Search results for: “tomiki”

Ueshiba-ha Daito-ryu Aiki-jujutsu
Morihei Ueshiba in Ayabe, 1922
in front of a placard reading “Daito-ryu Aiki-jujutsu”

In 1922 Sokaku Takeda moved to the Omoto compound in Ayabe to live with Morihei Ueshiba and give him intensive instruction for five months. Ueshiba first met Takeda in 1915 at the Hisada Inn in Engaru, Hokkaido, and trained intensively with him for a number of years before moving to Ayabe. Sokaku Takeda’s son Tokimune once commented:
He trained extensively and was enthusiastic. He was Sokaku’s favorite student.
In 1922, at the conclusion of his stay in Ayabe, Sokaku Takeda awarded a Kyoju Dairi (assistant instructor) certificate in Daito-ryu Aiki-jujutsu to Morihei Ueshiba, making him a certified instructor in the art.
Morihei Ueshiba’s Kyoju Dairi in Daito-ryu Aiki-jujutsu
This relationship between teacher and student, Sokaku Takeda and Morihei Ueshiba, would last for more then twenty years:
Let me begin by stating categorically that the major technical influence on the development of aikido is Daito-ryu jujutsu. This art, which is said to be the continuation of a martial tradition of the Aizu Clan dating back several hundred years, was propagated in many areas of Japan during the Meiji, Taisho, and early Showa periods by the famous martial artist, Sokaku Takeda. Known equally for his martial prowess and severity of character, Takeda had used his skills in life-and-death encounters on more than one occasion. Takeda was fifty-four years old when Morihei Ueshiba first met him at the Hisada Inn in Engaru, Hokkaido in late February 1915. This encounter marked the beginning of a long, stormy yet ultimately productive association between the two, which lasted for more than twenty years.
Aikido Journal Editor Stan Pranin – “Morihei Ueshiba and Sokaku Takeda“
But what happened next?
Kisshomaru Ueshiba and Post-war Aikido
On October 27, 1985 in Sendai, I attended a lecture on the history of aikido given by Second Doshu Kisshomaru Ueshiba. During his talk Kisshomaru Sensei made the following remark: “The Founder only studied Daito-ryu for three weeks or so.” My jaw dropped in disbelief when perhaps the most knowledgeable person in the world on the subject of aikido history made such a patently false statement!
Aikido Journal Editor Stan Pranin – “Beware the big lie!“
The picture of Morihei Ueshiba at the beginning of this article was taken in 1922 after receiving his Kyoju Dairi certification from Sokaku Takeda, which marks the beginning of his teaching career in the martial arts, and as an instructor in Daito-ryu Aiki-jujutsu under the authority of Sokaku Takeda.
However, there is a narrative in the modern Aikido world, one that is encouraged by the Aikikai, in which Aikido is the original and unique creation of Morihei Ueshiba. This narrative stipulates that Aikido is something that he created after studying a number of martial arts, and that it represented a radical phase change from his pre-war practices, and that it represented a new and original spiritual dimension.
But is that really the case?
To begin with, this narrative is complicated by Kisshomaru Ueshiba’s representation that the key spiritual revelation, that of “the great spirit of mutual loving protection” (万有愛護の大精神) – occurred in 1925. Rather than after occurring after the war, this was towards the very start of his career as an instructor of Daito-ryu.
Kisshomaru Ueshiba with his father at Ueshiba Juku, Ayabe in 1925
Going back from there to Daito-ryu itself we see the roots of Morihei Ueshiba’s philosophy…already in existence.
Masao Hayashima – a direct student of Sokaku Takeda
“Aiki-jutsu is said to be the Budo of Harmony”.
In addition to Masao Hayashima (above) we also have Morihei Ueshiba’s contemporary, and a fellow student of Sokaku Takeda, Yukiyoshi Sagawa and “Aiki Budo is the Way of Human Development“.
Then, we have Sokaku Takeda’s son Tokimune Takeda discussing his father’s instruction:
“The essential principles of Daito-ryu are Love and Harmony”
“The goal of spreading Daito-ryu is ‘Harmony and Love’, keeping this spirit is what preserves and realizes social justice. This was Sokaku Sensei’s dying wish”
But these concepts can be tracked all through the Japanese martial traditions, they are far from unique to either Morihei Ueshiba or Daito-ryu.
- 「武ハ弋止ノ義何ゾ好テ以テ殺戮センヤ」 “Bu is the abandoning of violence. One must not find pleasure in slaughter.”, Katayama-ryu Densho – 1647
- 「我モ勝ズ人モ勝ズ相得テ共ニ治ル」 “Oneself and another who cannot win are both unable to attain victory, so both mutually return to a state of peace.”, Katayama-ryu Densho – 1647
- 「兵法は平法なり」 “The methods of war are the methods of peace”, Iizasa Ienao of Tenshin Shoden Katori Shinto-ryu – 1387-1488
This argument was expressed by Professor Karl Friday, a Japanese historian and a student of the Japanese martial traditions (having received full transmission in Kashima Shin-ryu) in this excerpt from an interview in 2009:
The conventional wisdom on Japanese martial art (ryūha bugei) ties its evolution closely to the history of warfare. It starts from the premise that systems and schools of martial art originally developed as tools for passing on workaday battlefield skills, in response to intensified demand for skilled fighting men spawned by the onset of the Sengoku age. Warriors hoping to survive and prosper on late medieval battlefields began to seek instruction from talented veterans, who in turn began to codify their knowledge and methodize its study. Thus bugei ryūha emerged more-or-less directly from the exigencies of medieval warfare. But-so goes the tale-the two-and-a-half-century Pax Tokugawa that began in 1600 brought fundamental changes to the practice of martial art. Instruction became professionalized, and in some cases, commercialized; training periods became longer, curricula were formalized; and elaborate systems of student ranks developed. Most significantly, however, the motives and goals underlying bugei practice were recast. Samurai, who no longer expected to spend time on the battlefield, sought and found a more relevant rationale for studying martial art, approaching it not simply as a means to proficiency in combat, as their ancestors had, but as a means to spiritual cultivation of the self.
This is basically the story I summarized in my Legacies of the Sword book. It begins from the logical assumption that ryūha bugei originated as an instrument for ordinary military training, and evolved from there into budō, a means to broader self-development and self-realization. But there are some problems with this picture that become clear if you juxtapose it against recent research on medieval warfare.
It‘s clear, first of all, that ryūha bugei couldn’t have accounted for more than a tiny portion of sixteenth-century military training. There were at most a few dozen ryūha around during the 16th century, but armies of that era regularly mobilized tens of thousands of men. In order for even a fraction of sengoku warriors to have learned their craft through one or more ryūha, each and every ryūha of the period would need to have trained at least several hundred students a year. Ryūha bugei must, therefore, have been a specialized activity, pursued by only a minute percentage of Sengoku warriors.
An even bigger issue, however, is the applicability of the skills that late medieval bugeisha concentrated on developing to sixteenth-century warfare. For one thing, strategy and tactics were shifting, from the 15th century onward-precisely the period in which bugei ryūha began to appear-from reliance on individual warriors and small group tactics to disciplined group tactical maneuver. Which means that ryūha bugei, focusing on developing prowess in personal combat, emerged and flourished in almost inverse proportion to the value of skilled individual fighters on the battlefield.
All of the recent scholarship on late medieval warfare, moreover, argues that swords never became a key battlefield armament in Japan-that they were, rather, supplementary weapons, analogous to the sidearms worn by modern soldiers. While swords were carried in combat, they were used far more often in street fights, robberies, assassinations and other (off-battlefield) civil disturbances. Missile weapons-arrows, rocks, and later bullets-dominated battles, throughout the medieval period.
On the other hand, almost all of the ryūha that date back to the sengoku period or earlier claim that swordsmanship played a central role in their training, right from the start. Tsukahara Bokuden, Kamiizumi Ise-no-kami, Iizasa Chōisai, Itō Ittōsai, Yagyū Muneyoshi, Miyamoto Musashi and other founders of martial art schools were (are) all best known for their prowess as swordsmen.
Initially, I wondered if the place of swordsmanship in medieval martial art represented a major piece of counter-evidence to the new consensus on late medieval warfare. After all, if bugei ryūha started out as systems to train warriors for the battlefield, and made swordsmanship central to their arts, wouldn’t that suggest that swords were more important to medieval warfare than the new scholarship would have us believe?
After wrestling with that question for quite a while, it finally struck me that the problem might lie in the first premise of this argument. All of the questions that were bothering me (why did bugei ryūha emerge at a time when generalship was rapidly coming to overshadow personal martial skills as the decisive element in battle, and the key to a successful military career? Why were there so few ryūha around during the Sengoku era, and why did they proliferate so rapidly during the early Tokugawa period, after the age of wars had passed? And why was swordsmanship so prominent in even the earliest bugei ryūha?) become much easier to answer if you just set aside the premise that bugei ryūha originated as instruments for teaching the workaday techniques of the battlefield. And the truth of the matter is that there’s little basis for that hoary assumption, beyond the fact that war was endemic in Japan when the first martial art schools appeared. The received wisdom rests, in other words, on what amounts to a post hoc ergo propter hoc fallacy.
It seems likely, then, that ryūha bugei and the pedagogical devices associated with it aimed from the start at conveying more abstract ideals of self-development and enlightenment. That is, that ryūha bugei was an abstraction of military science, not merely an application of it. It fostered character traits and tactical acumen that made those who practiced it better warriors, but its goals and ideals were more akin to those of liberal education than vocational training. In other words, bugeisha, even during the Sengoku era, had more in common with Olympic marksmanship competitors-training with specialized weapons to develop esoteric levels of skill under particularized conditions-than with Marine riflemen. They also had as much-perhaps more-in common with Tokugawa era and modern martial artists than with the ordinary warriors of their own day.
Basically, I’m arguing that there was no fundamental shift of purpose in martial art education between the late sixteenth and mid-seventeenth centuries. Tokugawa era budō represented not a metamorphosis of late medieval martial art, but the maturation of it. Ryūha bugei itself constituted a new phenomenon-a derivative, not a linear improvement, of earlier, more prosaic military training.
(For the full argument, see my “Off the Warpath” piece, in Alex Bennett’s Budo Perspectives [Auckland, New Zealand: Kendo World Publications, 2005], 249-68.)
Far from being new and original, or unique to Morihei Ueshiba and modern Aikido, we see that the concept of a martial tradition for spiritual and personal development is something that is very old, and endemic to many arts.
Does that matter?
Certainly, Morihei Ueshiba was a spiritual person, and believed that he practiced and taught an art that enabled personal and spiritual development.
That the concepts he expressed were neither unique nor original doesn’t take away from that message.
In my opinion it is time to abandon the conceit of spiritual exceptionalism and uniqueness that often exists in modern Aikido, in the long run it is only destructive to the art as a whole.
Morihei Ueshiba and Daito-ryu
Now, what about Morihei Ueshiba’s involvement with Daito-ryu and Sokaku Takeda?
The base description on the Aikikai website reads:
Aikido is a modern Martial Art created by the Founder, Morihei Ueshiba.
A more detailed description contains the same narrative:
Aikido is a Japanese Martial Art created during the 1920s by Morihei Ueshiba (1883~1969), an expert who reached the highest level of mastery in the classical Japanese Martial Arts.
Neither contains any mention of Sokaku Takeda or Daito-ryu, but Takeda is mentioned once (and only once) on the biographical timeline of Morihei Ueshiba’s life:
The Founder meets Mr. Sokaku Takeda, the originator of Daito-ryu Jujutsu, at the Hisada Ryokan (inn) in Engaru, and asks for instruction.
And that’s it…
Similarly, in Kisshomaru Ueshiba’s books “The Spirit of Aikido” and “The Art of Aikido” there is virtually no mention of Daito-ryu in either one. Neither of them are historical works, but neither of them make any real mention of the only art that Morihei Ueshiba was ever licensed to teach, the only art (outside of his own) in which he ever issued certificates or licences.
In the more recent work, “Best Aikido“, written by Kisshomaru Ueshiba and Moriteru Ueshiba, there is a short mention of Daito-ryu as one of the many arts that Morihei Ueshiba studied, but no mention is made of the relative depth of study of those arts – the section entirely fails to note the fact that, with the exception of Daito-ryu, all of those arts were studied for very brief periods of time.
AW: O-sensei also reportedly studied a lot of other koryu arts outside of Daito-ryu.
SP: I would say that that’s not true.
If you look at it historically, he went up to Tokyo in 1901 and spent about a year there. During this stay in Tokyo when he was training to become a merchant, he did a little bit of Tenjin Shinyo-ryu jujutsu. It was probably a “machi” dojo, in other words a small dojo in the Asakusa area of Tokyo. He would go there at night, but it was probably about three or four months total since he got very ill with beriberi and had to leave Tokyo and return to Tanabe. He was doing it while working very hard during the day and it was a very brief period of only a few months. It would be difficult to imagine that that had a strong, technical influence.
By the same token when he was in the army, he also began studying Yagyu-ryu jujutsu. There are some questions about what the actual name of the art was. O-sensei referred to it as Yagyu-ryu jujutsu, while [Kisshomaru Ueshiba] Doshu did some research and said it was Goto-ha Yagyu Shingan-ryu or similar name.
He was in the army at the time and also was sent to Manchuria for a part of the time. It was hard for me to imagine him going regularly while being in the army, so I don’t know if his training was on the weekends or what. He apparently was enthusiastic about his training but there just weren’t the circumstances to allow a detailed study.
He did, however, continue to study a little bit of Yagyu-ryu after he got out of the army, but he was in Tanabe which was a couple of hundred miles away and he had to go up by ferry! Again, maybe he went up three, four, or a half a dozen times, but it wasn’t the sort of thing of an intensive study with someone year after year.
Now, he did have a makimono (scroll) as well — however, it bears no seal. One can only speculate what that meant. Sometimes what happens is that a person would be told to prepare a makimono or have someone prepare it and, for whatever circumstance or reason, the teacher never gets around to signing it. Therefore, the scroll cannot be considered official.
