Karate-do - aikido - same thing?

A while back in a discussion about karate and aikido, a pretty smart guy quoted some old dead oriental guy as having said something to the effect of, "There is only one martial art."  The idea being we all practice subsets of the one martial art and practice under different names.  Could it be?

I got to thinking about this quote the other day while watching some karate vids on YouTube. I think we're all familiar with Shotokan (though maybe not with this particular kata)...

But some might not know that Shotokan split into two groups, with one group calling themselves Shotokai and practising the same stuff a little differently...

But how many of y'all knew that a group of Shotokai guys went completely off the deep end and started doing aikido, or something that would be easy to mistake for some aikido practices. I give you Shintaido...

Did I say they went off the deep end? Did that seem kinda harsh? How about Shintaido telepathy, ki blasts, and remote controlled ukes...

I'm sure some of you might come back with some talk about untapped human potential and possibilities and unexplained phenomena... Well, I for one would just as soon leave that kind of potential untapped.  My remote control for uke is called shomenate (you might know it by the name palm-heel-to-the-chin ).

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