“The History of Aikido as a Unique Japanese Martial Art and the Influences that Led to it’s Creation”

Introduction

Aikido was founded by Morihei Ueshiba (1883-1969) after several decades of study in a variety of martial arts and his deep involvement in the Omoto religion. Sokaku Takeda of Daito Ryu Aikijujutsu was his most important and influential martial arts teacher, with whom he maintained a long term relationship, studying over a period over several years. He also studied several other martial arts, including sword, spear, sumo and other jujutsu schools.

Equally important to the creation of aikido was O’Sensei’s relationship with his spiritual leader, Onisaburo Deguchi, the founder and head of the Omoto-yo religious movement.

It is this synthesis of effective jujutsu techniques combined with a philosophy of nonviolence and conflict resolution that remains the foundation of aikido and sets it apart from other styles.

Background

Sahashi Shigeru, once influential in government affairs and an experienced exponent of aikido, wrote in his “Shin no Budo” (The True Budo), published in 1972:

“Very few Japanese know what budo really is. Persons of high learning, not those who are directly connected with budo, do most of the writing about it. Theory reigns in most of these writer’s minds, their bodies lack experience, therefore, bu, the polished skill needed in martial hand-to-hand techniques, raised to the level of a dõ, which is the way a man should follow…. Budo aims through bu to determine man’s final destination in life. Bu, however, is only the first step to satori [enlightenment], the final goal. This satori cannot be revealed by words, but only through actions… It is only the kind of experience noted by Miyamoto Musashi in his Gorin no Sho [Book of Five Circles] that is meaningful. This tanren, the secret of successful training, an expression that implies active training made throughout one’s life is the way to mastery of the self [satori].”

Aikido was invented by Morihei Ueshiba (1883-1969.) He first adopted the name “aikido” in the 1930’s as a way to both differentiate his art from the Daito Ryu of his most influential teacher, Sokaku Takeda, and to express the inclusion of the concept of do, or martial way, as in karate-do, iai-do and ju-do.

To begin to understand the history of aikido we must investigate four primary factors, the cultural turmoil of the Meiji Restoration, Morihei’s technical and spiritual influences and Ueshiba’s personal history.

Ueshiba’s two primary influences were the technical virtuosity of the Soke of Daito Ryu, Sokaku Takeda and the spiritual and mystic religious beliefs of Onisaburo Deguchi, founder and spiritual leader of the Omoto-kyo religion.

The Meiji Restoration and Demolishing of the Feudal System

The roots of aikido lie in the turbulent social upheaval of the Meiji Restoration and subsequent emergence of Japan into the modern world of the 20^th century.

The general erosion of martial skills during the Edo period was generally less noticeable in the outlying provinces. This was especially true in the Aizu han (present day Fukushima prefecture) whose warriors were especially well known for preserving their traditional martial skills and valor. The daimyo of the Aizu han also supported the teaching of Neo-Confucian philosophy, known as aiki-in-yo-ho, or “the doctrine of harmony of spirit based on yin-yang.”

The Aizu warriors trained in various combat systems. In 1671 Goto Tamauemon Tadayoshi (1644-1736) the founder of the Daido Ryu, entered the Aizu han, and his school became required study by all Aizu warriors. His system included sword, bow, and gunnery. In addition Aizu samurai studied the iai-jutsu of Mizumo Shinto Ryu, which also included a secondary system of jujutsu-like combat.

All of their secondary systems of hand-to-hand combat fell until the title oshikiuchi. This system was based on the dualisms of the Neo-Confucian philosophy as taught in the aiki-in-yo-ho doctrine. Only high-ranking samurai were permitted to study oshikiuchi as a secret method of self-protection. The leadership for such training fell under the authority of the han minister and head of the Shirakawa Castle, Saigo Tanomo Chikamasa (Hoshina Chikamasa; 1829-1905)

The han was officially dissolved in 1871. In 1876, the Meiji government issued an order prohibited the wearing of two swords and limited bearing weapons to the regular armed forces in order to head off potential civil insurrection. A following order canceled all hereditary pensions and allowances of the former daimyo and samurai.

Tanomo Saigo subsequently became a Shinto priest at the Nikko Toshogu shrine, and it was here that he first met a highly skilled young swordsman named Takeda Sokaku Minamoto Masayoshi (1858-1943.)

The History of Sokaku Takeda

Takeda had previously studied several different traditional sword schools, including Ono-ha Itto Ryu heiho kenjutsu in 1870, Kyoshin Meichi Ryu in 1874, and Jikishin-kage Ryu in 1875, where he won the nickname of Aizu no Kotengu, “the little tengu of Aizu”.