So, it would appear that he did study this Yagyu-ryu form more than the Tenjin Shinyo-ryu jujutsu, but probably at the most he did a year or two.
The other art that he studied, but again not in very much depth, would have been judo. The first description of the teacher who was sent down from the Kodokan to Tanabe by O-sensei’s father to teach Morihei and various relatives and friends gave the impression that this judo teacher was somewhat of an expert. It turns out he was 17 years old. I met his wife back in the 1980s and she told me this directly. He could have been a shodan, maximum. Also, O-sensei was involved with other things in this transition phase of his life trying to figure out what he was going to be doing as a career. One of the reasons, according to Doshu, that this judo person was brought in was to help him focus and channel his energies. But O-sensei ended up going to Hokkaido.
So, you have this very brief stint in Tenjin Shinyo Ryu, some training in Yagyu Ryu jujutsu while in the army, a smattering of judo, and then Daito-ryu. That’s it. The impression that he studied many different arts other than Daito-ryu and mastered them is completely false.
Aikiweb Interview with Stan Pranin – August, 2000
Now, let’s go back to the 1922 photo at the top of this article. In that photo Morihei Ueshiba is clearly sitting in front of a placard reading “Daito-ryu Aiki-jujutsu”.
Unfortunately, the Aikikai tinkered with the photo a bit at various times and in various publications – most likely in order to support the public narrative being promoted after the war.
Aikido Shimbun, issue 2 – May 1959
original scan by Stan Pranin
The second issue of the Aikikai Foundation’s newsletter the “Aikido Shimbun” (pictured above) featured a copy of the 1922 photo from Ayabe – with the placard reading “Daito-ryu Aiki-jujutsu” carefully edited out. Additionally, there is no mention, at all, of Daito-ryu, or the context of the photo, in the text of the article.
“Aikido Nymon,” by Kisshomaru Ueshiba – 1975
original scan by Stan Pranin

In this iteration, from a book published by Ni-Dai Doshu Kisshomaru Ueshiba in 1975, the characters for “Daito-ryu” have been edited out, leaving only the words “Aiki-jujutsu”.
“Aikido Shintei” by Kisshomaru Ueshiba – 1986
In this photo, from a 1986 publication called “Aikido Shintei”, the characters for “Daito-ryu” are also edited out – but very poorly, leaving part of the “ryu” character intact.
Invitation to summer training with Morihei Ueshiba
in Daito-ryu Aiki-jujutsu and Aiki-budo, 1931
Morihei Ueshiba and Daito-ryu – Continuity
in 1933 Morihei Ueshiba published a Daito-ryu technical instruction manual, Aikijujutsu Densho. which was stamped “Aikijujutsu”, and was distributed to students receiving certificates in Daito-ryu as a kind of transmission document. Jump ahead – he re-published the same manual, with the same techniques and explanations (minus the pre-war imperial language) in 1954 as Aikido Maki-no-ichi. Morihei Ueshiba used this manual as a textbook when teaching in the 1950’s.
Then in 1938 Morihei Ueshiba published the technical manual “Budo“. This book, re-discovered by Aikido Journal editor Stan Pranin, contais techniques that Morihiro Saito claimed were identical to the techniques taught by Morihei Ueshiba’s at Morihei Ueshiba’s home in Iwama, where he lived from 1942 until near the time of his death.
One day in July 1981, I was conducting an interview with Zenzaburo Akazawa, a prewar uchi deshi of Morihei Ueshiba from the Kobukan Dojo period. Mr. Akazawa proceeded to show me a technical manual published in 1938 titled Budo which I had never seen before. It contained photos of some fifty techniques demonstrated by the founder himself. As I slowly turned the pages of the manual, I was amazed to see in the photos that the execution of several basics techniques such as ikkyo, iriminage and shihonage were virtually identical to what I had learned in Iwama under Saito Sensei. Here was the founder himself demonstrating what I had up until then regarded as “Iwama-style” techniques. Mr. Akazawa, who lives only a few blocks away from the Iwama Dojo, kindly lent me the book and I hurried to show it to Saito Sensei.
I’ll always remember the scene as I called at Sensei’s door to share with him my new discovery. To my surprise, he had never seen or heard mention of the book before. He put on his reading glasses and leafed through the manual, his eyes scanning the technical sequences intently. I felt compelled then and there to apologize to him for having ever doubted his assertion that he was making every effort to faithfully preserve the founder’s techniques. Saito Sensei laughed and, obviously with great pleasure, bellowed, “See, Pranin, I told you so!” From that time on up through the end of his life, Saito Sensei always had along his copy of Budo in the Iwama Dojo and on his travels to use as proof to show that a particular technique originated in the founder’s teachings.
Aikido Journal editor Stan Pranin – “Remembering Morihiro Saito Sensei“
Moving on to 1940, Takuma Hisa – one of the only people to have received Menkyo Kaiden (“certificate of complete transmission”, showing that one has mastered the totality of a martial system) in Daito-ryu Aiki-jujutsu directly from Sokaku Takeda, published “Kannagara no Budo, Daito-ryu Aiki Budo Hiden“. This manual on Daito-ryu Aiki-jujutsu is almost an exact copy, in both technical explanation and the illustrated techniques, of the “Aikijujutsu Densho” manual published by Morihei Ueshiba in 1933…the manual that was used as a textbook for post-war students in the 1950’s as “Aikido Maki-no-Ichi”.
Sokaku Takeda at the Asahi Shimbun Dojo in Osaka – 1936
Takuma Hisa is also significant in that he was one of the few people who had a chance to directly compare Sokaku Takeda and Morihei Ueshiba in depth over an extended period of time:
Takeda’s instruction gave Hisa the chance to compare the techniques that he had been taught for the previous three years (1933-1936) by Ueshiba with those taught by Takeda. His conclusion was that they were the same—meaning that Ueshiba had not by that time significantly modified or evolved what he had been taught by Takeda. In later years, Hisa was adamant about Ueshiba’s and Takeda’s techniques being identical. He stated this clearly at a round table talk, “When Tomiki came to Osaka to teach aiki-bujutsu to the Asahi people, the techniques that both master Ueshiba and Takeda taught were the same. Definitely the same. Master Ueshiba should say that he was taught them by master Takeda. He should say that it was Daitoryu. But he never said that. Mr. Tomiki (who also traveled from Tokyo to Osaka to teach Ueshiba’s system at the Asahi dojo) knows this, doesn’t he. But Ueshiba never said it.” And Tomiki answered, “Definitely not. ‘I [Ueshiba] established everything…[smiling mysteriously]’. However old martial artists would often do that way.” [Shishida (Ed.), 1982, p.1]
“The Process of Forming Aikido and Japanese Imperial Navy Admiral Isamu Takeshita: Through the analysis of Takeshita’s diary from 1925 to 1931”
– Fumiaki Shishida (Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan)
Both Sokaku Takeda and Morihei Ueshiba kept a registry of their students. When one became a student their name would be entered into the book and the student would attach their seal. Mr. Kimura speaks a little about the registry, which he signed in 1942 in “Mr. Kimura’s Aikido Memories, Part 1“.
Mamoru Okada also remembers signing this registry – in this instance he signed the registry in 1949, after the war.
Hiroshi Isoyama also testifies that he signed this registry – again in 1949, after the war. Further, his testimony confirms that the registry was titled “Daito-ryu Aiki-jujutsu”:
And the title on my registration paper is “Daito-ryu Aiki-jujutsu registry”. This is what I signed. At the top of the students’ registry, there are also the names of people such as the Admiral Takeshita Isamu.
“Interview with Isoyama Hiroshi Shihan, the master of the Iwama Dojo“
That is to say – Morihei Ueshiba was enrolling people as students of Daito-ryu Aiki-jujutsu as late as 1949.
Here are some photos of a Hiden Mokuroku scroll (thanks to Scott Burke for the photos) – the “catalog of secret teachings” that composes the first scroll in the Daito-ryu curriculum. This scroll was issued by Morihei (then using the name Moritaka) Ueshiba in 1925:
“Aiki-jujutsu Hiden Mokuroku”, 1925
The Aiki-jujutsu seal in the upper right hand corner is similar (but slightly different in shape) to the seal that appears in Morihei Ueshiba’s 1933 technical manual Aikijujutsu Densho – AKA Budo Renshu.
Here’s is another section of the same 1925 scroll:
Aiki-jujutsu umbrella techniques 1925
This section of the scroll covers techniques with an umbrella and is also stamped “Aiki-jujutsu”.
Hiden Mokuroku 118 Techniques
A continuation of the scroll – on the left is states that this scroll contains 118 techniques. The basic 118 techniques of the first scroll of Daito-ryu Aiki-jujutsu.
Hiden Mokuroku signature page
Here is the signature page of the 1925 scroll. signed by the student of Sokaku Takeda Masayoshi Minamoto (武田惣角源正義), Moritaka Ueshiba Seigan Minamoto (源晴眼).
Clearly a Daito-ryu scroll, and clearly issued under the authority of his teacher, Sokaku Takeda. The same is the case in this scroll, also issued under the authority of Sokaku Takeda:
Hiden Mokuroku issued to Minoru Mochizuki in 1932
“Ueshiba Moritaka, student of Takeda Sokaku”
And here’s yet another scroll:
Aikido Hiden Mokuroku
The picture quality is not quite as good, but there are some interesting things that we can pick out here.
1. The scroll now reads “Aikido” rather than “Aiki-jujutsu”.
2. The structure of the scroll is identical to the Daito-ryu scroll.
3. The title of the scroll is “Hiden Mokuroku”, the same as the Daito-ryu scroll.
Aikido Hiden Mokuroku detail
Here is a portion of the scroll in greater detail. Like the Daito-ryu scroll, this scroll contains a section on umbrella techniques. This one also contains a section on Bo (staff) techniques.
On the left hand side it specifies that this scroll contains 118 techniques, the same as the 1925 Daito-ryu scroll.
Aikido Hiden Mokuroku signature page
Here is the signature section of the scroll. Sokaku Takeda’s name no longer appears on the scroll, instead it is signed by Aikido Doshu Tsunemori Ueshiba (a name that Morihei Ueshiba often used after the war).
The date that the scroll was issued reads March Showa year 35 – 1960.
So…here is some of what we have:
- 1922 – Morihei Ueshiba is certified as an instructor in Daito-ryu, he has little experience in other martial arts at the time.
- 1922-1936 – Morihei Ueshiba is documented as teaching Daito-ryu under the authority of Sokaku Takeda.
- 1933 – Morihei writes Aikijujutsu Densho, a Daito-ryu instructional manual.
- 1936 – Takuma Hisa compares what he was doing to Sokaku Takeda and finds that they are both doing Daito-ryu. Sokaku Takeda takes over the Asahi Shimbun dojo and Morihei Ueshiba goes off on his own.
- 1940 – Takuma Hisa publishes Morihei Ueshiba’s Aikijujutsu Densho as a Daito-ryu manual.
- 1949 – Morihei continues to enroll students as students of Daito-ryu Aiki-jujutsu after the war.
- 1954 – Morihei Ueshiba publishes Aikido Maki-no-Ichi, which duplicates the technical explanations and technique illustrations of Aikijujutsu Densho. He teaches post-war students from this manual.
- 1957 – Lee Price is told that there are 2,664 techniques in Aikido by Morihei Ueshiba for the American TV show “Rendezvous with Adventure” (this may have been a translation error from the usual number of 2,884 techniques cited by the Takumakai) rather than the greatly reduced number of techniques in the post-war Aikikai. Morihei Ueshiba states that the art was founded by Minamoto Yoshimitsu in 1120, that it was handed down through the Takeda family, and and is represented its legitimate heir – not the founder. When asked when Aikido began, Morihei Ueshiba says “about 50 years ago”. Remember that this is 1957, so that would make 50 years ago about the time that he met Sokaku Takeda, well before the war.
- Morihei Ueshiba teaches the same techniques in Iwama after the war in the 1950’s and 1960’s as were documented in the 1938 technical manual Budo.
- Morihei Ueshiba issues Daito-ryu certificates, with the name changed to Aikido but with all of the other particulars preserved, as late as 1960 – and actually much later, in scrolls that are privately held.
I’m sure you see where I’m going here:
1. Before the war Morihei Ueshiba was a Daito-ryu instructor under Sokaku Takeda, taught Daito-ryu for many years and issued licenses in Daito-ryu.
2. What Morihei Ueshiba was teaching and distributing after the war in the 1950’s and 1960’s was essentially the same material that he was teaching and distributing before the war – Daito-ryu, right down to the certificates and the name in the enrollment book.
3. There was no phase shift in core technology, or radical invention of new martial technology.
4. That there was a basic continuity in the thread of his training and teaching as a student and teacher of Daito-ryu from 1922 through to his death in 1969.
Comparing the continuity of Morihei Ueshiba’s technical legacy visually
As Masatake Fujita, who spent most of every day with Morihei Ueshiba during the last two years of his life, put it:
Q: In terms of technique, did you notice a change in the Founder while you were watching him?
A: No, there wasn’t really any change. That’s probably true even from before the war, because even when you watch the video tape from Showa year 12 (1937), the year I was born, that’s true (*Translator’s note: this is actually the Asahi News demonstration from 1935). However, there were some techniques from that period that are gone today. I am teaching those kinds of techniques now, but of course it’s difficult.
“Interview with Aikido Shihan Masatake Fujita, Part 2“
“No, there really wasn’t any change.”
In other words, Morihei Ueshiba’s legacy was, in actuality, what some people might call “Ueshiba-ha Daito-ryu Aiki-jujutsu”, Morihei Ueshiba’s own branch off the tree of Sokaku Takeda’s art.
For more on the what happened to the diverging legacies of Morihei Ueshiba and his son Kisshomaru, check out Mark Murray’s essay “The Ueshiba Legacy” – Part 1 and Part 2. You might also be interested in Aikido Journal Editor Stanley Pranin’s essay “Is O-Sensei Really the Father of Modern Aikido?“.
