Morihei Ueshiba in Hokkaido c. 1918
About the age of 30 I went to Engaru in Hokkaido. There I met Professor Sokaku Takeda of Aizu, teacher of Daito Ryu who taught me for 30 dyas. While I studied I felt something like inspiration. After inviting the professor to my house, I very earnestly pursued the real truth of the martial arts with 15 or 16 of my servants and disciples. Professor Takeda had opened my eyes to the real martial arts.
We recently published a long-forgotten interview of Aikido Founder Morihei Ueshiba that contains the above passage. Morihei’s comment contains a very important bit of information: “After inviting the professor to my house, I very earnestly pursued the real truth of the martial arts with 15 or 16 of my servants and disciples.” What exactly is going on here?
At this point in time, 1915, Morihei was one of the leaders of a group from Tanabe in southern Japan, who was working to establish a settlement in the remote village of Shirataki in northern Hokkaido. He and the group from Tanabe had relocated to Hokkaido three years earlier and had struggled to build a community in this inhospitable climate.
Also, Morihei was a martial arts enthusiast and had heard of the reputation of jujutsu expert Sokaku Takeda who was conducting jujutsu seminars in Hokkaido and elsewhere. Benefiting from an introduction from a mutual acquaintance Kotaro Yoshida, Morihei seized the opportunity to meet Sokaku in person in Engaru, a nearby town, in the winter of 1915. On this occasion, Morihei remained to study for about 30 days, impulsively leaving behind his family and leadership responsibilities in Shirataki.
Soon thereafter, Morihei invites Sokaku to live in his house in Shirataki, and learns from him along with 15 or 16 of his “servants and disciples.” We don’t have precise information about how long Sokaku stayed in Morihei’s house, but we do know that a short time later Takeda would uproot his family and settle in Shirataki which became his residence for the rest of his life.
This rather surprising action on the part of Sokaku reveals the importance he attached to Morihei as his student of Daito-ryu Aikijujutsu. In fact, an unpublished interview with the Founder states clearly that Sokaku had asked him to become his successor around this time. Sokaku certainly had high regard for Morihei’s abilities as a martial artist and considered him suitable character-wise to succeed him. Surely, Morihei’s study of Daito-ryu jujutsu during this period was intense and protracted and built the martial foundation upon which his later career rested.
An interesting side note: these 15 or 16 students also included Yoichiro Inoue, Morihei’s nephew, and other young men from Tanabe. It is quite likely that some of these same members trained in the judo dojo set up five years earlier in Tanabe for the benefit of Morihei and other young men to practice. Morihei’s father, Yoroku, and Inoue’s father, Zenzo, were the instigators of this initiative to channel the excessive energy of these young people in a constructive direction. Both Yoroku and Zenzo were in Shirataki at this time, a fact that histories published thus far have glossed over.
What is not explicitly stated here, but implied, is that Morihei had strong financial support in addition to being a talented student. His support base was primarily his father who was a well-to-do man, and Zenzo Inoue who was extremely wealthy. Morihei’s invitation to Sokaku to come live with him in Shirataki also meant that Takeda would stop his normal teaching activities to concentrate on teaching Morihei and his comrades. It would have taken a strong financial incentive for Sokaku to do this as his seminars were expensive and attracted mainly well-off students.
Even after Sokaku moved out of Morihei’s house, he established residence in Shirataki and built his own home which was located physically within short walking distance of Morihei as a map from that period confirms.
I have written a great deal about the later interaction between Morihei and Sokaku in Ayabe, Tokyo and Osaka in subsequent years, but I wanted to fill in some of the lesser known details of their early interaction in this article.
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Did the original actually use the word professor? What was he a PhD in? In recent years budoka have been mislabeling people professor, when they are not. We should start correcting this practice.
I found a very interesting article about this in the judo world. It applies here as well.
http://tomikiaikido.blogspot.com/2009/12/professor-kano.html
Eric,
We don’t currently have the Japanese text, so use of the term “Professor” was the choice of the translator. Translations in the old days were rather loose in this regard. We don’t know what the original text was.
When Takeda built his house, did he buy the ground or did Morihei give it to him ?
I have never seen any details on this subject so I can’t say. This subject has been studied very little and there are almost no documents.
Isn’t this the same interview that appears here in a different translation?
http://members.aikidojournal.com/public/interview-with-morihei-ueshiba-and-kisshomaru-ueshiba/
I’ve noticed this as well. Obviously this interview is just edited different translation of “interview with morihei ueshiba and kishomaru ueshiba.”
Hi
If Takeda asked Morihei to be his successor, what does that say about his son’s Tokimune’s ability to carry on the lineage. Due to the age difference and Sokaku’s travelling did he learn that much. Sagawa was also asked to lead the school at one time another student who would have had more experience?
Just wondered.
It’s important to keep in mind that when the idea of Morihei succeeding Sokaku was under discussion, we’re talking about the period of 1915-1919 in Hokkaido. At that time, Tokimune Takeda was an infant and not yet an apparent successor. Sagawa Sensei was asked to succeed on an interim basis when Tokimune entered the army during World War II. On his safe return after the war, he resumed his position as headmaster.
You have written that the eventual falling out between O Sensei and Takeda Sensei was motivated by money. This article seems to imply that Takeda Sensei had reasons for his expectations, and maybe some precedent existed?
This topic is dealt with in-depth elsewhere on Aikido Journal.