Last direct students of O Sensei?

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[gareth84]

Hello everyone,

Just a quick question. Does anyone know who the remaining direct students of O Sensei are?

I know of Peter Shapiro Sensei and Henry Kong Sensei.

I would love to know how many other people there are and if they are still doing seminars.

Thanks,

Gareth

[gareth84]

Apologies I meant Henry Kono Sensei. Bloody predictive spell check thingy...sorry

[Guillaume Erard]

Henry Kono passed away last year.

[robin_jet_alt]

I can add Hiroshi Tada, Seishiro Endo, and Koretoshi Maruyama. I know the latter 2 are still doing seminars. Not sure about Tada sensei.

[Matt Fisher]

Hello everyone,

Just a quick question. Does anyone know who the remaining direct students of O Sensei are?

The direct students that I believe are still alive include:
Hiroshi Isoyama Sensei
Yasuo Kobayashi Sensei
Yoshimitsu Yamada Sensei
Seijuro Masuda Sensei
Morito Suganuma Sensei
Mitsugi Saotome Sensei
Kenji Shimizu Sensei
Shizuo Imaizumi Sensei

How many of them are still teaching seminars (and traveling to do so) is much harder for me to say. Saotome Sensei, who I have been connected to for all of my aikido practice, teaches a few seminars around the US each year but has significantly cut back because of age. He also doesn't travel abroad anymore.

Matt

[Carl Thompson]

There is the delicate question of what qualifies someone as a direct student of Osensei; how many training sessions they had, how regularly and so on. So for example, there are quite a few instructors around who had some training with Osensei, but their main teacher was someone else. And then don't get me started on who was the last uchi deshi of the founder.

In his dictated book 'Takemusu Aiki,' Osensei says "Aikido was born in Iwama." There are differing slants on the history, but as far as I can tell, his main residence from the early 1940s until his death (so about 25 years, during which time the term 'aikido' came into use) was Iwama. He visited elsewhere frequently, but I suspect that even in Iwama, his teaching over the last ten years was often delegated to others.

Anyway, from that time in Iwama, I know the following teachers are still active:

Hiroshi Isoyama, 8th dan. (Mentioned earlier in the thread. He had about 20 years with Osensei but he once said "But I was only able to practice with the founder, not only taking ukemi, but being able to do techniques on him, until about ten years after I started." He is still teaching in Iwama, but infrequently these days.)

Yoshifumi Watahiki, 7th dan (I think maybe a little less than 20 years. He still teaches regularly in Iwama and old Kasama)

Shigemi Inagaki, 8th dan. (About ten years. Still teaching in Iwama and conducting international seminars)

Hideo Hirosawa, 7th dan. (He told me 12 years and is a 'Last uchi deshi' claimant. He teaches in Omitama, a town near to Iwama).

Ryuji Sawa, 7th dan. (Actually Inagaki Sensei's younger brother, who would have started a couple of years later. He teaches in Miura)

Hiroki Nemoto, 7th dan (one year with Osensei. Teaching at his own dojo in Iwama and also Tsukuba)

Toshihiro Isoyama, 6th dan. (Nephew of Isoyama Hiroshi. I estimate about 5 years with Osensei. Teaching in Iwama.)

Kenji Hirasawa, 5th dan. (about 5-10. Teaching in Iwama.)

Hidehiro Akimoto 5th dan (about 10 years - this guy is a living time capsule. He got to 3rd dan under Osensei, then didn't train until just under ten years ago. Now teaching in Iwama.)

Toshiaki Kawakami 5th dan (about 10 years. Teaching in Iwama).

There are many more who got their main training from Osensei who are not teachers. For example, Isoyama Sensei has students who trained with him under Osensei. Before anyone calls me an Iwama-snob, I would point out that I feel anyone who had any time (as main teacher or guest teacher) is valuable.

