Morihei Ueshiba

Early years

Morihei Ueshiba was born in Tanabe, Wakayama Prefecture, Japan on December 14, 1883, to a Samurai family the fourth child (and only son) born to Yoroku Ueshiba and his wife Yuki.

The young Ueshiba was raised in a somewhat privileged setting. His father was a rich landowner who also traded in lumber and fishing and was politically active. Ueshiba was a rather weak, sickly child and bookish in his inclinations. At a young age his father encouraged him to take up sumo wrestling and swimming and entertained him with stories of his great-grandfather Kichiemon, who was considered a very strong Samurai in his era. The need for such strength was further emphasized when the young Ueshiba witnessed his father being attacked by followers of a competing politician.

At the age of six Ueshiba was sent to study at the Jizoderu Temple, but had little interest in the rote learning of Confucian education. However, his schoolmaster was also a priest of Shingon Buddhism, and taught the young Ueshiba some of the esoteric chants and ritual observances of the sect, which the Ueshiba found intriguing. He went to Tanage Higher Elementary School and then to Tanabe Prefectural Middle School, but left formal education in his early teens, enrolling instead at the a private abacus academy, the Yoshida Institute, to study accountancy. On graduating from the academy, he worked at a local tax office for a few months, but the job did not suit him and in 1901 he left for Tokyo, funded by his father. Ueshiba Trading, the stationery business which he opened there was short-lived; unhappy with life in the capital, he returned to Tanabe less than a year later after suffering a bout of beri-beri. Shortly thereafter he married his childhood acquaintance Hatsu Itokawa.

In 1903, Ueshiba was called up for military service. He failed the initial physical examination, being shorter than the regulation 5 feet 2 inches (1.57 m). To overcome this, he stretched his spine by attaching heavy weights to his legs and suspending himself from tree branches; when he re-took the physical exam he had increased his height by the necessary half-inch to pass. He was assigned to the Osaka Fourth Division, 37th Regiment, and was a corporal by the following year; after serving on the front lines during the Russo-Japanese War he was promoted to sergeant. He was discharged in 1907, and again returned to his father's farm in Tanabe. Here he befriended the writer and philosopher Minakata Kumagusu, becoming involved with Minakata's opposition to the Meiji government's Shrine Consolidation Policy. He and his wife had their first child, a daughter named Matsuko, in 1911.

Ueshiba studied several martial arts during his early life, and was renowned for his physical strength during his youth. His training in Goto-ha Yagyu-ryu under Masakatsu Nakai was sporadic due to his military service, although he was granted a diploma in the art within a few years. In 1901 he received some instruction from Tozawa Tokusaburoin in Tenjin Shin'yo-ryu jujutsu and he studied judo with Kiyoichi Takagi in Tanabe in 1911.

Hokkaido

In 1912, Ueshiba and his wife left Tanabe and moved to Japan's northernmost island, Hokkaido. At the time, Hokkaido was still largely unsettled by the Japanese, being occupied primarily by the indigenous Ainu. Ueshiba was the leader of the Kishu Settlement Group, a collective of eighty-five pioneers who intended to settle in the Shirataki district and live as farmers. Poor soil conditions and bad weather led to crop failures during the first three years of the project, but the group still managed to cultivate mint and farm livestock. The burgeoning timber industry provided a boost to the settlement's economy, but a fire in 1917 razed the entire village, leading to the departure of around twenty families. Ueshiba, elected to the village council that year, led the reconstruction efforts. In the summer of 1918, Hatsu gave birth to their first son, Takemori.

In Hokkaido, the young Ueshiba met Takeda Sokaku, the founder of Daito-ryu aiki-jujutsu at the Hisada Inn in Engaru, in March 1915. Ueshiba was deeply impressed with Takeda's martial art. He requested formal instruction and began studying Takeda's style of jujutsu in earnest, going so far as to construct a dojo at his home and inviting his new teacher to be a permanent house guest. He received a kyoju dairi certificate, or teaching license, for the system from Takeda in 1922, when Takeda visited him in Ayabe. He also received a Yagyu Shinkage-ryu sword transmission scroll from Takeda. Ueshiba then became a representative of Daito-ryu, toured with Takeda as a teaching assistant and taught the system to others.