Published by: Christopher Li – Honolulu, HI
May 20, 2017
The Ueshiba Legacy – Part 2, by Mark Murray
I think you can see Doshu’s dilemma. He has to continue to teach the ‘essence’ of the art, but without knowing very much about what his grandfather actually did. He is a few years younger than I am and all he knows has been filtered via Kisshomaru and those deshi of Kisshomaru’s generation. Doshu’s son Mitsuteru will have an even bigger problem. Apart from a few exceptions like Tomiki and Tohei, Kisshomaru allowed the old deshi like Tada, Yamaguchi, Arikawa to get on and teach what they had learned from Morihei Ueshiba directly, in so far as they understood this. The variety was allowed to flourish, but with the passage of time there has been an inevitable dumbing down and an increasingly frantic insistence that what the Hombu is doing is the only means of aikido salvation. I think if the Aikikai could make the eight basic waza into sacraments, they would leap at the chance.
Former International Aikido Federation Chairman Peter Goldsbury
on “The Future of Aikido“
Some time ago, in 2015, Mark Murray allowed us to post the first part of his essay on the evolution and transmission of Aikido, “The Ueshiba Legacy“. In this essay he discussed the two legacies of Aikido – the legacy of the father, Morihei Ueshiba, and the legacy of the son, Kisshomaru Ueshiba. In Part 2 he now follows up that essay with a further discussion of these issues and how they have affected the art of Aikido as it exists today.
Mark is an “IT Specialist by trade and a writer by choice” (check out the Mark Murray Books website, and the Mark Murray author page on Amazon), but when he’s not doing either of those things he is usually training in the martial arts, and that is the context in which most of us are probably familiar with him.
The Ueshiba Legacy – Part 2
by Mark Murray
The Diverging Legacies of Ueshiba
Introduction: As I noted in a previous article, there are two Ueshiba legacies: Morihei Ueshiba and his son Kisshomaru Ueshiba. That article introduced some research into the fact that there are two different legacies. It did not go into any kind of detail on what those actual legacies were, nor did it go into any kind of peer-reviewed academic detail. I am not an academic. It is up to the reader to decide whether or not he/she finds the articles useful.
A: The Words
In the previous article, references were given from both pre-war and post war that what Ueshiba talked about was both mostly unintelligible and also not what was passed on via Kisshomaru Ueshiba. Father and son lived in two different worlds. Morihei Ueshiba lived the highlight of his life prior to World War II. Kisshomaru was greatly influenced by World War II.
1. Kisshomaru Ueshiba
Imagine living during World War II. The people of two islands, half a world apart, experienced the same nightmare. In the United Kingdom between 1940 and 1941, Germany raided 16 British cities. London was bombed every night for 57 nights. Picture yourself in your home as night falls and the air raid sirens go off. The ground shakes, fire lights the sky. You run for an underground shelter, heart pounding. Screams echo in your ears from somewhere to your right. It takes forever to get to the shelter, your head down eyes focused on the ground as glimpses of your feet come into view from your outright run. Your chest starts burning and all your gasping for breath isn’t helping. But you make it. An eternity later, the sun rises and you emerge from darkened safety only to see entire blocks of the city have been flattened and some of the rest are still burning.
“Devastation from the Fires of the Shinjuku Commercial District,” 1945 photo by Kageyama Koyo of the aftermath of a
March 9-10 firebombing of Tokyo by the U.S. Air Force
Located around the world in Tokyo similar bombings were occurring. On March 9th 1945, the United States launched another firebombing attack. Kisshomaru Ueshiba, who is only 23 years old and barely out of university, is hardly an experienced, mature adult in this war-torn world. To make matters worse, Morihei Ueshiba turned over complete control of the Tokyo dojo to his son when Kisshomaru was 21 (*1). It is a miracle that the Tokyo dojo is still standing amidst the fires and ruins of the city. Five months later, all of Japan was brought to her knees when the United States dropped two atomic bombs. The unimaginable happened. Japan was defeated and surrendered. That was the fractured and ruined world of Kisshomaru.
Japanese bow in front of the Imperial Palace in Tokyo
as they listen to Emperor Hirohito’s radio broadcast
announcing Japan’s surrender in World War II
Kyodo News Photo – August 15th, 1945
It was inevitable that Kisshomaru would strip most of his father’s words out of the aikido being created at Tokyo. From the ban on martial arts after the war to just having to survive, Kisshomaru strained to keep the Tokyo dojo going. Families were living in the building. Most students were just trying to make ends meet, let alone devote time to training. From this rubble, Kisshomaru created a new direction for aikido. He took out most of his father’s references to Omoto theology and introduced a training for spirituality, peace, and love. And why not? Most of the students had no clue what the old man was talking about anyway. The world had changed after the end of World War II. Japan was rebuilding. Kisshomaru started looking to the future.
Aikikai Hombu Dojo around 1957
In back behind the doorway there were still war refugees living in the dojo,
after they left that area became the men’s dressing room.
Yasuo Kobayashi Sensei’s sister Fumiko standing at the far left.
With regards to words, the legacy Kisshomaru built was taken up by the entire world. People from all over started training in the aikido that was disseminated from Tokyo hombu. Millions of people flocked to this. The ideals that were transmitted were built upon changing the world for the better. The ideal of using an attacker’s attack against him/her in a loving, protective manner while there not being a winner/loser with the martial ability to carry it off was like going after the Holy Grail.
Seminar participants
12th International Aikido Federation (IAF) Congress in Takasaki
September 27th – October 2nd 2016
Unfortunately, it was based upon Morihei Ueshiba’s martial abilities, which were not part of the legacy passed on by Kisshomaru, but this will be further detailed in another section. Make no mistake, Kisshomaru’s impact upon the world of aikido was huge. It brought together people from all over to train together in harmony, that probably would never have trained together. Almost fifty years after the death of Morihei Ueshiba, millions of people worldwide still train in aikido thanks to the words and ideals of Kisshomaru. It is a legacy that has fluidly changed and adapted over time yet, for the most part, still retains the look and feel of Kisshomaru’s vision. Many people will flock to Modern Aikido in the upcoming years as it has a legacy to thrive in a world desperately looking for peace and love.
1. Morihei Ueshiba
Morihei Ueshiba used Omoto terminology to pass on his view of training aiki. But the secret, aiki, was never about the Omoto religion at all.
From André Nocquet:
No, Aikido is not a religion. One day I asked my master, Master Ueshiba, “You always say that Aikido is Love then, isn’t there a very narrow link with Christianity?” He told me, “Yes, there is a very narrow link with Christianity but if you go to Europe, never say that Aikido is a religion. If you practice Aikido well, you may become a better Christian but if a good Buddhist practices Aikido, he will also become a better Buddhist.” Aikido is a way, a path, it helps to better understand religions and philosophies, but it is not a religion, this is what he told me. (*2)
When we look at spiritual misogi, Seiseki Abe is a good example. Around 1952, Seiseki Abe says this about talking to Ueshiba:
“How did you ever learn such a wonderful budo”, and he answered, “Through misogi.” Now I had been doing misogi since 1941 and when I heard that Aikido came from misogi, suddenly “snap”, the two came together. (*3)
Seiseki Abe had been doing misogi for at least 10 years prior to training in aikido and wasn’t at all near Ueshiba’s skills or abilities, nor did he even see misogi and aikido as being similar. We can see from this that something that Ueshiba knew and had trained was the underlying basis for powering his misogi exercises.
To view the legacy of Morihei Ueshiba’s words, we have to go beyond looking at the Omoto religion. Omoto was not part of Morihei Ueshiba’s legacy. He used Omoto merely as a vessel for aiki training. What, then, did Morihei Ueshiba’s words mean?
Morihei Ueshiba lecturing
the text behind him reads “Ichirei Shikon Sangen Hachiriki”
From the translation on the Aikido Sangenkai website:
Aikido is the way of harmony, that is to say the living form of Ichirei Shikon Sangen Hachiriki, the form of the fabric of the universe, specifically the form of the High Plain of Heaven. (*4)
Ueshiba explained Hachiriki as The 8 powers are opposing forces:
Movement – Stillness, Melting – Congealing, Pulling – Loosening, Combining – Splitting / 9-1, 8-2, 7-3, 6-4 (*4).
These are 4 pairs of opposites.
To understand just how important “opposites” are, when Henry Kono asked O-Sensei “Why can we not do what you do, Sensei?” the answer was quite simply “Because you don’t understand In and Yo.” (*5) Opposing forces.
As a bit of a sidetrack, Ueshiba was an avid reader of the Chinese classics. If we look at a portion of the Chinese Martial Arts, we find that opposing forces is the foundation of many. Taiji itself is about opposing forces.
“In the declining years of the Yuan Dynasty, there was a retired scholar called Zhang Sanfeng who took the basic Confucian principle of taiji and mixed it together with the major principles of the other schools of thought, putting the five elements and eight trigrams into his boxing techniques and footwork, using taiji’s passive and active, hardness and softness, movement and stillness, as metaphors for its function. With these as its main points, it became known as the internal school, distinct as a result from the external school.” (*6)
As noted from Brennan’s translation, there are opposing forces in passive/active, hardness/softness, and movement/stillness.
Chris Li notes the similarities between what Morihei Ueshiba says and the Chinese classics:
“So now we see that Morihei Ueshiba’s cosmology for the physical structure of the Universe is identical to the Chinese cosmology. Further, we see that Morihei Ueshiba’s structure for the physical manifestation of his art is identical to that used in the Chinese internal martial arts – right down to the terminology.” (*4)
Morihei Ueshiba talked about Izanami and Izanagi. He talked about kami, which was often written as ka (fire) and mi (water). He transposed deities for opposing forces. We can see that these opposing forces meant a lot to Ueshiba as he talked about them all the time. It is exactly this concept of opposing forces that is one of the foundations for aiki.
The In-Yo / Yin-Yang Trigrams showing
Morihei Ueshiba’s “Cross of Aiki“
We can tie in/yo or yin/yang or ka/mi or Izanami/Izanagi back to Daito ryu. There are various mentions of in/yo throughout Daito ryu. The concept can be traced back to Sokaku Takeda’s grandfather, Soemon:
“Soemon studied the arts of yin-yang divination (ommyodo) in Kyoto under the Tsuchimikado family, who were descendants of renowned diviner Abe no Seimei (921-1005), eventually receiving a menkyo (license of mastery) certificate and obtaining the title of Takumi no Kami. After returning to Oike in the Aizu domain he served as the chief priest of Aizu Ise Shrine and was known both as an expert in the Shinto religion and yin-yang divination and a master of Daito-ryu. He taught these arts in different places, and also transmitted secret teachings to the Aizu domain councilor Saigo Tanomo.” (*7)
The Heian Era practitioner of Onmyodo (“The way of Yin and Yang”)
Abe no Seimei, 921 – 1005
Portrait by Kikuchi Yosai, 1781 -1878
From Tokimune Takeda – son of Sokaku Takeda, and Soke of Daito-ryu Aiki Budo:
“In-yo Aiki-ho” fills the Seika Tanden with Ki through Kokyu-ho and strives to concentrate Ki-ryoku through mental concentration. Closing the five-fingers, inhaling quietly is called “In” (“Yin”), opening the five fingers strongly and exhaling is called “Yo” (“Yang”). Through the continuation of this breathing method the mind becomes clear, the vision becomes sharp, the “spirit”, “ki” and “power” are unified, a courageous spirit is developed, and especially – the various practical applications of the ten fingers of both hands gives rise to superhuman powers. (*8)
From Invincible Warrior by John Stevens:
Regarding Takeda, “His extraordinary ability was due to mind control, technical perfection honed in countless battles, and mastery of aiki, the blending of positive and negative energy.”
Letter from Jigoro Kano to Moritaka (Morihei) Ueshiba
introducing Minoru Mochizuki and Jiro Takeda,
sent by the Kodokan to train at the Kobukan – October 28 1930
From “Aikido Kaiso Ueshiba Morihei-den” (合気道開祖植芝盛平伝)
According to Kisshomaru Ueshiba,
after meeting Morihei Ueshiba Jigoro Kano said:
これこそ私が理想していた武道、すなわち正真正銘の柔道である。
“This is my ideal budo, that is, genuine Judo.”
Finally, even Kano knew that the secret to budo was in/yo. Jigoro Kano visited Morihei Ueshiba to watch a demonstration of aikido. Kano was so impressed that he remarked that what he saw was what he considered an ideal budo. What did Kano view as an ideal budo?
Kano’s concept of Ju no Ri, was based upon the Taoist precept, “reversing is the movement of the Tao,” also described by the statement “the most yielding things in the world overcome the most unyielding.” Kano combined Ju no Ri with the interplay of forces as defined by the precept of in-yo (yin and yang, hardness and softness, negative and positive, receptiveness and resistance), and used the following to explain his concept of Kuzushi founded on Ju no Ri. (*9)
Like the Japanese changing yin/yang to in/yo, Morihei Ueshiba changed his Daito ryu roots of in/yo to many various other phrases, such as ka/mi, Izanami/Izanagi, etc. Ueshiba’s legacy of words was using Omoto terminology to talk about aiki training that he received from Sokaku Takeda. Aiki is the body changing method which allowed all the greats like Takeda, Ueshiba, Sagawa, Horikawa, etc to stand out. Morihei Ueshiba talked about in/yo, ka/mi, heaven/earth/man, standing on the bridge, etc and all of these ideals point to internal martial training methodologies.
This was Morihei Ueshiba’s legacy of words that Modern Aikido from Kisshomaru Ueshiba did not transmit. Those reading Morihei Ueshiba’s words and who have the understanding of those internal concepts to implement them in physical training have the basis to keep his legacy alive and thriving.
(1) http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=25175
(2) http://www.guillaumeerard.com/aikido/interviews/interview-with-andre-nocquet-8th-dan-pioneer-of-aikido-in-europe
(3) Aiki News Issue 045
(4) https://www.aikidosangenkai.org/blog/aikido-structure-universe/
(5) “Aikido Memoirs” by Alan Ruddock
(6) https://brennantranslation.wordpress.com/2012/08/27/the-taiji-manual-of-xu-yusheng/
(7) http://www.daito-ryu.org/en/prior-to-the-19th-century.html
(8) https://www.aikidosangenkai.org/blog/sagawa-yukiyoshi-masaru-takahashi-breath-training-daito-ryu/
(9) http://www.aikidojournal.com/?id=2138
Morihei Ueshiba and Kisshomaru Ueshiba
at the old Aikikai Hombu Dojo around 1957
B: Weapons
Weapons in Modern Aikido are a mess. Koryu people smile, are polite, but they, too, think Modern Aikido weapons are, well, not really using weapons. This is a very important divergence from Morihei Ueshiba’s reputation.
