Aikido's origins date as far back as the tenth century, during the Heian period, or "the golden age of the samurai." Most of the modern martial arts in Japan--such as kendo, judo and jujutsu--owe their heritage to centuries of combat experience by the samurai and other bushi soldiers. Shinto, Zen Buddhism, and shamanism influenced the thinking and the training of these warriors. The founder of aikido drew upon bushido (the Way of the warrior) and Eastern philosophy as he gradually formed his unique art. On December 14, 1883, Founder Morihei Ueshiba was born in Tanabe, Kishu Province (now known as the Wakayama prefecture), in south-central Japan. As a boy, Ueshiba was weak and sickly, but very intelligent. He stayed mostly indoors, reading the Chinese classics and learning esoteric Buddhist rites under the direction of a Zen Shingon priest. His father encouraged him to take up sumo wrestling and swimming to improve his health. Ueshiba began to take a general interest in budo as early as age ten.
When he was just twelve, Ueshiba watched helplessly as the village thugs beat his father because of political differences. Ueshiba's father, Yoroko, was a member of the local council and caretaker of the village. His political opponents often sent thugs to "negotiate." This happened so often that young Ueshiba swore to become stronger no matter what the cost and to throw out his father's attackers. As he grew stronger, he began studying various forms of budo. As a teenager, Ueshiba enrolled in an abacus academy, advancing to assistant instructor in just one year. He took a job as a community tax assessor, but resigned when told to enforce a new tax law he considered unfair to the village farmers and fishermen. He lead the protest against the tax, causing much headache for his father. When he turned eighteen, Ueshiba went to Tokyo to open a small stationery store. At night he studied kito-ryu jujutsu and shinkage-ryu kenjutsu.
His studies were cut short when he developed heart beriberi. Back home, he conditioned himself back to health until he was stronger than ever. He stood at only 5'2" but he built himself up to a rock-solid 180 pounds. He became active in the community and would often compete in contests of strength. The Founder was known to have broken several heavy sledge hammers in rice pounding contests. At the age of nineteen, he took Itogawa Hatsu as his wife. In 1903, shortly before the Russo-Japanese war broke out, Ueshiba joined the army as an infantryman. While training for the war, Ueshiba became an expert with the bayonet. His spirit and motivation boosted the morale of his peers. He would often lead in the front of marches, carrying the loads of those too weary to continue. His superiors noticed his tireless efforts and promoted him quickly to sergeant.
He served with distinction during his tour of Manchuria (1905), boosting the morale of his fellow troops. While Ueshiba was stationed at Osaka, he studied yagyu-ryu jujutsu and received his first teaching license several years later. At the end of his four-year enlistment, his commander urged him to come back into the military as an officer, but Ueshiba politely refused. He returned to his wife and the farm, but soon grew restless, becoming easily irritable and spending most of his time praying or fasting. Concerned with his son's behavior, Yoroko organized a dojo in his village and invited the well-known Takaki Kiyochi to teach Ueshiba tenjin shin'yo-ryu jujutsu. But after a few years of training, he became ill again. When he finally recovered in 1910, he applied to become a settler in the northern frontier of Japan, in hopes that the change of atmosphere would improve his health.
In the spring of 1912 he led a group of eighty people, most of them unemployed farmers and fishermen, into the wilderness of Hokkaido. He was accompanied by his wife, Hatsu, and his two-year old daughter, Matsuko. Ueshiba was elected as a member of the council in the new Shirataki settlement. The first few years were rough for the settlers; for three years in a row, harsh weather wiped out a major portion of their crops. At one time the settlement burned down, but Ueshiba's strong leadership and determination kept his people going. After years of hardship, the settlement grew into a successful lumbering village. Respectfully known as the "King of Shirataki," Ueshiba gained social prestige and property. His health improved. The years of hard work and horseback riding in extreme cold had toughened Ueshiba, making him stronger than ever.
