Josh Gold
The Alexandria Library was celebrated as the most important treasury of information in the world at the time. Its disappearance is rightly seen as a catastrophe and symbolic of the loss of respect for knowledge that followed the collapse of Classical civilization.
That’s how I conceive of the new Aikido Journal Members Site… “Aikido’s Library of Alexandria,” a repository for thousands of articles, photos, videos, audio recordings, and every sort of documentation pertaining to aikido and related subjects.
You know, I began research into aikido back in the early 1970s by translating a series of newspaper articles about Aikido Founder Morihei Ueshiba. Since that time, I’ve conducted more than 200 interviews with many of aikido’s greatest figures. A large portion of these edited conversations are housed in our indexed archives on this site.
During this long period, I have experienced the joys of many wonderful moments and research breakthroughs… meeting with scores of extraordinary people from all walks of life, the discovery of old photos, films, documents, and much more. I have also been frustrated by the realization that many of the most important aikido documents kept in private hands will never see the light of day. Far be it for me to judge the reasoning of those who have chosen to keep important materials to themselves, but the fact of the matter is that these precious documents might just as well not exist. As the years pass, the disappointment I have felt due to this state of affairs has diminished, for there is much to do. In fact, recently, I have come to the realization that I might be guilty of this same sort of neglect unless I take action. What do I mean by that?
Well, even though we’ve been active for several decades and have published thousands of pages, photos, and all manner of documents about aikido, there is much more material that remains stored away… unedited and unpublished. You see, we’re in a race against time. How many years will it take to process and publish all of the important items in our care? A long, long time, that’s for sure. The sense of urgency I feel is palpable.
That’s where you come in. Yes, you… each and every one of you. Many among you have supported this work for literally decades. Along the way, I have had many enduring friendships and assocations with people I know well, and others I have never met. This is something I treasure. Now I need your help!
Of course, I want everyone who finds this website of value to subscribe. That’s very helpful. It’s essential. But there’s more. I want your participation. A lot more research and writing needs to be done. How can you help?
Let me give you a specific example. I published “The Aiki News Encyclopedia of Aikido” in 1989. (You can download it here) It was quite a popular book, but went out of print many years ago. Maintaining it consumes a lot of time. It has lived on, albeit in a mostly untouched state, on the Aikido Journal website. It’s an important work, but it needs to be updated.
Each encyclopedia entry appears on this site as a “post.” Each post has a comment section on the bottom. What that means is that anyone can contribute additional information, corrections, missing kanji, etc. by leaving a comment. I can go through your comments, engage in a dialog with you, and then expand or modify existing entries, and add new entries. In this way, you can help us continue growing this reference work so that the aikido community has a central source of well-researched information to consult, a sort of “Aikido Wikipedia.” A team effort can make this possible. Are you up for it?
Here’s another example. Most of the source materials involving my research are in Japanese. The reasons for this are obvious. I need to assemble a team of Japanese-English speakers to key in and translate hundreds of pages of documentation. We don’t have the time or resources to do all of this. Either the community gets onboard and contributes, or the work won’t get done. That’s the stark reality. What is left unfinished will, for all intents and purposes, cease to exist. The Internet age has provided us the means to remedy this situation. I promise to do my part. I hope many of you will join me in this effort. I won’t hold anything back because I want to leave a long-lasting legacy.
That’s the thinking behind the Aikido Journal Members Site. You’re going to get a steady stream of stuff. You’re going to be overwhelmed! And you can’t say, “The dog ate my homework!”
I run an independant dojo, so cannot help with encyclopedia updates. I also do not speak Japanese so cannot help with translation of documents.
But, I am an active subscriber and truly appreciate the great work you are doing at Aikido Journal. I promote your excellent site on my Aikido Health Centre site, and regularly like, comment, and share your posts on facebook.
If there is anything else I can do to support you Stanley please let me know.
Tony,
What you are already doing is a great help! The sort of promotion you’re doing–if mulitplied many times over–would do a great deal toward making our website known on a broader basis.
Many thanks,
Stan
What exactly would a contributor do to help? I’m interested if it is something that I am able to do.
Autrelle,
See my comment above to Tony. Also, here’s something that could be done by someone with knowledge in a particular area.
For example,. we have a lareg Facebook page with many fans. However, I have not had the time or expertise to develop this network of followers. If someone who was a Facebook expert could write up a little manual describing what individual subscribers could do to promote Aikido Journal through FB, we could publish it and perhaps take advantage of the viral effect that it can offer.
