The Last Years of O-sensei and the Achievement of Morihiro Saito sensei

In 1942, in the midst of World War Ⅱ, O-sensei retired from all his post in the Aikido organization, handing over those duties to his son, the second Doshu, and moved to Iwama, the northern rural area of Ibaragi Prefecture with only his wife Hatsu-san. After that, they lived there for 28 years until his death in 1969. What was his life there like, and what did he do during this long period?

The second Doshu said that in his books, "O-sensei had taken a role of the supporter for Aikikai and enjoyed sedate Aikido practices with a few disciples as they worked on his farm together."

Is that true?

No. O-sensei continued to train himself much more, in particular, he tried to research the relationship between weapon techniques and body techniques with Morihiro Saito sensei day after day, as earnestly as possible.

The bond between O-sensei and Saito sensei continued for 23 years (1946〜1969) with one-on-one practices. Especially there is no one who inherited O-sensei's weapon techniques systematically except Saito sensei.

Saito sensei married his wife Sada-san in 1957, and they lived near O-sensei's house and served him and his wife in their daily lives -- cooking meals, doing laundry and cleaning, every day.

( Plese refer to my thesis Chapt. 10 chronogical table. ）

At the end, O-sensei had developed and codified the common principle merging weapons techniques and body techniques in the late 1950s, when he was in his seventies. At that time, the foundation of Iwama style Aikido was established, and it was then passed on to Saito sensei from him.

In those days, the secnd Doshu had a vage knowledge of the proceedings at Iwama, but he was too busy to integrate the research into his Aikikai Hombu style, which was spreading very quickly in Japan. Also, he could not help but maintain his original style: no weapons nor Katai-keiko.

In 1969, O-sensei died at the age of 86.

If I were to guess at O-sensei's feelings, I would say that he had embraced in a sense, a contradiction between his affection for his son and his dedication to his own vision of Aikido. Especially he deplored that his son didn't understand really the systematic weapon techniques, didn't he?

The year after O-sensei's death, Saito sensei was appointed the chief of the Ibaragi dojo and the custodian of the Aiki shrine. He started to teach Iwama style Aikido and accomplish all management of the dojo and the shrine, especially the task of running the annual festival of the Aiki shrine every spring.

During the period of 1973~1975 Saito sensei went public with his first books, a series entitled "Traditional Aikido (Sword, Stick, Body Arts) — Minato Research Co." At the time, he was convinced that these books could cover all O-sensei's Aikido, all that he had been taught by O-sensei.

However, practically speaking, it was not that easy to teach O-sensei's techniques to biginners. I imagine there were several likely causes. First, he might have been emphasizing the strength of the techniques too strongly in opposition to other styles. Second, he was the only disciple who was taught weapons techniques and certain other techniques by O-sensei.

Therefore, some of the high-ranking disciples under Saito sensei implemented rather crude and rough instruction for beginners with incorrect forms of the techniques, using physical strength. As a result, there were often collisions with each other in their practices, inflicting severe pain and sometimes injuries on the beginners.

During this period, Iwama style Aikido was derisively nicknamed "the powered Iwama style" by other stylists, who also claimed that Saito was the only person who could make the style work.

Saito sensei reflected on why he could not teach O-sensei's techniques effectively, and he continued to learn through trial and error, day after day. It was a long path and took a long time.

Ultimately, he realized it was necessary to go back to the step-by-step movement of the basic techniques. That meant Suburi of Tachi (Sword) or Jo (Stick), as well as Katai-keiko of Body techniques, were the most important things.

It took about 10 years for Saito sensei to arrive at this method after O-sensei's death. It soon came to called "the phased teaching method."

Since then, Iwama style Aikido has become the style anyone can do, and although it still a relatively minor group, it has started to spread all over the world. The general public can now practice O-sensei's Aikido. In short we must practice both the weapon and the body techniques, start from Suburi trainings in the weapon techniques and start from Katai-keiko in the body techniques.

Between 1994 and 1997 Saito sensei published his life's work, the books known as "Takemusu Aikido (Volume 1—5 and special) — Aiki News Co." I feel confident in asserting that the essence of true Aikido, created by O-sensei and passed down to his student Saito sensei, is condensed in these books.

In 2002, Saito sensei died at the age of 74.

If you wise readers now understand that O-sensei's true Aikido still survives in the form of Iwama style Aikido ( Iwama Shinshin Aikido ), and will live forever because of the life-long endeavors of two great martial artists, O-sensei and Morihiro Saito sensei, this author will be very happy. 　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　( The End )

( the 22nd, Sept., 2012 )