Kenji Tomiki
Japanese judoka and aikidoka, one of the first students of Morihei Ueshiba, who introduced competition into aikido and in 1974 founded the Japan Aikido Association.
Quick Facts
JapanBiography
Kenji Tomiki was a Japanese teacher of judo and aikido, one of the first students of Morihei Ueshiba, who introduced competition into aikido and whose approach is now called Shodokan aikido or Tomiki aikido. He was born on 15 March 1900 in Kakunodate in Akita Prefecture and died on 25 December 1979 in Tokyo at the age of 79.
He began judo at ten and received his 1st dan in November 1919. In 1923 he entered Waseda University. In 1926 he met Morihei Ueshiba, the Kodokan awarded him a 5th dan in judo on 11 January 1928 according to the Shodokan Aikido Federation, and on 11 February 1940 he was the first to receive an aikido 8th dan from Ueshiba.
From March 1936 he taught in Manchuria and from the spring of 1938 he led instruction in aiki-budo at Kenkoku University. He also taught members of the Kwantung Army. After the war he was interned for about three years in a Soviet camp and returned at the end of 1948. From 1949 he worked at Waseda University, in 1954 he became a professor, and according to Wikipedia he helped create the kata Kodokan Goshin-jutsu in 1956.
In 1958 he founded an aikido club at Waseda University and published the book Aikido nyumon. In July 1967 he opened the Shodokan dojo in Osaka and in 1974 he founded the Japan Aikido Association. The year of his 8th dan in judo differs in the sources between 1964, 1971 and 1978.
Early life
Kenji Tomiki was born on 15 March 1900 in Kakunodate in Akita Prefecture into a family of landowners. According to Stanley Pranin he began judo at the age of ten and received his first dan in November 1919. According to Wikipedia, in his youth he was bedridden for about three years because of tuberculosis.
In 1923 he entered Waseda University, where he studied political economy. We have not found the year of graduation in the sources.
Training and teachers
In 1926 he met Morihei Ueshiba through Hidetaro Nishimura, and in the summer of 1927 he trained for a month in Daito-ryu aiki-jujutsu at the Omoto headquarters in Ayabe. The Kodokan awarded him a 5th dan in judo on 11 January 1928 according to the Shodokan Aikido Federation, while Pranin and Wikipedia give 1927. In 1929 he represented Miyagi Prefecture at the Imperial Martial Arts Tournament and finished among the twelve best.
On 11 February 1940 he received from Ueshiba the first 8th dan in aikido. The year of the 8th dan in judo differs: Pranin gives 1971, Aikido Journal 1964 and the website Ryushin Shouchi-ryu 1978.
Contribution and innovations
From 1931 to 1934 he taught at a secondary school in Kakunodate and took part in the manual Budo Renshu from 1933. In March 1936, on the recommendation of Ueshiba, he went to teach in Manchuria, and from the spring of 1938 he led the aiki-budo program at Kenkoku University with the assistance of Hideo Oba. From the summer of 1941 he lectured on insights from aikido in the research committee of the Kodokan. After the war he was interned for about three years in Siberia, where according to Pranin he created a series of body movement exercises.
From June 1949 he worked at Waseda University, in 1954 he became a professor, and from 1955 to 1959 he helped, according to Wikipedia, to formalize the combat system of the Japan Self-Defense Forces. On 26 February 1958 the university approved the aikido club on condition that he work out a competition method. He published the books Aikido nyumon (1958) and Shin aikido tekisuto (1964). In July 1967 he opened Shodokan in Osaka, the first dojo intended only for aikido, in 1974 he founded the Japan Aikido Association and on 28 March 1976 he became the first kancho of the rebuilt Shodokan.
Philosophy and principles
According to Tetsuro Nariyama, Tomiki claimed that aikido must include at least one competitive element, otherwise other arts will laugh at it. He rejected the name for himself: in an interview for the magazine Karatedo from March 1977 he said that he had never named the style Tomiki-ryu and that others had forced the name on him. We infer that he sought to modernize aikido, not to create a separate school.
Legends and documented facts
Tomiki aikido is often described as a separate style, Tomiki-ryu. According to Nariyama, Tomiki disliked the name, and around 1977 Kisshomaru Ueshiba and Rinjiro Shirata asked him to use the name Tomiki-ryu instead of the word aikido. This report is secondhand.
Wikipedia, citing an academic work from 2018, states that he taught members of the Kempeitai military police at the request of Hideki Tojo, while Pranin mentions only the Kwantung Army. We have not found a source of official level. The year of the 8th dan in judo differs in the sources and we have not resolved the dispute.
Legacy
He died on 25 December 1979 in Ogikubo Hospital in Tokyo at the age of 79. According to Aikido Journal, his closest student Hideo Oba replaced him at the head of the Japan Aikido Association. The Shodokan Aikido Federation, based in Osaka, is led by technical director Tetsuro Nariyama.
His competitive approach lives on in tournaments, among them the annual Kansai aikido tournament in Osaka, whose 51st edition took place in 2026 according to the federation. In 1970 he chaired the first all-Japan student aikido tournament.
Teachers, students and family
Associated Martial Arts
The only line of aikido with competition. Kenji Tomiki was a student of both Ueshiba and Kano and brought judo's principle that technique needs a measurable test.
AikidoMaster→A Japanese art of throws and joint locks that Morihei Ueshiba developed from Daito-ryu aiki-jujutsu. It is practiced mainly in paired kata, and only some schools compete.
Kata and forms
Organisations
- Japan Aikido AssociationFounder · 1974
Ranks and titles
- 8th danAikido · 1940
- 8th danJudo · 1971
Quotes
I have never named it that, instead, others have tried to push that name onto it.