War and Peace

 When I first started Aikido I used to measure things through the academic calendar. I had my first Aikido class in early October 1969. But it was the start of the academic calendar year at UCSC. Winter quarter, already 1970, I took a Russian Lit course that was based on the writings of Leo Tolstoy. It overlapped with the US invasion of Cambodia. The Santa Cruz campus was closed dnto ue to demonstrations. Classes were closed along with the campus.  But due to the nature of our course, centered around War and Peace, we felt this was very pertinent to what was going on at the time, and so we met off-campus.. Tolstoy's masterpiece was a wonderful juxtaposition between the horrific vision of a "Superman", embodied by Napoleon, and the very real human effects that invasion had on the people of Russia. All the way from the nobility to the peasantry.

So the powerful, dynamic "Superman" Napoleon is contrasted to the Russian people and land, which are embodied by General Kutuzov, who was charged with protection Russia from Napolean/s army. Kutuzov lost baattle after battle to Napoleon. But he is looked upon as a native Russian hero because he realized Napoleon was following him, victory after victory, disregarding the fact that his supply lines were overstretched, which would leave him and his armies vulnerable to the savage Russian winter. And it was the Russian winter that finished Napoleon off.

So we can see parallels with our current situation Instead of Napoleon we have Vladimir Putin. In place of Kutuzov, we have the Ukrainian president Zelensky. And instead of the Russian winter, we have the eonomic sanctions imposed upon Russian and Putin by the US and other global powers. This has been pretty much a "Strength in Numbers" unity. Will it be as successful as the Russian winter in War and Pease? Time will tell,

Osensei faced tremendous pressure during World War II. But he farmed, prayed, trained, and transformed the pre-war Aikido into the modern version that we now practice. So it's almost as if he was able to channel the tremendous energy around the war and channeled that it into a personal transformation and the vision of takemusuaiki that became the foundation of the modern Aikido.

This is the video of the online class that was vilmed the day after the invasion of Ukaraine. Some thoughts. Then a detailed study of the 30 movement spear/staff movements. There is war. There is training. There hopefully is growth and transformation.

30 movements in detail