O - Sensei Morihei Ueshiba - No biographie separates owing to
The thing I personally want to say to O - Sensei is - Domo arigato goshaimasu!


"... Aikido without Takemusu is nothing!" (Words of O- Sensei)"




Morihei Ueshiba - a short biographie of life

Morihei Ueshiba was born in Tanabe/Wakayama - Präfectur on 14th December 1883. He lived in Shirataki, Hokkaido from 1912 - 1919. In 1915 Morihei Ueshiba became a pupil of Sokaku Takeda who taught the Daito - Ryu - Aikijutsu. Takeda´s teaching methods are the technical main parts of the Aikido of O - Sensei.

In 1919, O - Sensei Ueshiba got to know to Onisaburo Deguchi, a charismatic retreated leader of the Omoto - religion. Ueshiba moved to Ayabe (the center of the Omoto - religion ) near Kyoto from 1919 - 1927. In 1927 Ueshiba moved to Tokyo and opened up his first Dojo, the Kobukan, in 1931.

O-Sensei Ueshiba taught the techniques of Daito-Ryu-Aikijutsu until 1935, he therefore received the teaching authority by Sokaku Takeda. Although he taught this techniques, O-Sensei had no more contact to Sokaku Takeda, in this prior war period his art often was described as AIKI - Budo.

Early shots (Aiki News "Aiki Budo") already have shown the own, dynamic progression Ueshiba´s in a powerful technique within the move. Also the influence of the weapon exercises is demonstrated, as for example juken (the Bajonet). There are a lot of comparisons to the contemporary Aiki - Jo techniques and the dispositional relatedness. Due to that, Ueshiba has been influenced by the martial arts techniques of Tenjin Ryu - Jujutsu, the Yagu - Ryu Jutsu and the Kodokan Judo.

The development of weapons within Aikido

In 1937 Ueshiba and his pupil Zenzaburo Akazawa registered the sword school of Kashima Shinto. This school was in Kashima. Ueshiba thereafter invited a lot of teachers to Iwama, to teach there.

These techniques formed the basis for Aiki - Ken

Whereas, the development of Aiki - Jo is based on the knowledge of O-Sensei, within the behaviour of the lance (yari), the juken (bajonet) and the naginata (short lance). Aritoshi Murashige (a former pupil of O-Sensei) studied the behaviour of the Jo in Kobukan Dojo in the earlier 30th years. This maybe have had an influence on the development of the Aiki - Jo´s.

These entire influences with the unique move of Tai - Sabaki is probably the thing which features the development and the use of Jo and Ken within the Iwama Ryu.

The Years 1942 - 1969

In 1942 Ueshiba moved to Iwama / in Präfektur Ibaraki and lived there until his death in 1969. It afforded him a life of meditation, of agriculture and intensive trainings.

Excerpt of Stanley Prenin - Aikido - Historian and publisher of AIKI - News in Japan:

"This time in Iwama proves the development of the modern Aikido in every aspect. Freer as ever before, Morihei Ueshiba could deal with intensive training and meditation, to achieve the result of a strategy, to solve a conflict in a peacful way ..." (Excerpt end) During the beginning in Iwama, O-Sensei intensely studies weapons, out of it, it develops a real kind of Budo, which included the shapes of the swords and the stick.

The founder died in 1969. He left the Aiki Shuren Dojo and the Aiki Shrine (Aiki Jinja) in the hands of Morihiro Saito Sensei, who was his pupil since 1945. Consequently Saito Sensei was the one, who was obliged to cultivate the tenets of the founder in its original mode.




Last Updated on Tuesday, 03 August 2010 11:50