Isamu Takeshita
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Isamu Takeshita (b. 4 dec 1869 Kagoshima, d. 6 july 1949) was a Japanese Imperial Navy admiral who played an essential role in the spread of aikido in prewar Japan.
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[edit] Early Years
Born Yamamoto, he was adopted into the Takeshita family as a boy and entered the Japanese Naval Academy in 1892. He was a member of the Satsuma clan who provided many naval officers to Imperial Japan. Fluent in English, he was posted as a military naval attaché at various times in Washington DC as well as in several European countries. In 1904, he acted as an intermediary to US president Theodore Roosevelt, to invite the leading disciple of judo founder Jigoro Kano, Yoshiaki Yamashita to teach in the US. In 1909, he took part in the negotiations mediated by Roosevelt, which lead to the Treaty of Portsmouth which ended the Russo-Japanese War.
[edit] Encounter with Morihei Ueshiba
He first heard of Morihei Ueshiba by his colleague at the Naval Academy, the admiral Seikyo Asano who was studying the Daito-ryu Aiki Jujutsu, forerunner of aikido, under Ueshiba at Ayabe. Intrigued, Takeshita made a trip to Ayabe to see the master and was so impressed that he recommended Ueshiba to the retired admiral and former Prime Minister of Japan, Gombei Yamamoto. In the fall of 1925, Ueshiba was invited in Tokyo to stay at Yamamoto’s residence and provide demonstrations of his art to the Japanese military and political elite. His prolonged stay was however interrupted by sickness and he had to return to his hometown of Tanabe.
In February 1927, Takeshita invited Ueshiba again and this time he settled in Tokyo. The neat result of Takeshita’s influence was that, around that time, many military officers, government officials and members of the wealthy class became fervent adherent of Ueshiba’s martial art. Takeshita was not only an admirer but also an ardent practitioner of aikido, despite his age (he was almost 50) and he recorded hundreds of pages describing the classes taught by Ueshiba and details about the techniques, which provide today invaluable insights in the early history of aikido.
[edit] His role in the promotion of aikido
In 1931, Ueshiba founded his first permanent dojo in Tokyo, the Kobukan. Now a retired admiral, Takeshita gave a demonstration of Ueshiba’s art at the first Nihon Kobudo Shinkokai (Society for the Promotion of Japanese Classical Martial Arts) demonstration, representing the Kobukan Dojo in 1935. The same year (October), he also went to Seattle, WA and introduced for the first time aikido in the United States. Also fond of sumo, he became in 1939 the third president of the Japan Sumo Association. In 1940 he was instrumental in providing a legal identity to the Kobukan by founding the Kobukai Foundation and becoming his first president. The same year, he represented Japan at the Los Angeles Convention of veterans of Foreign Wars. In 1941, using his influence, Takeshita arranged a demonstration of aikido by Ueshiba at the Imperial Palace Sainekan Dojo in front of the Imperial family. Although ill, Ueshiba gave a spectacular exhibition, which greatly impressed the nobility.
Takeshita died in 1949 at the age of 80.