Meik Skoss eloquently states about Modern Aikido weapons:
That’s because they know squat about weapons. Sorry to be a little heavy again, but I’ve done an awful lot of aikido (sigh… wish now that I’d done more judo and/or classical jujutsu — *that* is real “aiki”) and trained a lot of places (North America, Southeast Asia, and Japan). I have got to say that there’re very, VERY few aikido teachers, in any of these places, who have half a clue about using weapons. It is pretty hard to believe, but they don’t even know the TGIF Principle (in relation to the kissaki), when doing tsuki waza. That seems to be an awfully basic concept to me, but, noooo-o-o-o… (*1)
1. Kisshomaru Ueshiba
Peter Goldsbury notes:
I think the influence of Koichi Tohei in the early postwar years of the Aikikai Hombu should not be underestimated. I have it from shihans who were not smitten with Watergate-style amnesia that many of the sword and jo kata originally practised by postwar deshi came via Tohei Sensei. (*2)
Most of the weapons katas from Modern Aikido were created by post war shihan from various experiences outside of training with Morihei Ueshiba. There are many sources to uphold this. (*3) (*4) (*5) (*6)
Tamura Nobuyoshi was asked, “Did O’Sensei also practice tanto dori?”
He answered:
I never saw him do it. Back in the day the Yakuza always fought with a knife. One day a fighter asked what one could do against these types of attacks. It was the sempais who developed this work. It was very spectacular for the demonstrations.”(*7)
Tanto work was created entirely by Modern Aikido.
Tamura Nobuyoshi was also asked, “Was it O’Sensei who created the katas such as Ichi no Tachi?” He answered, “These are the creations of Saito Sensei. O’Sensei showed the shochikubai ken but did not teach katas as such.” (7)
Meik Skoss notes this:
After WWII, Hikitsuchi and Saito stand out as well-grounded in weapons training. Other teachers, such as Tamura, Chiba, Kanai, and Saotome appear to have gotten most of their buki waza from other sources. (*4)
The aikido ken, jo, and tanto kata are creations of those shihan from Modern Aikido. Most of them created their weapons kata outside of any of Morihei Ueshiba’s teachings. The legacy of Modern Aikido has been to create weapons kata from various sources to add to the curriculum. Unfortunately, this is the weakest spot in Modern Aikido. Those in koryu think very little of aikido’s weapon work and they have very valid points. One can certainly understand Kisshomaru’s hesitancy to train weapons in Tokyo.
1. Morihei Ueshiba
From Meik Skoss:
Did Ueshiba Morihei formally study a lot of the koryu? No, not too much. A little Tenjin Shinyo-ryu, a bit of Yagyu Shingan-ryu, a fair amount of Daito-ryu. That’s all that people’ve been able to document with any degree of certainty. (*1)
Meik Skoss also made this comment:
To the best of my knowledge, Ueshiba’s work with weapons drew on a number of technical sources, but was primarily a rather idiosyncratic style that he employed for personal training rather than an organized system. He’d demonstrate a number of applications from time to time, but that was to illustrate the principles of the art rather than to “teach” buki waza per se. For the most part, by all accounts, most of Ueshiba’s post-war students did not receive systematic instruction in sword, staff, or stick. Amongst his students of pre-WWII vintage, probably Shirata Rinjiro (sword) and Iwata Hajime (staff) are probably the premier examples. (*4)
Tamura Nobuyoshi was asked, “What was the shochikubai no ken?” He answered, “Shochikubai no ken is not a specific form. The movements of O’Sensei varied according to his mood.” Nobuyoshi was also asked, “Did O’Sensei not teach paired katas, whether at Iwama or Hombu dojo?” He answered, “No.”
Diane Skoss notes this about jo kata from Tomiki aikido:
I’ve done the solo jo kata in Tomiki aikido (when in Japan–hm, maybe I did it in the States too?) and it is indeed closely related to one of the Ueshiba jo kata (can’t remember which one though). We all did it in Tokyo, so I wonder if the source might not have been Tomiki S. or Ohba S, rather than Nariyama S. I also have experience in both jukendo (5th dan) and JAA aikido (4th dan). There’s no question, in my opinion, that the yari/jo techniques are derived from bayonet. In fact, I asked Shishida S. about it one time and he confirmed that he had been told that (by Ohba S.? by Tomiki S?–it’s undoubtedly in my notes somewhere). I was also told that the choice of yari, for the Tomiki kata, was due to the fact that a spear (or jo) was more politically correct than a mokuju/bayonet. If you’ve got access to a mokuju, just try the techniques and see how much more sense the distancing makes. (*5)
I think we can see that both legacies, Morihei Ueshiba and Kisshomaru’s Tokyo hombu never really had the solid background in weapons that one would see in a koryu. What is known about Morihei Ueshiba is that he used a bayonet, a spear, a shortened spear, and a bokken. Even when he had a jo in his hands, it was used more like a spear or bayonet than a jo. Modern Aikido does not have kata for spear or bayonet. Two diverging legacies.
“The jo he used was the length of a regular jo,
but it was sharpened at one end.”
A Day in the Life of the Founder Morihei Ueshiba, April 1968
by Gaku Homma
Because Ueshiba’s training in weapons was eclectic and his teaching was eclectic, the main legacy he left for those following his footsteps was just to use aiki when wielding a weapon. He would watch kata and say, With aiki, we’d do it this way. The divergence with Kisshomaru Ueshiba’s Modern Aikido was that aiki, more specifically Daito ryu aiki, was left out.
The legacy of Morihei Ueshiba was to use weapons as an extension of his aiki body. Daito ryu aiki must be present for anyone wanting to follow in Ueshiba’s footsteps.
(1) The old fa.iaido Google group dated 2/12/99
(2) http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=15066&page=4
(3) http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=15066&page=5
(4) http://www.e-budo.com/forum/showthread.php?773-origins-of-aiki-jo
(5) http://www.e-budo.com/forum/showthread.php?773-origins-of-aiki-jo/page3
(6) The old iaido-l archives
(7) Interview with Tamura Nobuyoshi, by Leo Tamaki
(8) https://www.aikidosangenkai.org/blog/aiki-is-love-isnt-it/
C: Aiki
1. Kisshomaru Ueshiba
Kisshomaru had an extremely hard decision to make regarding Tokyo. His father had left him in charge. He was living in the shadow of a famous man. He couldn’t do what his father did. He didn’t have the skill and he didn’t have the love of martial arts. At least in the beginning, he didn’t want to do aikido. The burden placed on him by his father forced him to take an active role in aikido.
Kisshomaru Ueshiba at Aikikai Hombu Dojo in 1967
After the war, there were families living in the dojo, the roof was leaking, and many people were barely surviving. Kisshomaru’s strength throughout these tough days cannot be underestimated. Not only did he survive, but he repaired the dojo, brought in students, and the families were relocated. Of course, post war Modern Aikido was not a creation by just Kisshomaru. There were many people who helped him keep Tokyo going. As a famous example, Koichi Tohei was also in Tokyo and contributed greatly to the training there. Kisshomaru was the center that held them all together. He was the son of Morihei Ueshiba. For many, the chance to train with Morihei only came through Kisshomaru.
Kisshomaru knew that he couldn’t spread aikido to the world using his father’s words. He took most of the unintelligible babble out. He knew that if one wasn’t famous or technically “strong”, one had to replace it with something. A codified system of techniques was created. Public demonstrations were introduced, even though Kisshomaru was frightened of his father’s rage initially. However, Morihei allowed his son to change things. This is important to note. Morihei gave Tokyo to his son and allowed his son to make changes. In Tokyo, Kisshomaru also had many different personalities to deal with, so a sort of “hands off” approach to training outside Tokyo was taken. This allowed a specified training to occur in Tokyo but yet give people enough room to grow so as not to stifle them.
Frank Doran mentions that Tohei created many energy games and practices. (*1) Patrick Augé states:
Mochizuki Minoru Sensei said that when he was studying with Ueshiba Sensei (late 1920’s), robuse was the name given to the technique that later became Ikkajo, then Ikkyo after the war. The present ikkyo as taught by most Aikikai (and Aikikai related) teachers is the result of the modifications made by Tohei and Kisshomaru Sensei in order to simplify Aikido and make it available to more people…. (*2)
Stan Pranin notes that Kisshomaru Ueshiba gradually changed the technical syllabus and created a flowing style technique based system. (*3) Koichi Tohei was head instructor for many years and his teaching was influenced by the Tempukai. (*4) Morihiro Saito also makes note of some of the things that Koichi Tohei introduced into Modern Aikido training. (*5)
Peter Goldsbury touches upon these things in an Aikiweb post:
There are many subjective accounts of how Morihei Ueshiba trained and what he taught, but I do not think that these accounts allow us to state categorically that this or that was how Ueshiba taught or trained. Apart from Doshu, who I think is in a special category, the Hombu instructor with whom I have discussed these issues the most is Hiroshi Tada. Like Tohei, H Tada was a student of Tempu Nakamura, but he seems to have been very careful as to what he taught in the Hombu and what he taught in his own dojo and in Italy. In other words, he seems to have accepted the idea that only certain things were to be taught or practiced in the Hombu, but also that the other things were to be practiced elsewhere. He teaches weapons in Italy, but never in the Hombu, and when I mentioned some details of a certain jo kata that I practiced in Italy to another Hombu instructor, he was very curious and wondered where Tada had learned it. Like other older Hombu instructors, Tada sets great store by solo training exercises and these seem to consist mainly of kokyu exercises of increasing sophistication and complexity. But he has never taught anything like pushing hands etc and I suspect that the occasion for seeing the results of all this kokyu training would be in basic aikido waza, like shoumen-uchi 1-kyou. This issue for me is which bit of Tada’s training comes from Nakamura and which bit from Ueshiba — and whether he could make such a distinction. Add to this Ellis Amdur’s theory of Ueshiba’s use of his students as ‘crash-test dummies’ and you also have to entertain the possibility that he showed different things to different students — and he showed this by having them take ukemi. You also have to entertain the possibility that the skills that Ueshiba possessed which could be interpreted as IP skills could be acquired by Ueshiba’s students in various ways, but not necessarily from Ueshiba himself by a direct transmission.
and
I am not sure that acceptance is the right word here. Sufferance might be more appropriate. One of the yudansha who trains with the group I look after in the Netherlands attends the workshops of Dan Harden and Minoru Akuzawa when they come to Europe. His aikido comes from another source, of course, but on one occasion a senior Hombu instructor stopped and asked him, “Why are you so strong?” The question was not meant in a negative sense at all and he was not talking about physical strength. The instructor knew exactly what he was seeing and I believe the older generation of instructors in Japan also know this. But, as you say, this knowledge is clandestine and limited to individuals. These individuals are in the Aikikai, but are dwindling in number. Yamaguchi, Tada and Arikawa used to visit our dojo regularly and I once asked an instructor why Doshu (the present Doshu, not Kisshomaru) was never invited. This was a few years ago and the answer was quite blunt: “He’s too young and does not know enough.
I think Doshu is an active exponent of a certain interpretation of iemoto, but the great danger here is that aikido is not a koryu and does not have kata in the sense understood in a koryu. There is a sense that the waza can be seen as vehicles for the expression of creativity and this, to my mind, is what Morihei Ueshiba meant by Takemusu Aiki. He always showed waza, as did Takeda Sokaku, but seems to have presented them slightly differently to different deshi. So creativity can be understood in many ways. Unlike the present generation of Japanese martial arts exponents, Morihei Ueshiba also read the Chinese classics and was familiar with all the texts that are the foundation of Chinese internal arts. Recently I came across a scholarly work on yin-yang and its place in Chinese thought and culture. Even a quick read was enough to show that this is a complex and multi-faceted concept. We all know the question that a student asked Morihei Ueshiba and his answer, citing the knowledge of yin and yang. Ueshiba did not give any further explanation and left it to the students to grasp what he meant. The point is that he was probably familiar with the whole breadth and depth of the concept, but his students did not share this familiarity. (*22)
In the end, Tokyo became a technique driven center of aikido. Kata was emphasized where Morihei Ueshiba said his aikido was formless. Ranks were inflated to send newly created shihan out into the world to spread Modern Aikido. A worldwide message that aiki was harmony, peace, and love spread. While some of this was misconceptions from foreign students who clamped onto the whole spiritual love everyone idea, Kisshomaru knew that to hold the center, some of the fringes had to be given a bit of leeway. The definition of aiki started to become a living, morphing identity which swirled around the peace and harmony message. In/yo, or as Ueshiba would write ka/mi, was solidly pushed to the side. This then, was where the two legacies diverged. Spiritual harmony became prominent with a focus on techniques. Daito ryu was removed as much as possible, including the secret of aiki from Daito ryu. Given the state of Japan after the war, the state of the entire world after the war, and Kisshomaru’s onus put upon him by his father to hold Tokyo with his life, it is certainly an extremely worthy legacy that Kisshomaru created. While it was never the same as his father, Morihei Ueshiba was proud of what his son had accomplished.
1. Morihei Ueshiba
Morihei Ueshiba tested his aiki body by using push tests. These tests were outside of using techniques allowing Ueshiba to demonstrate the secret of aiki. When Tenryu met Ueshiba, Morihei talked about how he watched Tenryu waste his strength trying to unsuccessfully push him over as he was seated. Ueshiba even lets Tenryu try to push him over by pushing on his forehead. Tenryu can not. Ueshiba pushes his legs outward but Tenryu still can not push him over. (*6) From another article, Ueshiba explains that the reason Tenryu couldn’t push him over is because he knew the secret of aiki. (*7) In an interview with Tenryu, Ueshiba gave Tenryu his left wrist and allowed Tenryu to do anything with it. Tenryu could do nothing and mentions that grabbing Ueshiba’s hand felt like grabbing an iron bar. Even when Tenryu lunged at Ueshiba, Tenryu could not get the better of him. (*8) Tenryu tried to push or pull Ueshiba, but could not budge him. (*9) (*10) Tenryu was over six feet tall and weighed over 240 pounds. (*11) Remember, Ueshiba states that he could not be moved because he knew the secret of aiki.