It was during that time, in 1915, that he met Sokaku Takeda, the grandmaster of daito-ryu aiki-jujutsu, at a hotel in Engaru. Fierce and hot-tempered, Takeda earned the reputation of being a "demon" warrior by boldly challenging the best martial artists in dojos across the land and defeating them. An accomplished swordsman, Takeda was also known to have fought with a live blade several times. In a single encounter he killed eight armed construction workers, wounding a dozen more as he sliced his way out of a mob. Even while lying half-paralyzed on his deathbed, Takeda was said to have thrown a sixth-dan judoka. Although he sometimes treated his students severely, Master Takeda was reported to have a following of thirty thousand disciples. His reputation spread as far as the United States, where, at the President's request, he dispatched a student to teach Theodore Roosevelt the daito-ryu.
According to tradition, the daito-ryu was founded "circa 1100 A.D. by Minamoto (Gengi) Yoshimitsu, sixth generation descendant of the Emperor Seiwa." ( 3 ) This art was secretly taught within his samurai clan until 1574, where it was taught to shoguns and other high ranking samurai of the Aizu clan for the next three hundred years. A system known as aiki-in-yo-ho (the aiki system of yin and yang) was assimilated into the Aizu clan shortly before the Meiji Restoration (the end of feudalism). The Aizu samurai, loyal to their military regime to the end, were among the last to fall to the Emperor Meiji in 1877. So, through grandmaster Sokaku Takeda, Ueshiba learned the secrets of daito-ryu aiki-jujutsu. ( 5 ) Ueshiba later accompanied Takeda on teaching expeditions, having sent his family back to Tanabe because of the extreme cold at Hokkaido. For four years he trained hard, until one day he received a message that his father was seriously ill. The Founder gave all of his property to Master Takeda and left his Shirataki settlement for good.
On his way home, he met the Reverend Osinaburo Deguchi, leader of Omoto-kyo, a new religious sect in Japan. The Omoto-kyo--a unification of Asiatic shamanism, Shinto, Zen Buddhism, and Christianity--greatly impressed Ueshiba. In hopes of healing his father, he took a detour to the Omoto headquarters in Ayabe, Kyoto Prefecture, to ask prayers for his father's recovery. Ueshiba was moved by the mystical wisdom of Reverend Deguchi and the spiritual energy he felt permeating within the Omoto-kyo. His spirits raised, he hurried home to Tanabe. But to his grief, he learned that his father had already died. His father's death changed his life drastically. Ueshiba hardly ate or slept for three months; instead, he would sit on top of a mountain, shouting old Shinto prayers and thrashing his sword wildly for hours. His friends and even his wife had begun to think he was mad. Then one day, Ueshiba remembered his encounter with Reverend Deguchi and decided to join the Omoto-kyo community.
Ueshiba sold his ancestral land and moved his entire family to Ayabe in the spring of 1920 to find peace, healing, and the secret of budo. At Ayabe he taught ju-jutsu and other forms of budo, including the sword, staff, and spear. But Ueshiba's first years there were trying: in addition to the death of his father, both of Ueshiba's sons, three-year Takomori and one-month-old Kuniji, caught a virus and died only days apart. The next year, his third and only surviving son, Kisshomaru, was born, but a few months later Ueshiba's mother passed away. Ueshiba's personal hardships did not stop him from practicing budo. The Omoto-kyo comforted Ueshiba. Master Sokaku Takeda would also visit regularly, although Deguchi made it clear that he did not like his blood-thirsty ways.
In 1922, Takeda stayed for a six-month visit and gave Ueshiba the title of shihan-dai (instructor) of aiki-jujutsu. Although their relationship was that of respect between disciple and master rather than mutual friendship, they maintained contact with each other until Takeda's death in 1943, no matter where Ueshiba moved. But Ueshiba's destiny was to find aikido, not carry on daito-ryu aiki jujutsu. During his stay at Ayabe until 1926, Ueshiba was encouraged by Reverend Deguchi to develop a style less combat-oriented than daito-ryu. Although Ueshiba was Takeda's closest disciple, he did not share his master's violent approach to the martial arts. Ueshiba stated that while Takeda opened his eyes to budo, the Omoto-kyo was his source of enlightenment. Despite Takeda's critcisms, Ueshiba began to change many daito-ryu techniques.