Sokaku was the son of a highly accomplished sumo wrestler and was quite accomplished from an early age in sumo, swordsmanship, spear fighting, combat jujutsu and sumo wrestling.

His father unsuccessfully attempted to turn him into a scholar, but from an early age, Sokaku’s only interest was the martial arts.

So impressed with Takeda, Saigo hired Sokaku to be his full time body guard to encourage Takeda’s studying of martial arts in general and in particular, to transmit to him the secrets of the Aizu han’s oshikiuchi.

Barely 152 centimeters tall, Sokaku devoted himself to the development of his bujutsu skills for his entire life. He received licenses of proficiency in the okuden [secret teachings of both the heiho of Ono-ha Itto Ryu and Hozoin Ryu sojutsu in 1877.

He had several near death experiences, and spent most of his life traveling on a “musha shugyo” [warrior training pilgrimage], through out the most wild, lawless, and remote parts of Northern Japan.

Meanwhile his fame as a swordsman and martial arts instructor grew.

In several cases he was in actual sword battles, one with over 150 assailants.

In another famous story, he was sent into a remote town in Hokkaido to clean out the outlaw gangs terrorizing the local authorities (Very similar and may have served as a basis for the famous Kirasawa movie Yoyimbo.)

With the encouragement of Tanomo Saigo, he began teaching the clan art as Daito Ryu aikijujutsu around the turn of the century, primarily to prominent members of Japan’s elite ruling class, including military and police officers, judges and government officials.

Although Sokaku was illiterate, and could barely draw his own name, he scrupulously required his students to write their names in his ledger, so his students’ participation was well recorded.

He was mainly based in Hokkaido, in remote northern Japan, but made occasional trips to Tokyo and western Japan and continued his austerity training as a vagabond martial arts instructor well into his 80’s.

Over thirty thousand students received instruction from Sokaku firsthand. His reputation as a highly accomplished martial artist soon spread throughout the country. Morihei Ueshiba (1883-1969) soon became Sokaku Takeda’s most famous student.

The Early Years of Morihei Ueshiba

Now let us turn to discuss the early years of Morihei Ueshiba.

Ueshiba was born the son of a prominent Tanabe, (in present Wakayama Prefecture) “country samurai” farmer and politician.

As a youth, Ueshiba was a weak and sickly child. His father, Yoroku, in an effort to increase his son’s stamina and health, had a dojo built on their property so Ueshiba could train in the martial arts.

At age seven Ueshiba was sent to study classic Chinese texts. Bored by the dry material, the youth instead implored the priest to teach him about the esoteric Shingon Buddhist rites, meditation practices, and secret chants.

Although having an insatiable curiosity about science and mathematics, he took little interest in formal education and instead became fascinated with the two principle areas of study that were to form the most important influences on aikido, Japanese religious mysticism and martial arts.

From an early age he concentrated his efforts on sumo wrestling, and developing him self physically and spiritually.

He went to the Tanabe Middle school at the age of thirteen but left a year later, eventually returning to formal study at a local abacus academy. He excelled at the program, graduated and took a position at the local tax office.

He later resigned from the job over a dispute between the local poor fisherman and wealthy businessmen. Ueshiba came out to defend the underdogs, much to his town councilman father’s consternation.

His father subsequently proposed financing his son in a business of his choice to get him started in the world and Ueshiba decided to move to Tokyo, opening a small stationary store there in 1901.

But Ueshiba’s heart was not in the business, and after a bout of illness, he closed the store and returned to Tanabe.

However, during his stay in Tokyo, he had spent much of his time sharpening his bujutsu skills, studying Tenjin Shin’yo Ryu in 1898 and Yagyu Shinkage Ryu in 1902.

Upon returning to Japan, after serving as a soldier in the Russo-Japanese War in 1904, he received the Menkyo Kaiden, the highest level of proficiency, in Tenjin Shin’yo Ryu in 1908.

Ueshiba Starts a Settlement in Shirataki, Hokkaido

After his army service, Ueshiba embarked on an ambitious land settlement program in the wilderness of Shirataki, Hokkaido, in Northern Japan.

On March 29, 1912, he led a group of fifty-four families, consisting of eighty-four people in all, to start a new settlement in the wild northeastern Hokkaido district of Shirataki.

For the first three years the crops were poor, and the families subsided on meager rations, but due in large to the tremendous efforts of Ueshiba, by 1915 the crops were giving better yields and the lumber business began turning a profit.

Morihei meets Sokaku

Morihei first met Sokaku in 1915 in Hokkaido, and trained under him until 1922, when Morihei in turn was licensed to teach Daito Ryu aikijujutsu.