Onisaburo Deguchi and Omoto-kyo

In November 1919, Ueshiba learned that his father Yoroku was ill, and was not expected to survive. Leaving most of his possessions to Sokaku, Ueshiba left Shirataki with the apparent intention returning to Tanabe to visit his ailing parent. En route, however, he made a detour to Ayabe, near Kyoto, intending to visit Onisaburo Deguchi, the spiritual leader of the Omoto-kyo religion in Ayabe. Having met Deguchi, Ueshiba stayed at the Omoto-kyo headquarters for several days. On his return to Tanabe, he found that his father had died. Within a few months, he was back in Ayabe, having decided to become a full-time student of Omoto-kyo. In 1920 Deguchi asked Ueshiba to become the group's martial arts instructor, and a dojo—the first of several that Ueshiba was to lead—was constructed on the centre's grounds. Ueshiba also taught Takeda's Daito-ryu in neighbouring Hyogo Prefecture during this period. His second son, Kuniharu, was born in 1920 in Ayabe, but died from illness the same year, along with three-year-old Takemori.

In 1921, in an event known as the First Omoto-kyo Incident (Omoto jiken), the Japanese authorities raided the compound, destroying the main buildings on the site and arresting Deguchi on charges of lese-majeste. Ueshiba's dojo was undamaged, however, and over the following two years he worked closely with Deguchi to reconstruct the group's centre, becoming heavily involved in farming work. His son Kisshomaru Ueshiba was born in the summer of 1921.

Three years later, in 1924, Onisaburo Deguchi led a small group of Omoto-kyo disciples, including Ueshiba, on a journey to Mongolia at the invitation of retired naval captain Yutaro Yano and his associates within the ultra-nationalist Black Dragon Society. Deguchi's intent was to establish a new religious kingdom in Mongolia, and to this end he had distributed propaganda suggesting that he was the reincarnation of Genghis Khan. Allied with the Mongolian bandit Lu Zhankui, Deguchi's group were arrested in Tongliao by the Chinese authorities—fortunately for Ueshiba, whilst Lu and his men were executed by firing squad, the Japanese group were released into the custody of the Japanese consul. They were returned under guard to Japan, where Deguchi was imprisoned for breaking the terms of his bail.

After returning to Ayabe, Ueshiba began a regimen of spiritual training, regularly retreating by himself to the mountains or performing misogi in the Nachi Falls. As his prowess as a martial artist increased, his fame began to spread. He was challenged by many established martial artists, some of whom subsequently became his students after being defeated by him. In the autumn of 1925 he was asked to give a demonstration of his art in Tokyo, at the behest of Admiral Isamu Takeshita; one of the spectators was Yamamoto Gonnohyoe, who requested that Ueshiba stay in the capital to instruct the Imperial Guard in his martial art. After a couple of weeks, however, Ueshiba took issue with several government officials who voiced concerns about his connections to Deguchi; he cancelled the training and returned to Ayabe.

Omoto-kyo priests still oversee the Aiki-jinja Taisai ceremony in Ueshiba's honor every April 29 at the Aiki Shrine in Iwama.

Tokyo

In 1926 Takeshita invited Ueshiba to visit Tokyo again. Ueshiba relented and returned to the capital, but while residing there was stricken with a serious illness. Deguchi visited his ailing student and, concerned for his health, commanded Ueshiba to return to Ayabe. The appeal of returning increased after Ueshiba was questioned by the police following his meeting with Deguchi; the authorities were keeping the Omoto-kyo leader under close surveillance. Angered at the treatment he had received, Ueshiba went back to Ayabe again. Six months later, however, and this time with Deguchi's blessing, he and his family moved permanently to Tokyo. Arriving in October 1927, they set up home in the Shirokane district. The building, however, was too small to house the growing number of aikido students, and so the Ueshibas moved to larger premises, first in Mita district, then in Takanawa, and finally to a purpose-built hall in Shinjuku. This last location, originally named the Kobukan 皇武館, would eventually become the Aikikai Hombu Dojo. During its construction, Ueshiba rented a property nearby, where he was visited by Jigoro Kano, the founder of judo.

In 1932, Ueshiba's daughter Matsuko was married to the swordsman Kiyoshi Nakakura, who was adopted as Ueshiba's heir under the name Morihiro Ueshiba. The marriage ended after a few years, and Nakakura left the family in 1937.

Between 1940 and 1942 he made several visits to Manchukuo (Japanese occupied Manchuria) where he was the principal martial arts instructor at Kenkoku University.