In 1922, he began developing the art that he would eventually call aikido during the second world war. Many people came from all over to watch Ueshiba develop this new budo. Reverend Deguchi prophesied that Ueshiba's purpose on earth was "to teach the real meaning of budo: an end to all fighting and confrontation." ( 6 ) In 1924, Ueshiba made a pilgrimage with the Reverend Deguchi to Mongolia to establish a utopian community there. But unknown to Ueshiba, Deguchi was not welcome by the Emperor. Most Japanese entering China were considered spies, and to make things worse, Deguchi advocated a new world goverment with all religions integrated into the Omoto-kyo, with himself as the new ruler. The Reverend was unsuccessful in rallying his Chinese hosts, partly because of his radical religious and political claims. ( 7 ) Skirmishes between the new Chinese goverment and local warlords added to their problems, making their trip a hard one. They soon found themselves without help and became fugitives in a foreign country. At one time, Ueshiba was held at gunpoint. Feeling a "spiritual bullet" go through him only a split second before the trigger was pulled, Ueshiba stepped out of the line of fire, then disarmed his attacker. ( 8 ) But Ueshiba's luck eventually ran out. After almost half a year of difficulty on the road, Deguchi's party was captured by the local warlords and they were declared enemies of the nation. All five men were sentenced to death. They were stripped of all their possessions, including their shoes. Despite harsh treatment, the brave Ueshiba carried himself differently from the others, showing no fear or pain. For that, his captors kept his hands and head in a pillory while they walked him in leg irons. On the way to the firing squad, Ueshiba and his companions remained calm, even as they walked past the bodies of freshly executed soldiers. Moments before they were shot, the Japanese government intervened. They were literally spared at the last minute.
When Deguchi's party returned safely to Japan, they were given a hero's welcome. Back in Ayabe, he dedicated himself to developing his budo. He trained more intensely than ever, practicing at full speed against students armed with live swords. Ueshiba's ki--his inner strength, or life-force--grew so strong that Omoto-kyo psychics swore they saw rays emanating from his body. The Reverend Deguchi would announce to every visitor, "There is a hell of a great warrior at my place." ( 9 ) Talk of Ueshiba's prowess in the martial arts spread throughout Japan. In the spring of 1925, a naval officer, who was also a kendo master, heard of Ueshiba's reputation. When he arrived to at Ueshiba's dojo, he was invited in as a guest. Ueshiba tried to explain his aiki theory to his visitor, but he came to fight instead. The officer challenged him to a duel. Ueshiba finally consented, but refused to use a weapon or arm himself. This enraged the officer. When the match began, he dashed forward to strike Ueshiba, but his target was gone. Every time the kendo master tried to strike him with his wooden bokken, Ueshiba would dodge his blows with ease. The officer finally sat down in exhaustion, never once having touched him.
As Ueshiba stopped to rest under a persimmon tree in a nearby garden, he was suddenly overcome by a profound sensation. The Founder recalls this experience: I set my mind on budo when I was about fifteen, visiting teachers of swordsmanship and jujutsu in various provinces. I mastered secrets of old traditions, each within a few months. But there was no one to instruct me in the essence of budo, the only thing that could satisfy my mind. So I knocked on the gates of various religions, but I could not get any concrete answers. Then in the spring of 1925, if I remember correctly, when I was walking in the garden by myself, I felt as if the universe suddenly quaked, and that a golden spirit sprang up from the ground, veiled my body, and changed it into a golden one. At the same time, my mind and body became light. I understood the whispering of the birds, and was clearly aware of the mind of God, the Creator of this universe. At that moment I was enlightened: the source of budo is God's love--the spirit of loving protection for all beings. Endless tears of joy streamed down my cheeks.
