An Aikido Life, by Gozo Shioda: Part IX

20 Days of Austere Discipline

To resume the thread of my story, Ueshiba Sensei and the three of us finally arrived at the house of Razan Hayashi which was our destination as I mentioned before. When we settled down after cleaning the house, Ueshiba Sensei admonished us with the following words: “We are going to lead an ascetic life for 20 days starting today. During this period we will eat meals consisting of one kind of soup and a serving of fish or vegetables and rice. We are also going to train at night. So get yourselves in the right frame of mind.”

He told us that frugal meals were best for people and that delicious food was our enemy. For breakfast we had a small amount of rice, three pieces of pickled radish and miso soup. Lunch and supper were almost the same. During the 20-day period of training we ate fish only twice. Fish never tasted more delicious than those times. Naturally, the three of us prepared meals in turn. We got up at five in the morning, swung our bokken (wooden swords) five hundred times, and then practiced how to move our bodies. At that time the teaching method was different from today’s. There was nothing like, “Put your feet at such and such an angle” or “Look in the direction of your hands,” etc. Ueshiba Sensei showed us how to move and told us to practice our skills and bring our minds into oneness with nature. We just imitated his movements without understanding anything he said. We did that for about an hour. Then we prepared breakfast. First, we made breakfast for Ueshiba Sensei, and served him in turn. After he finished his breakfast we started eating. We took a rest after clearing the table. At ten o’clock we practiced taijutsu (empty handed techniques) for about two hours. After lunch, we rested until three o’clock. From three to five we trained again. Our way of training was, for example, to hold Ueshiba Sensei’s hands or shoulders or seize him from behind and he would free himself from our grip. He would merely say to us, “Master it and forget it.”

No Note-taking Allowed

Later we practiced the techniques we learned repeatedly. When we took notes on our training, Ueshiba Sensei became very upset with us. He admonished us saying that we should learn the martial techniques through our bodies, not our brains and that we should learn exclusively through practice. He never allowed us to take notes. After we fixed supper, our daily regime ended. We had no radio and only read books. Ueshiba Sensei ordered us to read magazines such as Kodan Kurabu and Kingu which were filled with stories of battles and great swordsmen. One of us would read a magazine while the other two massage Ueshiba Sensei’s shoulders and back.

We could, however, be free after nine o’clock when he retired to bed. But since we were up on a mountain we could not visit the red light district of town. Thus, we went to bed around ten o’clock after reading magazines.

However, about every third day, Ueshiba Sensei woke up around two or three o’clock in the morning on moonless nights and said, “Let’s practice in the dark now!” We put on our training suits and set out for a place on Mt. Kurama where Ushiwakamaru (childhood name of Yoshitsune Minamoto) used to train. it was pitch dark. Ueshiba Sensei wore a white headband and brandished a real sword. While I was following him, he said to me, “Shioda, there is a hole, a stone, and a tree.” He could walk very fast and could see like a cat in the dark. I, however, couldn’t walk that fast because I couldn’t see anything. When we reached our destination after encountering many difficulties he handed us bokken and said, “Strike at my white headband with all your might! Never hesitate! Strike hard!” So each of us struck with all our might. We were very much afraid because Ueshiba Sensei was using a real sword. The moment I struck at his white headband which loomed up in the dark, he would quickly dodge and place his sword right above my head. The air sliced by his sword wavered above my head lightly but menacingly. It could only be called kenpu (sword wind). It was so weird it defied description. I will leave it to the reader’s imagination. When we finished the 20 days of training in this manner, we descended from the mountain. We had this special training session once a year. What did we get from this austere discipline? I am sure that I spent each of the 20 days very seriously and that I was with nature. I could not think of anything else other than these two things. Certainly, it was an opportunity that may never come again. This is one of my memories from the days at Ueshiba Sensei’s dojo.

Participant in the Kobe Plot

As I mentioned before, members of the Ueshiba Dojo taught at the Nakano School. At that time, one of the senior instructors at the School was a Major Ito. He was an active leader of the group which was striving to defeat the United States and Britain and was also a public-spirited man. He used to come to our dojo on a private basis and was on friendly terms with Ueshiba Sensei. Though I was a university freshman at the time, I was more or less able to instruct. Thus when Ueshiba Sensei was not able to go to the Nakano School, I taught the young officers including first and second lieutenants there in place of him.

Major Ito treated me affectionately and invited me over to his house repeatedly. One day I visited him at his home, a simple, old-style residence befitting a military man.

On that occasion, he talked to me about the state of affairs in Japan and the rest of the world at that time and how violent both the United States and Britain were to the point it made my blood boil. I was very outraged to hear these things and so impressed that I promised to visit him again with my close friends when I left his house.

Thus I visited the Ito family again together with my close friends Shiro Ogawa and Mikiyuki Kataoka. Major Ito recommended that we study Sun Tzu’s Art of War in order to be able to deal with the emergency situation of that time. Therefore, the three of us began to study the Art of War eagerly and attended a lecture on the subject at Major Ito’s once a week.

