Morihei Ueshiba

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Morihei Ueshiba (植芝盛平 Ueshiba Morihei, December 14th, 1883 - April 26, 1969) was a famous martial artist and founder of aikido. He is often referred to as Kaiso (founder) or O Sensei (翁先生) ("Great Teacher" or simply "Older Teacher" relative to his son) by some aikidoka.

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 Hokkaido 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 Daito-ryu Aiki-jutsu under its reviver Sokaku Takeda.

After Ueshiba left Hokkaido he came under the influence of Onisaburo Deguchi, the spiritual leader of the Omoto-kyo sect 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 Omoto-kyo sect. He was involved in the first Omoto-kyo Incident, an ill-fated attempt to found a utopian colony in Mongolia.

Over time Ueshiba was to distance himself from both these teachers but their effect on him and his art can not be overstated.

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 April 26th, 1969.

Legacy

Ueshiba sensei is remembered 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. 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.

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 superhuman feats.

Oomoto priests oversee a ceremony in Ueshiba's honor every April 29th at the Aiki Shrine at Iwama.

Ueshiba also had many uchideshi, or live-in students, who also went on to great things. A partial list follows:

• Kazuo Chiba
• Terry Dobson
• Gaku Homma - The founder of Nippon Kan Kancho and was the last uchideshi Ueshiba ever trained before he died.
• Mitsunari Kanai
• Yasuo Kobayashi
• Shuji Maruyama
• Morihiro Saito
• Mitsugi Saotome
• Gozo Shioda
• Seiichi Sugano
• Kanshū Sunadomari
• Hiroshi Tada
• Nobuyoshi Tamura
• Koichi Tohei
• Kenji Tomiki - Very early student of Ueshiba and his first 8th Dan.
• Yoshimitsu Yamada

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 jo strikes on trees without first covering them in protective padding. Another time, as students snuck 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.

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