I have been watching this video all week.  I really didn’t have anything disparate to say about his waza at all.  I was more concerned about the uke.  Not the ukemi, but the uke.  The way that they sway and grunt.  The grunting was most bothersome to me, because it’s too telegraphic.  I remember reading an article in Black Belt magazine by Mr. Dave Lowry.  It was about how a uke shouldn’t telegraph too much when receiving waza.  Ideally, there should be no wriggling or writhing in agony, no moaning or grunting, just a simple transition the the required ukemi posture, with a simple tap.  The ideal is not to reveal any weakness.  If anything, that would be my criticism, the over telegraphic ukemi.  As see states, his Aiki, or Aiki in general, is not something that you can understand just by seeing it.  Having only seen this particular display, I still reserve my full criticism, if any, of the uke.

The actual ukemi was great.  Some very fluid and alive centers.  The musubi, the connection to nage, was marvelous.  The tobu ukemi was a pleasure to watch, especially the awareness that the uke show in the randori and jiyu sequences.

The waza was nice.  There was a display of everything in principle that makes Aikido what it is, and it was shown well, in my opinion.  There was movement that was clearly based on ken and jo waza, and he moved the same, whether he was armed or unarmed.  There was irimi, kime, atemi, kiai, musubi, awase, sasoe – all done at a very high level.  This, you can see clearly from the video.  There was a lot of old school waza in there if you look closely, some things that are more common in older schools of Jujutsu, older styles of Aikido, and more “advanced” variations in recent styles of Aikido.  There was a lot of Takemusu, where waza was created on the spot.

He looked a lot like some of the footage of O’Sensei in his later years.  I was reminded of Tohei, Ikeda, Saotome, Yamano, and James Williams.  Some of these people I have seen in person, some only on video, but it would be who I would compare his movement to.

Most interesting was his refusal to accept the dichotomy physical and nonphysical waza.  He called it an arbitrary decision that people make, and that the decision to connect with a partner “physically” or through ki was just as arbitrary.  He makes no distinction between the two, and appears to have a preference for neither.

It’s marvelous to me because even though Aikido is still a very young martial art, we still do not have all of the facts.  We’re still unraveling all of the things that O’Sensei did.  We’re still unraveling things like Tohei and Ikeda’s waza.  We’re still unraveling the buki and kihon and kokyu of Saito.  We’re still unraveling kinesthetic waza of Kanai.  We’re still unraveling osae and kansetsu waza of Chiba and Bernath.  We’re still unraveling the high energy waza of Tissier.  I see we, but really, I should only speak for myself.  Aikido has so many proper expressions, it’s a hydra, it’s so hard to pin down.  The more time I spend trying to clearly define my own practice, I realize that as soon as I choose a particular method to focus on, I miss out on so much more.

When I posted about Mr. Barrish on Aikido Journal, Mr. Toby Threadgill, Kaicho of Takamura ha Shindo Yoshin Ryu, had this to say:

Rev Barrish has been a rather controversial character in the aikido community. The first time I saw a video of Rev. Koichi Barrish I reacted the way i imagine most do. It looked like over cooperative uke’s flipping around in a demonstration of unconscious collusion…or worse. I remained of that opinion for years…..Then a couple of years ago I visited Rev Barrish concerning questions I had surrounding Shindo Yoshin ryu’s involvement in esoteric Shinto. I found him to be quite pleasant and extremely helpful. He answered my questions in depth and asked for nothing in return.

During a later extended visit to the Jinja in 2007, Rev Barriish again provided a plethora of information, expanding greatly upon our previous discussions concerning Shinto. One afternoon over tea he invited me to observe one of his evening aikido classes. Frankly I didn’t know what to expect given what I had seen on video previously. Well, I was surprised as what I witnessed that evening looked nothing like the video I’d seen previously. I observed good solid aikido employing crisp atemi and clean throwing technique. There were no overly copperative uke’s flipping around at the least provocation. I was especially impressed with Rev Barrish’s solid control of his tanden. I would consider his aikido far above the average I have seen in my travels.

I have a very cordial relationship with Rev Barrish these days and am a formal member of the Kannagara Jinja. I invite him come to Colorado every year to perform Oharai at the TSYR Hombu dojo. He has always been a gentleman and an asset to our deeper appreciation of Shinto in TSYR.

I would like very much to see more footage of Mr. Barrish, in a class setting, like Mr. Threadgill described.