Master Ueshiba Morihei.

On the 14 December in 1883, Ueshiba Morihei was born in Tanabe, a small town near Osaka. His father was a master of swordsmanship in the Ku family, lords of the province. Until the age of 15, Ueshiba Morihei had a weak constitution. His small size and tack of physical resistance meant he could get little benefit from his father*s teaching. When he was 13, he met his first .master, Tozawa Tokusaburo from the Kilo Ryu,

who taught him jujutsu. So he very soon learnt to wield the spear and the sword. At 20, he was already recognized as an expert in these skills (1908) and received a diploma from his master Nakai Masakatsu, when he left the great ryu, Yagyu.

Ueshiba Morihei swore to himself that he would become strong and that he would spare no effort in achieving this aim. At the age of 20, he could already lift enormous weights and feared only a few opponents. When the Russo-Japanese war broke out in Manchuria, Urshiba was 21. He volunteered for service and was enrolled as a regular soldier. These years gave him the opportunity to strengthen his body with the toughest of tests. He withstood it so well that his exceptional conduct and his strength, which seemed indomitable, opened wide the doors to a military career.

But once the war was over, Urshiba*s aim was to resume his interrupted studies in jujutsu, as quickly as possible. However, his health broke down and he was confined to bed for six months, suffering from a serious attack of encephalitis. On his recovery, he took up judo. The need for a change of air, to rediscover nature, cultivate the land and above all to strengthen his body persuaded him to move to the north of Japan, to the island of Hokkaido.In 1938, Master Ueshiba built a dojo and a Shinto temple at Iwama, 93 miles (150km) north of Tokyo, and began to teach aiki-do. Those who were fortunate enough to be admitted as pupils cultivated the land and served the master with total devotion.

The greatest masters of martial arts in Japan went to Iwama. Amongst them, Master Jigoro Kano, the founder of judo, who later sent Master Ueshiba a number of his pupils. To be allowed into the dojo merely as a spectator was in itself a great privilege. Any internal distraction or any form of behavior which was not in keeping with the spirit of the dojo was noticed immediately by the master who stop the session and made the visitor leave.  This way of life continued until the end of the last war, when the Americans restricted the teaching of martial arts in alt forms. Aiki-do was organized on new lines and in 1948 the Tokyo Aikikai opened. From then on, aiki-do was to spread throughout the world.

On the 26 April in 1969, Master Ueshiba Morihei died in Tokyo, aged 86, at the end of a long illness. The aiki-do taught by Master Ueshiba was aiki-do without form, an expression of the Void. ‘Aiki-do*, he would say, ‘is not that which is expressed in movements but what comes well before the form is born, for aiki-do is a part of the psychical world of the Void.*

Extract from the book of martial arts