Morihei Ueshiba demonstrating a push-test in Hawaii, 1961
with Yukiso Yamamoto and Nobuyoshi Tamura
In an interview with Hidetaro Nishimura (who introduced Kenji Tomiki to Morihei Ueshiba), Nishimura remembers Tenryu’s words about trying to push Ueshiba from behind and it was Tenryu who slid backwards. (*12) Notice that Tenryu is not a small man. He was a sumo wrestler who was tall, muscular and heavy. Yet, his training, his physical strength, and his solid build failed him in trying to push Ueshiba over. Aiki is not about physical strength, nor timing, nor body placement. Ueshiba was sitting and not moving. There was no timing or body placement involved.
“However hard we pushed the staff would not move.” – Yasuo Kobayashi
In an article in Aikido Journal, Stan Pranin mentions Ueshiba having people push on a jo and also having people push on him while he’s sitting on the mat. (*13) Shirata talks about a time when he and about nine others pushed on Ueshiba. Instead of Ueshiba moving, those pushing slid backwards. (*14) Takafumi Takeno talks about starting his aikido training and Ueshiba was having his students push and pull him. Ueshiba remained unmoved. (*15) Seishiro Endo recounts a time when Ueshiba had Endo push on his knees from the side. Endo mentions that Ueshiba felt soft and like a void that sucked up the efforts to push. (*16) Kazuaki Tanahashi is on video talking about trying to push Ueshiba. It was a common occurrence. Tanahashi mentions that Ueshiba even had Saito trying to push him over. (*17) Gaku Homma talks about how near the end of his life, Ueshiba would still have students push against him. Homma also states that they could not push Ueshiba over. (*18) Robert Frager recounts his time with Ueshiba. Ueshiba had Frager put his hands together and then Ueshiba placed one of his hands on Frager’s top wrist. Frager tried to push Ueshiba’s hand but could not. (*19) When an interviewer asked Kenji Shimizu about what left an impression while training with Ueshiba, he replied:
Well…there were so many things that left an impression on me…I don’t know where to start. One day he said “Shimizu, are you free?”, and when I answered “Yes” he sat down in a backless chair and said “My back is tight, could you massage it a little?”. At the beginning, when I pushed on his back lightly, he said “What’s this? You don’t have any strength – push harder!”, so I put more strength into it and pushed on his back strongly but O-Sensei didn’t move at all. He just said “Push harder!” so I added even more strength and pushed on his back, but he didn’t move, not an inch. He was the same during training – O-Sensei would hold up his te-gatana (手刀) in kamae and say “OK, try pushing me!”. In any case, no matter how much of a master one is, he was of such an advanced age that one would think that he would fall over if pushed strongly. However, since he would become angry if we pushed lightly we would push with all of our strength. Even so, he wouldn’t move, not an inch. (*20)
Modern Aikido removed push tests as they required an aiki body to successfully accomplish them.
Something else to consider regarding Ueshiba’s legacy of aiki is that Morhei Ueshiba would twirl a short stick, sometimes a shortened spear, around and around. This was Kagura-mai, or Dance of the Gods. (*8) Ueshiba was showing a very important aspect of an aiki body in his movements. So important that he used it as an explanation at the 1955 shihan training session:
The 1955 shihan training sessions in Tokyo began with O-Sensei wielding a Jo in “Kagura Mae” (神楽舞 / “Dance of the Gods”). When questioned about technique during the training sessions O-Sensei would just repeat the “Kagura Mae” without saying a word.” (*21)
Ueshiba’s Kagura-mai is not found in Modern Aikido even though Ueshiba commonly showed this movement. This cannot be stated with enough emphasis, the Kagura-mai was an extremely important aspect for Ueshiba. Anyone wanting to follow Morihei Ueshiba’s legacy of aiki must understand it. Aiki was about changing the body. Ueshiba twirling the stick was showing an internal concept from an aiki body.
Kagura-mai, the Dance of the Gods
Peter Rehse notes:
Just be coincidence there was a biography of Hideao Ohba written by Shishida posted by Eddy Wolput as part of his study group today. Maybe he will repost it here but there were several interesting statements. “Ueshiba’s teaching method, which required students to learn with their bodies, obviously would not appeal to educators or to the world of predecessor arts like Judo and Kendo which employed rational, systematic teaching methods.” (*23)
There are pictures and descriptions of Ueshiba stabbing a tree with a spear. Interviews talking of nightly training sessions. Ueshiba had his students push him up steps, stating it was a valuable training method. There are many such examples Ueshiba used which were not kept by Kisshomaru. Modern Aikido did not follow the same training methodology that Morihei Ueshiba used. Kenji Shimizu noted this diverging training when he stated about Morihei Ueshiba:
When I was actively practicing there he often came and went. When he showed up everyone immediately sat down. At first, I thought that people were being courteous toward him. However, it wasn’t only that. It was also that the practices we were doing were different from what O-Sensei expected us to do. Once he lost his temper at us. No one realized that he had come and he shouted: “What you people are doing is not aikido.” (*20)
For those who think that Morihei Ueshiba only talked of spiritual mumbo jumbo that confused his students, it’s known that Ueshiba did teach internal training methods in a clear and concise manner. No ka/mi, no Izanagi/Izanami, but clear and concise on a specific exercise for what one needed to do to train aiki. It was something not found in Modern Aikido. But, as Peter Goldsbury has noted, “this knowledge is clandestine and limited to individuals.”
(1) Aiki News Issue 010
(2) Yoseikan NA website
(3) http://www.aikidojournal.com/encyclopedia?entryID=720
(4) Aikido Journal Issue 112
(5) Aiki News Issue 088
(6) Aiki News Issue 019
(7) Aiki News Issue 019
(8) Aiki News Issue 023
(9) Aiki News Issue 025
(10) Aiki News Issue 049
(11) Aiki News Issue 076
(12) AikiNews Issue 087
(13) Aiki News Issue 044
(14) Aiki News Issue 063
(15) Aiki News Issue 099
(16) Aikido Journal Issue 106
(17) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpWY58LWaRE
(18) http://www.nippon-kan.org/abroad/scotland/sensei_ki_scotland.html
(19) Yoga Journal March 1982
(20) https://www.aikidosangenkai.org/blog/interview-aikido-shihan-kenji-shimizu-part-1/
(21) https://www.aikidosangenkai.org/blog/sadao-takaoka-meeting-osensei/
(22) http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showpost.php?p=336927&postcount=87
(23) http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showpost.php?p=346204&postcount=21
D: Morihei Ueshiba’s legacy detailed.
Ueshiba left a legacy. He stated that you didn’t have to be in a specific religion, but that aiki would complete it. When asked what aiki was, he answered, “I am aiki”. When he used spiritual terms, they were references to in/yo, which is the foundation for aiki. It was his vision to pass on aiki also known as Daito ryu aiki. There were a few students that he gave direct transmission to, most of them are known as the pre-war greats. Some of those students were around after the war.
Rinjiro Shirata (back right) at the Kobukan, 1931
How does one recognize that legacy of aiki? As just one example, a student of Rinjiro Shirata kept true to Shirata’s vision and from that, Ueshiba’s legacy. This student, Allen Beebe, was always searching for the meaning to what he had learned from Shirata. He recently started a website devoted to his years of hard work and effort. One specific article is worth reading to start the journey:
When I did take a peek I began to notice that the things that Dan was talking about, were things that I recognized. This happened often enough that I had the strong suspicion that Dan’s background relating to the topics discussed was almost definitely Daito Ryu. What he talked about and how he talked about were simply to “close to home” to be a fluke. (*1)
He goes on to state:
In the mean time, in the “early days,” it seems that most individuals were not coming to the same conclusions that I was. This, however, did not surprise me in the least. How could they? The majority of Aikidoshi, and even Daito Ryu practitioners for that matter, were completely unaware of most of what he was talking about. They had no frame of reference for comparison. It was as if Dan was speaking about infrared before it was commonly known. (*1)
Allen has started posting some of Shirata’s writings, ideas, and words. Ueshiba to Shirata to Beebe. Beebe then had his training methodology reinforced via a lineage of Daito ryu. The legacy of aiki. Ueshiba’s Daito ryu aiki.
(1) https://trueaiki.com/2017/02/20/how-i/
Published by: Christopher Li – Honolulu, HI
May 6, 2017
Interview with Aikido Shihan Kenji Shimizu – Part 2
Kenji Shimizu Sensei with Aikido Founder Morihei Ueshiba
“You should think of ukemi as being the secret to aikido”. This is my personal experience. During my uchideshi time the founder made me fall without questioning, on top of this I was scolded mercilessly when my ukemi was bad. I had so many painful experiences, that I continuously worried about whether there would be ever any progress, if I would do things like this. Having made it in Judo to the fourth dan grade and thinking I did good ukemi, I doubted that I had to be scolded like this.
But that was a mistake. I had forgotten to put Judo aside and start from zero. I only took my ukemi as I pleased. Yet I was made to become aware of the fact, that my body didn’t move as one with o-sensei’s body. When I think about it now I feel ashamed, that I thought it would be good just to take a showy ukemi.
Ukemi means reading your partner’s breath, and if one will not respond towards the nage (the person who throws) you cannot speak of true ukemi. Mastering ukemi means noticing the signs of your environment, which enables you to deal promptly with the circumstances. The bamboo for examples moves according to the relative strength of the wind, and when the wind stops, the bamboo returns to its original state. That is completely natural and it is alive. In aikido we don’t fight for victory or defeat. It is a way where we improve ourselves through training by repeating the techniques. It is important that you always can correspond with shite (the person, who is executing the technique) whom you are facing. This however is very difficult.
Though it is hard to learn a natural ukemi, an ukemi without force, you have made a huge progress in your technique whenever your body understands a little bit more about it. That may be, because you have learnt to utilize the executing person’s breath power in your own technique. And in my case, I was uke of osensei…
It is important to experience naturally strong techniques. If you cannot do ukemi soft and flexible, it is most likely, that you cannot execute a technique soft and flexible. The natural ukemi in aikido also makes you understand life.
“The Ukemi in Aikido” by Kenji Shimizu
Already an accomplished Judo-ka, Kenji Shimizu (清水健二) Sensei became one of the last uchi-deshi (“live-in student”) of Aikido Founder Morihei Ueshiba in 1963.
After the passing of the Founder he established his own style of Aikido – Tendo-ryu Aikido (天道流合気道), “School of the Way of Heaven”. In 1991 Shimizu Sensei received his eighth dan from the Nihon Kokusai Budoin, and in 2002 was honored by the Japanese foreign minister for spreading knowledge of Aikido as a part of Japanese culture. He travels and teaches extensively in Europe.
He is the author of “Zen and Aikido” (with Shigeo Kamata) and “Aikido: The Heavenly Road“.
This is the second part of a two part interview with Shimizu Sensei that originally appeared in the July and August 2006 issues 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 of the interview 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), Yoshio Kuroiwa Sensei (Part 1 | Part 2) and Morito Suganuma (Part 1 | Part 2).

Kenji Shimizu takes ukemi for Aikido Founder Morihei Ueshiba
Interview with Aikido Shihan Kenji Shimizu – Part 2
Concerning Morihei Ueshiba and Sokaku Takeda
Q: Was there anything else about the Founder than left an impression on you?
A: While doing muna-dori during one demonstration I grabbed O-Sensei’s beard along with his keiko-gi. “Oh no!”, I thought, but he just applied the technique to me calmly. It felt as if he had mastered every applied variation in his skin. Then, O-Sensei had an interest in calligraphy, and at that time it was usually my job to prepare the ink. I would prepare a large quantity of ink, and O-Sensei would apply it to a thick brush and write on a large piece of calligraphy paper – at that time the ink from the brush would often drip down onto the calligraphy paper. But even then O-Sensei would just say “Huh”, gather himself and use it as one part of the character that he was drawing. When he did that the shape of the characters would become unique. Later on a calligraphy specialist saw that and said “That O-Sensei drew it this way must have some kind of meaning…”. As you might expect, I had some mixed feelings when I heard that. I certainly couldn’t say that it was the result of dribbled ink.
Yoshio Sugino and Minoru Mochizuki training in Tenshin Shoden Katori Shinto-ryu
I heard this from Minoru Mochizuki Sensei (望月稔) of the Yoseikan (養成館). Long before I became a student there were many high ranking Judo and Kendo practitioners who would come to train, and O-Sensei would criticize Judo and Kendo without compunction. He would even turn towards Kendo students and say “Kendo today is just hitting with a sword”. The former Prime Minister Fumimaro Konoe (近衛文麿) came to train for a time, and one day he finished training and prepared to go home. At the time O-Sensei was with a guest in the reception room and one of the students came to say “His excellency Konoe is leaving”, but O-Sensei just said “Is that so? Well, give him my regards.” and didn’t even stand up from his seat. The guest, surprised, asked “Is it OK if you don’t see him out?”, but O-Sensei said “You are a guest, Konoe-san is a student.”. He certainly had that kind of fiber. There are those today who never actually met O-Sensei who just repeat hearsay, but I bathed with him and we broke bread together. (laughing) According to Mochizuki Sensei, in the beginning of the Showa era (1926-1989) the Kodokan’s Jigoro Kano Sensei gave O-Sensei a look or two. Truthfully, it seems as if he wanted to pull him into the Kodokan, but O-Sensei had already created his own school. So then he directed his own senior students to study under him. Yoshio Sugino Sensei of the Katori Shinto-ryu was also one of those people.
Q: Did you have some interaction with Mochizuki Sensei while he was alive?
