and now let’s take a brief pause to remember some of the pitfalls of text-based communication… you are correct, i took it personally, because i have some really good friends (go-out-and-hit-on-young-women-at-bars kind of friends) who also happen to have high ranks in taido. i (and they) realize that there are some decidedly awful “leaders” in the upper echelons of that taido hierarchy. i also talk to some of those awful black belts and realize that they think they are doing things right. it’s hard to make a quick statement about that kind of stuff because we all have our strengths and weaknesses (except me; i’m perfect), and that’s exactly why we have organizations and associations.

anyway, i apologize for being abrasive and thank you for clarifying your intentions. i understand that you we trying to be humorous, and in a different mood, i may have found your post to be the funniest thing i had read since the last time i graded english exams. i really do appreciate good satire, but being as it’s almost absent from japanese culture, perhaps i’ve lost my sense for it. besides that, you have to admit that there is a good share of “ironic” masking going around these days when people have a sour-grapes reaction. anyway, i see where you are coming from now, and you bring up a couple of interesting points that i’d like to address.

re: some people running taido into the ground
not going to happen. here’s the reality. these guys are too old to run taido into the ground, try as they may. we won’t let them.

the truth is, the old guys are going to die. i don’t mean to be morbid, but they didn’t get to their current positions by being the types of people to hand over the reigns or delegate well. they will hold on to as much control as they can until their cold, black hearts stop pumping, but then they will be gone, and we won’t have to deal with them anymore. granted, they have students, and they’ve been teaching these students that their way is the best way. some of the 30 – 50 set in japan has adopted the antiquated and stupid ways of the “bad” teachers, but i’m not convinced that these people are totally sold on the dark side. let’s also not forget that there are also some really great teachers who are doing wonderful things and trying to make taido the best it can be.

over the past year especially, i’ve been on a campaign of sorts, making as many friends as i can in taido. it’s been a lot of fun, and i’ve learned that there is hope for taido – even in japan. the guys who are a little younger and older than me in taido are pretty much all great people. yeah, there’s a couple of narcissists and power-hungry wannabe tyrants, but they are the minority. the future generation of taido leaders is actually very cool. i’ve been hanging out and getting to know them. we respect each other. we’re not going to let historical politics get in the way of our friendship and mutual love of taido. that’s a real commitment that we hope to expand by promoting greater international exchange and friendship in our art.

the other relevant consideration is that hierarchies naturally subvert themselves. the corporate model of business is finding this out more and more in america, and i think we’ll be seeing more examples in the martial arts as more sites like 24fc, ktjw, and even taido/blog begin to pop up. as you said, people speaking their minds. read cluetrain, and you’ll have an idea of what i mean by this. japanese taido got sucked into becoming a collegiate clubsport in order to build numbers, and this has proven to be at odds with the stated objectives of out art. unfortunately, we haven’t have the means to honestly and earnestly promote quality taido. this is slowly but surely turning around as the japanese college athletes graduate and become members of society, and as non-japanese associations begin to communicate more freely and cut the umbilicus from japan taido.

given the expectation to do taido for at least 100 years, it’s easy for me to take this long perspective on things. while it may seem that taido is being mutilated and destroyed right now, if enough of us who have higher intentions stick around, things will improve. the problem in the past is that those who wanted to improve things couldn’t handle the politics and gave up (i could give you a list). we’re getting to the point that we no longer have to quit taido when we have different ideas.

one other thing i want to briefly address is that you mention that the post-shukumine leadership is questionable. i couldn’t agree more, and many japanese taidoka are on our side as well. however, i should point out that even shukumine’s leadership was questionable at times. one could look at genseiryu and get an idea of the kinds of messes he created there. shukumine played favorites and held out promotions as carrots on a stick at times. he was a brilliant martial artist, but perhaps not the greatest of managers. let’s not forget that he grew up in pre-war japan and what that says about the ideas and attitudes that were instilled in him as a young man. keep in mind, i loved him and love what he had to say, but he also had flaws, made mistakes, built ideas on false assumptions and bad information, had an ego, was very competitive, and was constantly being bombarded with people calling him master and bowing and scraping around him. just some things to consider.

