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Finding Aiki – and Aikido – in Hawaii

September 1964 Aikido Seminar at Andrews Gym in Hilo Hawaii
Second Row: Meyer Goo, left, seated next to Sadao Yoshioka
Front Row: Koichi Tohei, Yukiso Yamamoto, Gyokuei Matsuura, Yorio Wakatake
Aikido arrived in Hawaii with Koichi Tohei in 1953, its first expansion to the United States after the war. One of the students that Koichi Tohei attracted in his trips to the Hawaiian islands was the young Meyer Goo.
After a period of rapid growth, spearheaded by Tohei in frequent trips from Japan, Aikido Founder Morihei Ueshiba O-Sensei arrived in 1961 to dedicate the Honolulu Aiki Dojo, the first Dojo outside of Japan built specifically for Aikido.
Koichi Tohei had warned Meyer Goo (who was something of a fighter) not to try and take ukemi for the Founder. Meyer, wanting to feel the Founder’s power for himself, ignored the warning and stepped up anyway – that story of Meyer’s experience with O-Sensei will appear in a future article.
Still actively teaching today in his 90’s after hip replacement surgery, Meyer Goo sensei became a seminal figure in the establishment of Aikido in the United States.
He helped to establish Aikido in New York before the New York Aikikai ever existed, along with Virginia Mayhew, Eddie Hagihara and Ralph Glanstein. Ralph, who would later teach at the Windward Aikido Club, decided to follow Meyer back to Hawaii in 1963, ten days after he told him “Hey kiddo, you oughtta come to Hawaii. We got great teachers there. We got all the good ones.”.
Later on, Meyer’s remarks to Bernie Lau (the first Haole to train in Aikido in Hawaii) would start Bernie, and subsequently Stan Pranin, down the road to an investigation of Sokaku Takeda and Daito-ryu Aiki-jujutsu (from “Aikido: Seattle Aikijujutsu Pioneer Bernie Lau“):
So Lau began collecting old photos. This led him to an exchange of letters and ideas with the San Diego-based martial arts instructor Fred Lovret. During the mid-1960s, Meyer Goo had mentioned a turn-of-the-century Japanese martial art teacher named Sokaku Takeda, who was whispered to have been a teacher of Morihei Ueshiba. The Aikikai downplayed this story, but it was persistent. So when Lovret said, “Oh yes, that story is true,” and then gave Lau an address for Takeda’s son Tokimune, Lau immediately wrote Takeda a letter. And, via the sneaky policeman’s trick of including a $50 bill in the envelope, he even got a detailed, helpful, response.
His research also led him to Don Angier, an aikijujutsu instructor from Long Beach, California, and to aikido researcher and journalist Stan Pranin. In 1985, Pranin met with Tokimune Takeda in Hokkaido, and there became convinced that there was a connection between aikido and Daito-ryu aikijujutsu. A few years later, Pranin spent several days visiting Lau at his house. After looking at Lau’s pictures of Sokaku Takeda and other turn-of-the-century aikijujutsu practitioners, Pranin said, “Can I get copies of these?” As a result, many of Lau’s pictures have appeared in Aikido Journal over the years.
In November 2012 Meyer Goo attended the Kona, Hawaii “Internal training, Aiki and Empowering Aikido” with Dan Harden that was hosted by Aiki Kai O Kona.

Meyer Goo and Dan Harden in Kona, Hawaii – November 2012
Here’s what he said to Dan at that workshop – “Thank you, I never thought that I would feel Ueshiba Sensei’s power again. What you are doing is very important. Don’t stop. No matter what they say.”.
When told that some people believe that the material covered at the workshops is unrelated to Aikido, Meyer Goo’s answer was short and to the point – “Who are these people, did they train with Ueshiba Sensei?”.
In December 2013 Goo sensei attended a second of Dan’s workshops, and also taught a short mini-class at the Kona workshop. Two reviews from the December 2013 workshops appear below, one from the Honolulu workshop and one from the Kona workshop. Enjoy!