On a trip to Engaru, Morihei learned that Sokaku was teaching at a nearby inn and immediately rushed there to attend.

Despite Morihei’s impressive strength and prior experience, he could do nothing against the skinny, older Sokaku.

Morihei officially applied entrance to Sokaku’s “Daito Ryu” and was accepted. He stayed at the inn for thirty days; training day and night, and at the end of the month, received the first-level teaching license.

He returned to Shirataki and built a house and a dojo for Sokaku on his property, invited the master to live and teach there, and received private instruction for two hours each morning until he left Hokkaido in 1919.

The relationship between Sokaku and Ueshiba was both a turbulent and decisive one.

Sokaku was undoubtedly a incredibly skilled martial artist but a difficult personality that expected unshaken loyalty and obedience from his uchi deshi. A stern task master, he demanded, and for several years received, the total dedication of Ueshiba.

Sokaku had spent his formative years as a street fighter in hundreds of no-holds-barred fights to the finish. He killed a number of opponents, always escaping legal persecution on charges of self-defense, and in some cases it appears he was acting as a government agent.

He had no interest in spiritual development or religious teachings, maintaining a completely pragmatic approach to his martial art. His reputation for arrogance, vanity and ill-temperament made for a difficult relationship with those around him.

This was in sharp contrast to Ueshiba, who a spiritually restless person, increasingly viewed the martial arts as a way to obtain personal enlightenment and to better the world.

Morihei left Hokkaido suddenly in 1919, presumably due to the severe illness of his father (deeding all his land and holdings to Sokaku in the process) but perhaps no less to escape the overbearing personality of his mentor, and principle teacher, Sokaku Takeda.

However, instead of returning straight home to his father in Tanabe, he went to pray in Ayabe, at the headquarters of the new Omoto-kyo religion.

There he met the second most influential person in his life, the charismatic leader of the Omoto-kyo religion and self-professed reincarnated Buddha, Onisaburo Deguchi.

Morihei meets Onisaburo Deguchi

Onisaburo Deguchi was one of the most startling figures in Japan’s early 20^th century.

As the old order disintegrated, in nineteenth century Japan, there was a surge of hope that a new order would emerge from the chaos. Fueling this hope was a wide array of mystics, seers and religious fanatics.

Onisaburo Deguchi was undoubtedly one of the most flamboyant and influential of these new religious leaders.

The son of a student of kotodama (sound-spirit) he had a excellent education and displayed a rare genius for classical study at an early age.

After the loss of his father, he had a spiritual crisis. After a week long fast he had a spiritual awakening, claiming he had toured the cosmos, and trained at the feet of gods and Buddhas’ who divulged all their secrets.

He went on to marry into another mystic’s family adopted the family name Deguchi, and soon took over the movement, fashioning it in his image.

An effective spiritual leader, amateur psychologist, and effective mind-reader, he soon gained a following of several thousands, among them Morihei Ueshiba.

Following their first meeting, Ueshiba returned home to find his father had died during his absence. He moved his family to Ayabe and joined the religious movement, initially working as a farmer in the movement’s farm system, and training his martial arts in private.

Onisaburo soon invited Ueshiba to teach budo in the compound, challenging him to “create a budo of love” and he subsequently set up his first dojo in one of the adjacent buildings.

Rumors soon arose that Onisaburo claimed to be the real emperor, and in the first Omoto-kyo incident, he was arrested and jailed for fomenting insurrection against the government. Released after several months, never the less the main buildings of the Omoto-kyo complex were destroyed by government officials.

Morihei remained largely unaffected by the first Omoto-kyo Incident, and devoted himself to farming, study, and martial arts training.

Sokaku showed up in 1922 but there was no love lost between the charismatic spiritual mystic and the hard as nails Sokaku, and he soon left either by polite suggestion or of his own accord.

Onisaburo Deguchi was later invited to go to Mongolia in January 1924 by a Japanese government agent, principally to convert the locals to the new Japanese sect, but also perhaps to remove him from the home country, where his increasing influence was making the Japanese officials concerned.

He chose to take Morihei Ueshiba as his personal body guard and close confidant.

In the trip across Mongolia what followed was a series of intrigues and adventures worthy of a Steven Spielberg movie.

Eventually, the leaders of the party were jailed by the Chinese as spies and condemned to death, only to be saved and shipped home at the last moment only through the intervention of the local Japanese officials.

The caravan members were returned under military escort to Japan in July of 1924.