Since then I have grown to feel that the whole earth is my house and that the sun, the moon, and the stars are all my own. I had freed myself from all desire, not only for position, fame, and property, but also the desire to be strong. I finally understood the essence of budo. Budo is not about defeating your opponents by force, nor is it a tool to lead the world into destruction with weapons. True budo is to accept the spirit of the universe, keep the peace of the world, correctly produce, protect and cultivate all beings in Nature. I understood that training in budo is to take God's love--which correctly produces, protects and cultivates all things in nature--and assimilate it and use it within the mind and body. ( 10 )
From this turning point in Ueshiba's life, aikido would be born. He was forty-two years old at the time. Reverend Deguchi encouraged Ueshiba to leave the Omoto-kyo community to spread his budo across Japan. Through several personal contacts within the Omoto-kyo, Ueshiba met with Admiral Isamu Takeshita in Tokyo. Admiral Takeshita was so impressed with Ueshiba's skills that he became one of his most influential sponsors. Through Takeshita, Ueshiba demonstrated his skills to many influential people, including Count Yamamoto and Prince Shimazu. His art became so popular among the nobles that Ueshiba taught a twenty-one-day course at Ayamoa Palace for the Emperor's guards. Although Ueshiba became seriously ill during that time, he did not let it show during his practice.
Early in 1927, the Founder moved his family from Ayabe to Tokyo. Prince Shimazu renovated a billards room into a dojo, and there Ueshiba trained the daughters of Takeshita, Yamamoto, Shimazu, and other nobles. At the time, the Founder's art was known as "Ueshiba Aiki-jutsu." As all of Japan began to hear of this new budo, Ueshiba gained more students, many of them aristocrats and intellectuals. He was very selective and had no intention of teaching aikido to the masses, hand-picking students according to their character and willingness to learn (he treated female students just the same as men, which was uncommon in those days). Nevertheless, he had to move twice to accommodate his growing dojo. Finally, in 1931, he set up the new 80-tatami ( Kobukan dojo, housing more than thirty live-in students, most of them strong males weighing over 180 pounds. These men would train so hard that the place was nicknamed "Hell dojo." In 1932 the Budo Enhancement Association was formed and the Founder took office as the president. A 150-tatami ( 13 ) sister dojo was set up at Takeda to receive students interested in Ueshiba's style of budo. Word of Ueshiba's art spread across the world. At one time, the World Wrestling Champion of the World, "Mangan," left America to challenge the Founder. This hulk, well over 6', shadowed the 5'2" Ueshiba. Mangan attacked with his notorious "flying kick," but the Founder threw him effortlessly. After that Mangan befriended Ueshiba and became his student. Other students of Ueshiba included the sumo champion Tenryu and "King Te" of Mongolia. Ueshiba convinced even the most cynical and skeptical observers that his budo really worked. Besides maintaining regular classes at the Kobukan dojo, the Founder held many special classes and demonstrations at military and police academies. General Miura, a hero of the Russo-Japanese War and fellow student of daito-ryu aiki-jujutsu, was somewhat impressed but not entirely convinced of Ueshiba's abilities. He arranged a training session at Toyama Military Academy with his biggest and best jukendo (bayonet fighting) students. They urged Ueshiba to wear protective armor, but as usual, he refused, saying that the wooden bayonets were safe enough. Then the Founder asked them to attack him all at once. No one took his challenge seriously, so only one student stepped forward to attack. When the rest of the students saw their classmate land on his rear, they lost their composure and rushed him all at once. He skillfully avoided all blows, tiring out his attackers. Ueshiba walked out without a scratch.