(more…)
March 2, 2014
Aikido en het Onbekende [Dutch Version]
“Takemusu Aiki” by Morihei Ueshiba, edited by Hideo Takahashi
*This is a Dutch translation of the article “Aikido and the Unknown – What don’t we know and why don’t we know it…“, courtesy of Ernesto Lemke of Seikokan Aikido.
Wat we niet weten en waarom we het niet weten….
Toen Sam Chin vorig jaar Hawaii bezocht vertelde hij ons (samengevat) dat het niet zo slecht is om niet te weten – zolang je maar weet dat je niet weet. Dat sloeg bij mij echt de juiste snaar– is dit niet waar het probleem daadwerkelijk begint?
Toen ik met Aikido begon was er erg weinig informatie beschikbaar (in het Engels). Wat er wel voor handen was – zo weten we inmiddels- was een gekuiste versie. Hier is een goed voorbeeld van de Aikido Journal website en hier een ander van Meik Skoss op de Koryu.com website. Vergeleken met nu waren er veel minder buitenlanders die Japans spraken, laat staan dat zij de originele Japanse bronnen konden lezen. Daar kwam bij dat de meeste Japanners een min of meer uniforme versie van de geschiedenis en bijzonderheden van Aikido presenteerden.
Tegenwoordig zijn er echter honderden boeken over Aikido beschikbaar in het Engels – en andere talen – dus wat is het probleem? (more…)
February 21, 2013
Aikido and the Unknown
“Takemusu Aiki” by Morihei Ueshiba, edited by Hideo Takahashi
What don’t we know and why don’t we know it…
When Sam Chin visited Hawaii last year he told us (I’m paraphrasing) that it’s not so bad not to know – as long as you know that you don’t know. That struck a certain cord with me – isn’t this really the first part of the problem?
When I started in Aikido there was very little information available in English. What was available was, we know now, highly sanitized – here’s a good example from the Aikido Journal website, and another one by Meik Skoss on the Koryu.com website. There were far fewer non-Japanese who could speak Japanese at that time, let alone read the original sources, and most of the Japanese in the public eye presented a more-or-less uniform representation of the history and particulars of Aikido.
Now, of course, there are hundreds of books out in English on the subject of Aikido – so what’s the problem?
Well, the material in English, especially that from original sources, is more of an overview than a detailed analysis of the material – a real academic translation has yet to be done.
In fact, the original materials produced by Aikido Founder Morihei Ueshiba are so difficult to read that even most Japanese people decline to read it in their own native language. If they do read it – well, without a particular background and experience there’s just no decoding the stuff. Worse, when we read it in English, not only is it through the lens of the translator and their understanding, but it’s completely out of the context of the world in which the Founder lived, which is highly specialized and complex, and out of the context of certain other specialized fields that are really essential to figuring out what’s going on.
Dan Harden at the 2015 Sangenkai Workshop in Hawaii
I know, I tried, and it didn’t make any sense at all until years later through the lens of greater knowledge in certain areas, and for that I will be eternally grateful to the generosity of Dan Harden, who has been kind enough to share his training with us.
That’s not to denigrate what’s been done so far in terms of English translations, everything has to start somewhere. John Stevens told me himself that he considered his translation of “Takemusu Aiki”, which remains the most complete collection of the Founder in his own words, to be a kind of “Takemusu Aiki – Lite“, so that it would be at least semi-comprehensible to a general audience.
Still, we’re left with a situation in which most Aikido instructors and students, whether they are native-Japanese speakers or not, have no idea what the Founder of their art said or wrote in any detailed way.
Aha! You say, your teacher is a direct student of the Founder, an uchi-deshi, and learned at the feet of the master. Unfortunately, most of the uchi-deshi were young kids without the background to understand the content of the lectures, or the patience to endure the pain of sitting and listening to the Founder on cold winter mornings – they said it themselves. Here are a few examples – these are from interviews in Japanese that are not yet published in English, but Stan Pranin has a number of similar quotes in interviews on the Aikido Journal website:
Shoji Nishio
Q: Why has the substance (of Aikido technique) been lost?
