Josh Gold
“I have tried with all my heart to repay the kindness of
Master Morihei Ueshiba who founded and taught me Aikido.”
In May, 1974, an event occurred that shook the roots of the aikido world to its very foundations. It was then that Koichi Tohei, the chief instructor of the Aikikai Hombu Dojo, resigned from his post and left the headquarters organization to form his own school. Many aikido associations, dojos, instructors, and students, particularly in Japan and the U.S.A., were compelled to make a choice of whether to stay within the Aikikai system or join Tohei’s newly-created Shin Shin Toitsu Aikido organization.
Here is the background to the story. In 1969, Morihei Ueshiba officially awarded 10th dan rank—the first ever—to Koichi Tohei. Following Ueshiba’s death, Tohei’s attempts to have the Aikikai Hombu Dojo instructors’ staff adopt his teaching methods which emphasized the principle of Ki were unsuccessful. He proceeded to set up the Ki no Kenkyukai (Ki Research Society) on his own in September 1971. On 1 May 1974, Tohei finally resigned from the Aikikai after several years of strained relations with Doshu Kisshomaru Ueshiba and other Aikikai teachers. At the same time, he founded the Shin Shin Toitsu Aikidokai (Society for Aikido with Mind and Body Coordinated).
On May 15, 1974, he sent a widely-distributed letter in Japanese and English versions to hundreds of dojo heads in Japan and abroad explaining the reasons for his severance of ties with the Aikikai Hombu Dojo. This letter, in which Tohei details his reasons for leaving the Aikikai, has only been seen by a few people over the years and has largely been forgotten. Anyone attempting to understand these pivotal events in aikido history will find this document to be invaluable as Tohei expresses in his own words his version of the events that transpired.
After preserving this letter for the past 37 years in our archives, we have now decided to release it to the general public.
[DAP][s3mv]pdf/tohei-resignation-letter.pdf,link[/s3mv][/DAP]
Had unity been fostered instead of fear riddled division, The Founder’s vision would have been closer sooner and Aikido would be greater for it today.
Can you imagine all the greats working together instead of scattered? Which goes to show that we are a species that can not live without war. But Great Nature is outside the process. Whether the seedlings sprout close to the parent tree or are blown far away from the parent tree, if valid they will still grow.
Reconciliation is inevitable in the nature of the Great Universe, even though it may not always take the form we would expect. Aikido exists as a universal current no person or organisation can claim ownership of, or force into a closed box of parochiality. It is an essence that transcends such petty and mundane consideration and one which has the potential of making the human burden easier. Hubris has no place in budo because it degenerates it into a destructive force instead of the protecting power it is and should remain.
Petty little men will always play petty political machinations and their footsteps invariably reveal their true stature in the scheme of things and with their disgraceful behaviours reveal that they are guilty of war.
Greed, pride, perversion, hubris, vanity, immorality and thirst for glory distorts all good things. The issue of “ki” or “no ki” is irrelevant and a moot point of conjecture. The principles Tohei taught are and have always been valid for all Budo. I still can not understand such a fuss by grown up, adult men.
Responsibility, however, should never be taken lightly. The business of a sensei is to teach as best he can and nothing else. He should also support himself independently. If he wants to serve using politics he should prove himself in government and not contaminate such good works as the Aikido Morihei Ueshiba gave to the world.
Despite the hindrance of these fools, Aikido is still here and stronger by the day without them.
Aikido will still be here when the fools that worked against it are long forgotten.
The question arises: Will you serve the greater good through Aikido, or merely your own insignificant self?
“By their fruits ye shall know them.”
Thank you :))
It is a sad indictment of Aikido in the world today.
It is clear that the techniques were “changed” by the first Doshu, and therefore we were/are no longer practicing the Aikido that O’Sensei left behind. This is also supported by the difference between the training in Iwama and the Hombu.
I believe Tohei was correct. Practicing Aikido, without “ki” means that you are left with a jitsu/jutsu and no longer practicing O’Senseis art.
I saw the newsletter where Moriteru disclosed publicly that Kisshomaru intentionally changed the Aiki Budo techniques that O’Sensei taught, simplifying them, and in some cases even omitting techniques. I can’t find that document anywhere online now. I wonder if any readers here know where it’s at.
The contents of that letter explains a LOT of things that are relevant even now. A whole lot. That’s all I care to say about it here.
http://www.iwama-ryu-tr.org/eng/article.html
I save stuff like that!
Editor,
OSU!
Thank you very much for your brave deed, dear chief-editor! I hope you could to show a letter by ABE Tadashi as an answer to TOHEI Koichi also
The moment you quarrel to who is better or best you lost essence of Aiki, every techniques will develop and expand into new ones, according to the perception of any teacher. Another style does not mean the degradation but the ever expanding capacities to develop. Aikido is like a tree, it has one root and it will spread it s branches in all directions to reach the sky.