Before long, the group led by Major Ito was preparing for the first of January of the 2600th year of the Koki (imperial reign) era (1940); on that day they planned to conduct a raid on the American consulate in order to steal confidential documents and hand them over to the then prime minister, Fumimaro Konoe, to publicly denounce the arrogant behavior adopted by the United States and Britain all over Japan. On the day the plan was to be carried out, several young soldiers of the Himeji Regiment were to join in. All 47 people, coincidentally the same number as those participating in the raid of the 47 master-less samurai of Akoo, were waiting for the day of decisive action. The civilians involved were Ogawa and myself who were students. Our role was to receive the stolen documents and have them over to the Prime Minister Konoe. Kataoka was supposed to stand ready. However, the plan was not actually consummated due to the betrayal of some of our comrades who notified the authorities. All those taking part in this plan were arrested by the military police. This was known as the Kobe plot.

I would like to comment on this incident based on what I experienced. Our comrades were to assemble at Minatogawa Shrine at five a.m. that night. The password among our comrades was “Tamon Inn on Tachibana Street.” I was wearing a crested ceremonial habutae kimono and Ogawa was dressed in schoolboy black. When we got off at Kobe station, we felt something alarming because someone who might have been a plainclothes police officer was walking around. Though we thought it a little strange, we went to the Tamon Inn and were waiting for the appointed hour as we drank some sake so as not to oversleep. At ten minutes before five a.m. we arrived at Minatogawa Shrine with high hopes only to find no one there. While we were looking around suspiciously, several plainclothes military police approached and snapped handcuffs on us. They took us to the Kobe Military Police Station in a car. They locked me in a four-and-a-half mat room where I sat upright while being watched by two military policeman. After about two hours, we were finally called into an interrogation room. As Command Sergeant Major Kimura, who was in charge of the interrogation was staring at me, I asked him if there was something wrong with my face. He replied, “Oh, I remember. You are Mr. Shioda, aren’t you?” I answered in the affirmative. He went on, “I took aikido lessons from you in military police school days. I haven’t seen you for a long time.” Then, he said, “Don’t say anything. I will make your written statement.” Fortunately that was the end of the investigation. He turned us over to a Lieutenant Inoue. As soon as Lieutenant Inoue saw me he said, “Mr. Shioda, what are you doing here? Please go home,” and released us.

Ueshiba Sensei Under Suspicion

On the way back, we prayed at the Ise Shrine and stayed at Ogawa’s house in Ise City for two days. Then we arrived safely back in Tokyo. We went directly to Ueshiba Sensei’s house and something very serious had happened there too.

Before the incident, Major Ito called on Ueshiba Sensei to inform him that he was going to leave for active service on the Manchurian front. After that, Ueshiba Sensei accompanied the Major to Kobe partly to see off the Major and partly for training in Osaka. Although both of them stayed in the Kobe Hotel, the major switched Ueshiba Sensei to another inn the day before the planned raid so as not to get him into trouble. However, at this point all of the parties to the plot had been arrested due to the betrayal. Of course, Ueshiba Sensei was unaware of this and tried to telephone Major Ito at the Kobe Hotel. However, the man who answered the phone was a military policeman who wrote down everything Ueshiba Sensei said. Ueshiba Sensei returned to Tokyo since he couldn’t reach Major Ito by phone. Soon after he arrived back in Tokyo, he was called to the military police headquarters and given a sound reprimand.

It was just at that point that I visited the Ueshiba Sensei house. He was extremely pleased. He told me, “Shioda, please go to your uncle (the Minister of War at that time, Shunroku Hata) immediately and tell him that I didn’t know anything about the plot.” I promptly went to the official residence of the Minister of War and asked to see his Excellency the Minister. I said to him, “My respected teacher, Ueshiba Sensei is in trouble and has falsely come under suspicion. Please resolve this matter as soon as possible.” The Minister answered clearly, “We must separate private and official affairs. I can’t do it.” At that time I was so young I was offended by him and stated grandly, “Then I won’t ask you any more.” When I stood up and went to the door, he said, “Wait a minute, Take-chan,” (he used to call me “Take-chan”) and we left for the Tokyo Military Police Headquarters in a military car.

The commanding office of the military police at that time was Lieutenant General Tanaka who was the bearer of the regimental colors during the time that Minister Hata was the regiment commander or so I heard. So General Tanaka was there to meet us standing at attention. The Minister of War entered the room of the commanding officer and said only, “Tanaka, I understand that Ueshiba who is under investigation now has nothing to do with this case and so I leave it to your discretion.” The next day, when Ueshiba Sensei went to the headquarters, even he was surprised at the extremely courteous treatment which contrasted with that of the previous day. This is definite proof that in the military, an office of superior rank wields tremendous influence. Thus, the Kobe Incident ended in this manner without any serious calamity.

Next: An Aikido Life X