The martial art form known as Aikido was founded by a man by the name of Morihei Ueshiba. To those who practice this martial art, he is known as Osensei, which means Great Teacher. When Morihei Ueshiba moved to Hokkaido in 1912, he was already well versed in many forms of martial arts. In spite of his vast knowledge of martial arts, however, he began to study the teachings of Takeda Sokaku, who brought back Daito-ryu aiki-jujutsu. Around the year 1919, Ueshiba met Onisaburo Deguchi who was well known as a profound spiritual leader.

Over the last number of years aikido has gained large amounts of popularity… So is it the martial art for you? Well let’s look at aikido in a little more detail to find out…

Aikido means “way of harmony of ki”. It was developed by Morihei Ushiba over the period of the 1930s to the 1960s. The name “Aikdio” comes from three Japanese words:

Ai – union/harmony.
ki - universal energy/spirit.
do – way.

PART 1

At first sight of the above title I am sure that a lot of Aikidoist's will be angry, they will assume that this is yet another attack on the credibility of Aikido by other martial artist's. On this occasion they are totally wrong, I have been a student of Aikido since 1956, In those early days I first started Judo in 1955 at the Kenshiro Abbe School of Budo, I studied Karate with Harada Sensei and Kendo with Tomio O'Tani Sensei, so with my background I feel that I have something to offer to this debate.

First Impressions

Preface

Aikido is a Budo ( Japanese Martial art ) essentially created for defensive purposes. It was founded by Morihei Ueshiba in the course of the 20th century between the 1930’s and 1960’s( officially recognized by the Japanese government in 1940 under the name of Aikibudo)and based on ancient disciplines like Jujutsu, Daito Ryu, fencing and Aikijutsu. The Master’s vision was to create a martial art that would allow for one to defend himself against any type of adversary with no violence or as little as possible.