A: Nobody listened to what O-Sensei was saying. They just tried to remember the outer form of the technique. Even though O-Sensei said “What use is it to just copy my technique? If you do a technique once it’s already finished.”. Because he spoke like a Kami-sama (God) they thought that nothing he said could be understood, and didn’t even try to pay attention when they were listening. Much later on when they’ve forgotten everything sometimes they’d remember “Ah, so that’s what that meant”. That’s why most people’s practice today is empty. They don’t look at other types of Budo. Right from the start, the value of a Budo is determined by comparisons with other Budo.
Yoshio Kuroiwa
Q: I’ve heard that the lectures were quite long.
A: I hated it (laughing). He’d talk about the Kojikki and things, but my legs would fall asleep and I couldn’t understand anything, it just made me cry. Thinking of it now really brings things back.
Yasuo Kobayashi
Q: Is it true that there was no technical discussion?
A: In terms of how to apply specific techniques, some people say that O-Sensei said this or that, but as far as I was concerned I never heard any such explanation.
Nobuyoshi Tamura
O-Sensei would slip into the dojo, show a few techniques, and then slip out. If he felt like it he would speak for a while. We were all young, so mostly we just wanted to get on with the practice. (on the content of the lectures) He would talk about the gods – Izanagi, Izanami and so forth. In Sakurazawa-shiki (Macrobiotics) they have some of the same ideas, so I thought that he was speaking about something concerning In and Yo, but that’s about as much as I understood.
Nobuyuki Watanabe
Q: The Founder used to speak a lot about the Kojikki (“A Record of Ancient Affairs”), didn’t he?
A: Yes. One time the Founder brought in a diagram of the human body and gave an explanation while holding a copy of the Kojikki in one hand. While pointing out muscle and bones on the diagram he gave a very detailed explanation, saying things like “This is Naohi (correct spirit)” and so forth. However, at the time I just wondered what it all meant. It was just once, so I can’t remember the details very well.
Yoshimitsu Yamada
Q: There wasn’t any explanation of the techniques?
A: No, no. Just difficult speeches about the Kojikki, and then he’d throw you and say “Like this!”. However, he often said that Aikido changes every day.
So here’s the first part of the problem – most people don’t even know that they don’t know. What that means is that most people are happily doing whatever they’re doing with no idea that there is, or ought to be, something else, the training that Morihei Ueshiba engaged in every day from the day he met Sokaku Takeda at the Hisada Inn in 1915 until he passed away in Tokyo in 1969.
Now, why don’t we know it?
I think that it’s possible to make a very strong case that much of the historical record was deliberately altered or obscured, Stan Pranin’s work shows much of that.
It’s also possible to make a very strong case that the students of the Founder missed a lot – that what they got they got by feel, through being thrown directly by the Founder. A corrolary to this is that those students who got a little or a lot of something from the Founder then had problems transmitting those things in turn to their students. It’s easy to see how this leads to a breakdown in the transmission, a steady degradation of skills where the students of the Founder never quite match the level of the Founder, the students of the students never reach the level of their teachers and so on.
Worse than either of those things is that many of us have become comfortable with not really knowing or understanding what the Founder was talking about. Ask most senior Aikido instructors for clear explanation of the terms and goals expressed in “Takemusu Aiki” and you’ll get…very little. It is incredible, to me, that an instructor in an art is comfortable with not understanding clearly the speech of the Founder of their art.
Lastly, for now, “Why don’t we care?” – this is another thing that is incredible to me, but I suppose that it is typical of people in general and not a problem specific to Aikido. People are generally happy doing what they’re doing and have been doing, and the longer they’ve been doing it the less they question.
It is amazing to me how few people, for example, question the “traditional” ranking system in Aikido even though the “tradition” only began in the 1940’s, and was really started to conform with the Japanese government’s attempt to regulate the martial arts under the Dai-Nippon Butokukai.
It ought to be the responsibility of each and every one of us in Aikido to be active in discovering what we don’t know, and how we can learn those things, and to care about the process.
Further, I think that it behooves each of us to have a clear understanding of what the Founder thought about his art, what his technical, philosophical, and spiritual goals were and to be able to express those things in a clear and cogent manner.
