Morihei Ueshiba
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Morihei Ueshiba (植芝 盛平 Ueshiba Morihei, December 14, 1883–April 26, 1969) was a famous martial artist and founder of the Japanese martial art of aikido. He is often referred to as Kaiso 開祖 (founder) or Ōsensei 翁先生 (Great Teacher) by some aikidōka.
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[edit] Biography
Morihei Ueshiba was born in Tanabe, Wakayama Prefecture, Japan on December 14, 1883. During his childhood, the Ueshiba family lived in Maizuru (Kyoto Prefecture). His interest in martial arts stemmed from witnessing a beating of his father which affected him deeply. However, it was only after moving to the northern island of Hokkaidō in 1912 with his wife, as part of a settlement effort, that his martial art training took on real depth. For it was here that he began his study of Daitō-ryū aiki-jūjutsu under its reviver Sokaku Takeda.
After Ueshiba left Hokkaidō he came under the influence of Onisaburo Deguchi, the spiritual leader of the Ōmoto-kyō religion in Ayabe. In addition to the effect on his spiritual growth, this connection was to have a major effect in introducing Ueshiba to various elite political circles as a martial artist. The Ueshiba Dojo in Ayabe was used to train members of the Ōmoto-kyō sect. He was involved in the first Ōmoto-kyō Incident, an ill-fated attempt to found a utopian colony in Mongolia.
Although Ueshiba eventually distanced himself from both these teachers, their effect on him and his art can not be overstated. The real birth of Aikido came as the result of three Enlightenment experiences of Ueshiba. The first happened in 1925, after Ueshiba had defeated a naval officer's bokken (wooden katana) attacks unarmed and without hurting the officer. Ueshiba then walked to his garden and
"Suddenly, the ground began shaking. A golden vapor wafted up from the ground and enveloped me. I was transformed into a golden image, and my body felt as light as a feather. All at once I understood the meaning of creation: the Way of a Warrior is to manifest Divine Love, a spirit that embraces, loves, and protects all things."
His second experience occurred in 1940 when,
"Around 2am as I was performing misogi, I suddenly forgot all the martial techniques I had ever learned. The techniques of my teachers appeared completely new. Now they were vehicles for the cultivation of life, knowledge, and virtue, not devices to throw people with."[citation needed]
His third experience was in 1942 during the worst fighting of WWII, Ueshiba had a vision of the "Great Spirit of Peace".[citation needed]
"The Way of the Warrior has been misunderstood. It is not a means to kill and destroy others. Those who seek to compete and better one another are making a terrible mistake. To smash, injure, or destroy is the worst thing a human being can do. The real Way of a Warrior is to prevent such slaughter - it is the Art of Peace, the power of love."[citation needed]
In 1927, Ueshiba moved to Tokyo where he founded his first dojo, which still exists today under the name Aikikai Hombu Dojo. Between 1940 and 1942 he made several visits to Manchukuo (Japanese occupied Manchuria) to instruct his martial art. In 1942 he left Tokyo and moved to Iwama in the Ibaraki Prefecture where the term "aikido" was first used as a name for his art. Here he founded the Aiki Shuren Dojo, also known as the Iwama dojo. During all this time he traveled extensively in Japan, particularly in the Kansai region teaching his aikido.
Morihei Ueshiba died on April 26, 1969.
[edit] Legacy
Ueshiba is remembered by his pupils as a master of the martial arts whose studies transcended technical matters to include a moral and philosophical view of the world based around harmony in the face of aggression. The many branches of aikido in existence today virtually all trace their lineage back to him.
Many stories exist about Ueshiba's martial skill. It is said for example that he was able to escape a tight ring of students that surrounded him with swords and attacked simultenously.[citation needed] Many of these students would later say they had not even seen him go by them. Another story is that he was able to knock someone off their feet with the force of his kiai.[citation needed]
There is debate in the aikido world over some of these sensational stories; some dismiss them as myth generated around a genuinely brilliant but human martial artist, whereas others believe that Morihei Ueshiba truly achieved such feats.
To this day, Ōmoto-kyō priests oversee a ceremony in Ueshiba's honor every April 29th at the Aiki Shrine in Iwama.
Ueshiba also had many uchideshi, or live-in students, many who have grown into great teachers in their own right. There are roughly four generations of uchideshi. A partial list follows:[1][2]
- First (pre-war) generation (ca 1921-1935)
- Zenzaburo Akazawa (b. 1920) since 1933
- Masahiro Hashimoto (b. 1910) since 1931
- Takuma Hisa (1895-1980) since 1934
- Noriaki Inoue (1902-1994) since c 1921, nephew of Morihei Ueshiba
- Ikkusai Iwata (b 1909) since 1930, 9th dan Aikikai
- Hisao Kamada (1911-1986) since 1929
- Minoru Mochizuki (1907-2003) since 1930, 10th dan (received from the International Martial Arts Federation)
- Aritoshi Murashige (1895-1964) since 1931
- Gozo Shioda (1915-1994) since 1932, founder of the Yoshinkan Aikido
- Rinjiro Shirata (1912-1993) since 1933, 9th dan
- Isamu Takeshita (1869-1949) since c 1925
- Kenji Tomiki (1900-1979) since 1926, was the first 8th dan awarded in aikido in 1942.