Regards

Carl

[jamesf]

Add to the list:
Robert Nadeau (California Aikido Association)
Roy Suenaka (Wadokai Aikido)
Shuji Maruyama (Kokikai Aikido)
Gaku Homma (Aikido Nippon Kan / A.H.A.N.)
Robert Frager
Walther von Krenner (Kalispell Aikido; Kalispell, MT, USA)
Yutaka Kurita (Mexican Aikido Association / Kurita Juku Aiki)

[Carsten Möllering]

Yamashima Takeshi sensei

[Peter Goldsbury]

This is to echo Carl Thompson's post. I remember a certain shihan (who had better remain nameless) whose classes I used to attend, stating that he was an uchi-deshi of O Sensei. Of course, I believed him, but later, when I moved to Japan and talked to many others who had practised "directly" under Morihei Ueshiba, I found that his statement needed some qualification. Especially since Doshu Kisshomaru Ueshiba stated to me quite definitely that there were no postwar uchi-deshi of Morihei Ueshiba and that he himself did not have any uchi-deshi at all.

Of course, uchi-deshi can be quite narrowly defined, but it was used to make a clear distinction between some students and others, all of whom could legitimately claim to be "direct" students of Morihei Ueshiba. Presumably the accepted Japanese word for 'direct student' is deshi 弟子 and if you work back from 1969, when Morihei Ueshiba died, I suspect that there are many still alive in Japan.

[rugwithlegs]

http://www.aikidosangenkai.org/blog/interview-aikido-shihan-yoshimitsu-yamada-part-1/

One example of a living uchi-deshi of O Sensei. Yamada has been very honest about his interactions in several interviews. I submit his value as a teacher and a practitioner is greater than these memories.

Stanley Pranin did publish a list of deshi, but he admits the list was not complete and arbitrary.

[MRoh]

Katsuaki Asai.

He studied in Hombu Dojo from1955 to 1965. He is teaching seminars mainly in Germany, but also in Poland, Hungary, Switzerland, Italy and France.

In this years O Sensei was teaching regularly in Tokio, but they never knew when he would come or leave.

[Demetrio Cereijo]

Hello everyone,

Just a quick question. Does anyone know who the remaining direct students of O Sensei are?

I know of Peter Shapiro Sensei

There is an interview with Mr. Shapiro in a spanish magazine where he says he never physically trained with O Sensei.

[Scott Harrington]

Sought out Takahasi Mariye sensei in Southern California and trained with her just a month (had to move back east). Personally trained with and well liked by O'sensei, she was a true pleasure to learn from. Very taciturn, a little stern (in a good way), talented and I wished I could have continued to train under and learned more from her. Hope another one of the direct students of Aikido founder Ueshiba continues a long life and continues teaching.

Interview with her by Stanley Pranin. http://blog.aikidojournal.com/2010/11/14/recommended-reading-interview-with-mariye-takahashi-1-by-stanley-pranin/

[Dan Rubin]

Hiroshi Isoyama, 8th dan. (Mentioned earlier in the thread. He had about 20 years with Osensei but he once said "But I was only able to practice with the founder, not only taking ukemi, but being able to do techniques on him, until about ten years after I started." He is still teaching in Iwama, but infrequently these days.)

Carl

Do you have a citation for that quote? My understanding is that it was very rare for O Sensei to take ukemi.

Dan

[Ethan Weisgard]

Carl

Do you have a citation for that quote? My understanding is that it was very rare for O Sensei to take ukemi.

Dan

Isoyama Sensei has often told of his training under O Sensei. In the Iwama dojo O Sensei would evidently also let the students do the techniques on him at times. Isoyama Sensei said that of course it was basically impossible to do anything on O Sensei, but he would at one point let the technique go in!
I have the same feeling when attempting to do a technique on either Isoyama Sensei or Inagaki Sensei!
Note: not that these two gentlemen jump in to train with you during regular classes, but sometimes when they are teaching, they want to demonstrate a point, and change roles - with you trying to perform the role of nage on them.

[rugwithlegs]

Slightly off topic here, but here's O Sensei letting a young student throw him. One single YouTube clip doesn't make this a common occurrence, but no one in the clip is acting shocked or stopping class or acting like they are in the presence of something rare. Past beginning techniques, when you get into kaeshiwaza and the like, the lines between uke and nage do blur.

https://youtu.be/gN0uA5qF_8s

[zivk]

I can add Hiroshi Tada, Seishiro Endo, and Koretoshi Maruyama. I know the latter 2 are still doing seminars. Not sure about Tada sensei.
Hiroshi Tada sensei is definately giving seminars, although he is well over 85. He regularly conducts seminars in Italy and Switzerland, and recently has added France as well.
You may check out the following links for details on his seminars during 2017:
http://www.aikikai.it/images/stories/documenti/Calendario_Stage_Nazionali_2016_2017.pdf
http://www.aikikai.ch/de/agenda/
http://aikido-tadashihan-paris.com/calendrier-des-stages/

The last time I've participated in Tada sensei's seminar was in 2015. He is in amazingly good shape. Watching his precise and smooth movement in his age may help understand how O-sensei moved in such manner, when he was in this age. Tada sensei constantly encourages the audience to listen and watch carefully as he is eager to pass on the teachings of his teachers O-sensei and Tempu Nakamura sensei.