A: Yes. During the time that Mochizuki Sensei was the Director (塾頭) of Hombu Dojo he met Sokaku Takeda, and he would often talk about that. Sokaku Sensei came to visit while Mochizuki Sensei was watching the dojo. He seemed like one of those ancient warriors that appear in period novels. He would always carry a sword cane with him when he went out, and he would conceal a knife under the front of his clothing, so his abdomen was covered with cuts. Then, when he went to go home in a taxi after visiting the dojo a wild dog started barking at Sokaku Sensei insistently, and when he hit it with the butt of his sword cane it fell over right there. When Mochizuki Sensei checked he found that it had died instantly. Sugino Sensei also met Sokaku Sensei, and according to him Sokaku Sensei would always check the room before entering – there were times when he made Sugino Sensei open the door for him. It was also difficult when he drank tea, he would always carry tea leaves and a tea cup with him and would just ask for hot water when he was out. When Sugino Sensei prepared the hot water for him he would say “You take a sip”. The point being that he must have been afraid of being drugged or poisoned.
Q: Those must have been normal precautions for ancient warriors.
A: Even in O-Sensei’s case, he wouldn’t stay in the bath long, and wouldn’t display openings carelessly. In any case, he was an extremely cautious person. Perhaps that is something that he learned from Sokaku Sensei.
Kenji Shimizu taking ukemi
Memories of Hombu Dojo
Q: Did the Founder do sword and staff in his later years?
A: No. He almost never did. Most of the time the O-Sensei used a sword or a staff it was for explaining the Riai (理合 – “unified principles”) of Aikido. Because Aikido is not Kendo. We were often taught the Riai of Aiki-ken and Aiki-jo. The demonstrations left an impression on me. There was a demonstration that was given at one place in which O-Sensei carried a folding fan. He gave me a bokken and said “I’ll go easy on you, so come and cut me as strongly as you can!”. In the instant that I tried to strike him as hard as I could I took an atemi to the jaw and flew backwards. It wasn’t anything like “going easy”! (laughing) O-Sensei would often use a folding fan to express yokemen-uchi and tsuki movements. If I had thought that was going to happen then things would have gone differently. At the time, there were many people who came to learn who were from the class of company presidents and politicians. For example, one who was very kind to me was Sunao Sonoda (園田直), who was employed as the Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare and the Minister for Foreign Affairs. Also, Takeo Kimura (木村武雄), who was the right hand man for former Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka (田中角栄), Tomisaburo Hashimoto (橋本登美三郎) and Toshiki Kaifu (海部俊樹), who would later become Prime Minister, were there. Among those Mr. Sonoda was the first head of the Kokkai Aikikai (国会合気会 – National Diet Aikikai), where I taught for about three years as the first shihan.
Toshiki Kaifu speaking at the 80th Anniversary of Hombu Dojo,
the 70th Anniversary of the Aikikai
Also, there was Mr. Shigeru Sahashi (佐橋滋), who was the Administrative Vice‐Minister of International Trade and Industry (通産省事務次官). When Mr. Sahashi was the Administrative Vice‐Minister the Minister of International Trade and Industry (通産大臣) was Mr. Takeo Miki (三木武夫), who would later become Prime Minister (*Translator’s note: Takeo Miki also ran for election as Prime Minister in 1942, against Hideki Tojo), and in the Ministry of International Trade and Industry the Administrative Vice‐Minister was at the top of the career ladder. One time, a bill was passed by Minister Miki’s office, but failed to pass through Vice‐Minister Sahashi’s office. From that time they were called “Minister Sahashi and Vice-Minister Miki” in the Ministry of International Trade and Industry. That Mr. Sahashi wrote just a little bit about his time training with me in the Showa year 44 (1969) issue of Bungeishunju (文芸春秋). Mr. Watanabe, who was a Bureau Chief in the Ministry of International Trade and Industry, and the Giant’s coach Mr. Hiroshi Arakawa would also come to practice often.
Coach Hiroshi Arakawa watches Sadaharu Oh practice cutting – 1964
Q: Who were the uchi-deshi at the time that you enrolled?
A: I don’t have much chance to meet them these days because most of them are now overseas, or for other reasons, but the uchi-deshi at the time were Tamura (Nobuyoshi) Sensei, Saotome (Mitsugi) Sensei, Sasaki (Masando) Sensei, Chiba (Kazuo) Sensei, Imaizumi (Shizuo) Sensei who was was the captain of the Waseda University Aikido club, also Sugano (Seiichi) Sensei, Kurita (Minoru) Sensei and Kanai (Mitsunari) Sensei. There were always about ten uchi-deshi there. In any case, the life of an uchi-deshi is difficult. One is always hungry. Of course, the compensation is small, so in the end one had to hang on to their parent’s legs. My parents wanted me to find another job quickly, and we used to fight about that a lot. When my parents came to Tokyo we took them to some of the better places that we would sometimes go to eat, but my mother said “You eat in places like this?” and broke out in tears. However, it’s said that those who come from hunger build spirit, and we certainly had that. It is said that in the past only those with enough money were be able to become uchi-deshi, so these were really very fine people.
Kenji Shimizu and Morihei Ueshiba around 1965-1966
Tendo-ryu is “Shimizu Aikido”
Q: Was it from Showa year 45 (1970) that you became independent as Tendo-ryu?
A: Yes, that’s right. That was after O-Sensei passed away. I first I used the name Shimizu Dojo, I rented space from a Judo dojo called Sato Dojo (*Translator’s note: 佐藤道場 – now continued by the children of the original instructor as an osteopathic clinic) in Setagaya Ward. After that I moved to our current location and took the name Tendo-ryu.
Q: Did you have a plan of your own when you became independent?
A: Even if you use the one word “Aikido” there are a lot of variations, aren’t there? Yoshinkan, Tomiki-ryu, even at Aikikai Hombu Dojo the techniques could be quite different depending upon who is instructing. We use he word Aikido as a general term for all of them, but since the content of each of them is different I decided to call my Aikido – “Shimizu Aikido”. In the Bujutsu (Kenjutsu) of the past, it is said that there were more than fifty ryu-ha (schools). The ryu-ha would polish each other, and there there was great progress in Bujutsu. Morihei Ueshiba Sensei was certainly my instructor, but if I have a dojo and teach then it’s my Aikido, isn’t it? That was the reason that I called it Shimizu Dojo when I became independent. After that, it wasn’t that I hid my individual name in order to expand, I thought that a solid ryu-ha should have a name, so I named it “Tendo-ryu”. For that reason, I never consciously changed the techniques. What I was doing were O-Sensei’s techniques, and the foundation was constructed strictly by O-Sensei, but my movements are not the same as O-Sensei’s. My thoughts and physique are different, at any rate it becomes Shimizu’s Aikido. Accordingly, although it is called Tendo-ryu, it has not been altered greatly.
Q: Is there something that you are particular about when it comes to instruction?
A: What I am particular about when it comes to instruction concerns ukemi, as we discussed earlier. For the uke to match their kokyu to the nage is something that is extremely difficult. In Aikido there is kokyu-ho and kokyu-nage, and depending upon the person large individual differences emerge. Well, it can’t be helped that there are skillful people and then those who are not so skillful, those who have the feeling but whose bodies can’t keep up and so forth. For that reason, there are issues that of skillful/unskillful in casual training that can’t be helped. There are those who develop quickly but end up stagnating, and there are those who develop slowly, a little bit at a time. One more thing, I believe that fighting for victory and defeat in training is not good. Since this is Budo, one might think that it looks like fighting to outward appearances, but the reality is different. In the repetition of kata the shite acts as the blade, and the uke must act as the sharpening stone. I believe that it is through that repetition that one becomes tempered. It is my belief that Aikido today is too conscious of strength, it seems as if the techniques are being destroyed. Perhaps one could say that people are “pursuing the strength that can be seen with the eyes”.
Kenji Shimizu and Morihei Ueshiba around 1965-1966
The relationship of Shite as the blade, Uke as the sharpening stone
Q: Do you mean that the relationship between the blade and the sharpening stone has been destroyed?
A: Yes, that’s right. If the sharpening stone is uneven then the blade will be uneven as well. When one turns an old bolt, if the bolt is rusty then they apply some oil and turn it a little bit at a time, if one just tries to force it without any oil then it will break. I am fearful of becoming that kind of Aikido. In other words, I am fearful of falling into the delusion that one cannot become strong without applying a technique strongly, of pursuing external strength.
In the case of Aikido, one does not apply technique suddenly, even though one applies it slowly it is effective. I have often experienced attempts of people struggling with each other to apply techniques that will injure the partner. However repetitive kata practice is, I do not think that it is acceptable to injure someone unnecessarily, and if one side resists needlessly the one being resisted will just respond by resisting in turn.
Q: As you said before, the role of the Shite is to act as the blade, and the role of the Uke is to act as the sharpening stone, so will the Uke be able to bring their role as the sharpening stone to fruition if they are not of a higher level than the Shite?
A: There is an important meaning there. For example, during demonstrations Uke becomes able to read the kokyu of the Shite. If that’s not the case then the Shite is simply throwing around someone who is of a lower level then they are, and one is just being thrown around. There are also those who say “The truth is that in Aikido technique one cannot take ukemi”, but it is easy to make it impossible to take ukemi. One just has to apply a technique halfway – but that is a mistake. Controlling the opponent without damaging them is the best. Conversely, when one thinks that it is acceptable to damage the opponent they will not be able to apply their technique on powerful opponents. The reason for this is that once they encounter resistance partway through the technique it’s all over. If one actually tries this then they will understand – if one attempts to use force “I’ll hold you down!” during training then one could say with confidence that the opponent will always sense that and instinctively resist. However, if one applies the technique slowly so that the opponent cannot tell when they will be immobilized, they will be strangely unable to resist. In other words, when there are corners left in one’s movement it won’t be effective on someone who’s a little bit strong. One ought to use a form that protects them against unexpected surprises. In other words, a posture in which one is prepared to destroy the opponent at any time, although controlling them without damage is best. I would like to faithfully preserve these kind of important points that have been passed down to us through the ages.
When training in Budo, what must really become strong is one’s mind. External strength can not be relied upon. In other words, strength that relies on youth is like steel heated in fire – as time passes it becomes cold. However, internal strength is without limit. Strength is limited, the mind is without limit. For that reason, in the past it was through mental training such as zazen that one created “resolve”. Especially when one stood in a position above others, without mental strength nobody would follow them. O-Sensei also said “Real Aikido begins after one is 60 years old. Until one passes 60 the real strength of their spirit does not emerge.”, and now I really understand the meaning of he was saying.
Q: In society, if one says sixty years old they are talking about retirement age, aren’t they?
A: That’s right. But that’s completely backwards. Also, it’s true that there are no competitions in Aikido, but there are certainly diferences in levels. The reason for that is that one can usually learn the basics of Aikido technique in about three years. However, that is still just the entranceway. The problem is from that point forward. While there are those who progress from that point, there are those who just draw a horizontal line, and those who go into a downward curve.
For that reason, it’s not really a problem of how many years one was with some person. What is needed is intensity of training and a willingness to take things in. If one takes things seriously, anyone can progress with certainty.
Q: I see. Thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule to speak with us today. I will pray for the ever-increasing growth of Tendo-ryu.
Gekkan Hiden 2006, July-August
Published by: Christopher Li – Honolulu, HI
November 19, 2016
Takuma Hisa – Kannagara no Budo, Daito-ryu Aiki Budo Hiden 1940
“Kannagara no Budo, Daito-ryu Aiki Budo Hiden” – 1940
(惟神の武道・大東流合気武道秘伝 – 昭和15年)
“In the spring of 1933, the bureau chief of the Asahi News sales office, Mr. Mitsujiro Ishii, who is presently the Minister of Justice, introduced us to Morihei Ueshiba Sensei, vouching for him as an expert on a par with the founder of judo [a reference to Jigoro Kano]. He recommended to the person in charge of security that we learn aikijujutsu from Ueshiba Sensei. Mr. Ishii was a leading figure at the Asahi News and had tremendous influence, so while it was supposedly a “recommendation,” it was really more like a supreme command. Since those of us in the General Affairs section were responsible for security, we very much welcomed Ueshiba Sensei, and we began learning at the Asahi Budo Dojo.”
“Meeting Morihei Ueshiba” – from “Remembering Takuma Hisa”
by Stanley Pranin, Aikido Journal
Takuma Hisa occupies a unique place in the history of pre-war Aikido. One of the major students of Aikido Founder Morihei Ueshiba in Osaka, he also went on to became one of the major students of Daito-ryu Chuku-no-so Sokaku Takeda, Morihei Ueshiba’s instructor,
Born in Kochi Prefecture in 1895, he made a name for himself as a sumo wrestler during his time as a student before going on to become the Director of General Affairs of the Asahi News corporation in Osaka.
Front row: Yoshiteru Yoshimura, Sokaku Takeda, Masao Tonedate
Here is the classic (and oft-repeated) story of how Takuma HIsa met Sokaku Takeda, in his own words:
On June 21st 1936, when we were training in Aikido under Ueshiba Sensei, a man came to the headquarters reception desk thrusting an iron staff suddenly with his right hand and holding a fine sword in his left “I am the Founder of Daito-ryu Aiki-jujutsu, Soke Sokaku Takeda. I have heard that you lads are learning from my student Morihei Ueshiba, but he is still inexperienced. If you have the will to learn true Aiki-jujutsu then become my students now and learn from me!”. Before anybody could say a word he took the security guards into the dojo. Keeping the fact that I was the division head a secret, I snuck in after the security staff and was astonished to see the reality of Takeda Sensei’s secret techniques. I went to Ueshiba Sensei right away and informed him of the appearance of the Soke, Takeda Sensei. I thought that Ueshiba Sensei would immediately go to beg his teacher’s pardon, but contrary to my expectations he became extremely dismayed and ended up withdrawing! So it came about that Ueshiba Sensei’s students would receive instruction in the early morning as before at the Umeda dojo, and then in the afternoon we would train with Sokaku Takeda Sensei in the night duty room of the headquarters building. At some point he left for Tokyo without any farewell to Asahi whatsoever, but Sokaku Takeda Sensei became increasingly committed and started to appear with Mr. Tokimune Takeda. According to the records:
- First Time: June 21st 1936 to July 25th, 36 days
- Second Time: November 1st 1936 to November 30th, 30 days
- Third Time: August 17th 1937 to September 30th, 44 days
- Fourth Time: October 22nd 1938 to November 14th, 22 days
- Fifth Time: March 26th 1939
  Takuma Hisa – Menkyo Kaiden and eighth dan
  Yoshiteru Yoshimura (吉村義照) – eighth dan.