When students of Kenji Tomiki, a well-known judoka, urged their master to meet Ueshiba, he scoffed, saying, "I've heard about Ueshiba and his fake demonstrations; if I take on an over-the-hill forty-year old, all my colleagues would laugh at me." His students promised not to tell anyone, so Tomiki went to Ueshiba's dojo and challenged him. When he approached Ueshiba, Tomiki found himself pinned. Ueshiba gave him another chance, but Tomiki hit the floor again. Tomiki gave an apologetic bow and said, "I hope to become your disciple." Ueshiba took him in. ( 14 ) Hearing what had happened, Dr. Jigori Kano, the founder of Judo, went to visit the Kobukan dojo. He was so impressed with the techniques he saw that he remarked that Ueshiba's art was his "ideal budo--true judo." Later, Dr. Kano told his staff in private, "To tell you the truth, I'd like to engage Ueshiba right here at my Kodokan, but since he is a master in his own right, that would be impossible. Therefore, I'd like to dispatch some of my best students to Ueshiba's dojo to learn his art." ( 15 )
The Founder also showed skeptics that there was more to his budo than just technique. At one demonstration in Osaka, the Founder asked five of the biggest police officers there, all high-ranking judoka, to pin him to the floor. Although each of his limbs was pinned by an officer and one had his neck in a choke hold, the Founder yelled out a loud kiai and threw all five behemoths off him. When the crowd asked what had happened, the officer that had held Ueshiba's neck swore that he felt an unseen force pull his hands apart. The others said that they felt Ueshiba's body turn from soft silk to heavy iron as they flew off his body. Morihei laughed and said, "You had better learn more effective arrest techniques if you are going to deal with dangerous criminals." ( 16 ) His students once asked him if the feats of the ninja--such as walking on water or becoming invisible--were actually possible. Ueshiba told his students, "You have been watching too many movies. Get your swords and staffs and I'll give you a real demonstration of ninjutsu." Ten or more of his students encircled Ueshiba and rushed toward their master, but during their attack they lost him. They searched the dojo but could not find him. "Over here!" they heard Ueshiba shout. Twenty feet away, he was hiding halfway up the second story stairs. When his students asked him to do more tricks, he became annoyed. "Are you trying to kill me just to entertain yourselves?" he said jokingly. "Each time a person does this trick, his life span is reduced by five or ten years." ( 17 ) There are more anecdotes of Ueshiba's Kobukan dojo days, far too many to mention here.
Ueshiba's surviving students fondly remember his prewar days and retell these stories to inspire generations of aikidoka. But these prosperous days would come to an end. A second world war would change Japan forever and test Ueshiba's spirit. Out of this darkness, he would perfect his budo, and aikido would emerge. As Japan's ambitious leaders expanded their empire, they called the nation to war. World War II came and emptied Ueshiba's dojo of its best pupils. He handed his affairs in Tokyo over to his son and left for the mountains of Iwama. Ueshiba built a modest dojo at his Aiki shrine but taught only a few students, spending the rest of his time developing aikido and farming. "Budo and farming are one," he often said. ( 18 ) Although Ueshiba publicly supported his nation during the war, in private he complained about it bitterly: The [Japanese] military is dominated by reckless fools ignorant of statesmanship and religious ideals who slaughter innocent citizens indiscriminately and destroy everything in their path. They act in total contradiction to God's will, and will surely come to a sorrowful end. True budo is to nourish life and foster peace, love, and respect, not to blast the world to pieces with weapons. ( 19 ) Ueshiba felt that the war would not go well for Japan. He quietly developed his budo and prepared for the worst. Iwama is considered the birthplace of aikido by many. ( 20 ) Prototypes of Ueshiba's budo before that were primarily martial arts rather than spiritual paths. ( 21 )
The war greatly affected Ueshiba, a man of peace. During his time in the mountains, he consolidated his techniques with religion and philosophy. Although Ueshiba answered to many challenges in his younger days, he turned his focus toward spiritual improvement rather than competition. In 1942, Ueshiba called his style aikido, "The Way of Universal Harmony." The Founder was nearly sixty years old at the time. When Japan surrended in 1945, many Japanese could not accept defeat. For the first time in the nation's two-thousand year history, foreign troops occupied Japan. Because the Emperor himself asked for Japan's unconditional cooperation, ritual suicide, rather than open resistance, was the only honorable solution for many people. Others lost faith in their country and the spirit of budo. Some even denounced their religions. These attitudes worried Ueshiba, but he could not summon his disciples together. The Allies placed a ban on all martial arts, so Ueshiba's surviving students remained scattered across the country. The few students that trained secretly with him often felt that aikido would cease to exist. Instead of turning bitter, the Founder remained optimistic. He carefully planned for the rebirth of aikido, envisioning it as a way for the people of Japan to regain their self-confidence. On November 22, 1945, Ueshiba helped organize the Aikikai, a national preparatory council for the restoration of martial arts in Japan. Fifty-three officials attended the meeting at Tokyo, including the ex-premier of Japan, Prince Komoe.