[zivk]

Slightly off topic here, but here's O Sensei letting a young student throw him. If I'm not wrong, this is not some regular young student, it is his grandson and current doshu, Moriteru Ueshiba sensei.

[Carl Thompson]

Carl

Do you have a citation for that quote? My understanding is that it was very rare for O Sensei to take ukemi.

Dan

Hello Dan,

He said that in an interview for a Russian group. They translated their questions into English, I translated into Japanese, then Isoyama Sensei responded in Japanese, which I translated back into English and that got translated into Russian. There is a video of it out there somewhere, but I'm afraid I don't have the link.

This is part of the transcript I gave them so that they could make subtitles:

<Carl> How long did you practice with Osensei for?

<Isoyama Shihan> It was 1949 when I entered this dojo and Osensei passed away in 1969, so it was about twenty years. But I was only able to practice with the founder (not only taking ukemi but being able to do techniques on him) until about ten years after I started. In those days when I first began, there weren't so many students so everyone who came to practice would always receive Osensei's techniques once each, on both left and right sides. Particularly with regards to techniques there was little explanation but when a technique was done on another person we looked with wide eyes so as to really see how Osensei would make the technique, how he would use power and so forth.

Regards

Carl

PS:

http://www.northsideaikido.com/thumbs/pictures/osensei04_300.jpg

[Dan Rubin]

Thanks, Carl and Ethan.

Dan

[Ethan Weisgard]

Ziv: sorry, but I don't think that is Sandai Doshu Moriteru that O-Sensei is receiving an attempted ;-) ikkyo from.
The gentleman on the photo is much older than Moriteru would have been at that time. It's not Nidai Doshu Kisshomaru, either. I believe it is an unknown participant in the class O-Sensei was teaching.

O-Sensei was probably doing what many Sensei do when they want to make a point: they reverse roles, and by being uke they can show you some of the more subtle (internal) points better.
Lucky man who got to try to do a technique on The Founder :-)

In aiki,
Ethan

[Ethan Weisgard]

Thanks, Carl and Ethan.

Dan

You're welcome, Dan.

In aiki,
Ethan

[rugwithlegs]

If I'm not wrong, this is not some regular young student, it is his grandson and current doshu, Moriteru Ueshiba sensei.

I guess that is one name we all left out so far, the current Doshu did know his grandfather.

Stories are O Sensei trained up until the end. He died around 47 years ago. That is not that long ago, like Prof Goldsbury said.

There are people like Stanley Pranin who only made it to Japan weeks after O Sensei died, but he has made an in depth study of O Sensei's life and Aikido. There is Okimura Sensei in Delaware who met O Sensei as a young man petitioning to train, but he does not call himself a deshi of O Sensei and says the vast majority of his training was under Kisshomaru Doshu. And then there are people like Bruce Kumar Frantzis who did train with O Sensei and then quit training in Aikido.

[Carsten Möllering]

Jan Hermansson shihan

[petebreeland]

There is the delicate question of what qualifies someone as a direct student of Osensei; how many training sessions they had, how regularly and so on. So for example, there are quite a few instructors around who had some training with Osensei, but their main teacher was someone else. And then don't get me started on who was the last uchi deshi of the founder.

In his dictated book 'Takemusu Aiki,' Osensei says "Aikido was born in Iwama." There are differing slants on the history, but as far as I can tell, his main residence from the early 1940s until his death (so about 25 years, during which time the term 'aikido' came into use) was Iwama. He visited elsewhere frequently, but I suspect that even in Iwama, his teaching over the last ten years was often delegated to others.

