O-Sensei - Morihei Ueshiba

The Founder of Aikido

Morihei Ueshiba, (Morihei Uyeshiba) the founder of Aikido, was born in Wakayama Prefecture, Japan, in 1883. He was a sick and weakly child.

His mother gave young Morihei a great love of poetry, art and religion. His father encouraged him to study Sumo wrestling and swimming to make him stronger.

Morihei Ueshiba became determined to become a warrrior after seeing his father being beaten up on more than one occasion, because of politics. His father had been trying to clean up corruption.

He learned Ju Jutsu at the Kito-ryu dojo and Japanese Swordsmanship at the Shinkage Ryu school.

Morihei Ueshiba tried to enlist in the Japanese army when it went to war against Russia, but he was rejected as too small. Ueshiba was just under 5 feet tall. He tried again in 1903, and was accepted as a foot soldier.

The army toughened him up, and Morihei Ueshiba returned home and studied more Ju Jitsu from Takaki Kiyoichi.

In 1912, his family moved to Hokkaido. There, Morihei Ueshiba met Sokaku Takeda, the Grand Master of Daito-ryu Aiki Jutsu. Morihei Ueshiba tested his skills against Sokaku Takeda, and found his new teacher could beat him easily. So Ueshiba threw himself energetically into learning this powerful system.

When his father died, Morihei Ueshiba moved to Ayabe to study a new religion called Omoto-kyo. He studied this diligently for eight years.

In the middle 1920s, while he was in his early 40s, Morihei Ueshiba had several deep religous experiences.

The founder of Judo, Jigoro Kano, was impressed by Morihei Ueshiba's great skill and sent one of his top Judo men, Kenji Tomiki, to learn this new art which Ueshiba was creating by combining all he had learned. Kenji Tomiki was already a high dan grade in Judo, and learned everything he could from O-Sensei, Morihei Ueshiba, until he too was awarded an 8th Dan teaching certificate in Aikido. He was the first of O-Sensei's students to attain this high rank.

Tomiki became manager of Ueshiba's first Aikido dojo, and later merged his knowledge of O-Sensei's Aikido with the careful structure of Kano's Judo, creating his own style of Aikido.

This included an element of carefully-controlled competition (like they have in Judo). This caused a rift with Ueshiba, who believed competitions only encourage a "bad attitude" in the students. Inflated egos.