re: unsoku rules and other competition stuff
ah, the ever-changing rules of jissen – a constant source of confusion and disillusionment for non-japanese students. yes, the japanese judges are constantly changing the rules, and they tend to forget to forward those memos outside of their own borders. that said, i think the rules regarding unsoku are almost necessary. actually, they were designed to fix a few distinct issues that arose with lower-level competitors. essentially, they are a patch (though we should really focus on solving such problems at their source – our methods of teaching, practice, and evaluation).

what was happening is that people started getting black belts sooner than they had been. this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it results in people entering competitions with much less taido experience than before. these students were able to pass the tests to make shodan and above because those examinations consist of a multiple-choice quiz and a single hokei performance. young, athletic college students could easily focus on performing clean hokei and pass their shinsa. however, they tend to be severely underdeveloped in their abilities to apply taido as a budo. particularl, they have learned to mimic the forms, but don’t understand the subtleties of application. this was most obvious in their use of unsoku to control distance. just so i don’t sound as if i’m picking on the japanese college clubs, we in the states have also have problems learning to use unsoku with finesse instead of merely forcing our opponents with strength (not that strength is bad – but it isn’t always the best answer).

so some rules were changed and others were newly created to “encourage” better unsoku. instead, they have made things worse because they require competitors to almost pantomime unsoku (what you call excessive unsoku) instead of simply using the most efficient and effective movement for the situation. it actually reminds me very much of when i had to take my driving test over here: you can’t just look in the mirror – you have to turn your head and show that you are looking so the examiner can see it.

and now, we have similar things happening with unshin. of course, i shoudl be sure to point out that the genkaku (flipping around in the corner) rule was shukumine’s idea. since it is so easy to dominate a physical boundary with strength or size (and let’s not forget that shukumine specifically intended for these to be non-factors in taido), he decided to make things more interesting by making the more-agressive player allow the cornered player to escape. in essence, genkaku was intended to make things fairer and encourage the use of unshin. the latest evolution of the rule allows continuous techniques to be used instead of unshin, which i think is a step in the right direction as far as fairness is concerned.

i have only attended one world championship in taido, and i don’t know specifically what incident you refer to with the main judge screwing up the scores or making a hasty and incorrect decision. however, it happens. it happens all the time, and that sucks. it happens in america too. last year, at our 30th anniversary tournament, i was actually embarrassed by the judging at a couple of points. but that’s the nature of judging competitions – it’s subjective, and the judges are set up as infallible, though they are every bit as human as the next guy.

i know what you mean about about the focus on tengi and unshin. the reason it has been so blown out of proportion is that it was one of shukumine’s favorite ideas and one of the ones he was pushing near the time of his death. i think it’s great fun and has a world of applicability (and have even written a short article about it), but i hate how it is abused for its own sake.

re: makiwara
i don’t do it; i don’t advise it. it can be great practice if done right, but so few people do it right (and i’m talking about people who have been hitting them for twenty years or more). there are better ways to learn punching mechanics for most people, like hitting a heavy bag (which most people also do totally incorrectly). as a musician, have a policy about doing things which could cause me to destroy any part of my hands. however, under the right circumstances, i could probably be persuaded to teach correct makiwara training to a select group of students. for most students though, the lure to practice poorly is too strong when it comes to training aids that provide feedback – they want to get feedback that looks positive more than they wish to actually prefect their technique.

I should also say there are some great higher degree blackbelts too all over Europe and Japan, and are moving Taido in the right direction.

and that’s the reason to be optimistic. you probably wouldn’t be too surprised to hear that students in japan (and elsewhere) express similar concerns regarding american taido. most of their arguments are quite similar to the ones you present, but the focus is somewhat shifted. i always tell them the same thing: be optimistic – there are good guys and bad guys, and contrary to what dark helmet says, the good guys do usually win. bad guys have a bad habit of either giving up or self-destructing.

though i may get passed up for promotion by lesser taidoka, i’m one of the good guys, and most of those lesser black belts have the good sense to realize it. despite my “low” rank, i often have 5th, 6th, and 7th degree black belts asking me for information, instruction, or advice about taido. at first, this made me feel a little depressed, but then i understood that it’s actually a huge upside that they know to seek appropriate counsel. i take it as a reminder that, as i get older and move up the ranks, i’ll never be immune to fallacious logic and faulty theory. as much as i work to teach my students the things i’ve learned, i have to stay open to learn from them when i’m either wrong or just clueless. if more of us hold that idea, then we will eventually outnumber those who are creating a negative vibe in taido. that will indeed move us all in a better direction for the future.