in citing another statement Nathan Scott quotes him as saying that I must disagree with. “Isoyama Hiroshi Shihan … explained the frontal attack/ushirowaza setup found in Aikido as being something done for reasons of “samurai manner”. Basically, saying that it would have been un-samurai like to sneak up behind someone to attack them. So even in practice they would not train that way, lest others would think them low class.” Again, I can only state that this statement – very common among Japanese and Westerners who have an idealistic fantasy of the samurai, and evidently little actual knowledge of bushi history – is not borne out in fact. Most of the oldest jujutsu-ryu specifically have any number of surprise attacks, including attacks from the rear, WHERE THE ATTACKER WINS. No counters (they were developed later in Japanese history, in peacetime – the oldest ryu had killing methods at their core, and central were methods of quickly dispatching the vulnerable, not self-defense or counters!) Read more

This Is Why I Learn Aikido

You know, a lot of time… shit happened to us, especially accidental fall.
By practicing Aikido, at least I get used to take some fall.
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Kids Enjoy Aikido Training

Kids really enjoy doing Aikido training as you can see them below. Very funny little kids.
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