Tim49 wrote:Acer:
There are many things left of Ohtsuka Sensei’s legacy, it is probably leftover in a very piecemeal way but it’s there nonetheless. I think that those who worked closest with the old grandmaster got the biggest slices, though I get the impression that not all of them appreciated it. Ohtsuka himself is on record as chiding his students and their inability to understand everything he was teaching.
When I read Mike’s account I think I could visualise what master Ohtsuka did. I have seen some film of him doing unrehearsed impromptu techniques against an attacker. Yes I suppose some common ground could be recognised from judo, Aikijujutsu etc, but then they also strike and kick, but I suspect that Ohtsuka Sensei was doing his thing, not what the guys in the universities were doing, it is doubtful that he suddenly started doing identical techniques like that of Judo’s Yamashita (from the 60s and 70s) or like Kondo Sensei of Aikijujutsu; no he was drawing upon his own background. I heard stories about how Ohtsuka Sensei could fight and how the seniors at the honbu Dojo fought, and it was very different to the contest stuff in the universities.
Are Ohtsuka’s methods still taught today? Yes, I honestly believe they are, but some of the stuff has to be earned through long practice, earnest study, absorption and maturation, anyone who thinks that it’s all out there and can be just grabbed like kids picking candy in the sweet shop is just plain deluded.
Tim Shaw
I think you are right Tim and Mike does give us this in his opening qualification:
This is from someone that witnessed this event in Hawaii, not me:
This should caution anyone to view this second hand (at least) account, from an event that happened perhaps 60 years ago, with at least an attempt at understanding the effects of Chinese whispers in the telling of war stories. Truth is a bit like Beauty in that it is pretty much in the eye of the beholder and the:
He used Ju Jitsu techniques, Judo techniques, and Aikido techniques.
is perhaps better read as:
"I have no idea what he was using but it looked something like Ju Jitsu or Judo or Aikido techniques"
if we take a moment to wonder if Ohtsuka meijin's brand of shindo yoshin ryu had ever even surfaced in Hawaii before so who would actually know. A little more doubt must also seep in if the guy who is perhaps already basking in a reflected warmth can garnish the meal a even more with:
The demonstration looked so real, that the face of Ohtsuka, looked like he was in fear of his life.
especially when we have all seen Ohtsuka meijin's face in his demonstrations, not everyone in actual attendance it is true, but enough to know that THE guy who is demonstrating his long, sharp and flashing pièce de résistance will also be wearing his best inscrutable head.
Even without any hooks to hang a hat on this is quite a dainty dish to set before our resident dissenter who I think is ever so slowly coming to realise there is more to be gained from the essence of this old meijin's method which requires discovery to be a major part of its practice.
oneya