HISTORY OF AIKIDO

The aikido of today has its roots in the martial art of one of the oldest feudal families, Minamoto-Takeda. It is considered that the prince Teijun, the sixth son of the emperor Seiwe (850-880), created this martial art called Aiki Jujutsu. The son of the prince, Tsunemote, passed on this martial art to the next Minamoto generation. It was further more perfected by the younger brother of Yoshi Minamoto, Shinra Saburo Yoshimitsu, a great general and strategist and a well-known warrior. His sons who grow up to be famous warriors too, added new elements and techniques and adapted them to the weapons that were used at that time. The second son of Yoshimitsu - Yoshikiyo lived in the castle Takeda in the Kai province.

In the Kamakura era (1185-1336) the samurai figure was born and in the next centuries every clan developed its own schools of sword techniques and Jujutsu (fighting with no weapon). These martial arts were very well kept secret, and giving away the techniques of the school to someone who wasn't from the clan was punished with the most severe punishment, death. A great deal of the efficiency and the power of the ancient schools of Jujutsu was exactly in the secrecy of the techniques.

During the Sengoku era (1467 - 1600) the 100 years long war took place which devastated Japan and in that period a lot of Jujutsu techniques were improved by being put to practice. At the end of the era the power of the Takeda family was starting to decline and the head of the family Kenitsugu went to live in the castle Takeda in Aizu in 1575. The martial arts which he passed on to his successors were known under the name Aizu Todome martial art.

At the beginning of the Edo period (1600-1867) the war era was over and the peace era was born. Japan is united under the Tokugava shogun. At that period the Takeda clan from Aiza was keeping and improving their art in complete secrecy until the Meiji period in 1868. Japan leaves a century-old isolation and under the western influence the feudal system was put to an end. A great number of the samurais couldn't get used to the new era because there were no more wars and the steel weapons were replaced by the fire arms. The traditional martial arts were at the verge of extinction.

The head of the family of the sword clan Aizu, Sokaku Takeda (1860-1943), then started to teach the martial art Daito ryu Aiki Jujutsu to others who weren't part of his family, traveling all around Japan and in the end he settled down in Hokaido.

The best student of Sokaku Takeda was Morihei Ueshiba, the founder of Aikido, a man with capabilities that are rarely found anywhere else, who enriched the Daito school with some parts of the other martial arts which he studied in his youth, among which the most important ones are: Yagyu Shingan ryu Jujutsu, Jiki Shinkage ryu kenjutsu, Kito ryu Jujutsu, Tenshin Shinyo ryu Jujutsu, So Jutsu and others.

He added his own techniques and introduced new principles which elevated many techniques of Daito ryu, in accordance with his believes. As a result, Aikido came to life, which as a martial art that was being formed from the twenties to the fifties of the XX century and took its respectful place in the Budo family.

The biggest and the oldest Aikido organization is Aikikai, with its headquarters in Tokyo, now under the leadership of the grandson of the founder - Moriteru Ueshiba who is its Doshu (the leader of the way). The most famous masters of the Aikikai organization are: Morihiro Saito, Hiroshi Tada, Kazu Chiba, Nobuyoshi Tamura, Katsuaki Asai, Masatomi Ikeda, Hideki Hosokawa, Shoji Nishio, Yasuo Kobayashi, Mitsugi Saotome etc.