Iwama

From 1935 onwards, Ueshiba had been purchasing land in Iwama in Ibaraki Prefecture. In 1942, having acquired around 17 acres (6.9 ha; 0.027 sq mi) of farmland there, he left Tokyo and moved to Iwama permanently, settling in a small farmer's cottage. 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. Despite the prohibition on the teaching of martial arts after World War II, Ueshiba and his students continued to practice in secret at the Iwama dojo; the Hombu dojo in Tokyo was in any case being used as a refugee centre for citizens displaced by the severe firebombing.

The prohibition (on aikido, at least) was lifted in 1948 with the creation of the Aiki Foundation, established by the Japanese Ministry of Education with permission from the Occupation forces. The Hombu dojo re-opened the following year. After the war, however, Ueshiba delegated most of the work of running the Hombu dojo and the Aiki Federation to his son Kisshomaru, choosing to spend much of his time in prayer, meditation, calligraphy and farming. He still travelled extensively to promote aikido, however, even visiting Hawaii in 1961. He also appeared in a television documentary on aikido: NTV's The Master of Aikido, broadcast in January 1960.

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 (staff) strikes on trees without first covering them in protective padding.

Death

In 1969, Ueshiba became ill. He led his last training session on March 10, and was subsequently taken to hospital where he was diagnosed with cancer of the liver. He died suddenly on April 26, 1969. Two months later, his wife Hatsu also died.(植芝 はつ; Ueshiba Hatsu, nee Itokawa Hatsu; 1881–1969)

Development of aikido

Aikido—usually translated as the Way of Unifying Spirit or the Way of Spiritual Harmony—is a fighting system that focuses on throws, pins and joint locks together with some striking techniques. It is unusual among the martial arts for its heavy emphasis on protecting the opponent and on spiritual and social development.

Ueshiba developed aikido after experiencing three instances of spiritual awakening. 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 had a spiritual awakening.

His second experience occurred in 1940 when engaged in the ritual purification process of misogi.

His third experience was in 1942 during the worst fighting of World War II, Ueshiba had a vision of the "Great Spirit of Peace".

The technical curriculum of aikido was undoubtedly most greatly influenced by the teachings of Takeda Sokaku. The basic techniques of aikido seem to have their basis in teachings from various points in the Daito-ryu curriculum. In the earlier years of his teaching, from the 1920s to the mid-1930s, Ueshiba taught the Daito-ryu aiki-jujutsu system; his early students' documents bear the term aiki-jujutsu. Indeed, Ueshiba trained one of the future highest grade earners in Daito-ryu, Takuma Hisa, in the art before Takeda took charge of Hisa's training.

The early form of training under Ueshiba was noticeably different from later forms of aikido. It had a larger curriculum, increased use of strikes to vital points (atemi) and a greater use of weapons. The schools of aikido developed by Ueshiba's students from the pre-war period tend to reflect the harder style of the early training. These students included Kenji Tomiki (who founded the Shodokan Aikido sometimes called Tomiki-ryu), Noriaki Inoue (who founded Shin'ei Taido), Minoru Mochizuki (who founded Yoseikan Budo), Gozo Shioda (who founded Yoshinkan Aikido). Many of these styles are therefore considered "pre-war styles", although some of these teachers continued to train with Ueshiba in the years after World War II.

Later, as Ueshiba seemed to slowly grow away from Takeda, he began to change his art. These changes are reflected in the differing names with which he referred to his system, first as aiki-jujutsu, then Ueshiba-ryu, Asahi-ryu, and aiki budo. In 1942, the martial art that Ueshiba developed finally came to be known as aikido.

As Ueshiba grew older, more skilled, and more spiritual in his outlook, his art also changed and became softer and more circular. Striking techniques became less important and the formal curriculum became simpler. In his own expression of the art there was a greater emphasis on what is referred to as kokyu-nage, or "breath throws" which are soft and blending, utilizing the opponent's movement in order to throw them. Ueshiba regularly practiced cold water misogi, as well as other spiritual and religious rites, and viewed his studies of aikido as part of this spiritual training.

Students

Over the years, Ueshiba trained a large number of students, many of whom have grown into great teachers in their own right. Some of them were uchideshi, or live-in students. There are roughly four generations of students. A partial list follows:

Honors

Works