Otherwise, how can you really say that you are training in the art of Morihei Ueshiba?
Morihei Ueshiba meditates on top of Haleakala, Maui, 1961
Published by: Christopher Li – Honolulu, HI
February 18, 2012
Interview with Aikido Shihan Morito Suganuma – Part 2
Morito Suganuma and Aikido Founder Morihei Ueshiba
“I show everybody the secrets everyday”
What I try to keep in mind is to follow O-Sensei’s teachings and philosophy, at least my understanding and interpretation of his teachings. I want to convey what O-Sensei himself taught to Aikido students. The most important thing, as O-Sensei used to say, is don’t get injured, don’t do wrong things, and don’t force techniques. Rather than show how strong you are, cultivate each other, and work together to show Aikido’s good techniques. This is how we become good Aikidoists. This is what O-Sensei said.
O-Sensei also used to say something like all the people in the world should work, hand in hand, to create or develop a peaceful world. This is how we help society to work to achieve the idea of this kind of world. I try to do this through Aikido. When I have a chance, I always tell this to Aikido students.
Interview with Morito Suganuma Shihan
USAF Eastern Region Summer Camp – August 2003
Living and training in Japan we would often say “Kobayashi in the east and Suganuma in the west” – referring to the large networks of Aikido schools established by Yasuo Kobayashi Sensei in eastern Japan and Morito Suganuma Sensei in western Japan.
In 1970, shortly after Aikido Founder Morihei Ueshiba passed away, Suganuma Sensei was dispatched to Fukuoka by Ni-Dai Doshu Kisshomaru Ueshiba as the Aikikai’s representative for the Kyushu area of Japan. Today the network of schools that he established boasts some 70 dojo and more than 4,000 students.
This is the second part of a two part interview with Suganuma Sensei that originally appeared in the January 2005 issue of Gekkan Hiden (月刊秘伝 / “Secret Teachings Monthly”), a well known martial arts magazine in Japan. You may wish to read Part 1 before reading this section.
This interview was also published in a collection of interviews with students of the Founder published in Japanese as 開祖の横顔 (“Profiles of the Founder”) in 2009. There was a short introduction to this work in the article “Morihei Ueshiba – Profiles of the Founder“. A number of English translations of interviews from that collection appeared have appeared previously – Nobuyoshi Tamura Sensei (Part 1 | Part 2), Hiroshi Isoyama Sensei (Part 1 | Part 2), Shigenobu Okumura Sensei (Part 1 | Part 2), Nobuyuki Watanabe Sensei (Part 1 | Part 2), Masatake Fujita Sensei (Part 1 | Part 2) , Yoshimitsu Yamada Sensei (Part 1 | Part 2), Kanshu Sunadomari Sensei (Part 1 | Part 2), Hiroshi Kato Sensei (Part 1 | Part 2) and Yoshio Kuroiwa Sensei (Part 1 | Part 2).
Morito Suganuma (菅沼守人) Sensei
Interview with Aikido Shihan Morito Suganuma – Part 2
“Shiai” (試合 – “competition) is “shiai” (死合 – ”joining in death”) – an exchange of lives.
Q: Were there many young people among the students at that time?
A: Yes, there were. The Giants coach Hiroshi Arakawa (*Translator’s note – 荒川博, mentioned here）, Hiroshi Hiraoka (*Translator’s note: 平岡煕 – the “father of Japanese baseball”, mentioned here), and Sunao Sonoda (園田直), who would later become the Minister of Health, Labor and Welfare, also received instruction from O-Sensei. Coach Arakawa was extremely enthusiastic about his training and would run to training in the morning (laughing), we would train together. Arakawa-san published a book called “Can you become Sadaharu Oh?” (君は王貞治になれるか), and most of what he wrote there are things from Aikido. It must have had a great influence on the way that he thought about baseball.
Coach Hiroshi Arakawa watches Sadaharu Oh practice cutting – 1964
“Can you become Sadaharu Oh?” (君は王貞治になれるか)
Q: Is there something in particular that you remember from your days as an uchi-deshi?
