Kakuyoshi Yamamoto and Kinbei Sato
Keisetsu Yoshimaru (吉丸慶雪) trained under Yukiyoshi Sagawa from 1961 to 1976. After leaving Sagawa Dojo he also trained under Kinbei Sato (佐藤金兵衛), who had trained in Daito-ryu under Kakuyoshi Yamamoto (山本角義), another direct student of Sokaku Takeda.Kakuyoshi Yamamoto was born on March 3rd, on the 3rd year of the Taisho era (1914). Sokaku Takeda would come into the restaurant where Yamamoto was a cook, and despite an initial impression of Takeda as an evil old man, after several visits they began a conversation. "I’m a Bujutsu-ka" said Takeda, and after talking for a while he said "Come and try!", so Yamamoto started training under Sokaku Takeda in Showa year 12 (1937).In Showa year 16 (1941) Yamamoto became an uchi-deshi, and took over much of the care and feeding of Takeda, who was no longer physically able to care for himself. Takeda would apologize "Yamamoto, I’m sorry, I’m sorry", as he was carried on Yamamoto’s back. Yamamoto noticed that Takeda sensei’s abdomen was covered with small cuts. This was from a knife that he would carry in his kimono wrapped in a towel. The knife would often slip out of the towel while he was instructing, causing the small cuts – something that most students would never see. Takeda, a veteran of many violent incidents in his youth, was always armed, and would carry this knife with him at all times until his death.
Yamamoto attended Takeda as he passed away on April 25, Showa year 18 (1943), in a ryokan in Aomori. After Takeda’s death Yamamoto took two Kanji from Takeda’s formal name and changed his first name, Tomekichi, to Kakuyoshi, in order to honor his teacher Takeda Sokaku Minamoto no Masayoshi (武田惣角源正義).Kinbei Sato was born in Taisho year 14 (1925) in Fukushima. Sato studied a large number of arts under a variety of instructors, including the noted Chinese martial artist Wang Shu-jin, and Daito-ryu Aiki-jujutsu with Kakuyoshi Yamamoto.This is the second part of a two part translation of the summary section of "Aikido no Ogi" (合氣道の奥義 / "The Secrets of Aikido") – "Aiki no Rentai" (合気之錬体 / "The Conditioned Body of Aiki"), by Keisetsu Yoshimaru . This section contains a summary of the quotes from Yukiyoshi Sagawa relevant to the conditioning of the body necessary for Aiki.You may want to go back and read part 1 before you continue any further.