  Masao Tonedate (刀祢館正雄)
He gave us the certificates and left for Hokkaido. As I look back now, it is almost fifty years since I began to learn Aikido. During that time, beginning with both Takeda Sensei and Ueshiba Sensei, then Director Tonedate and Security Chief Yoshimura, everybody has passed away. I am the only one left alive. I am eight-four this year, and have been stricken with paralysis, but I would like to use what strength I have left to transmit these techniques to future generations and somehow repay my debt to my Sempai.
“The Appearance of Takeda Sensei”
Menkyo Kaiden Takuma Hisa, 1982 – Takumakai Kaiho issue #50
Takuma Hisa receives Menkyo Kaiden (“Certificate of Complete Transmission”)
pictured with Daito-ryu Chuku-no-so Sokaku Takeda, 1939
Takuma Hisa was one of two people to receive Menkyo Kaiden in Daito-ryu directly from Sokaku Takeda, the other person being Masao Tonedate (presumably an honorary certification due to his position at the Asahi News company). Kodokai Founder Kodo Horikawa would receive Menkyo Kaiden from Tokimune Takeda after his father’s death (but at Sokaku Takeda’s request).
After the war he would go on to establish the Takumakai, but before that, one year after receiving Menkyo Kaiden from Sokaku Takeda, he published a book on Daito-ryu – “Kannagara no Budo, Daito-ryu Aiki Budo Hiden” (惟神の武道・大東流合気武道秘伝). Representing what may have been the most comprehensive manual on Daito-ryu published until that time, the title page specifies that the volume is not to be distributed to non-students.
Interestingly, Takuma Hisa excerpted large portions of the technical explanations directly from Moritaka (Morihei) Ueshiba’s 1933 technical manual “Budo Renshu” (see “Aikijujutsu Densho – AKA Budo Renshu, by Moritaka Ueshiba“). Further, although Hisa’s volume consists of photographs rather than drawings, it’s clear that many of the techniques themselves are identical.
This ought not to be surprising, since what Morihei Ueshiba was teaching at the time was, without question, Daito-ryu. This was clearly stated by Yoshio Sugino, who was a student at the time and a contemporary of Takuma Hisa – “Of course Aikido was with Ueshiba Shihan – when I was studying it was still called Daito-ryu Aiki-jutsu” (“Interview with Yoshio Sugino of Katori Shinto-ryu, 1961“).
Takuma HIsa had an extraordinary opportunity to compare the teachings of his two instructors – Daito-ryu Chuku-no-so Sokaku Takeda and Aikido Founder Morihei Ueshiba:
Takeda’s instruction gave Hisa the chance to compare the techniques that he had been taught for the previous three years (1933-1936) by Ueshiba with those taught by Takeda. His conclusion was that they were the same—meaning that Ueshiba had not by that time significantly modified or evolved what he had been taught by Takeda. In later years, Hisa was adamant about Ueshiba’s and Takeda’s techniques being identical. He stated this clearly at a round table talk, “When Tomiki came to Osaka to teach aiki-bujutsu to the Asahi people, the techniques that both master Ueshiba and Takeda taught were the same. Definitely the same. Master Ueshiba should say that he was taught them by master Takeda. He should say that it was Daitoryu. But he never said that. Mr. Tomiki (who also traveled from Tokyo to Osaka to teach Ueshiba’s system at the Asahi dojo) knows this, doesn’t he. But Ueshiba never said it.” And Tomiki answered, “Definitely not. ‘I [Ueshiba] established everything…[smiling mysteriously]’. However old martial artists would often do that way.” [Shishida (Ed.), 1982, p.1]
“The Process of Forming Aikido and Japanese Imperial Navy Admiral Isamu Takeshita: Through the analysis of Takeshita’s diary from 1925 to 1931”
– Fumiaki Shishida (Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan)
Thus, it should not be surprising that the explanations of principle and technique that Takuma Hisa learned from Morihei Ueshiba in 1933 should be repeated in his volume documenting the teachings of Sokaku Takeda published in 1940.
But there’s more…
In 1954 (five years after he told Morihiro Saito in Iwama that he had “completed” Aikido) Morihei Ueshiba published a book that he distributed privately to his students. This book was mentioned by Aikido 10th Dan Michio Hikitsuchi during the course of this interview:
Is our current style of practice different from that when you started?
Yes, the waza were done differently. You know, the other day I pulled out a book, Maki-no-Uchi. That was O-Sensei’s first book. We practised along the lines described in Maki-no-Uchi. ‘
Did O-Sensei distribute that book?
No. To have it, you had to have O-Sensei’s permission. For me, that was when I reached what would now be called shodan.
Was it a secret book, something that was never shown around?
Well, I don’t know whether I would call it “secret”. It was, after aIl, a book, and there probably are people who can learn just by reading. But it would have been very hard for someone to read the book end understand what it was about unless that person were practicing Aikido. Unless you were shodan or higher, you wouldn’t know what to make of it. I think that is still true today. It’s not as if you can tell someone, “Here, do it as the book shows.” Aikido is something that becomes a part of you – something that comes through the spiritual training [shugyo] of physical practice [keiko].
Comparing the three volumes – Moritaka (Morihei) Ueshiba’s 1933 “Budo Renshu“, Takuma Hisa’s 1940 “Kannagara no Budo, Daito-ryu Aiki Budo Hiden” and Morihei Ueshiba’s 1954 manual “Aikido Maki-no-Ichi” reveals some interesting similarities.
First, it’s important to note that the techniques pictured in the two volumes by Morihei Ueshiba are virtually identical, and are duplicated in many cases by the photographs in Takuma HIsa’s volume:
Kubi-shime, “Budo Renshu” by Moritaka Ueshiba – 1933
Kubi-shime, “Kannagara no Budo” by Takuma Hisa – 1940
Kubi-shime, “Aikido Maki-no-Ichi” by Morihei Ueshiba – 1953
Next, and perhaps more telling, is that the technical explanations given by Moritaka (Morihei) Ueshiba in 1933 in “Budo Renshu” are duplicated verbatim in Takuma Hisa’s volume – but they are also duplicated verbatim in Morihei Ueshiba’s 1954 volume “Aikido Maki-no-Ichi“. That is, there was virtually no change in either the technical depictions or explanations over a 21 year period, and there was no variation even when the volume in question was discussing Daito-ryu and not Aikido (although, for what it’s worth, Takuma Hisa often referred to his art as simply “Aikido”).
What does that mean?
Well, as I previously argued in “Budo – Moritaka Ueshiba’s 1938 Technical Manual“, all of this lends support to the argument that the radical phase change to the technical core of Aikido that is so commonly accepted to have occurred after the war…never happened. Or perhaps, it happened, but not at the behest of Morihei Ueshiba.
This is further affirmed by Yasuo Kobayashi Sensei’s testimony as to the content of his training with Morihei Ueshiba when he entered Aikikai Hombu Dojo in 1954:
Moderator: There were two books published before the war, “Budo” and “Budo Renshu”, was it only those techniques?
Kobayashi: Yes, that’s right. Of course, we did not do staff (jo) or sword (ken).
There is a discussion of this issue in “The Ueshiba Legacy, by Mark Murray” which you may like to read if you find this topic interesting.
Here is a good visual comparison of the pre-war and post-war technique of Morihei Ueshiba that illustrates this point quite clearly:
Also of interest is this very interesting study by John Driscoll, originally published on AikiWeb, showing the almost exact correlation between the techniques taught by Morihei Ueshiba and the techniques of the Daito-ryu Hiden Mokuroku – 82% according to this study, although that percentage would undoubtedly be much higher if the comparison were carried out against Morihei Ueshiba’s 1954 volume “Aikido Maki-no-Ichi” rather than the modern Aikido curriculum spread by the Aikikai in the post-war years.
…and here comes the download – this freely available PDF formatted version of “Kannagara no Budo, Daito-ryu Aiki Budo HIden” is available through the efforts of Scott Burke, who lives in Fukuoka, but often comes to Hawaii to join the Sangenkai workshops with Dan Harden.Many thanks to Scott, and kudos for his continuing series of “Aikileaks”.
I hope that you enjoy it!
- “Kannagara no Budo, Daito-ryu Aiki Budo Hiden” (Dropbox – PDF format / 22 MB)
- “Kannagara no Budo, Daito-ryu Aiki Budo HIden” (Aikido Sangenkai Server – PDF format / 22 MB)
Published by: Christopher Li – Honolulu, HI
October 8, 2016
Mamoru Okada – Training with Aikido Founder Morihei Ueshiba
Mamoru Okada Sensei (岡田主), 1921-2014
This is another of a type of essay that I really enjoy reading – memories of meeting and training with Aikido Founder Morihei Ueshiba from the perspective of ordinary students. In this essay Mamoru Okada recounts his memories of meeting Morihei Ueshiba in Osaka in 1949, after seeing him at a public demonstration held for members of the Nishi Health System. Interestingly, it appears that the Founder was already making regular trips to the Kansai area at that time.
Okada Sensei would go on to establish the Aikido Nobi Dojo (合気道野比道場) in Yokosuka in August 1980, and passed away in 2014 – a seventh dan in the Aikikai.
If you enjoy this type of essay you may also enjoy “Mr. Kimura’s Aikido Memories” (Part 1 |Part 2) – which presents memories of training with Morihei Ueshiba at the pre-war Kobukan Dojo in 1942, and “Aikido and Me – Training with Aikido Founder Morihei Ueshiba” – which presents memories of training with Morihei Ueshiba in Osaka in the 1960’s.
Osaka Central Public Hall, 1951
Mamoru Okada – Me and Aikido
– Translated by Christopher Li
The first time that I saw a demonstration by Aikido Founder Morihei Ueshiba Sensei was in March of Showa year 24 (1949), at a lecture held by the Nishi Health System (西式健康法) at the Osaka Central Public Hall (大阪中之島中央公会堂).
Koichi Tohei on his way to Hawaii in 1953
Translator’s Note: Katsuzo Nishi created a series of exercises in 1927 that he named the “Nishi Health System”. He was also a student of Aikido Founder Morihei Ueshiba, who adopted some of those exercises into his warm-up exercise routines. The Nishikai (the organization formed around the Nishi Health System) was instrumental in inviting Koichi Tohei to Hawaii in 1953.
Two of the Nishi Health System exercises
Kingyo Undo (“goldfish exercise”) and Hifuku Undo (“dorsal-ventral exercise”)
That day, after the regular lecture by Katsuzo Nishi Sensei (the founder of the Nishi Health System), there was a special demonstration by Morihei Ueshiba Sensei, so that the members of the Nishikai would be able to see his exquisite skills in Aikido for themselves.
Katsuzo Nishi demonstrates the “Hifuku Undo” (背腹運動) exercise
Nishi Sensei had a long friendship with the Founder, and was even on the board of directors for the Aikikai. I was twenty-seven years old and employed by Harima Dock Co., Ltd. (later to merge with Tokyo’s Ishikawa Heavy Industries and become the IHI Corporation) in Aioi City in Hyogo Prefecture. Influenced by my parents, I had admired Nishi Sensei since the time that I was a child, and that day we took about three and a half hours to come all the way from Aioi City to attend the lecture. During his lectures Nishi Sensei would often say “Aikido is surely true Budo, the movements of Morihei Ueshiba Sensei’s techniques can be likened to a tetrahedron composed of equilateral triangles, and the Nishi Health System has also incorporated the theoretical system of that structure, it is used on our association emblem. Compared to other structures, a tetrahedron composed of equilateral triangles provide the greatest level of strength for the smallest volume, and can be said to be the most efficient. I think that everybody should certainly experience Aikido at least once.” – and on that day he gave all of the members that chance.
The Nishi Health System emblem and an explanation of
the four primary elements – nutrition, skin, mind (in the center) and limbs
I attended together with my parents, and I remember being deeply impressed to see the exquisite flow of the Founder’s techniques for the first time. At the demonstration it was announced that there would be a special training workshop held beginning the next day at the Sonezaki Police Station in Umeda in Osaka, so the three of us decided to participate. There were many participants at the workshop, which was held over the period of a week, and the Founder instructed even us beginners with kindness.
“Running water never spoils”
Calligraphy by Nishi Health System Founder Katsuzo Nishi
We immediately applied to become students, and our names were entered into the student register that the Founder carried with him. He did this publicly as soon as we were accepted as students. At the time we also had a house in Rokko, in Kyoto City, and we traveled to training from there. When we returned home we practiced the shiho-nage technique that we had been taught that day with each other, repeating our training through trial and error.
My father came from a farming family and had a business selling seeds and seedlings. My mother was the daughter of a fishmonger and had graduated from a women’s teaching college, she was working as a teacher at an elementary school. I was an older child with no idea what it would be like to have siblings. From my childhood my mother would tell me tales of great heroes instead of fairy tales.
For example, Yamato Takeru (日本武尊), Minamoto no Yoshitsune (源義経), Kusunoki Masashige (楠木正成), Kimura Shigenari (木村重成), Sanada Yukimura (真田幸村), Araki Mataemon (荒木又衛門), Toju Nakae (中江藤樹), Yoshida Shoin (吉田松陰), Sakamoto Ryoma (坂本龍馬), Saigo Takamori (西郷隆盛), and others. It might be thought that this is what germinated my yearning for the sword. Wanting to learn Kendo even one day sooner, when I was a fifth year student in elementary school I asked my mother to take me to ask advice from someone who worked at the same school where she was employed and excelled at Kendo. That teacher advised me “Your body hasn’t developed yet, and you still have to deal with your middle school entrance examinations, so it would be better for you to learn Kendo after you enter middle school.”. I felt deflated, but I waited impatiently until the day that I would become a middle school student.
