Author: Ellis Amdur Page 9 of 11

My name is Bill Fettes. I am a sixty-seven years plus retired police officer from South Australia. I joined the police at the ripe old age of 47, and retired at 67 and a bit at the end of 2017. Most of those twenty years were spent on the cutting edge, and the rest in Intelligence and Undercover jobs. I worked the entertainment districts in our capital city, Adelaide until after my 65^th birthday, when the police union decided I was too old to insure.

I commenced my study of Asian combatives in 1968 with aikido & Shindo Muso-ryu jodo (Japanese medium length staff) in 1980, simplified and Yang-style taijiquan (Taichi) in 1981, Chen-style taijiquan, xingyiquan, baguazhang and Shaolinquan in 1985. The last of my current training regimes was Toda-ha Buko-ryu naginatajutsu, which I commenced in 1989.

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In the early late 1970’s and early 1980’s, Kini Collins and I began a project to write a book on naginata (many portions of which later became the basis of my book, Old School). We interviewed many wonderful instructors of various ryu, and among them was this one Kini did with Abe sensei, which she first published by Valerie Eads, PhD., in “Fighting Woman News.”

 Kini and I had previously gone to Kyoto to observe a yearly national practice of Tendo-ryu, and among the many powerful women was one who stood out, Abe Toyoko sensei. Her technique had a different quality, both precise, but really powerful.  Even more striking, however, was her manner.  She obviously could not accept anything less than exemplary budo.  She was blunt spoken, even harsh, but never unkind.  She simply stated how she believed Tendo-ryu must be executed, and implicit in every word was the confidence that if one disagreed, she could demonstrate physically why her way was better.

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Some time ago, I was at participating in training on the combative use of firearms. This is a new area of study for me, and I was among a number of others, all  of whom professionals, working with a borrowed weapon. During the practice, something rather disturbing occurred. It was resolved and the training continued. After that training block was finished, I was unloading my weapon to return it, still somewhat preoccupied by the previous event, rather than 100% focused on the firearm in my hand. I’d unloaded the magazine, and was jacking back the slide to check if there was a bullet in the chamber. The action was very stiff and I gripped the weapon firmly with my right hand to properly brace the action. To my horror, I realized I had unconsciously let my index finger wrap around the trigger. I froze, stopping my action. There was, in fact, a bullet in the chamber, and I would have fired off a round in God-knows-what-direct, if I hadn’t caught myself at the last moment.

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There are two inter-related questions regarding the history of the development of aikido: 

• Does aikido owe anything to Yagyu Shingan-ryu, a classical martial tradition that Ueshiba Morihei studied before entering Daito-ryu? 
• How much did Ueshiba Morihei take from Daito-ryu in creating his art?

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Lament has been expressed that Yamaguchi Sensei (1924 – 1996) did not leave behind instructional material such as a video or book. I certainly agree with that. William Gleason and Stan Pranin have discussed the remarkable technique of Yamaguchi Sensei. It occurred to me that I had some material to offer about Yamaguchi Sensei from notes I kept while practicing at Hombu Dojo from 1973 to 1980. Yamaguchi Sensei taught a yudansha (black belt) course annually. The figure and text given below were taken from material distributed at one of these courses in 1973. The first attempt at translating the figure was done by my wife, Kinuyo Kraus, a native Japanese language speaker. Then, I prevailed on colleagues originally from China to review and interpret the figure, because some of the Kanji are quite old. I would like to thank Professor Sam Wang and Dr. Yan Ding (who lived in Japan for three years), both of the University of Mississippi, for their kindness in offering interpretations of some facets of the figure.

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Robert W. Smith was one of the most important American writers on Asian martial arts, particularly those of Taiwan (and those mainland teachers who settle in Taiwan after the 2^nd World War). He was a powerful man, with a background in judo, wrestling and boxing. After serving with the Marines, he joined the Central Intelligence Agency, serving in Taiwan from 1959 to 1962. While there, he undertook a peripatetic study/entry into a number of Chinese martial arts schools. The result of this three years survey of teachers were outlined in a number of his books. Most notably, Smith became a student of Zheng Manqing, an artist and innovative Yang Taijiquan instructor. Zheng, a master of a number of traditional Chinese arts, was an art instructor to the family of Chiang Kai Shek.

Smith was an important figure due to his genuine achievements in Chinese martial arts and more so, due to his writings: he brought some wonderful teachers to the attention of Western practitioners. In addition,  his writing, itself, was old-school, with a sense of humor and wit. To be sure, there were times that he was both pompous and verbose, but he was one of the first writers on martial arts, after E.J. Harrison, who actually brought these people to life.

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The scroll in this picture was given to me by my teacher. It was written by one of his ancestors, Keiichi Matsuda. It is a kakemono, designed to be hung vertically in the alcove of a traditional Japanese room. It reads 心情庵 (shin jyo an).

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I received a set of related questions on licensure and succession within koryū:

• What are your thoughts on koryū that predominantly only give out one menkyō kaiden, essentially declaring that person to be sōke?
• Would that mean the rest of the senior practitioners are not allowed to teach or open their own school, since they didn’t achieve the highest possible teaching license?
• What’s your thoughts on those who stay for decades, even though they would never receive a full teaching license, or how about other schools that might take a person 30, 40 or 50 years to get a license. Does a practitioner in one of these schools ever question why it needs to take so long, even though they have already learned and mastered everything there is to know, but they are unable to break away because they would lose legitimacy or recognition to be a certified instructor?
• Then there are those that face discrimination whether it is openly shown or not. Only Japanese people or people the sōke likes ever get promoted. What’s your thoughts on that?

This is an ostensibly simple set of question that quickly becomes complex. In what follows, I address certain questions as if talking to someone specific: “you,” in other words. I do not mean the person who asked the initial questions. It’s a rhetorical device only.

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