Hidden In Plain Sight

"Aikido is simple but not easy," said the late Alan Ruddock Sensei.

Alan was one of the westerners who went to Japan to learn Aikido directly from O Sensei.  He and my teacher, the late Kenneth Cottier Sensei were very good friends.  After Cottier Sensei died, through the Hong Kong Aikido Association, we received a solicitation from Alan for stories about Cottier Sensei.  It turned out, Cottier Sensei had previously handed over his personal notes pertaining to his Aikido journey.  Alan was tasked with turning those loose pages and submissions from friends and students of Cottier Sensei into a book.  He did a marvelous job compiling the stories and self-published it.  

It was through this book project, I got to know Alan.

To my pleasant surprise, Alan responded when I emailed him.  We wrote back and forth for months.  I was so hoping to invite Alan to come from Ireland to visit and teach a seminar.  He declined for health reasons.  Not long after that, the bad news came.  Alan died in Dublin on his way home from teaching a seminar,

It was such a regret that I never got to meet the man.  Nevertheless, I am glad that he was doing what he loved the most till the very end.

The 60s was an interesting time when a collection of unusual personalities converged at the old Hombu Dojo to study together.  Many of them emerged as influential teachers later.

Henry Kono Sensei was one of them.  Henry went all the way from Canada to learn from O Sensei, but he only got to practice with O Sensei's students.  That got him very frustrated.  O Sensei never called him for demo.  Actually, he would not practice with Henry at all.  Finally, Henry asked a sempai, and was told, "Because you don't know how to take ukemi."  "Ukemi!" Henry exclaimed.  "What is ukemi?  I have to learn this ukemi thing because I want to practice with O Sensei.  I need to touch him."  

With his savings, he could only afford to stay in Japan for four years.  He spent three of those four years to learn ukemi.  Finally, in the last year, O Sensei called him up and tossed him around.  It was the best day of his life.  

Nevertheless, something was still amiss.

"Sensei," he asked O Sensei,"why am I not doing what you are doing?"  

O Sensei laughed and said, "You are not doing what I am doing because you do not understand Yin and Yang."

"I don't understand Yin and Yang?  What is Yin and Yang?  What does it have to do with Aikido?  I want to understand Yin and Yang.  How can I learn about Yin and Yang?"  Henry became obssessed with the question.  Unfortunately, time was up.  He had to go home.  

On his way home, he stopped in Hawaii to housesit for a friend.  There, he sat on the beach to draw the Yin-Yang sign on the sand, and stared at it every day.  "What is Yin and Yang?  What do I not understand about Yin and Yang?"

Sometimes, to succeed, you really need to be crazy about something.  Henry's obsession, apparently, paid off.  On this beach in Hawaii, he had his epiphany.  The moment he got home in Canada, he contacted his good friend Alan to share what he had figured out.  

"What the old man was trying to teach us is very simple but really beautiful!" 

The moment "the secret of Aikido" was explained to Alan, even Alan concurred that, it was on full display in absolute plain sight.  It was not even hidden.  "Everything became so obvious!  Somehow we just could not see it!" Alan exclaimed.

The several times I attended Henry's seminar, he kept trying to get us to see it.  The message was very simple:  "Where Yin and Yang meet, you may never disturb that point."  

Aside from that, according to Henry, pretty much everything else is superfluous.  Even the so-called fundamentals, like standing in hanmi, was optional.  It really blew my mind.  

I looked up videos of Henry and Alan doing Aikido.  They moved just like their teacher.  I firmly believe they were onto something.  In Europe, Alan and Henry had been teaching this Aikido through a network called "Aiki no Michi".

I happened to find out recently that, although Cottier Sensei's book is out of print, Alan's memoir is still available on Amazon on Kindle.  This book is a wonderful collection of stories, precious Aikido photos (many really good ones by Henry Kono), and most of all, an explanation of the secret of Aikido.  

The most amazing part about this book, though?  It costs only $5 and there are, apparently, not a lot of takers!

Can someone help me understand why so many great things seem to be "hidden in plain sight" when they are not even hiding????

"Ki": Drawing by Henry Kono Sensei