Shiho Nage

old skool...

Self defense

Defense is not mentioned in training. Blending, moving on the intent, "Yamabiko no michi". But not defense.

As to "self", most of Aikido training seems to emphasize the distance between the practitioner and his "self".

Hard, Soft and Fierce

It has occurred to me that the distinction between soft and hard Aikido is superficial and confusing. Fierceness is much more interesting and revealing property.

While difficult or impossible to quantify, it is very obvious when it is there and when it is not.

Harmony

Picture this:
You and the uke stand facing each other. Both of you hold a shinken, a proper razor sharp steel sword in front of you, tips barely touching. The uke, raises his sword, steps forward an cuts strongly with the intent of slicing you in two, head to stomach. You step to the right while raising the sword above the head and cutting down to slice through the uke's hands, stopping just short of that. This is migi awase, we use bokken and not live steel, but the feeling should be the same.

The ability to perform smoothly and in sync with the attack, is the core harmony of Aikido.

Iwama 1964

Morihiro Saito in slow motion, Iwama 1964. I wonder who the uke is.
Things that look diferent to me:

• 6:35 Uke initiates on shomenuchi ikkyo.
• 5:00 Sankyo ura looks different.
• 5:45 Very deep entry on shomenuchi nikkyo ura.
• 4:45 Seated pins on yonkyo (omote and ura).
• 1:50 A bokkken suburi (shomenuchi-kaitan-shomenuchi).
• 1:50 The 3rd bokken suburi as we know it today is missing.
• 1:18 Bits of 31 kata look different
• 0:49 The 17th movment (strike to the knee) is high.
• 0:28 The 30th movment includes a hasso element and consequently 31 becomes a right yokomen.
• 0:24 Haven't seen this nice flowing kata before

A short one

Everything is simple, nothing is easy.