Anyway, from that time in Iwama, I know the following teachers are still active:

Hiroshi Isoyama, 8th dan. (Mentioned earlier in the thread. He had about 20 years with Osensei but he once said "But I was only able to practice with the founder, not only taking ukemi, but being able to do techniques on him, until about ten years after I started." He is still teaching in Iwama, but infrequently these days.)

Yoshifumi Watahiki, 7th dan (I think maybe a little less than 20 years. He still teaches regularly in Iwama and old Kasama)

Shigemi Inagaki, 8th dan. (About ten years. Still teaching in Iwama and conducting international seminars)

Hideo Hirosawa, 7th dan. (He told me 12 years and is a 'Last uchi deshi' claimant. He teaches in Omitama, a town near to Iwama).

Ryuji Sawa, 7th dan. (Actually Inagaki Sensei's younger brother, who would have started a couple of years later. He teaches in Miura)

Hiroki Nemoto, 7th dan (one year with Osensei. Teaching at his own dojo in Iwama and also Tsukuba)

Toshihiro Isoyama, 6th dan. (Nephew of Isoyama Hiroshi. I estimate about 5 years with Osensei. Teaching in Iwama.)

Kenji Hirasawa, 5th dan. (about 5-10. Teaching in Iwama.)

Hidehiro Akimoto 5th dan (about 10 years - this guy is a living time capsule. He got to 3rd dan under Osensei, then didn't train until just under ten years ago. Now teaching in Iwama.)

Toshiaki Kawakami 5th dan (about 10 years. Teaching in Iwama).

There are many more who got their main training from Osensei who are not teachers. For example, Isoyama Sensei has students who trained with him under Osensei. Before anyone calls me an Iwama-snob, I would point out that I feel anyone who had any time (as main teacher or guest teacher) is valuable.

Regards

Carl
The last three years Ryugi Sawa Sensei has been teaching a series of classes (5) in Northern California. The classes are held in Small venues. Each student has the opportunity to train and receive instruction with Sawa Sensei. it is well worth it. For more information you can contact Mill Valley Aikido (millvalleyaikido@gmail.com). I have been attending them. They are uniformly great.

[Larry Feldman]

Shizuo Imaizumi still teaching M-F in NYC. Annual Seminars usually in Albuquerque.
www.shinbudokai.org

[Avery Jenkins]

Yamada Sensei is still very active.

[Bernd Lehnen]

This is to echo Carl Thompson's post. I remember a certain shihan (who had better remain nameless) whose classes I used to attend, stating that he was an uchi-deshi of O Sensei. Of course, I believed him, but later, when I moved to Japan and talked to many others who had practised "directly" under Morihei Ueshiba, I found that his statement needed some qualification. Especially since Doshu Kisshomaru Ueshiba stated to me quite definitely that there were no postwar uchi-deshi of Morihei Ueshiba and that he himself did not have any uchi-deshi at all.

Of course, uchi-deshi can be quite narrowly defined, but it was used to make a clear distinction between some students and others, all of whom could legitimately claim to be "direct" students of Morihei Ueshiba. Presumably the accepted Japanese word for 'direct student' is deshi 弟子 and if you work back from 1969, when Morihei Ueshiba died, I suspect that there are many still alive in Japan.

When I consider that apparently even his grandson, Moriteru Ueshiba, does not claim to be a direct student of OSensei, but to having been essentially led and formed by his father Kisshomaru, I find that very honest and utterly honorable.

Best,
Bernd

[Peter Goldsbury]

'Direct student' does not really convey the nuances of the term 'deshi', especially when this term is often supplemented by 'uchi' and 'soto'. So, for example, as a university professor, I have had many students and, of course, they were 'direct' students. I taught them directly and supervised their master and doctorate theses. But they were not 'deshi' and never followed the traditional Japanese pedagogical pattern of SHU-HA-RI.

'Uchi' indicates that the students lived in the same house as the master and shared his (or her) life directly. This might have been possible in Iwama, but it was no longer possible at the Hombu after the war, when the dojo was torn down and replaced by the present dojo, with the adjoining residence for the Doshu. This was done by Kisshomaru Doshu. 'Soto desh'i is a recognized term for a 'direct' student who does not live in the master's house.

A related concept would be iemoto, which denotes a family lineage (in this case, the Ueshiba family). Kisshomaru hated this term and gently chastised me once when I used it. However, the present Doshu often uses the term.