A: Sensei would speak very quickly in a typical Wakayama accent. The long time students were used to it, but it was difficult for me to understand. One day in the midst of a discussion at the dojo he directed me to do something, but he spoke so quickly that I couldn’t really understand what he meant. I could only understand that he said “go get something“. (laughing) But O-Sensei didn’t like to be asked to repeat himself, so when I cocked my head in puzzlement he shouted at me “read the situation!” (気を読め!). So I said “yes”, but when I brought the usual scroll with the symbolic portrait that I talked about earlier he yelled “Not that!” angrily. (laughing) But after that his mood shifted suddenly and he said “I used to have a body like this…”. When O-Sensei became angry he would become really angry, but he would cool down swiftly and he never held a grudge. His mood changes were sudden.
Q: “Read the situation” seems to be something that the Founder would teach…
A: That’s right. In any case, one really couldn’t ask “what was that?” while he was speaking. I was told, “When you’re told to do something you must react immediately, if you can’t do that then you’ll never be a fully qualified Budoka!”. One can’t just ask carelessly “Sensei, what did you mean?”. That was really a major blunder.
Also, and I remember this clearly even now, he was very strict about time. At demonstrations, even from quite a bit of time before, he would start asking “Are we still OK? Will we make it?”. Also when we would go out someplace he’d say “Always leave with the intention of riding on the previous train”. If there was a train that left at exactly nine o’clock then we’d have to be on the platform in time for the train that left just before that one. My sempai would say “Ichi Kisha Mae” (一汽車前 – “One Train Ahead”). Since one never knew what might happen on the way there we would always make sure that there was extra time – even now I still teach this lesson.
Morito Suganuma and Aikido Founder Morihei Ueshiba wait for a train
Q: Now that you mention it, I remember seeing a photograph of you holding O-Sensei’s bag on a train platform…
A: Yes, I often accompanied O-Sensei as an “otomo” (“attendant”) when he went out. As I recall now, there was one year that we went to Iwama near the Obon season. Since the steam train was crowded I boarded first and went to look for an open seat, but somehow I lost sight of O-Sensei. (laughing) At the time I hadn’t been an uchi-deshi for very long, and I thought “Oh no, what a disaster!” – though I looked left and right, back and forth, I couldn’t find him anywhere. After a while, at a loss as to what to do, there was nothing else left but to call Hombu Dojo – “Idiot! O-Sensei’s already come back!”. (laughing) I got a vigorous scolding later on.
Q: (laughing) I there something that the Founder said that was especially memorable?
A: One day during morning training one of the beginners said “O-Sensei, instead of always doing the same things, could you teach us some of the secrets every once in a while?”. As I was thinking “he’s going to get angry now…”, O-Sensei just laughed and smiled “I show everybody the secrets everyday”, he said. In other words, the secrets are not any special kind of thing, he meant “the secrets are in the day-to-day repetition”. When I heard that I thought “that’s right!”. Every day’s training was certainly a repetition of basics, but it is because they are important that we repeat them. “When you are lost, return to the basics”, some people say, and even today I keep those two things in mind when I train.
Q: Was there some times that the Founder became particularly angry?
A: Rather than “angry”, I would say that his tone of voice became strongly remonstrative, and that was with regards to competitive contests that tested techniques against one another. “Shiai (“competition”) is “shiai” (“joining in death”), it means an exchange of lives, so it’s not something to participate in lightly for the comparison of strength.”, he would always say. O−Sensei himself lived through the scenes of many battles, so it may be that he was unable to approve of contests for the comparison of strength in this peaceful era.
Aikido’s youth power – from right:
Norihiko Ishihashi Shihan, Nobuyuki Watanabe Shihan, Morito Suganuma Shihan
Hiroshi Arakawa, Kenji Shimizu Shihan, Minoru Kurita Shihan
‘Serious’ means to tighten the gaps
Q: I have heard that you also practice Zen?
A: Our family originally belonged to the Soto Zen Buddhist sect, so I had that connection, and by chance I had a connection to the Zen Master Shinryu Umeda (梅田信隆 – former director of Soto Zen Buddhism), so I became a student in Showa year 56 (1981).
