Otake Risuke, Weekend quotes - 16.12.2011

When I consider what is happening today in the world I cannot help but regret that people everywhere are too eager to search after that which they think is new, to the gross neglect of things old, and never realizing that whatever is being rejected at an alarming rate of increase is that which is intrinsically good. This tendency is nonetheless true in today so-called world of Budo (Martial ways). The number of persons who engage in Budo training is increasing and some competent instructors are endeavoring to transmit the correct values of Budo to their students. But what is most deplorable is that the majority of Budo forms being thought today are quite different in form and spirit from those of the original classical ones. Today's Budo has lost its original flavor and has become simply a recreative pastime for the general public.

Written by Otake Risuke Minamoto-no-Takeyuri, the headmaster of Tenshin Shoden Katori Shinto Ryu At Miyashimo, Chiba perfecture December 1976