What do you think?
Stan
Stan,
Now that I am retired I have some spare time.
Let me know whatever you might need help on. My email address is [email protected].
I will begin by going thru your encyclopedia and leaving comments on any posts that I am familiar with and see where something might be added.
I will also begin posting more info about the Aikido Journal on my page, and our dojo’s page of Facebook.
Keep up the good work!
Hello Stan,
I have some small ability with written Japanese translation and would be willing to help. Please feel free to contact me by e-mail which I assume you can access.
It’s great to read this.
I know english, spanish and computer science.
In case there’s anything that I could help on, check me in.
A couple questions :
– is the translation of already published documents into other languages than english still among the priorities ?
– if we found translators from japanese into other languages (french, italian, etc), would it be helpful ? Translating back into english would be possible without depending so much on japanese-english translators.
Otherwise, thank you for the huge work. Just received my copy of Aikido Pioneers – Prewar along with my 6 DVD-set of O Sensei (+ free AN/AJ archive DVD to go with the subscription) and am positively enchanted by the content added from the VHS versions.
PS : I am a bit surprised by the scarcity of content available on Hikitsuchi sensei and the Shingu lineage. Is there more left to discover or has research for some reason been poorly rewarded ?
Dear Ludwig,
Thank you very much for your kind words. Let me now attempt to answer your questions.
– is the translation of already published documents into other languages than english still among the priorities ?
Having thought about this a great deal, at the present time, I want to focus on English. Our audience consists overwhelmingly of English speakers. However, I don’t rule this out for the future. The problem is with my limited time. I want to devote as much time as possible to research and writing. If later on we can get some teams of translators onboard who can work independently of my supervision, then it might be possible.
– if we found translators from japanese into other languages (french, italian, etc), would it be helpful ? Translating back into english would be possible without depending so much on japanese-english translators.
Here again, the largest pool of Japanese translators is likely to be proficient in Japanese-English translations more so that other language combinations. As a translator, I would say it would be better to avoid double translations because errors would inevitably creep in.
The scarcity of materials on Michio Hikitsuchi Sensei is due to the paucity of source documents. Hikitsuchi Sensei lived in Shingu, rather far away from the location of the media, and he did not go out of his way to be interviewed or produce video documents, nor did he publish any books. Also, some of the good material I know of has not been kept available. That being said, I have some footage of Hikitsuchi Sensei shot when he visited my dojo in the early 70s. Also, if you know of available footage that can be stored in the Members Site archives, we would be glad to host them here and make them available to everyone.
Stan
Hi Stan,
Thanks for the reply. Two more questions :
Do you plan a Aikido Pioneers – Postwar book (print of ebook) ?
Do you think that the explosion of eReading gives new opportunities to your business model ?
On a more personal note, I would be interested to have your opinion (in a future blog ?) about the current internal strength interpretation of aikido, as exemplified by Ellis Amdur’s book.
Concerning the availability of documents in Shingu, I have been told by my teacher who stayed there a few months after the passing of Hikitsuchi sensei that the dojo had an extensive collection of documents (photos, objects, videos) including material connected to O Sensei. Hikitsuchi sensei was famous for repeating speeches from O Sensei verbatim, because he had made audio recordings of his conversations with the Founder and played them continuously to himself. I doubt that those important document would be disclosed easily though. One might need the recommendation of someone very well connected with the Shingu lineage (far more connected than myself). Otherwise I know of a collection of maxims from Hikitsuchi sensei that has been printed privately in French and has been distributed within Gérard Blaize’s group (and translated in Spanish by their Spanish branch). I don’t know the origin of those phrases (I suspect some might have been taken from Sensei’s videotapes made in the 1980s with Clint George).
Best regards,
Ludwig
Ludwig,
Just a quick reply to your comment. I will eventually get to an “Aikido Pioneers – Postwar Era” book. It’s very time intensive, but I will get the job done in time.
As far as documents concerning Hikitsuchi Sensei are concerned, from the standpoint of history, those who are most remembered are people who have preserved and provided documentation that researchers can use to write accurate historical accounts. I did a lot of reearch over the years in this regard, but there are so many people and so many subjects to document. It’s an endless task. This Members Site is at least a start as a repository for materials worthy of being preserved and disseminated.