Nobuyoshi Tamura; The Eagle of Aikido

In these types of sports, considered to be without rules, one is allowed to hit like this or that; there is no real danger. The notion of life or death is totally absent from these disciplines. Previously, a samurai who fought even if only with a bokken was at risk of death. Their shugyo, or ‘training’, accustomed them to living at the border between life and death and that made all the difference. Today athletes are willing to do anything, even to cheat and dope themselves to win a medal. The youth of today does not practice budo and does not even know what it is. The people who created the budo have long since left us and I wonder sometimes if it is still possible to save these ways. Fortunately there exist people today such as Kuroda Sensei here and there in Japan who maintain this heritage. It is, without doubt, thanks to these people that these ways survive. When Japan entered the Meiji period after the bakumatsu, budo almost disappeared for a few decades. And at this time there weren’t any videos and very little written texts. In addition, the texts that did exist were incomprehensible if an explanation wasn’t provided.

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(https://www.odtuaikido.org/en/2017/08/17/nobuyoshi-tamura-eagle-of-aikido-1/)