By Henry Ellis
The Kenshiro Abbe web site and its
contributors are either direct or indirect students of Kenshiro
Abbe Sensei. Students, who would never refer to themselves as `friends`
of Abbe Sensei, simply privileged students. The visitor will
notice that there is a distinct absence on this web site of
references or contributions from any of the growing number of
people who call themselves `friends`
of Abbe Sensei
Budo and the
Internet
With the advent of computers and the
internet, we are now deluged with information that previously
would have been unavailable or very difficult to find. Due to
this new access to World wide information, we are now seeing so
many claims to have been a direct student or friend of many of
the great and sadly deceased Budo masters. At the same time the
internet offers us the opportunity to research the people making
these claims.
In recent years I have been amazed by the amount of people who
are prepared to simply sit back and allow any
individual or organisation to not only corrupt
our Budo history, but also the proud lineage of our Budo and
that of our teachers. I have seen so many times where people
have written �Does it matter ?� ( Yes! it
does matter ) --- � Who cares �. ---
( I for one care ) � I could not care less ! just
get on the mat and practice � ( Where do you think
the knowledge comes from that you can now get on the mat and
practice ) I find it hard to understand how anyone with
that attitude would want to be involved in the Martial Arts at
all. After all, the very core of our Budo spirit is our
Lineage. If the true Lineage and the History is corrupted,
what do we have to offer the future generations who will know no
different.
Privileged
Students
The late William ( Bill ) Woods Sensei, was
the secretary and personal aide to Abbe Sensei, from his arrival
to the UK in 1955. He was later instrumental in creating the
British Judo Council (BJC ) and the other various Budo
Councils, reaching a membership in excess of 35000, At a
meeting I had with Bill before he became very ill, We discussed
the rising tide of `friends` of Abbe
Sensei, we agreed that this was a cry for credibility by most of
these individuals making these claims. It has in recent years
become more and more common to find various individuals claiming
some kind of lineage to the conveniently deceased Martial Arts
masters. Offering no certification or documentation or
photographic evidence to ratify their claims.
I said to Bill, � Bill, If anyone
should refer to themselves as a friend of Abbe Sensei, It has to
be you, with your close relationship with Abbe Sensei over all
those years.� Bill replied � Harry, we all called
ourselves privileged students of Sensei, perhaps I was a little
more privileged than many others.�
Although I have worked hard with the other
organisers of the � Kenshiro Abbe 50th Celebrations�
In an effort to celebrate the life of Abbe Sensei and his
achievements. I am not, and do not pretend to be an authority on
Abbe Sensei I do receive many emails asking for information or
simple clarification of certain events, where possible, I will
offer my help or advice. For example, one Aikido Dan grade from
the North East of England contacted me to say that his teacher
claimed to have trained at the Hut Dojo, and to be a direct
Aikido student of Abbe Sensei, graded to Dan grade in Aikido by
Abbe Sensei, therefore, could he inform his students that they
were `Indirect` students of Kenshiro Abbe Sensei ? The answer
was no! His teacher was in fact a Judo
student/teacher with the BJC and Abbe Sensei. his teacher had
never trained at the Hut Dojo, he had
never been graded to Dan grade in Aikido by Abbe
Sensei. In fact, I had never seen this teacher practice Aikido.
Unfortunately this teacher is now deceased and nothing is gained
from naming names. I was later advised that when someone wrote
to the organisation of this person asking for some Aikido
history on their teacher, they were informed, � It
was my teacher who persuaded Harry Ellis in 1957 to leave Judo
and join the Aikido section at the Hut Dojo�
Total round objects !!!! I met this person for the first time
in 1963. I had my first conversation with him in 1994.
There was another teacher in the Midlands,
who not only claimed that he was a friend of Abbe Sensei, but
that his wife was also a great friend of Sensei too. The truth
is that he was a student on the early 1960�s seminars where
Sensei Ken Williams and I taught. He was never a direct student
of Abbe Sensei or a friend. Total round objects !!!
There are so many of these stories that both
Gerry Gyngel and Derek Eastman and myself place this at number
one. this claim is still on the offenders website, see below.
�� Mr X ( deceased ) was a great friend of
Kenshiro Abbe Sensei, they met when Abbe Sensei first arrived in
the UK in 1955, they instantly became great friends. They would
sit into the late hours deep in philosophical and
psychological discussions. Total round objects !!!
Those that knew Abbe Sensei will tell you
that his command of the English language was almost zero when
he arrived, and very poor when he left to go back to Japan.
No one that I know who was associated with Abbe Sensei remembers
this man.
There are many such stories. We intend to
protect the name of Abbe Sensei where possible.
Henry Ellis
Co-Author of Positive Aiki
http://www.EllisAikido.org
http://www.geocities.com/britishaikido
http://www.KenshiroAbbe.com