- Shigemi Yonekawa (1910-2005) since 1933
- Tsutomu Yukawa (1911-1942) since 1931
- Second (war) generation (ca 1936-1945)
- Tadashi Abe (1926-1984) since 1942, 6th dan
- Minoru Hirai (1903-1998) since 1939, founder of the Korindo style.
- Kisaburo Osawa (1911-1991) since 1941, 9th dan
- Kanshū Sunadomari (b 1923) since 1942, 9th dan
- Bansen Tanaka (1912-1988) since 1936, 9th dan
- Tenryu (1903-1989) since 1939, he was a famous sumo wrestler
- Koichi Tohei (b. 1920) since 1939, the only Ōsensei awarded and Aikikai approved 10th dan.
- Third (post-war) generation (ca 1946-1955)
- Seiseki Abe (b. 1915) since 1952, 10th dan
- Sadateru Arikawa (1930-2003) since 1947, 9th dan
- Michio Hikitsuchi (1923-2004) since 1951, 10th dan (verbally awarded by Ueshiba)
- Yasuo Kobayashi (b 1936) since 1954, 8th dan
- Yoshio Kuroiwa (b 1932) since 1954, 6th dan
- Mutsuro Nakazono (b 1918) 7th dan
- Shoji Nishio (1927-2005) since 1951, 8th dan
- André Nocquet (1913-1999) since 1955, 8th dan, the first European uchideshi
- Masamichi Noro (b 1935) since 1955, 6th dan, founder of Ki no Michi
- Morihiro Saito (1928-2002) since 1946, 9th dan
- Mitsugi Saotome (b 1937) since 1955
- Hiroshi Tada (b 1929) since 1945, 9th dan
- Nobuyoshi Tamura (b 1933) since 1953, 8th dan
- Seigo Yamaguchi (1924-1996) since 1951, 8th dan
- Fourth (and last) generation (ca 1956-1969)
- Kazuo Chiba (b 1940) since 1958, 8th dan
- Terry Dobson (1938-1992) since 1960, 5th dan
- Seishiro Endo (b 1942) since 1964, 8th dan
- Gaku Homma (b 1950) founder of Nippon Kan and was the last uchideshi Ueshiba trained before he died.
- Norihiko Ichihashi (1940-2001) since 1960, 8th dan
- Shizuo Imaizumi (b 1938) since 1959, 7th dan
- Mitsunari Kanai (1939-2004) since 1959, 8th dan
- Yutaka Kurita (b 1940) since 1959, 6th dan
- Koretoshi Maruyama (b 1936) since 1954, founder Aikido Yuishinkai International
- Shuji Maruyama (b 1940) since 1959, 6th dan
- Seijuro Masuda (b 1936) since 1962, 8th dan
- Robert Nadeau (b 1937) since 1962, 7th dan
- Kenji Shimizu (b 1940) since 1963, 8th dan
- Seiichi Sugano (b 1939) since 1959, 8th dan
- Morito Suganuma (b 1942) since 1964, 8th dan
- Akira Tohei (1929-1999) since 1956, 8th dan
- Takeji Tomita (b 1942) since 1961, 7th dan
- Yoshimitsu Yamada (b 1938) since 1956, 8th dan
[edit] Personal Traits
Morihei Ueshiba regularly practiced cold water misogi, as well as other spiritual and religious rites. He viewed his studies of aikido in this light.
As a young man, Ueshiba was renowned for his incredible physical strength. He would later lose much of this muscle, which some believe changed the way he performed aikido technique.
Ueshiba was said to be a simple but wise man, and a gifted farmer. In his later years, he was regarded as very kind and gentle as a rule, but there are also stories of terrifying scoldings delivered to his students. For instance, he once thoroughly chastised students for practicing jō (short staff) strikes on trees without first covering them in protective padding. Another time, as students sneaked back into the dojo after a night of drinking and brawling, he smashed the first one through the door over the head with a bokken, and proceeded to scold them.
| Preceded by (none) |
Dōshu of Aikikai 1940 - April 26, 1969 |
Succeeded by Kisshomaru Ueshiba |
| Preceded by (none) |
Dōjōcho of Iwama Dōjō 1942 - ? |
Succeeded by Morihiro Saitō |
[edit] References
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