This is really remarkable. In an interview published at Aikido Journal, Past Doshu Kisshomaru Ueshiba gives an opinion and some extra details about a legendary meeting between Jigoro Kano and Morihei Ueshiba:
...Jigoro Kano, the founder of Kodokan Judo, paid a visit to the Mejiro dojo in October 1930. Kano, a cosmopolitan, English-speaking intellectual, was in most respects the diametrical opposite of the old-fashioned mystic Morihei, but he too was dazzled by Morihei’s techniques. ‘This is the ideal budo — true Judo’, Kano exclaimed after witnessing Morihei’s performance....DOSHU: This is a much-talked-about story. However, since I was in the fourth year of elementary school then, I do not know any details. It is true that Kano Sensei was really impressed with my father’s techniques. I understand that Kano Sensei did say, “This is real budo, the true Judo.” I also understand that his student named Mr. Hideyuki Nagaoka then asked a question in return, “Does that mean that what we are practicing is not true Judo then?” I have heard that in answering this question Kano Sensei replied, “That’s not the case. Kodokan Judo is the Judo of 90 degree angles and Aikido is the Judo of 180 degree angles.” Although many people have talked about things which occurred later I am not familiar with the details.
This business about Kano saying that Kodokan is the judo of 90-degree angles, while aikido is the judo of 180-degree angles. That rings true to me and is very reminiscent of what my teachers seem to have been trying to beat into my head for years now in both aikido and judo - that aikido and judo are opposite sides of the same coin, and that the difference between these two arts has something to do with that Kitoryu 2-direction principle that we're always talking about.
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Patrick Parker, is a Christian, husband, father, judo and aikido teacher, Program Director for a Cardiac Rehab, and a Ph.D. Contact: mokurendojo@gmail.com or phone 601.248.7282
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