“Koichi Tohei and his long-forgotten letter,” by Stanley Pranin

As a follow-up to yesterday’s blog consisting of an overview of Koichi Tohei Sensei’s early years in aikido, I would like to address a subject that has long been shunned. It is an important point, historically speaking, because it marks a major fork in the evolution of postwar aikido. As with most things, there is a story behind the story.

I refer, of course, to Tohei Sensei’s resignation from the Aikikai Hombu Dojo in May 1974. The impact of Tohei’s withdrawal from the Hombu Dojo was amplified by his sending of an open letter to a large number of aikido schools and instructors the world over explaining the reasons for his departure.

To my knowledge, the letter has never been published and cannot be found anywhere on the Internet. Why? Is this a conspiracy to keep today’s aikidoka ignorant of these major events of long ago? If it is a conspiracy we’re talking about, then both concerned parties–Tohei and the Aikikai–are participants and have adopted the same tact: virtual silence.

You may know that Aikido Journal is preparing a video documentary on Tohei Sensei’s early years and his contributions to the postwar development of aikido. We have had to make an editorial decision about how much emphasis to place on his resignation and to what extent we should reveal the contents of Tohei’s long-forgotten letter.

During this process, I carefully reread the text after many years. It is very informative insofar as recounting the historical background of Tohei Sensei’s resignation from the Aikikai where he served as chief instructor for nearly 20 years. It also touches upon a number of personal issues and impugns the characters of several important individuals well-known to the aikido world. As a result, even a reader sympathetic to Tohei’s viewpoint would perhaps have a negative reaction to the letter’s contents.

This particular point is key to understanding the reluctance of either side to revisit the events of 1974. Neither party wishes to drudge up unpleasant memories because the whole episode is distasteful and both sides end up looking bad. One will recall that the Aikikai is the largest and most influential aikido organization in the world and the successor to the tradition of Aikido Founder Morihei Ueshiba. Koichi Tohei, for his part, is the figure most responsible for the early spread of aikido in the west, especially in the USA.

Unfortunately, this letter is but the tip of the iceberg. Unknown to most, a rebuttal letter was written in Japanese by Tadashi Abe Sensei, an important early propagator of aikido in Europe and someone who knew Tohei Sensei and his aikido beginnings very well. Abe’s letter is a devastating attack due to his intimate knowledge of Tohei’s background and character quirks. Anyone reading its content ends up scratching his head in disbelief at the tangled web of events and personalities so unflattering to all concerned. The letter was roughly translated into English, but to my knowledge, was only distributed to a few people.

There has been a wall of silence that no one has been willing to break, neither the participants nor any scholar who has researched the subject.

On reflexion, historians are an interesting lot. The first image that crops up in most people’s mind is an academic bookworm-type individual who derives satisfaction from isolating himself with stacks of reading materials, formerly in a library, but now behind a computer monitor. His output more often than not takes the form of academic articles or books read by a relative few. He may have a small audience of interested people, but seldom reaches the mainstream, usually toiling in obscurity.

My experience has been different. The historian is more like a foolhardy adventurer who recklessly charges onto the battlefield and is regarded with suspicion and targeted by all participants in the conflict. He must measure every word he writes and weigh the consequences, truly a formidable task. In his quest to be objective, he must risk being scorned and praised alternately in his ultimately futile quest of the truth. He must also be concerned for his well-being as he publishes information concerning people in high places in his field of interest. No matter what he writes, someone will always be offended and this knowledge tends to temper the satisfaction of any accolades he might receive from his readership. He is a lone warrior with the odds of success stacked against him.

I recently had a long telephone conversation with a good friend and well-known martial artist who finds himself immersed in a study of the history of his art–not aikido by the way. He, too, has encountered a mountain of politics, family dynamics, disinformation, research roadblocks, discrimination due to his being a foreigner, etc. I found myself laughing out loud at some of his remarks because they so closely mirrored my own experiences.

I hope this perspective will help readers understand the thinking and limitations behind our activities over the years. All is not what it seems on the surface. You have only heard part of the story. Despite the ideal of discovering an unvarnished truth, the historian must be cognizant of the legacy he leaves, and how his research and writings affect the evolution of the object of his study.

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