Morihei Uyeshiba

Morihei Uyeshiba is the founder of Aikido, a non-violent martial art that uses body movement, holds and locks to throw and hold an attacker harmless.

Morihei Uyeshiba was a sickly young lad who saw his father beaten up by street thugs, so he grew up wanting to be a good fighter.

He became highly skilled in Ju Jitsu and various sword and spear-fighting martial arts, and by 1920 or so Morihei Uyeshiba had developed a really powerful system and had a reputation throughout Japan as being quite unbeatable.

Next, Morihei Uyeshiba became deeply religous and joined the Omoto sect, an offshoot of the Shinto religion.

At the end of World War II, in the late 1940s, he changed the name of his art from Aiki Budo to Aikido. And he changed it's purpose to an art of non-violence.