Interviewer: What do you think about strength in Aikido?
Kato: Strength is many things, isn't it? Taking other people down is one strength. But persistence in practice, and becoming good at dealing with others, are also strengths. It is holistic, I think.  It may be easier to train the body to take people down. Showing strength in Wa (peace) and Musubi (connection) is very different from that. It is more difficult to attain and requires more strength. Unless strength is found in embracing others with a full-fledged humanitarian perspective, it is not pertaining to strength in Aikido.  It is. important to ask oneself "What is Aikido?" and develop one's own perspective. If you choose not to fight, then why don't you do that? Searching for ultimate answers like that is a necessity in doing Aikido.

Aikido is not Kumiuchi, traditional martial techniques for fighting. If Aikido were like techniques for fighting, the way of practice itself would be totally different. But Aikido practice consists of ways to develop ourselves and each other.  Of course, it is not saying that being weak is acceptable-through our experience of strength we are not tempted to fight. Aikido is not about competition. A person who has true strength does not fight. 

Again, going back to the regular meetings with Osensei, on one particular day, some writers who were specializing in Japanese tales of Samurai and Shogun came to see the founder. The authors started to talk about the technique of Sen sen no sen (responding before an attack) and Ato no sen (countering an attack). And the founder started to say, there are no such things. In Aikido, people win even before their fight starts. He had a view of winning that encompassed everything, that makes it into oneness, and a value system that transcends the concept of winning and losing.

Master Kisshomaru, Osensei's son, was like that also.  He was really a tough teacher. Especially in terms of judging students, his perception and discernment of people's integrity was very strong.  Although I don't mean he was a cold person. And above all, he acknowledged teachers who had a strong individual style.  That is wonderful. It is hard to acknowledge someone who is doing a different Aikido from one's own.  In order to do that, it requires extreme generosity as a human being.  That is also one of the strengths found in Aikido. It is very different from how skillfully you can perform your technique.  Train yourself alone.