Happily, in April of Showa year 9 (1934) I was able to enter Hyogo Prefectural Kobe Middle School #1. I was a fresh first year student, unused to the khaki colored uniforms and the white furoshiki that we used at the school, but I immediately went to visit the after-school Kendo dojo inside the school and applied to join. There were a number of sempai lined up around the entrance to the dojo, but I was permitted to join and became a member of the Kendo club. I was filled with happiness, and from then on I would train every day, plunging myself in a life dedicated to the sword.
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In Showa year 14 (1939) I went to school at Kobe Kotoku Kogyo’s mechanical engineering department (now Kobe University’s engineering department), and at the end of Showa year 16 (1941) I received an accelerated graduation due to the outbreak of the war in the Pacific. In October of Showa year 17 (1942) I enlisted in the army, and until August of Showa year 20 (1945) I worked on the front line of domestic defense as an aviation mechanic.
After the war I entered Harima Dock Co., Ltd. of Aioi City in Hyogo Prefecture and returned to my life as a member of society.
When I was in middle school and vocational school I would sometimes travel for Kendo tournaments – the joy of victory and the teeth-grinding agony of defeat were both repeated uncounted times. After I entered the Harima Dock Co., Ltd. I joined the Kendo club, and traveled to tournaments and participated in company competitions. In November of Showa year 16 (1941), before graduating from Kobe Kotoku Kogyo, I received a san-dan certificate from the Dai Nippon Butokukai (大日本武徳会), and after the war I received go-dan in April of Showa year 31 (1956) and then a Renshi certificate in December of Showa year (1959) from the All Japan Kendo Federation (大日本剣道連盟). So, I felt that I was able to realize a little bit of the dreams of the sword from my childhood.
The Founding of the All Japan Kendo Federation, 1952
Morihei Ueshiba’s close friend Nakayama Hakudo, center-right
However, I cannot doubt that being able to meet Aikido Founder Morihei Ueshiba was a turning point in my path of the sword, and along with my contact with Katsuzo Nishi Sensei was the biggest turning point in my life.
At the time the Founder was living in the dojo in Iwama, in Ibaraki, or at the Hombu Dojo in Wakamatsu-cho, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo. Every month, or every other month he would come to Kansai (Western Japan) for one or two weeks, and instruct workshops for the students there. I still hadn’t found a good place to train, so I trained intermittently by grasping those opportunities. There was a workshop held at the Nagata Police Station. I believe that the majority of the participants were teachers of the Nishi Health System or were Nishi Health System members. It was at this time that I met Aritomo Murashige Sensei (村重有利) and received instruction from him.
Translator’s Note: Aritomo Murashige (1895-1964) was a student of Morihei Ueshiba from around 1931, and also studied Judo with Jigoro Kano and Tenshin Shoden Katori Shinto-ryu along with Minoru Mochizuki. He was the first person to bring Aikido to Burma (Myanmar), in 1953, as part of the Japanese government’s program of compensation for their WWII occupation. Murashige Sensei was active during WWII – one person is known to have said “When one came near him it felt as if there was a rain of blood”.
Seigo Yamaguchi (left) with Aritomo Murashige (right) in Myanmar
In between training sessions the Founder would speak about Omoto-kyo – before the war he went to China with Onisaburo Degushi Seishi (the Founder of Omoto-kyo), fought with mounted bandits and was arrested together. They were rescued miraculously at the last instant, just as they were ready to give up their lives – he made a great presentation to Murashige Sensei and the other students.
Under arrest in Mongolia
Onisaburo Deguchi (second from left) with Morihei Ueshiba (third from left)
Soon after that Murashige Sensei was sent to teach in Burma, and then I heard that he passed away in a traffic accident. It’s a sad thing. There was also training at the house of Mr. Ishimi in Osaka (the older brother of the current mayor of Himeji City), I think that there were about fifteen tatami mats, and I also participated in that training.
Also, I followed the Founder to Isaburo Tanaka (田中伊三郎 / also called 万川 / Bansen Tanaka) Sensei’s dojo in Suita City and was able to train a little there.
I’m sorry for talking about personal matters, but while my mother was a woman she was also extremely decisive, and she was overflowing with a desire to seek the truth. Throughout her entire life she followed that path, it wouldn’t be too much to say that she would learn from great personages whenever she encountered them, from the very beginning to the very end. In my mother’s later years she gave me five photographic portraits and told me to hang them up in the tatami room of my home. They were the Founder Ueshiba Sensei, Katsuzo Nishi Sensei, Hideo Sonobe (園部秀雄) – the Soke of Jikishinkage-ryu Naginata (a woman) , Masataro Sawayanagi (澤柳政太郎 – the former president of Kyoto University), and one more person – the Jodo Shinshu follower Shiro Tsuyama (津山四郎). Since then, in our home every morning and evening our entire family sits in front of the altar and, after praying to the Buddhas, pays their respects to the photographs of those five great personages.
In front of the Shinbuden Dojo
at Kenkoku Daigaku in Manchukuo (occupied Manchuria)
Kenji Tomiki and Morihei Ueshiba center,
Hideo Ohba in back row – second from left
Shigenobu Okumura in back row – second from right
Translator’s Note: It was Hideo Sonobe who commented on Morihei Ueshiba’s famous demonstration in 1939 with Hideo Ohba in Manchuria. Here is the story as told by Fumiaki Shishida (a student of Kenji Tomiki and a professor at Waseda University) in Ohba’s biography
It was Hideo Ohba who took ukemi for Ueshiba for the demonstration. He later talked about this event as follows: “Since the Emperor of Manchuria was in an exalted position at that time like the Emperor of Japan, I thought I should not take ukemi for Ueshiba in the way I usually did. If Ueshiba Sensei were a true master, he could freely handle a true punch, thrust or grab. Therefore, I decided to attack him seriously. When we stood on the platform, I saw many martial arts masters present in the large dojo of the Shimbuden. When I glanced at Ueshiba Sensei, his beard was sticking out towards me, his hair was standing on end and his eyes were glittering. I thought to myself that he was indeed a true master. Then I concentrated on taking ukemi for him, thinking how different it was to face a master. After the demonstration, we bowed and sat in the corner of the dojo and were supposed to walk over to the seats where the masters were sitting. However, I heard someone thunder, ‘You idiot!’ Ueshiba Sensei was short-tempered. He couldn’t wait until we returned to our seats. He shouted at me in that way in front of everyone. Until then, I thought he was a wonderful and truly great master, but his shout made my spirit pop like a bubble. We sat down. Ueshiba Sensei didn’t even smile. He was in a bad mood. So I felt tiny. Who do you think showed up then? It was Hideo Sonobe who was said to be without peer in Japan or anywhere in the use of the Naginata. She came all the way up to where the masters were sitting while Iai and Naginata kata were being demonstrated one after another. She said, ‘Mr. Ueshiba I have never seen more wonderful techniques than what you showed today. They were fantastic!’ Ueshiba Sensei, who had been in a bad mood, asked her what part she liked. He asked me to find a place where they could talk and we all went down to the basement of the Shimbuden and they discussed the theory of martial arts for two hours. While I was listening to their discussion Ueshiba Sensei asked her what she liked and she replied that she liked the ‘connections’ (tsunagari) between techniques. However, I didn’t understand these connections. I understood that the Dai Nihon Butokukai [Kyoto-based organization which governed Japanese martial arts] then was having a hard time trying to decide who they should choose as the best swordsman of that year and had asked Sonobe Sensei for her opinion. When I heard Sonobe Sensei tell Ueshiba Sensei that she had never seen such wonderful techniques even though she had seen him demonstrate often, I decided to learn Naginata in order to search for these ‘connections.’”
Hideo would always recount this story to his students when he was in a good mood. One time I asked him the following question, “Sensei, when you attacked Ueshiba Sensei seriously, could he execute techniques like he usually did in his regular demonstrations?” Judging from the fact that he was scolded on that occasion, the answer was obvious. I asked this question because I wanted to confirm it. He answered, “Ueshiba sensei seemed to have a hard time executing techniques smoothly.”
I think that Tomiki sensei was critical of the fact that Ueshiba’s demonstrations became gradually softer. Tomiki’s belief was that such softness was a way of making the person throwing look good, and was different from how martial arts should be. This demonstration of Ueshiba and Ohba received the highest praise from a top martial artist because of Ohba’s serious attacks, and the fact that he refused to participate in a prearranged performance the way he normally would have. I think that behind this fact lies an important hint as to what aikido should be. There seem to be some people within the Japan Aikido Association who see that their kata demonstrations are different from the flowing demonstrations of other schools, and try to change them in that direction. However, things should be the opposite. I think what is important is that we should master each technique perfectly as did Ueshiba Sensei, and then try to achieve a connection or flow between techniques. Hideo’s experience taught us not only the limitation of Ueshiba’s techniques (one cannot throw someone in a dance-like manner), as well as his incredible mastery, but also how a demonstration should be.
Hideo Sonobe (sixth from right) at the Kobukan (光武館) Dojo around 1954
When she had the chance during a workshop at the Sonezaki Police Station my mother invited the Founder to visit us in Aioi City. This wasn’t something that any of us could have thought of, much less have been able to do. But the Founder consented and it came to pass. I think that it was around October of Showa year 24 (1949). We used the banquet hall of the Aioi Credit Union (相生信用組合) to gather Judo students and other people who were interested to view a demonstration by the Founder. As otomo (“attendants”) the Founder brought with him Tadashi Abe Sensei (阿部正), who would later go to France as an instructor, Nariaki Hirano Sensei (平野成秋) from Tanabe City, and Mr. Oyama, who came from boxing (Translator’s Note: This may be Kunio Oyama, from Iwama.). Abe Sensei took ukemi for the demonstration. Thus it was that the light of Aiki shone even in the shipbuilding city of Aioi. We were especially grateful that the Founder stayed with us in our home while he was in Aioi.
When I think of all of our carelessness back then I feel ashamed. We served him a humble meal, which he ate cheerfully, and then after a short chat he introduced our family to the basics of suwari-waza shomenuchi ikkyo. He stayed with us for the night and the next day, after taking the time to watch us clear the fields and cultivate the land of our mountain farmland, he returned to Tokyo in the afternoon.
Later on around Showa year 33 (1958), during a trip to Kansai, the Founder stopped by my home. His otomo at the time were Nobuyoshi Tamura Shihan (田村信喜), who would spend many years teaching in France, and Seiichi Sugano Shihan (菅野誠一) who teaches in New York.
On that occurance he was only able to stay for a short time, so I believe that we served him lunch. I think that this was the time that the Founder said “Let me write something for you.”, and wrote “Masakatsu, Agatsu, Katsuhayahi, Takemusu Aiki, Tsunemori” (正勝、吾勝、勝速日、武産合気、常盛) for me on a piece of calligraphy paper. Aside from the name “Morihei”, the Founder would also use the name “Tsunemori” (常盛).
“Takemusu” calligraphy by Aikido Founder Morihei Ueshiba
signed “Tsunemori”
I framed that calligraphy paper, and now it hangs in my Aikido Nobi Dojo. I hope that I can impress on my children that this is a family treasure of our household. We were honored that he would come to stay twice at the home of rank beginners. I often reflect deeply on the warm feelings of the Founder and I must continue to impress this on my children.
I, who had begun to burn with a passion for Aikido, somehow managed to get by until that one day in the summer of Showa year 24 (1949) when I went to visit the Founder in Iwama for the first time.
The Founder came to greet me cheerfully. It was also the first time that I had met his wife. I visited the Aiki Shrine and was able to hear the voice of the Founder as he prayed. After that he permitted me to join the training.
At that time Morihiro Saito Sensei (斉藤守弘) was serving as an uchi-deshi, and I also asked Saito Sensei for instruction. I was still a beginner, so I was completely absorbed. I believe that the dojo had a wooden floor. After being kindly entertained in the evening I stayed there for the night.
Early the next morning, after the Founder greeted the sun respectfully, we visited the Aiki Shrine, where we heard the Norito (“shinto prayers”) rising resonantly – it was an extremely refreshing feeling. If you could excuse me, many years have passed and some of the details have become fuzzy, so some of the details might be mistaken. I am trying to give you an outline of what it was really like, so please be forgiving.
So, that day the Founder was scheduled to go to Aikikai Hombu Dojo, so I accompanied him as his otomo. It was still not long after the war and Hombu Dojo was an old fashioned wooden building. The dojo was divided into a number of small rooms, and it appeared that there were a number of families living there. It was the first time that I met Ni-Dai Doshu Kisshomaru Ueshiba and his wife. I left Hombu Dojo that day after receiving much generous hospitality.
After that my mother also became enthusiastic about visiting the Iwama Dojo, so she took off for Iwama Village in Ibaragi Prefecture on her own from Aioi City in Hyogo Prefecture. When she transferred to the Joban Line at Ueno Station she saw a young person in a car and asked them the way to Iwama. Miraculously, that young person was training Aikido in Iwama at that time – his name was Mr. Yoshitomo Machida (町田良友), and he lived in Iwama at the time. Mr. Machida told my mother that he was training in Aikido, and took her to the Aikido dojo in Iwama so that my mother was able to meet the Founder and his wife there.
The meeting of Mr. Machida and my mother was certainly unexpected. My mother completed her journey to Iwama and returned home without incident. After telling us about her trip she told us something that the Founder had said – “It seems that you son is pursuing the path of Aiki with enthusiasm, if you leave him with me I can develop him into a professional.”, was the gist of it, I believe. My spirit was moved, but I had already followed the path of a mechanical technician and I had a responsibility to protect the livelihood of my family, so I couldn’t make such a bold decision and was unable to take advantage of the Founder’s kindness.
Mr. Machida was a university student at the time, and my mother asked him to help with some projects related the the Nishi Health System. As a result, he came to Kansai just for that and I was able to meet him face to face for the first time. Mr. Machida gave us a great deal of assistance during that time and we have remained friendly to this day.
Published in the Kobe University Technical Club (KTC) newsletter issue 72, March 1st 2011
Published by: Christopher Li – Honolulu, HI
August 13, 2016

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