[jamie yugawa]

Hello Dan,

He said that in an interview for a Russian group. They translated their questions into English, I translated into Japanese, then Isoyama Sensei responded in Japanese, which I translated back into English and that got translated into Russian. There is a video of it out there somewhere, but I'm afraid I don't have the link.

This is part of the transcript I gave them so that they could make subtitles:

Regards

Carl

PS:

http://www.northsideaikido.com/thumbs/pictures/osensei04_300.jpg

That picture is actually koa Kimura Sensei from Hawaii with o Sensei at the aikido of Honolulu dojo in 1961. Not Isoyama Shihan....but he was a tough old school guy also....

[Carl Thompson]

That picture is actually koa Kimura Sensei from Hawaii with o Sensei at the aikido of Honolulu dojo in 1961. Not Isoyama Shihan....but he was a tough old school guy also....

Dear Jamie,

I didn't intend to imply that the picture was of Isoyama sensei. If you look earlier in the thread, you'll see that my PS, as well as the Isoyama quote, are in response to a question about whether O-sensei took ukemi. They are two separate sources. I didn't actually know the identity of the fellow in the photo, so thank you for the information.

Regards

Carl

[jamie yugawa]

Dear Jamie,

I didn't intend to imply that the picture was of Isoyama sensei. If you look earlier in the thread, you'll see that my PS, as well as the Isoyama quote, are in response to a question about whether O-sensei took ukemi. They are two separate sources. I didn't actually know the identity of the fellow in the photo, so thank you for the information.

Regards

Carl

Ah sorry my apologies. The context was misunderstood.

[Mark Harrington]

Add to the list:
Robert Nadeau (California Aikido Association)
Roy Suenaka (Wadokai Aikido)
Shuji Maruyama (Kokikai Aikido)
Gaku Homma (Aikido Nippon Kan / A.H.A.N.)
Robert Frager
Walther von Krenner (Kalispell Aikido; Kalispell, MT, USA)
Yutaka Kurita (Mexican Aikido Association / Kurita Juku Aiki)

Roy Suenaka passed away in January of 2020. His memorial service was held in Charleston, S.C. where his dojo is located. :circle: :square: :triangle:

[Bernd Lehnen]

Katsuaki Asai.

He studied in Hombu Dojo from1955 to 1965. He is teaching seminars mainly in Germany, but also in Poland, Hungary, Switzerland, Italy and France.

In this years O Sensei was teaching regularly in Tokio, but they never knew when he would come or leave.

At a time when very many others were posing as uchi-deshi, Asai strictly rejected this term for himself. He said to me that if you wanted to think in that direction at all, then he'd see himself rather as soto-deshi.

It would not have been necessary for him to be "uchi", as he then lived very close to the old wooden building of the former Kobukan, the Ueshiba Dojo in Wakamatsu-cho. So, even as a young pupil, starting aikido at the age of 13, he was able to practice intensively with the grown-ups there every day.
You had to persevere first.
No wonder, that he became such a strong character and exceptional teacher.

Best,
Bernd

[Conrad Gus]

At a time when very many others were posing as uchi-deshi, Asai strictly rejected this term for himself. He said to me that if you wanted to think in that direction at all, then he'd see himself rather as soto-deshi.

It would not have been necessary for him to be "uchi", as he then lived very close to the old wooden building of the former Kobukan, the Ueshiba Dojo in Wakamatsu-cho. So, even as a young pupil, starting aikido at the age of 13, he was able to practice intensively with the grown-ups there every day.
You had to persevere first.
No wonder, that he became such a strong character and exceptional teacher.

Best,
Bernd

He told us once that he was regularly used by O Sensei for ukemi, sometimes to the point where he could barely get up. I also heard him say in public that he was never uchi-deshi and that it would be disrespectful to the actual uchi-deshi because their lives were much harder than his because of how hard they worked.

Asai Sensei is an absolutely brilliant aikido teacher.

[MRoh]

At a time when very many others were posing as uchi-deshi, Asai strictly rejected this term for himself. He said to me that if you wanted to think in that direction at all, then he'd see himself rather as soto-deshi.


The exact term he uses is kayo no deshi, a student who doesn't sleep in the dojo, but trains every day.
It was the same like Tada Sensei, but Tada Sensei was in the dojo every day from morning until evening, and trained as much as the uchi-deshis. That's why he had the same status.