Morihei Ueshiba
植芝盛平
Founder of aikido, a student of Takeda Sokaku in Daito-ryu aiki-jujutsu, who in 1927 opened the Kobukan dojo in Tokyo, later the Aikikai Hombu Dojo.
Quick Facts
JapanBiography
Morihei Ueshiba was born on 14 December 1883 in the village of Nishinotani (today Tanabe) in Wakayama Prefecture and died on 26 April 1969 in Tokyo. He is the founder of aikido. In December 1903 he joined an infantry regiment in Wakayama and in 1906 he was discharged from the army. In 1910–1919 he led a group of settlers to Hokkaido, where they settled in the Shirataki area near Yubetsu.
In March 1915 he met Takeda Sokaku in Engaru and became his student in Daito-ryu aiki-jujutsu, and in 1922 he received a kyoju dairi certificate from him. In December 1919 he first stopped in Ayabe at Onisaburo Deguchi, leader of the Omoto religious movement, in spring 1920 he moved there with his family and became his close associate. Tradition places in 1925 a duel with a naval officer and a mystical experience, said to have been a turning point in his view of martial arts, but we have not found them in verified sources.
In 1927 he moved to Tokyo and in 1931 established the Kobukan dojo in today's Shinjuku district, later the Aikikai Hombu Dojo. In 1939–1942 he visited Manchuria several times and taught at Kenkoku University, where his student Kenji Tomiki was a regular instructor. The name aikido was officially registered in 1942. His long-time students included Kenji Tomiki, Gozo Shioda, Minoru Mochizuki and his son Kisshomaru.
From 1942 he lived in Iwama in Ibaraki Prefecture, where he founded the Aiki Shuren dojo and the Aiki Shrine. In 1964 he received the Order of the Rising Sun. According to the chronology his ashes are kept at Kozan-ji temple in Tanabe.
Early life
Morihei Ueshiba was born on 14 December 1883 in today's Tanabe in Wakayama Prefecture as the only son of the wealthy farmer Yoroku Ueshiba, who sat on municipal councils from 1892 to 1910, and his wife Yuki of the Itogawa family. He had four sisters. Historian Stanley Pranin points out that his childhood is poorly documented and part of the information comes from family recollections.
He acquired the basics of reading, writing and arithmetic at a Buddhist temple school, from 1896 attended middle school in Tanabe, left it after a year and graduated from a private abacus school. As a boy he learned harpoon fishing from fishermen and wrestled sumo with their sons on the beach. At seventeen, in 1901, he went to Tokyo for a business career and for several months practiced Tenjin Shinyo-ryu jujutsu with Tozawa Tokusaburo, then returned home ill. In December 1903 he joined an infantry regiment in Wakayama, married Hatsu Itogawa that year and left the army in 1906.
Training and teachers
From about 1903 to 1908, according to Pranin, he studied Goto-ha Yagyu Shingan-ryu with Nakai Masakatsu in Sakai, and around 1911 he learned judo in Tanabe from the seventeen-year-old Takagi Kiyoichi. The decisive teacher became Takeda Sokaku: after meeting in Engaru he completed a ten-day Daito-ryu seminar from 5 March 1915, on 15 September 1922 he received a kyoju dairi certificate from him in Ayabe, and documented contact with Daito-ryu lasted until 1937.
In December 1919, on his way to his sick father, he stopped in Ayabe at Onisaburo Deguchi, leader of the Omoto movement, and in spring 1920 he moved there with his family. During 1919 to 1921 his father, mother and two small sons died. In February 1924 he accompanied Deguchi on an expedition to Mongolia, where Chinese authorities captured the group and sentenced it to death before the Japanese consulate intervened. From 1937 three leading teachers of Kashima Shinto-ryu taught at his Kobukan dojo by invitation.
Contribution and innovations
In 1920 he opened the Ueshiba-juku dojo in Ayabe, and according to the Aikikai he recognized aiki as the essence of martial arts in 1922. In 1927 he moved to Tokyo and established the Kobukan dojo in 1931 in today's Shinjuku. In 1933, according to Wikipedia, the manual Budo Renshu with 166 techniques arose with Kenji Tomiki, and in 1938 the manual Budo with photographs of about fifty techniques shown by Ueshiba himself.
In 1940 the ministry recognized the Kobukai foundation, in 1942 the name aikido was officially registered and his son Kisshomaru became director of the headquarters. That year, after a serious illness, he went to Iwama, where he trained, meditated, farmed and the Aiki Shrine arose. The Aikikai foundation was established on 9 February 1948.
Legends and documented facts
The Kobukan dojo is often dated 1927. That year Ueshiba moved to Tokyo and trained in a provisional hall in Shiba, and according to the Aikikai the Kobukan was founded only in 1931. Similarly, he is often named the chief instructor of Kenkoku University in Manchuria. The regular instructor there was Kenji Tomiki, however, and Ueshiba came to visit in 1939 to 1942.
In a 1967 interview Ueshiba claimed that he chose the name aikido himself. According to Minoru Hirai it arose in 1942 in negotiations at the Dai Nippon Butoku Kai as a compromise, and Ueshiba preferred the name aiki budo.
According to Pranin, the spiritual writings published under his name arose from spoken talks edited mainly by Kisshomaru Ueshiba and students. Quotations from them therefore cannot be taken as his literal words, and we have not been able to find a documented quotation with an exact source. Pranin does not consider the legends of invincibility and injured opponents documented, and in his view the main technical basis of aikido is the techniques of Daito-ryu.
Legacy
In 1960 he received the Medal of Honor with Purple Ribbon and in 1964 the Order of the Rising Sun. In 1961 he visited Hawaii for the opening of the Honolulu Aikikai. The new Hombu Dojo building was completed in January 1968. Ueshiba died on 26 April 1969 of liver cancer, his posthumous Buddhist name is Aiki-in Seibu Enyu Daidoshi.
The second doshu, the hereditary head of aikido, became his son Kisshomaru, and since 18 January 1999 the third doshu has been his grandson Moriteru Ueshiba. The Aikikai foundation has been a public interest foundation since April 2012. The Aiki Shrine in Iwama holds a large festival every year on 29 April with more than a thousand visitors, and a bronze statue of the founder stands there.
Teachers, students and family
Associated Martial Arts
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.
Daito-ryu Aiki-jujutsuNotable figure→A Japanese art of locks, throws and atemi from which aikido emerged. It was created by Sokaku Takeda, is learned in paired kata, and progress is certified by scrolls and licences.