Q. Would you talk about the name change from Daito-ryu aiki Jujutsu to Aiki Budo?
A. It was Onisaburo Deguchi Sensei who gave me the name "Aiki Budo". He said that "Daito-ryu Jujutsu" was not the right name for the art. He called Ueshiba Sensei and told him to stop calling it "Daito-ryu Jujutsu" and suggested that he should call it "aiki" instead. Ueshiba Sensei, in the beginning, was very hesitant to use the name "aiki" but later agreed. Later, I began to call the art "Aiki Budo". Until then it was called "Kobu Budo". Although Ueshiba Sensei said that "aiki is love", that is absurd. It is not that small. "A" is the voice of heaven. "liii" is ki. "Aaa" and "iki" are continuously in movement.
Since I had a sort of a father-child relationship with Ueshiba Sensei, I spoke clearly to him. I explained to him why we had to call the art "Aiki Budo" and suggested that he stop calling it "Kobu Budo." I said that if he continued calling it Kobu Budo, the art would certainly be destroyed sometime in the future and at that time he would return to the name "aiki". As I expected, the name became aiki after we lost the war. Ueshiba visited me at my home and said: "Looking at the way things have turned out the name ‘Kobu' is not appropriate so I have decided to use the name ‘aiki'. The art is now called ‘aikido'." I replied in the following manner: "Oh, I see. You aren't adding the name "Budo" as well?" At that time I was teaching my art as "Aiki Budo".