Calligraphy by Shinryu Umeda
「無心なれば大道に帰す」 – “Mushin nareba daido ni kisu”
“Having no mind you return to the Great Way”
Meaning that a mind free of desire and attachments
is the mind of enlightenment.
Q: How is your training going?
A: I have learned many things from both Zen and Umeda Zenji. When I first began I was told “value the present”. “There is no yesterday or tomorrow, what is important is right now. The continuation of the present becomes your life, so make the present the most important.” – I remember those words even now.
Q: What is important for you in the transmission of Aikido as Budo?
A: The technical is important, of course, but first what is important is one’s mental attitude. One’s everyday speech and conduct, their attitude – the importance of “one strike with the hand, one throw with the legs” (一拳手一投足). Also, in the old dojo one day O-Sensei suddenly asked me “Suganuma, do you understand what ‘serious’ is”?” (真面目 – “majime”) – “‘Serious’ means to tighten the gaps – because idiots leave them open.”, I was told. At the time I didn’t really get it, but now I think that it is to correct oneself, regulate oneself, and that from this stems mastery of the etiquette of Budo – that the carriage of one’s body becomes without openings.
Q: In the later years of the Founder the words “softness” and “harmony” were often used, were those also used to make one think of Aikido in terms of Budo?
A: I think that for O-Sensei Aikido was always Budo. Sometimes when he looked in on training he would see the students throwing in Kokyu-nage and say “People don’t fall over that easily!”. (laughing) Of course, forced struggling, or throwing with needless violence is just dangerous. Osawa Sensei (大澤喜三郎 – Kisaburo Osawa) would say “Strong and stupid are different. One’s sensitivity cannot be stupid.”. For that reason, just falling even though the technique is not working is not training. I think that we must sense each other’s power precisely when training so that we can develop together and knead our bodies.
Daruma and calligraphy by Morito Suganuma
「ころがせ、転がせ、まだ角がる」
“I roll and I roll, but I still have corners”
Q: The word “knead” (練る) is also used in arts like Chinese Kempo (*Translator’s note: often in the sense of “temper” or “harden”), how do you understand the meaning here?
A: For example, something that you would want to knead, like a rice cake. We take the individual grains of rice, knead them and knead them, and make them into a sticky rice cake. Human beings bodies are the same way, one takes the disparate pieces and kneads them through Aikido practice until a soft, strong, unified body is made, that is the image. For that reason, one ought not to think about controlling some joint in training – I think that it is important that both the uke and the tori use their entire bodies, sense each other’s power, and knead each other.
Q: That’s a very easy to understand example.
A: That was one of O-Sensei’s teachings, to respect the principles of nature – in other words, not to struggle in one’s movements. When one struggles during their movements it becomes what I mentioned before, we injure each other. Also, not to make unnecessary movements. Not to make one’s training uneven. In other words, not to suddenly stop by training recklessly. I call these the “three nothings” (三無) – no struggling (無理), no unevenness (むら), as much as possible using no waste (無駄).
Q: The “three nothings”? You certainly seem very relaxed, to be speaking like this.
A: Out in society when one says that they are a Budoka it has a strict or frightening image, but I don’t like that very much. In the dojo, and during every day life, I just want to act normally. Because it’s less exhausting that way. (laughing)
O-Sensei often quote Kiichi Hogen (*Translator’s note: see “Kiichi Hogen and the Secret of Aikido“), and this is one of the things that he would say:
「来たるを迎え、去るは送る、対すれば相和す。五・五の十、一・九の十、二・八の十。大は方処を絶し、細は微塵に入る。活殺自在」
If it comes meet it, if it leaves, send it on its way, if it opposes then unify it. 5 and 5 are 10, 1 and 9 are 10, 2 and 8 are 10. The large suppresses all, the small enters the microscopic. The power of life and death.
I believe that I would like to create that kind of feeling and that kind of a body.

Gekkan Hiden, January 2005
Published by: Christopher Li – Honolulu, HI

October 1, 2016

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