In the spring of 1925, Morihei Ueshiba reported he had a divine vision following a kendo match. He said that the ground began to shake and he was bathed with rays of pure light streaming down from heaven. A golden mist enveloped his body and he himself assumed the form of a Golden Being. Morihei perceived the inner workings of the cosmos and further “perceived that “I am the Universe!”

The barrier between the material, the hidden, and the divine worlds crumbled; simultaneously Morihei verified that the heart of budo was not contention but rather love, a love that fosters and protects all things.

Whether we believe in his revelations or not, what is indisputable is that Ueshiba was a changed man after the experience.

Under the influence of Onisaburo Deguchi, Morihei adopted and simplified the Daito ryu techniques and added a prominent spiritual dimension to create the art of Aikido.

His incredible martial abilities grew to attract increasing numbers of influential supporters in the military and government. At the same time political pressure against the Omoto-kyo movement was increasing and Ueshiba was encouraged to distance himself from the sect and to move to Tokyo to teach budo to the military and government elite of his time.

After obtaining Deguchi’s blessing, Morihei left for Tokyo where his supporters built a dojo in the Wakamatsu district in 1931. It was crowned the “Kobukan, the Imperial Martial Valor Way.”

Due in large part to Morihei’s increasing numbers of military and government supporters he soon began teaching military officers at the navel academy, the Toyama Academy, the Military Staff College and the Military Police College. This in turn led to an invitation to demonstrate his skills before the emperor, Hirohiro.

December, 5, 1935, the Omoto-yo complex was stormed by over 500 heavily armed police. Deguchi and his followers were imprisoned on charges of fomenting rebellion and usurping the role of the emperor.

Onisaburo was imprisoned for more than six and a half years before being released a broken and sick old man at the age of seventy-two and died three years later. All the Omoto-kyo property was confiscated and the headquarters complex completely leveled.

Ueshiba was also sought but escaped formal charges largely through the intervention of powerful students and patrons in the military and government.

The War Years

During the build up to the war Ueshiba was under increasing demand from the war department to train military and intelligence officers budo, even traveling to occupied Manchuria to teach there on behalf of the occupation government.

Following the attack on Pearl Harbor, pleading poor health and disillusioned with the war fever, Morihei successfully withdrew from public light during the later war years, retreating to his farm in Iwama where he maintained an Aiki Shrine and a small dojo for personal training and the few students able to make the journey.

After the War and to the Present Time

In 1948 the Occupation authorities gave permission to the Ministry of Education to organize an Aiki Foundation to Promote Aikido as “a martial way dedicated to the fostering of international peace and justice.

In 1949 The Tokyo dojo was reopened. Students eventually returned and aikido was expanded into the branch dojos and universities across Japan.

The first public demonstration was held in 1956 and simultaneously the school began to attract its first foreign students and the art began to spread overseas.

The aikido training was conducted primarily by Morihei’s son Kisshomaru, who systematized the techniques and organized the administration, while Morihei concentrated on lecturing and occasional teaching and demonstrations. Leaving most of the training and all of the administration to his son and senior students, Ueshiba devoted himself to praying, misogi, private training, farming and reading in Iwama.

A new three story dojo was build in Tokyo in 1967, which presently houses the Hombu dojo and the international aikido headquarters.

Eighty-six-year-old, Morihei died early in the morning of April 26, 1969. Upon his death, his Son Kisshomaru was named headmaster, and he served faithfully in that role until his demise. Doshu Kisshomaru Ueshiba passed away on January 4th, 1999, at approximately 5:00 PM. He was 77.

He was in turn succeeded by his son, Moriteru Ueshiba, who now serves as the second Doshu.

Aikido continues to expand it and attract students worldwide as both an effective form of martial art and as a path to spiritual self-development.

Conclusion

I would like to finish this history with a few quotes from the founder, O’Sensei Morihei Ueshiba that perhaps can best define his spiritual development as it relates to aikido:

“As ai (harmony) is common with ai (love), I decided to name my unique budo “Aikido," although the word "aiki" is an old one. The word as it was used by the warriors in the past is fundamentally different from mine.”

“Aiki is not a technique to fight with or defeat the enemy. It is the way to reconcile the world and make human beings one family.”

“The secret of Aikido is to harmonize ourselves with the movement of the universe and bring ourselves into accord with the universe itself. He who has gained the secret of Aikido has the universe in himself and can say, "I am the universe."’

“True budo is a work of love. It is a work of giving life to all beings, and not killing or struggling with each other. Love is the guardian deity of everything. Nothing can exist without it. Aikido is the realization of love.”

~ From “The History of Aikido as a Unique Japanese Martial Art and the Influences that Led to it’s Creation” A lecture by Larry Kwolek, held at The National Museum, March 12, 2003, Prague, CZ