Nidan Essay

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Aikido is a budo that has a rich history, and should have a rich future. It has seen much change, and will probably continue to see change, but just as a flower grows and changes and still remains a flower, it will remain, in its essence, Aikido.

Although the name Aikido dates back to 1942, the art itself is the result of much prior evolution. I think there are two main parts that developed over the years – the techniques and the spirit of Aikido – that led to the art we practice today.

The techniques are traceable back to what was known as oshikiuchi, a series of secret moves passed down through the Samurai of the Aizu Clan centuries ago in Japan. Since these skills were often used in life-or-death situations, they were not readily shared with others. Over time special techniques also developed that were taught only to the ruling class as protection from all attacks, including any from their own Samurai.

Over the centuries there was some organization of the techniques, and these developed into the various ryu, or schools, of jujitsu, and involved strong, combat methods involving various joint locking and joint breaking techniques. The Daito-ryu school was one that began to incorporate the concept of aiki into jujitsu, resulting in aikijujitsu. This advance involved the goal of blending with the motion of an attacker, rather than clashing or relying just on strength to make a technique work. Even though this made the moves appear to be softer as they were initiated, they could actually have a more brutal result, if desired, because of this subtlety in applying a move.

Into the midst of this development came Morihei Ueshiba (later known as O-Sensei), who was born in 1883, and as a teen-ager began to study various schools of jujitsu, kenjitsu, and sojitsu (the art of the spear). He began to study Daito-ryu Aikijitsu, and then used what he felt were the best waza (techniques) from all his previous training. In very simple terms, he is said to have taken the joint techniques of jujitsu and combined them with footwork from the sword and spear arts.

O-Sensei’s own style began to emerge in about 1942 with what he called aiki budo or Ueshiba-ryu aikijitsu. Through his career, various gifted students trained with him, and then went out on their own.The aikido they later taught seems to have been influenced by the stage of aikido they had experienced.Gozo Shioda experienced the harder-style aikido in the 1940s, and founded the Yoshinkan school.Morihiro Saito took his experiences of the 1950s and still practices the very traditional, or Iwama-style of Aikido. Others students followed their interests with Koichi Tohei’s emphasis on Ki Aikido, the Shin Shin Toitsu style, and Kenji Tomiki, who incorporated an element of competition in his Tomiki-ryu Aikido believing that contests allowed for another way of testing a student’s progress.

This basically was the history of the techniques of Aikido.

The second historical element I feel is important is the spiritual side. Morihei Ueshiba became very interested in and involved with the Omoto-kyo religion. This is a form of the Shinto religion which envisions a universal world of harmony.

After having a personal religious experience, Ueshiba said that he had been enlightened to the realization that the purpose of all budo was to protect all living things, rather than to be used in agression against others. In his view now, aikido was a means to defend and protect, not to attack. Morihei said that an attacker was already defeated because his mind and spirit were out of balance with the universe, so the purpose of Aikido was to bring this person back into balance with nature. The Aikidoist does this by using the attacker’s own force, blending with it, and bringing it to a peaceful resolution that puts the attacker back into harmony without causing any lasting physical pain or damage.

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Nidan Essay #1

Aikido - Its History

and Its Future

by Tom Hosmanek 6/24/1999

Test Committee

Masayuki Kaneshi-Mesa Shihan, Aikido, rokudan

Dr. David Birdsell Shihan, Shinkendo, rokudan

Randy Doyle, M.D.