More than two years later, the day Ueshiba waited for finally came: on February 9, 1948, the ban on martial arts was lifted and the Aikikai Foundation was officially approved, with Ueshiba's son, Kisshomaru, in charge. The spread of aikido resumed. Originally Ueshiba intended aikido to be for only a group of individuals selected by himself, but his stay at Iwama during the war changed that. The Founder intended aikido "to reconcile the world and make human beings one family." Ueshiba did more than extend aikido to the rest of Japan--he opened his art to the rest of the world. Because of the curiosity of U.S. servicemen stationed in Japan and because of the efforts of Ueshiba's Aikikai Federation, Americans took interest in the martial arts. Other nations soon followed. As relations between Japan and the rest of the world improved, many budo instructors, especially Ueshiba, welcomed foreigners into their dojos. In 1953, the Founder sent Koichi Tohei, a 10th dan student, to the United States to teach aikido. ( 22 ) Ueshiba used aikido not only as a way to improve the self-esteem of the Japanese, but also as a gesture of friendship to the entire world. The founder of aikido became known as the world-famous "O-Sensei" (The Great Teacher) and spent the rest of his days perfecting aikido.
In 1961, Ueshiba himself went to the United States during his instruction tour of Hawaii. ( 23 ) Although Ueshiba was now in his eighties and sometimes needed help climbing stairs, his aikido only improved. On the mat he suddenly became fast and graceful. His skills became so advanced that not even his best students could comprehend all of his movements. Films of the elderly Ueshiba stand as testimony to the Founder's abilities. He could throw as many as ten attackers with ease, and he could take throws just as gracefully. One footage shows him baffling a skeptical group of huge U.S. Army MPs. The Japanese government recognized Ueshiba with many prestigious awards, including the medal of honor in 1960, and the Order of the Rising Sun in 1964. Aikido grew as fast as the Founder's reputation. What had started as a spiritual man's budo became aikido, "The Way of Universal Harmony," Ueshiba's gift to the world.
Then, in the early spring of 1969, Ueshiba fell ill. He told his son, Kisshomaru, that he could hear God calling him. At the hospital, he was diagnosed as having liver cancer. The years of sickness and hard training had overcome his body, but not his spirit. Although he trained excessively while sick and with illness of the liver, Ueshiba stubbornly blamed his condition on a salt-water drinking contest he had against a Yoga expert. He insisted that he be returned home so he could be near his dojo. On April 15, Ueshiba gave his last instructions to his disciples: "Aikido is for the entire world. Train not for selfish reasons, but for all people everywhere."( 24 ) Although Ueshiba could no longer practice physically, he knew exactly what techniques were being practiced by the sounds coming from the nearby dojo. Those with him said that his ki was never stronger--although his body wasted away to a small shell, his life-force made him so heavy that ten of his disciples could not lift him. Ueshiba's ki was still strong, but his body was not. Early morning on April 26, the eighty-six year old Ueshiba took his son's hand, smiled, said "Take care of things," and died. ( 25 ) Two months later, Hatsu, his wife of sixty-seven years, followed him. Ueshiba's ashes were taken to the family temple in Tanabe, and locks from his hair were taken to the Aiki Shrine in Ayabe and the Kumano Juku Dojo. The Aiki shrine is a holy place for aikido: on April 29, every year a service is held in memory of the Founder. His son, Kisshomaru, is currently doshu (grandmaster, or "Master of the Way") over the original school of aikido. The Founder's closest disciples went on to start their own aikido styles, all of them carrying on the spirit of Morihei Ueshiba, the Great Teacher.
Paul Short 1995
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